11. Chapter 11
eleven
Chris looked around as Rowan drove them in one of the golf carts the inn owned. He’d suggested she show him the rest of the property. She’d driven him along the perimeter of the woods that occupied much of the Kelly land. She’d explained there were trails in the woods that Kieran’s staff had continued to maintain. And they had plenty of water sports equipment and bicycles for future guests to rent.
“You have a lot of potential here,” he said. “You can do guided hikes, kayaking, or paddle board trips. Guests like classes on local interests.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rowan vaguely replied.
“At the Bali resort, we offer Balinese cooking lessons and Batik lessons—a local fabric-design method drawing patterns on fabric with wax, just for example.”
“Bali’s culture is different enough for your clientele to want to learn it.”
“Every place has its uniqueness. We just have to find it.”
Rowan scoffed. “Come to Bright Head Inn. We’ll teach you how to put a lobster to sleep before you plunge it to its death in a pot of boiling water.”
“There you go. There’s an art to it. Cooking lobster can intimidate non-Mainers,” Chris pointed out.
“You’re not serious?” She chuckled.
“I am. Maybe you’d want to make it sound more appetizing, less homicidal. Ask Alex what she would do if she was to teach a regional cooking class. ”
“You really think people who come here to relax would want to take a cooking lesson?”
“It’s really about the experience. Make it into a fun time that they’ll remember fondly. They might not cook lobsters when they get home, but they’d say, ‘Hey, remember that time we cooked lobsters at Bright Head Inn? That was awesome.’”
“How do I do that?” Rowan asked seriously.
“Offer it as a group class, hands-on, interactive. Adding a booze element always loosens up people.” Chris glanced at her with a grin. “Maybe combine it with a Maine beer tasting.”
She glanced back at him with a bop of her head and a glint in her eyes, though the brim of her hat made it harder for him to see them clearly. The cap was starting to be his new pet peeve. But he put the weird irritation toward a piece of outerwear aside.
They were driving back toward the main house when he saw several buildings standing a little farther away from the central cluster. “What are those?” he asked.
“The smaller two-story house is the manager’s house I told you about last night. The other will house any full-time workers who need it. Some of the farm’s interns from the mainland are currently staying there.”
“That’s smart. That means you can have on-call staff if needed,” Chris noted.
“It’s fully furnished rooms with standard comforts, but it’s quite basic. I expect whoever lives in it will want to personalize it to their liking, so I didn’t put extra touches on it.”
“I could’ve stayed there. I don’t mind—”
“Roughing it?” Rowan smirked.
Chris laughed. “I don’t mind basic. After seeing everything today, I’m sure whatever you provide is far from roughing it.”
“Yeah, I won’t place you in a staff room.” She asked, “You don’t like your room?”
“I love it. I had the best sleep last night.” He recalled how pleasant it was to fall asleep to the sound of crickets. “Will you need that room for the wedding party? I’m fine if you need me to move somewhere else.”
“I might, but I’m still waiting for a confirmation on Meredith’s last-minute addition.”
“Just let me know.” He continued, “So, let’s tackle this wedding. What can I take off your hands, Boss? ”
“Don’t call me that.” She gave him a stink eye. “Do your staff call you ‘boss’?”
“Sometimes.”
“Well, I don’t like it.”
“Okay,” he indulged her. “Rowan, why don’t you fill me in on the tasks on your list, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Now you’re telling me what to do. Who’s the boss here?”
Chris laughed. “You’re impossible.”
“I can be. My father and Kieran told me that all the time.” A smile emerged on her lips. “All right. Let’s head to the gray barn. I’m meeting with Frankie’s garden staff to finalize the flower arrangements and garland count. While we’re there, I’ll tell you the reception details.”
She turned the cart toward the large barn next to the main house.
“How many of these little carts do you have?” Chris asked.
“We currently have five. The older ones are for maintenance, cleaning, or other internal purposes. We allocated three new, larger ones for guest services—taking the guests to the cottages with their luggage, things like that. But they’re not meant for guests’ use.”
“How do you see your guests moving around the property? It’s humongous.”
“Well, they can walk. It’s not that far from the main house to the water’s edge or from the cottages to the main house. But they also have bicycle access, and anyone who needs it can call for a lift. I don’t have a lot of budget at the moment to buy more carts.”
“How about transportation to and from town or the ferry?” Chris asked further. “It’s difficult to get here if you’re not a local with your own vehicle.”
“We purchased a used shuttle van. It’s been cleaned up, tuned, and decorated with our logo. All we need are a driver and the guests to be picked up.”
“Can I see it?”
“It’s in the utility barn with the carts and our other equipment.”
“Do you have generators here in case of power loss?”
“Of course. It was one of my father’s first investments when we started this project. He spared nothing, but that’s when we still had all the funds we needed. ”
This wasn’t the first time she mentioned funds, or lack thereof. “Are you out of funds?”
“No, just limited,” Rowan answered. “That’s why the wedding is important. It’s income.”
“It looks like you’re mostly ready for operation. Why didn’t you do a soft opening this spring as you planned?”
Rowan sighed. “The place wasn’t ready by spring. I didn’t get my head around it until then. Everything we planned last year kinda went out the window when my father died.”
Right. Chris cringed as he forgot about that. People grieved in their own way and in their own time.
“Then there are complications that his will created.” Rowan shook her head in frustration.
Chris gave a quick nod. “Right.”
“Tell me about my sister. Rae. What she’s like?” Rowan asked, changing the subject altogether.
It was the first time one of the Kelly siblings showed interest in Rae, and Chris was glad for the question.
“She’s kind, but she also takes no bullshit from anyone. She’s a hard worker, a loyal friend—to a fault—and a wonderful mom. And she’s made my friend a very happy man.”
“You think highly of her.”
“I do. She has this positive outlook whenever you see her talking about her travels on her channels. It attracts people.”
“Or it can be irritating,” Rowan quipped.
Chris chuckled. “Or that. But I can assure you, Rae is more sparky than perky. If you understand the subtle difference.”
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it until I meet her in person. Will she come to meet us, eventually?”
“I think if she’s sure you and Kieran won’t treat her like your father’s mistake, she’ll be open to it.”
“My father made many mistakes when it comes to her, but she wasn’t the mistake.” She glanced at him, regret in her eyes. “No child should ever have to feel that way.”
The glimpse of emotion took aback Chris. He hadn’t expected Rowan to harbor guilt toward Rae.
“As you told me yesterday, it isn’t your guilt to bear,” Chris said gently.
“Yet, I—” Rowan abruptly swore, “What the hell?”
She floored the gas pedal, and the cart lurched forward as it picked up speed.
Chris grabbed the frame to keep himself on his seat as Rowan veered the cart to the side of the barn instead of the main sliding door.
“What is it?” Chris demanded, jolted from the sudden change of course.
Rowan didn’t reply but slammed on the brake, threw the gear into park, and jumped out of the vehicle, running. Chris hurried after her and finally saw what had grabbed her attention. Water was shooting from a burst pipe on the side of the barn, like a fountain show in Vegas. Rowan reached the spot, her eyes bulging at the flooding, and tried to cover the leak with her hands.
“Where’s the main shut-off valve?” Chris yelled to Rowan.
“The back of the barn. This way!” She gestured to her left with her head. Water was leaking from under her hands. It wasn’t doing much, but she cleared the path for Chris. He ran through the muddy grass and around to the back of the barn.
Chris found the valve and closed it. “Got it!”
He went back to Rowan and saw the water losing its pressure and turning into a dribble. Rowan stood aside, drenched from head to toe.
“Crap!” She wrenched off her wet hat and threw it at the burst pipe.
Damp, messy, loose red waves dropped around her shoulders as she kicked mud in frustration.
“Hey, it’s just a pipe. We can fix it.” Chris went to her, surprised at her reaction.
“No, it’s not just a pipe. It’s the third pipe—a relatively new pipe, by the way—that broke! Either our contractor cheated us and gave us crappy pipes, or I have the worst luck. Now this garden is ruined!”
Chris turned to the bed of wildflowers, which looked droopy from the drenching, but mostly fine except for the messy, muddy surrounding. “The flowers are fine. The rest is an easy cleanup,” Chris assured her.
“What’s going on?” Alex’s voice came from above them .
Chris and Rowan looked up at the main house’s kitchen balcony. Alex and Oliver were staring down at them.
“Burst pipe, that’s all,” Chris told them. He trudged to the pipe, studied the breakage, and frowned at the jagged edge of the broken PVC. “It’s busted at the seam. But it’s a simple fix. You won’t even have to replace the entire length of pipe.”
Rowan gave him a side eye as if mocking, What? You’re a plumber, too?
“Spent a summer apprenticing with the maintenance crew at The Sullens flagship in Boston,” Chris answered her silent question. “I can fix that.”
“That’s all right.” Rowan shook her head. “The plumber should fix it. It’s his job, after all.”
She pulled out her phone from her side cargo pocket and hissed in pain. She almost dropped the phone but managed to transfer it to her left hand.
“Oh shit, you’re cut.” Chris cupped the back of her hand to examine the bloody gash on her palm.
Rowan jerked her hand away in shock.
“Sorry. Did I hurt you?” Chris asked.
She hissed. “It stings.”
“It doesn’t look big, but it’s deep.” He gently applied pressure on the cut with the heel of his own hand to stop the bleeding. “Come on, we gotta dress it.”
“I’ll get the first aid kit out!” Alex shouted from where she stood.
“Go that way,” Rowan pointed behind him. “We’ll go through the basement so we won’t track mud all over.”
With his hand firmly clamped over Rowan’s bleeding one, they went to a door at the basement level that opened to a mudroom. They kicked off their dirty shoes by the door, but Rowan didn’t budge beyond there.
“Grab me a beach towel from that closet over there.” She replaced his hand with her own on the wound as Chris rushed to the door she’d pointed.
He grabbed two towels, one for himself, and wrapped the other around her shoulders.
“Uh…” She hesitated as she glanced at him.
“What?”
“I need to get out of these clothes. I don’t want to drip all over the wood floor. ”
Chris looked at her with a cocked brow. “Okay, you want me to help?”
“No!” She waved him off. “Go upstairs.”
“But your hand—”
“It’s fine. It’s barely bleeding anymore. See…” She opened her hand, and the blood oozed out again.
Chris quickly reapplied pressure, this time with his towel.
“Oh, the towel!” Rowan complained.
“It’ll wash,” Chris said, exasperated. “Either you take off your clothes now or wet the floor. Make your choice. I can see everything through your T-shirt, anyway.”
“What?” she shrieked and looked at herself. “Turn around!”
“I wasn’t looking!” Chris assured her but did as he was asked.
He didn’t intentionally look, but he had eyes. Her wet white tee was plastered to her body, accentuating the shape of her bra-clasped breasts. And good lord, what a glorious pair they were, all round and high with perky points. He bet that water was cold.
Chris wished he could admire them properly, but his head—the one with the brain—took over.
You’re a fucking gentleman. Act like one. She isn’t the first half-naked woman you’ve seen, for god’s sake.
It took some maneuvering to get Rowan’s arm out of her sleeve, since she told him to close his eyes while still held pressure on her cut. Soon enough, she wound herself in the large towel. Though the towel covered more of her than her clothes did, it didn’t help the wild images running in Chris’ mind because he knew she was buck naked under it.
They left the wet clothes piled in the plastic bin nearby, made their way up the small staircase, and emerged in the hallway between the kitchen and the manager’s office.
Alex popped out at the end of the hallway. “What took you so long?” Her eyes widened as she took in her friend’s lack of attire.
“She’d rather get naked than soil the floor,” Chris explained.
Running her gaze between Rowan and Chris, Alex quipped, “I didn’t realize you’re all that comfortable with each other already.”
“Do you know how long it took to sand, buff, and stain all this flooring?” Rowan retorted.
“Yes, I do.” Chris pulled her to the sink and started washing her wound with cool water and soap .
Rowan groaned, feeling the sting.
“What do we have?” Oliver asked as he brought the first aid box closer to them.
“Deep gash.”
“Does she need stitches?” Oliver looked closer.
“No, I don’t!” Rowan yelled over them.
Chris was inclined to agree with her, but he was no doctor.
Alex peeked around his other side and looked at Rowan’s cut. “That looks nasty, but a few butterfly band-aids should do it. I’ve gotten worse cuts than that.”
“Add this skin glue to seal it.” Oliver handed over the medical materials when Chris finished drying Rowan’s hand.
The woman finally let the three of them treat her cut; soon enough, they stopped the bleeding and dressed it.
“Are you guys done?” Rowan asked in an even voice. When they nodded, she said, “Thank you. I’m going to dress and call Greg.”
“Who’s Greg?” Chris asked.
“The plumber. We still have a broken pipe to deal with.” Rowan turned and walked away from them only in a beach towel.
The rest of them dropped into chairs at the dining table.
“Boy, we’ve only been here for a day, and we already have a burst pipe and an injury.” Alex laughed. “I hope that’s the most exciting thing we need to deal with this week.”
“Yeah. We still have a lot to cover,” Oliver agreed. “We don’t need another pipe bursting.”
“Aren’t you glad you came?” Alex grinned at her friend.
Oliver just smiled good-naturedly. “Nothing I haven’t had to deal with in a kitchen.”
“Rowan said this is the third pipe,” Chris cut in. “What were the other two?”
“In the bathroom and kitchen in the cottages. She told us yesterday,” Alex said. “It’s weird since they were all brand new.”
Chris frowned as he mulled over the info.
Yeah, weird.