27. Millie
CHAPTER 27
Millie
“Why won’t this piece of crap do what I tell it to do?!”
I slam my hands down on the keyboard, hoping my aggression might force the hotelier reservation system to work with me instead of against me.
I don’t feel like admitting to user error this morning.
You’d think after working under Ackermann in the office at the factory for so many years, I’d have managed to figure out this whole technology thing, but it’s still not my strong suit.
Elodie chortles from behind the merchandise clothing stand, where she’s been folding and refolding the same Braggan Valley Lodge sweater for at least thirty minutes.
“Need some help, technophobe?” She laughs.
“No,” I reply, the stubborn edge to my voice lasting only as long as it takes me to realize I do, in fact, need her brains for this. “Actually, yes… I’m trying to upgrade the Eden family to Pinemartin Lodge so that I can place this new booking for twelve in the riverside cabins. Every time I drag th e booking over to its new spot, I get this error message—” I turn the monitor towards her, “—and it moves back to where it was before.”
She doesn’t even look at the screen as she gives her response. “Click on the little house next to the Eden’s lodge booking. If you unassign them from their current cabin, that should work.”
It does.
“Thanks,” I tut, burying my head back in my to-do list for the morning. With July fast approaching and the influx of bookings for Canada Day next weekend, tourist season is officially upon us. We’re already booked out on weekends until September, and the weekday slots aren’t too far behind.
I’ve been picking up extra shifts with Elodie, trying to learn the ropes at reception so that I can level up from toilet bowls and laundry hampers to spreadsheets and error messages.
“So, Millie, what did you get up to yesterday morning? I had to eat breakfast alone. You were gone for hours .” Elodie drags out the last word as she leans over the reception counter, stealing a grape from my snack box and dropping it into her mouth with a pop.
“Canoeing,” I answer bluntly, hoping that will placate her, but I know full well that Elodie is never placated with minimal information.
She needs the full lore.
“ Canoeing ?” she questions. “Since when are you into canoeing ? And with who?”
“Caden.” I try to give a nonchalant shrug, but it comes off more like an anxious twitch. “I couldn’t sleep, and I ran into him in the staff kitchen. He said he was heading out to the lake with Doug, and asked if I wanted to join him.”
Amusement etches her features. “I knew it!” She beams. “I knew from that first hike that Maura sent you out on that this was going to be a thing!”
“Settle down, El. It’s not a thing – Caden and me… we’re just friends.” The words don’t feel right as I say them. After yesterday, what we have feels deeper than a friendship, but I won’t kid myself that we’re anything more. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got work to do.”
“Sure, sure,” she laughs, moving on to re-stacking the pile of illustrated children’s books she already organized this morning. I wish I had her natural ability to avoid labour so effectively.
I fix my mind back on the paperwork in front of me, punching numbers into the calculator as I try to work out the direct booking discount for the week. I gawk at the prices. Even with ten percent shaved off, I’d never be able to afford a night in one of the cabins. Apparently, you can put a price on those views, and it’s well beyond my pay grade.
Elodie clears her throat, tapping her pen on the reception desk. I’m too focused on updating the online prices, checking my work twice for mistakes, to turn my attention towards her.
“Eh hem.” She clears her throat again, this time with three deliberate thumps on the counter.
I lift my head in annoyance, sucking in a breath as two piercing blue eyes collide with mine, knocking the wind out of me.
Caden leans back against the double door entrance to the reception area, one foot crossed over the other, thick arms folded across his broad chest. He’s been working on the renovations to the main hotel rooms today, they’re finally being refinished to make additional space for the influx of guest bookings this year.
I let my eyes trail over him, taking in the skintight charcoal shirt under his flannel and the way his work pants hug his thighs. I can’t say I wasn’t hoping for him to find a reason to come past reception, not just because everything from his tousled hair to his tattered work boots makes him every bit my type, but because the more time I spend with him, the more I crave his presence.
In a turn of events that I never could have predicted, I’ve come to the realization that I like being around him.
“Oh, Caden… hiiiii.” Elodie bounds over to him, leaning against his shoulder. “We were just talking about you. Millie was telling me all about your little date out at Lake Braid.”
“It wasn’t a date,” he bites back with so much assertion that it stings a little. “We’re friends.”
“Jeez, no need to bite my head off.” Elodie laughs. “It just sounded so romantic, forgive me for getting my wires crossed.”
“Stop meddling, El.” Caden shakes his head as he moves past her towards the front desk. “Morning, Adams.”
“Morning,” I murmur, clicking through old reservations on the screen, trying to distract myself from the man holding his weight against the counter in front of me. “Do you need something?” Another pretend click. “I’m kinda busy.”
“I need the list.”
“What list?”
“Your bucket list.”
“Why do you need my bucket list?” I whisper, hoping that Elodie has made her way into some far corner of the office, and can’t hear any of this.
Elodie hearing that Caden has any interest in my wants for the summer would only feed into her delusions.
“Because I’ve been up all night thinking about you, Millie. About the things you said about wanting to feel free.” He runs a palm over his beard, as if he’s thinking carefully about his next words. “I can’t take away the past, or the shitty things that have happened to you. But I can help you with the parts that come next. This place is special to me, Millie, I want it to feel that way for you too. I don’t want you to leave here without the moments you came for.”
“You don’t have to help me, Caden.”
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. And I’m gonna need that list.”
I’ve been so caught up in Caden’s words that I didn’t notice Elodie slipping in next to him.
“He needs the list, Millie,” she states, backing him up like his right-hand man.
A defeated sigh leaves me as I lean down, pulling my journal from my tote and flicking through the dog-eared pages until I find the list in question. Ripping the paper from its binding, I drop it onto the counter, hanging my head into my hands as they begin to read through the entries.
“This is mildly embarrassing,” I groan.
I know for certain there’s a couple on there that I would have rather kept to myself, but I’m eternally grateful that I had some sense and decided against scribbling ‘have my first orgasm’ down as number thirteen. The thought of Caden reading those words sends chills down my spine, and not the kind I was hoping for.
Millie’s Summer Bucket List
1) Go hiking
2) Learn to Bake
3) Horseback Riding
4) Wild Swim in a lake
5) Go on a date
6) Learn to Drive Stick Shift
7) See the Northern Lights
8) Lose 30 lbs
9) Go Canoeing
10) Spot a bear
11) Backcountry camp
12) Get into reading
“This is a good start.” Elodie nods, unfolding her glasses from her pocket and sliding them over her nose. “I think we can do better, though. There’s plenty you’ve missed here if you want to have the best summer of your life.”
Caden runs his finger over the words as though he’s back in high school, studying for his year-end assignments.
This is ridiculous.
“Pass me a pen,” Elodie says, holding her palm out towards me. “I’m scoring hiking off the list – you already achieved that back in May when Caden had to carry you down the last stretch at Lake Ingrid over his shoulder, remember?”
“Thanks for reminding me.” I roll my eyes, sinking back into the office chair and wishing I’d never agreed to hand over this list. “It’s funny… somehow, the most embarrassing moment of my existence had slipped my mind until you mentioned it.”
Elodie slaps Caden on the shoulder, pointing to the second entry on the list. “It’s Millie’s birthday next week, that’s the perfect opportunity to tick off number two.”
He nods, his brows furrowed in concentration as he makes a note in the margin.
“Horseback riding!” Elodie practically squeals. “You bet your bottom dollar I’m coming with you on that one, I need to meet my summer quota of hot cowboy sightings.”
“You know it’s just the Holden’s working the stables, right?” Caden says. “Hardly the world’s finest cowboy stock.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Her face pales and then quickly refills with a deep shade of crimson. “Those men have full permission to do unspeakable things to me. Johnny, Reid, Wyatt, Lawson, Beck – the lot, all objectively fuck-able. And the cousin s, what were their names again?”
“Colton it feels like my time here is just beginning and moving way too fast all at once.
“Pen,” Caden grunts, waiting for Elodie to drop it into his palm, before dragging a thick line through the eighth entry. “Don’t even think about it.” His eyes hold me in place as he says the words. “You wanna learn to run, or climb, or swim faster, sure. But you’re not gonna play some weird numbers game with the scales as if they define you. Not happening. You’re just fine the way you are.”
Elodie gives me a knowing look, the kind that a man wouldn’t pick up on if his life depended on it, but I know exactly what it means. She pulls a pamphlet from the visitor information rack, fanning it across her face dramatically just out of Caden’s line of sight .
“Number thirteen.” She narrows her eyes into slits as she tries to read the words. “Do something that scares you.”
Confusion pulls my attention towards the final entry. I drag the paper back across the counter towards me.
“I didn’t write that,” I say, it comes out more like a question.
“No, I did,” Caden interrupts, taking the list from me and folding it into a square before shoving it down in his flannel pocket. “You’ll thank me for it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got shit to do.”
He leaves, taking the scent of cedar and sweet tobacco with him, leaving dusty footprints on the carpet and a tightness in my chest as he goes.