Chapter 3
S adie
Sadie’s momentary guilt over her behavior vanished when Kreston passed her off to the front desk clerk, looking relieved to be finally rid of her.
“I have to check on Ten Second Tess before she reorganizes the supply closet again. Last time, we found the red towels in the freezer because she needed to cool them down.” He strode off across the sizeable lobby and disappeared into a dimly lit hallway.
Sadie didn’t know what to think and stared after him, baffled.
A woman with wild black hair appeared, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops, and board shorts. In Alaska. In December. She stepped behind the reception desk and beamed a toothy grin at Sadie. She fiddled with a partially decorated Christmas tree perched on the counter, covered with miniature soap and shampoo bottles, hotel keys, and toilet paper draped around it like garland. Then she picked up a deck of cards and expertly shuffled them. Repeatedly.
“Aloha! Welcome to Polar Creek Hotel. I’m Aloha.” Her toothy smile could serve as a backup generator to the building’s electricity, since the power had blinked a ‘hello’ and a ‘how are you’ the minute Sadie came through the door.
Sadie’s confusion must have been obvious because the woman dove into further details.
“Aloha means hello and goodbye, but it’s also my name.” She thought for a minute, staring at the ceiling. “It’s probably not my actual name. Though I really don’t know.” She leaned across the counter and whispered. “None of us are sure.” She shuffled the cards, then tapped the deck on the counter like a Vegas poker dealer.
Sadie blinked. “You’re not sure what your name is?”
Kreston’s voice came out of nowhere from behind, causing Sadie to jump. “Found Aloha in an Anchorage Costco parking lot five years ago,” he explained, holding a tower of red towels.
“He really did. God bless him.” Aloha’s hands moved with practiced grace as she shuffled the deck, her fingers cutting the cards, then fanning them across the counter in a precise arc.
Kreston leaned on the counter with his stack of towels. “Complete amnesia. She said her name was ‘aloha,’ so that’s what we called her. Brought her to Polar Creek since she had no place to go. Costco hated to see her leave since she did such a great job rounding up the shopping carts.” A smile tipped the corners of his mouth, and he hurried up a set of wide, creaky stairs.
With his winter gear off, Sadie couldn’t help but notice his toned physique. Broad shoulders narrowing to a slender waist. Without meaning to, she watched his cute hiney move up the stairs along with the rest of him.
“Cute, isn’t he? Wish I could marry him,” sighed Aloha with a dreamy look, her chin resting on her hand.
“You mean he just took you home, like a stray dog?” Sadie inadvertently recalled the spoiled and entitled celebrity who’d hired her to organize a city-wide search for her lost chihuahua. Sadie had secretly hoped it’d found its way into another woman’s oversized designer bag.
Aloha laughed. “For some reason, I remembered how to make a Mai Tai. I’ll make you one sometime.” She leaned across the counter again and whispered, “Kreston says I’m not allowed to serve alcohol before noon. Or maybe he means noon somewhere else? I forget.” She wrinkled her face in thought, then picked up the card deck and shuffled.
Sadie was desperate for privacy, to unwind and relax. She was bone tired. She also had a few choice things to say to her cheating ex-fiancé.
“I’d like a room, please. Just for tonight.” The last words came out as a desperate plea.
A woman breezed up, who looked to be in her forties. Thick brown hair hung in a French braid down to her waist. She flipped it behind her and tapped Sadie’s shoulder, then quickly backed up.
“Want to help me finish decorating the Christmas tree?” she chirped. “I keep forgetting which decorations I’ve already put up.”
Sadie’s eyes flicked to the tree on the counter. “They’re right here.”
When she turned back to the woman, she’d vanished. People came and went so quickly here.
Did this one also have amnesia? Doesn’t anyone remember anything around here? I’ve either landed in Oz or in the movie “ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest!”
“Don’t mind her, she’s Ten Second Tess. Her memory is worse than mine.” Aloha’s chin rested in her hand as she leaned on the counter. “Now, what were we doing?”
“My room?” said Sadie, nearly pleading.
“Oh, yes! I remember. I love saying ‘I remember’ because everything was a blur before Costco—”
A crash from upstairs interrupted, followed by Kreston’s voice. “Tess, we talked about this—the miniature soaps go inside the hotel rooms on the bathroom sink counters. Not inside the ice machine. There’s no need to keep them cold.”
“What’s a sink counter?” the woman with the braid hollered back. “And where’s the ice machine?”
Sadie’s brows winged up. What kind of crazytown did she land in?
“Ten Second Tess had a brain injury that robbed her of memory,” explained Aloha. “She hangs onto things for only ten minutes at a time, but it seems like ten seconds, so we call her Ten Second Tess. Then she resets.” Aloha laughed. “I don’t remember much before Polar Creek, but at least I can hang onto things longer than ten minutes.”
“Lots of memory loss around here. Hope it’s not catching,” muttered Sadie. She wanted to crawl into a bear’s den and emerge when this nightmare was over. She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Please tell me you at least have Wi-Fi.”
“Sure do! And the password is krestonissingle.” She said it slowly and emphatically. “All lowercase, no underscores or spaces.” She leaned across the check-in counter and whispered, “Kreston’s muscles aren’t just for show. They’re very real. Not that I’ve been looking. Well, maybe I have. You know how it is...more men than women in Alaska.” She beamed another smile, picked up her deck, and shuffled.
Sadie fought for composure. “The password is, Kreston is single? Seriously?”
What’s with the people in this town? Why are they desperate to get Kreston hooked up?
Now she was suspicious of the guy. Was there something wrong with him? Did he have memory loss too? He seemed normal enough, but Sadie wasn’t always spot on with first impressions.
Aloha chortled. “Good luck with the internet access. It blinks on and off like the Christmas lights, so if it blinks off, just smack the little box in your room, and that sucker will fire right up.” She tapped Sadie’s arm. “Did I mention our mayor is single? He’s a good bush pilot, too.”
Sadie gave her an incredulous look. “Yes, you mentioned the single thing.”
Aloha drew back with a frown. “What single thing? Is that like a double thing?”
Sadie gave her a blank look. “No, you said—” She stopped. “Never mind. Please, just give me the room key,” she pleaded.
“What key? Oh! Here you go.” Aloha handed over a metal key attached to a large, hand-carved wooden moose. “Room 204 has the best view of the Aurora Borealis when it’s not snowing sideways. Breakfast starts at seven in the Crooked Spoon. Jessie makes delicious sourdough pancakes, and they’ll make you forget all about that cheating fiancé of yours.”
Sadie nearly dropped the moose. “How did you—?”
“Lucky radioed ahead from The Beave after you guys landed.” Aloha laughed and shook her head. “Honestly, he’s worse than CNN about broadcasting breaking news. I gave you the Wi-Fi password, right?”
“Yes, but uh—”
Please God, get me out of here.
“Love your boots, by the way.” Aloha offered her a knowing girlfriend grin. “Totally impractical for Alaska, but your legs look amazing. Not that I noticed, but I noticed that Kreston noticed. Not that he said anything, you understand. Upstairs and to the left.” She pointed again. “Where you from again? Did I give you the password?” She put a finger to her chin and looked up at the ceiling as if it would answer her.
Kreston tapped down the stairs. “Sucks about your cheating ex. I’ll help you with your bags.”
“How did you—how does everyone know? I only told that airplane pilot.” Sadie didn’t mean to sound rude, but she was spent. “Sorry, but I don’t have cash for a tip.”
“Not doing it for cash.” With ease, he lifted both bags as if they were empty and climbed the stairs.
A deck of cards shuffled behind Sadie as she muscled her loaded carry-on up the creaky steps, clunking it on each one up to the second-floor carpeted hallway. She couldn’t help noticing the worn carpet decorated with miniature airplanes as she rolled her carry-on. Kreston stepped aside as she shoved her key into the lock, the oversized moose bumping against the door.
Kreston wheeled the bags inside her room and stood in the center. “Where do you want these?”
Sadie noticed the bunching of his arm muscles when he lifted her bag. She told herself she wouldn’t be here long enough to notice anything else—she wouldn’t stay any longer than she had to in this bizarre twilight zone of a time warp.
“Doesn’t matter.” Too exhausted to care, she vaguely motioned to a corner.
He hoisted one oversized bag onto a worn wooden luggage holder. “Holy smokes, hope this thing can hold it. Looks like half of Seattle came up here with you.” He peered at the wobbly luggage holder.
“I’ve never been to Alaska,” she said defensively. “I didn’t know what to pack.”
“Well, if you need anything, let me or Aloha know.” He took the key from the lock and handed it to her. “Here’s your moose. Have a good evening.” He closed the door behind him to return to whatever it was he did. The guy seemed to pop up everywhere.
Sadie glanced around with hands on her hips. The room was surprisingly charming, and it was clean. A thick quilt with embroidered squares of moose, ravens, and caribou rested on the bed. An overstuffed armchair sat in one corner with a cute round table next to it, topped with a caribou lamp. The furniture was rustic but solid. She’d traveled back in time like in a sci-fi movie. If this room could talk, she was sure it would have tall tales to tell.
“Quaint, but I’m not staying,” Sadie muttered out loud. She thought of next week’s back-to-back meeting schedule after the holidays with her damaged, wealthy clientele. The only time they had memory issues was when they were caught sleeping with a best friend’s wife or were recorded on CCTV buying and using illegal drugs.
She shed her ruined expensive suede jacket, and her stomach roiled. Why had she worn this? Remembering, she grimaced and rolled her eyes. Because Clayton told her it was sexy.
“Good! I’m glad you’re ruined now!” she shouted at the helpless jacket. So what if she was out a thousand bucks?
Irritated, Sadie fired up her phone. Great, no cell service. Probably because of the storm, which rattled the windows like it was poking fun at her plans.
She did her before-bed routine and slid under the sheet and heavy comforter. Sleep came right away, with dreams of blue-eyed mayors and Hawaiian shirts in snowstorms.