|
This next excerpt takes place after Sylvie hires on at the inn.
“Any room at the inn for an old friend?” Alex asked, striding forward.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said coolly. “What brings you back to Shangri-La? Or is it Hicksville? I can’t remember.”
Alex answered her question with one of his own. “Is this your new line of work now? Innkeeping?”
In a mood to do battle, Sylvie faced him squarely. “Yes. And if you don’t want your sheets shorted, I suggest you be nice to the help.”
“Aren’t I always?”
She opened the guest book and shoved it at him. “Don’t you have an important job back in the city?”
Alex scribbled his name in the book. “I’m the boss. I don’t have to punch a time clock. And I have a competent staff who can manage splendidly without me.” He slid the book back to her. “So what prompted this sudden shift to domesticity, may I ask?”
“Is that a dig? Because if it is—”
“Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist. It’s just that I seem to recall you saying something about keeping house not being very high on your list of priorities. Isn’t this like keeping house, only on a grander scale?”
“If you must know, I’m learning the hospitality trade.”
His eyes widened, and she waited for his putdown, her agitation growing by the second.
“Whatever,” he said, shrugging. “And how are Brad and Cindy making out with their newborn? A girl, right?”
Her brow wrinkled. “How did you know that?”
He grinned. “I ran into Mrs. Pulaski on the porch.”
“Oh. Yes, they’re fine. They stopped by with the baby last week, in fact.”
“And you behaved yourself?”
She gritted her teeth. “Of course I did.”
“Then the big romance is over, I presume.”
Sylvie slammed the guest book shut. “It never was a big romance,” she said, lowering her voice to a harsh whisper. “And, yes, it’s over.”
His teasing voice took on a more serious tone. “Sylvie, I say this only because I care. You’re not like Brad or Cindy. These mountains are their home. They were born here, they’ll raise their children here, and they’ll die here. And that’s fine— for them. But you’ve seen a bit of the world, and you know what’s out there. So if there’s something here at Serendipity House that beckons you, I say, go for it, see where it leads. But if it doesn’t work out, remember, you have other options.” The gleam returned to his eyes. “Actually, it just might be the perfect career for you. You get to satisfy your nesting instincts without leaping into the shark-infested waters of matrimony.”
With that, he tipped an invisible top hat, swung an invisible walking stick, and swaggered up to his room like a cock bird to his roost.
***
Thanks for reading and I hope you'll check it out at my website.
Joyce
|