Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Audrey turned on the oven light and peered inside. The alfredo lasagna that she’d created was baking beautifully, letting out bubbles as well as a heavenly, creamy and spicy aroma. She smiled to herself and returned to the kitchen sink, where she was finishing up the last of the dishes.
She hummed as she scrubbed the last little metal mixing bowl clean. The residue of the mixture of ricotta cheese, onions, black pepper, and spinach was easy to clean off, and she placed the bowl on the top of the dish drying rack with a satisfied sigh.
There, she thought, looking around her clean and sparkling kitchen. Now I just have to wait until Mom and Michelle get here for dinner.
She sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out her phone.
She checked her emails and scrolled through Instagram for a few minutes, pleased to see that The Birchwood House’s posts were getting excellent traction.
That was Michelle’s magic touch. Audrey herself felt a little clueless when it came to social media, but Michelle always seemed to be aware of some new trend—usually something silly—and so they would hop on those bandwagons.
She set down her phone and stared out of the windows of the kitchen, watching the sunlight flicker on the grass in the backyard. Her thoughts turned to Evan almost immediately, as they often seemed to these days. Whenever she had a quiet moment, her mind jumped to her boyfriend.
Getting an idea, she picked up her phone again. She texted Evan and asked if he would like to come over for dinner and share the delicious lasagna she was making.
She was just setting her phone down again, assuming he would take a while to respond, when she felt it buzz. Evan had texted her back immediately, stating that he wouldn’t miss it.
A grin sprang onto Audrey’s face. This day has been perfect, she thought with a smile.
She’d gotten up early, starting her day out slowly.
She’d read in bed for a little while, sipping coffee and enjoying the sound of the wind sighing in the branches of the birch trees that surrounded the mansion.
Then she’d taken a hot shower and done her hair and makeup and then gone down to the kitchen to help Michelle and Elaine make breakfast for their guests.
They’d all been in high spirits and had attempted blackberry waffles with whipped cream to great success.
After that, Audrey had spent her day tidying up bedrooms. She replenished the towels and changed the sheets in all the rooms that didn’t have a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, although many of them did.
There were two rooms that had been vacated the night before, and those she’d deep cleaned, vacuuming and mopping the floors and scrubbing the bathrooms until they shone.
Audrey had always enjoyed cleaning, and she’d listened to an audiobook while she’d worked, which had made it all that much more enjoyable.
When she was done with all that, she’d had a pleasant little lunch by herself in the kitchen and then gone for a short hike in the woods behind the Coral Sands library.
The air had a fresh, spicy tang that day, and she’d breathed deeply of the scents of autumn.
When her hike was over, she’d felt energized and alert, and she’d returned to The Birchwood House and started to prepare the lasagna that was now bubbling in the oven.
She’d sipped a hot cider while she cooked, warming up her body, which had gotten a little chilly during her hike.
Everything is going swimmingly, she reflected contentedly.
We got that wonderful review in the magazine, we’re almost fully booked even on a Wednesday, our guests are happy, and things are going so well with me and Evan!
That leak was troublesome, for sure, but it was so good knowing that Evan placed our repairs in good hands.
She smiled, feeling as though nothing could touch them.
She stood up and wandered into the front hall, wondering if Michelle needed help with anything. Michelle was not sitting at the receptionist desk, however, nor was she sitting on the couch in the parlor and working on her laptop as she sometimes did.
“Michelle?” Audrey called, and waited for a response.
When there was none, she looked out the front picture window, curious to see if Michelle was sitting on the front porch.
“Huh,” she murmured when she saw that her daughter wasn’t there either.
“I guess it’s a little too chilly to be working outside, anyway. ”
Audrey wandered back to the receptionist desk.
It was officially Michelle’s domain, but Audrey and Elaine worked there as well when it was needed.
Audrey sat down, noticing that the calendar that Michelle used was lying open on the desk.
Audrey gazed at it for a few moments, marveling at how pristinely Michelle had organized the details of their business.
She used a color-coded system to represent the various rooms of the mansion, and she always blocked off enough time on the calendar for them to clean the rooms after they’d been vacated.
Audrey had already seen Michelle’s impeccable spreadsheets, and she smiled to herself, feeling impressed with her daughter.
It seems she’s found her niche as the front-facing management of the hotel, Audrey thought.
I love that. We’re such a good team. We can all do everything, but we all gravitate toward specific tasks.
Mom takes charge of breakfast, planning the menus and getting the groceries and leading us while we’re cooking.
I love cleaning and rearranging the rooms and putting out the welcome baskets, and Michelle really has a head for all these business details.
I keep checking the hotel’s email, thinking she might have gotten a little behind because there’s so much to deal with, and she still hasn’t.
Audrey stood up again, deciding she was going to find Michelle and her mother and let them know that Evan was coming for dinner.
She had just taken two steps toward the entryway when the front door of the hotel began to open.
Audrey paused in her walking and smiled, ready to welcome whichever one of their guests was coming back inside.
When the person stepped inside the mansion, however, her heart stopped. For three full seconds, she could hardly breathe, and she wondered if she was dreaming. Standing before her was the last person she ever expected to see—her ex-husband, Clark.
“Hi, Audrey,” he said casually.
“What… I… what on earth are you doing here?” Audrey stammered. She felt as white as a sheet, and she put a hand on the wall to steady herself.
“Nice to see you too, Audrey,” Clark said.
His tone was light, but there was a slight bite in his words as if he was actually upset by her reaction to him.
Audrey could hardly believe he had the nerve to show up unannounced—and then to be irritable about her reaction on top of it!
Then again, he’d had the nerve to do some pretty despicable things.
Audrey lifted her chin and looked him squarely in the eye. “Things have been looking up, no thanks to you.” She waited a full beat before saying again, “What are you doing here, Clark?”
He gestured around him. “Hey, come on, I want a room,” he joked in a mocking tone.
Audrey stood up a little straighter. “Well, unfortunately for you, we’re all booked up tonight. I just prepped the last two available rooms for other guests.”
“What, really? They’re all booked on a Wednesday?”
“Well, mostly.” The tiger lily room still wasn’t being given out to guests.
There was a gaping hole in the drywall of the closet, water stains on the wood floor, and peeling paint on the closet wall.
The repairman had wanted to wait to make absolutely sure the leak was fixed before he put the wall back together again and redid the paint.
“We did have an issue with a leaky pipe, so one room isn’t being given out to guests. ”
Clark’s expression became sardonic. “You seem like you’re trying to hide it, but it’s clear to me that this new little attempt at creating a life for yourself is falling apart. A leaky pipe just after you’ve opened the place? That couldn’t have gone over well with anyone.”
Audrey remembered the face of a grumpy guest who had been very displeased when he’d been told they had to shut the water off during the repairs and she swallowed.
Ignore him, she told herself firmly. He’s just trying to bother you as part of a power play. Don’t let it get to you.
Although she tried not to take the comment to heart, it still hurt. She hated the idea of Clark stomping back into her life and knocking down her self-respect as if it was a sandcastle he’d decided she had no business making.
“But anyway, I’m not here to rent a room,” Clark continued. “I wouldn’t anyway, even if you had one available, not in a place like this.”
He’s acting mean, Audrey thought. He was always like this during our worst fights—being nasty on purpose. I think it means he’s scared or hurting, but that’s no excuse for how he’s treating me right now. After all he’s done, to swoop in here without an apology and then to be rude on top of it!
“I’m here on business,” Clark continued.
“What kind of business?” Audrey blinked at him. Their divorce was finalized. Their house was gone, since he’d stopped paying the mortgage long before he ran off. He couldn’t very well try to fight for custody of Michelle because she was a grown woman.
“That.” Clark caught sight of the grandfather clock, which was resting in the front entryway. “The grandfather clock.”
“What?” Audrey gaped at him. The clock had started countless conversations with guests, and it was one of the best antiques at the hotel.
It was also the only piece of furniture that Audrey had taken from her old home with Clark, and she’d done it because she’d known she had every right to—the clock had belonged to her grandmother.
“I want the clock.”
Shock pulsed through Audrey. She could hardly believe that any of this was happening. “You have no right to that clock,” she told him.
Clark shook his head. “I think you’ll find that I do,” he told her. “Either we can come to an amicable agreement, or I can choose legal action. It’s your choice.”
Audrey simply stared at him, feeling stunned.
Clark shrugged and glanced at his watch. “I’d better get back to the car. Molly is waiting for me. I don’t want to leave her stranded in there for too long.”
Audrey felt sick to her stomach. She watched Clark leave the hotel, nausea buzzing in her gut. The fact that he’d brought his young girlfriend whom he’d left her for all the way to Coral Sands with him was like the final and most painful blow.
Audrey stared at the closed door for a few heartbeats and then turned around and started to ascend the staircase. She’d forgotten all about dinner. She made a beeline for her bedroom and closed the door behind her.