25. Lana
Lana
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay? Or that you don’t want to come back to my place after you grab some clothes?” I stood at the front of my Subaru as Toren limped toward the front porch of his cabin on his crutches.
“I’m sure. Walker brought my truck back.” He gestured to the black vehicle now sitting beside the house. “If I need something, I can go get it. I can drive fine.”
I chewed on the corner of my bottom lip. He’d been a little distant since we woke up this morning. Not that I blamed him. Yesterday had been a little wild. And intense.
Honestly, I could use some space, too, to sort out my feelings. A lot had happened in the last few days.
“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll talk to you maybe tomorrow, then? You need a ride to Juneau for your surgery on Monday, right?”
He glanced back after he clomped up the steps. “Yeah. I can call Walker, though.”
“Oh.” My heart cracked. Just a little. I wanted to help, but it seemed like he just wanted me to go away.
Pushing away from the hood, I rounded to the driver’s door.
“Call if you need something.” I wanted to add, “Or another booty call,” but I didn’t.
Getting angry wouldn’t help anything. We both needed time to sort things out.
Him probably more than me. From our talk yesterday evening, I suspected he had some unresolved feelings about his wife’s death he needed to work through before anything could ever happen with us.
Getting in my car, I shut the door and started the engine, pulling out of the yard as I fastened my seatbelt.
I felt the press of tears behind my eyes and ground my molars together. I would not cry. Not yet. Today wasn’t goodbye. It couldn’t be. What I felt last night—that didn’t happen often. I refused to just walk away from it without a fight.
But for now, I would give him space.
Pointing my car toward town, I drove straight to the inn. I wanted to check on the new sign that was supposed to go up this past week before I returned to Juneau to meet with Tina.
My thoughts wanted to swirl and run through all the events of the past twenty-four hours. I, however, didn’t want to dwell on them, so I turned on the radio, found my favorite blast-it-to-the-rafters playlist, and sang along the entire way down the mountain and into Parker’s Landing.
When the inn came into view, a wide grin split my face at the sign now installed by the road.
Hanging from a rough-hewn log post and beam assembly, the white sign featured a line drawing of the inn on the rocky shore with silhouettes of pine trees on either side.
The words: “The Overlook at Parker’s Landing” were beside it. It was beautiful.
I pulled into the inn’s parking lot, frowning at the sight of Mina’s car. What was she doing here? Did we have work scheduled I forgot about?
Still frowning, I parked next to her and got out, going inside. Light streamed through the windows, illuminating the entryway, but Mina was nowhere to be seen.
“Mina?”
“Kitchen!” she yelled.
Turning in that direction, I wandered down the hallway and entered the enormous kitchen.
We’d knocked down a wall to create the industrial space.
It now featured a row of commercial ranges, oodles of stainless-steel prep space, and enough storage to make even the most famous TV chef cry with jealousy.
“Hey.” Mina looked up from one of the worktables with a smile. “Glad to have you back. And in one piece.”
“It’s good to be back in one piece.” I tipped my head toward the contraption on the counter, not wanting to go into how I was doing, because I knew her, and that would be her next question. “What are you doing? What is that?”
“This is the fancy espresso machine I convinced your brother to buy for this place.” She waved her hands at the machine and all the bits and pieces lying around it. “It got delivered today. I mean, what sort of luxury hotel doesn’t have an espresso bar?”
“You’ll have to show all the staff how to work it.”
“Of course. Can’t have it just sitting here with only one or two people able to use it. Defeats the purpose.”
I chuckled. “True.”
Mina unwrapped a wand of some sort and attached it to the machine. “So how are you doing?”
I bit back a groan. I should have filled the silence with other conversation. “I’m fine.”
She hummed. “Sure. That’s why your face is pinched and your jaw looks like a rock. Ozzie and that wildlife officer will catch the guys who ran off. You can count on that.”
“Oh.” I frowned, taking a second to register what she was talking about. “Yeah. Right. Of course.”
Mina’s brows dipped. “That’s not what’s causing the frown on your face,” she stated, drawing a quick circle in the air, pointing at my head. “What is, then? That wedding you were supposed to have today?”
“No.”
Dammit. Why did I say that? I could have agreed with her and pretended that was all that was bothering me.
She frowned harder, studying me. Suddenly, her eyebrows winged upward. “Oh my God. You fell for him.”
My gaze darted away, and I moved over to one of the stoves, looking at the dials. “Fell for whom?”
Mina rounded the table. Stopping in front of me, she grasped my forearms. “Don’t give me that. You know perfectly well who I’m talking about.” Her blue eyes pinned mine with a stare for a moment before they widened. She gasped. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”
My mouth dropped open. “How did you get all that from just looking at me?”
“So, it’s true?” Her voice rose an octave on the last word.
I groaned and shook off her hold, crossing my arms. “Yes, it’s true.”
She squealed. “Oh, this is fantastic. Maybe we’ll get you to move to Parker’s Landing after all.”
I chuckled. “You’re excited I slept with Toren because you think it’ll make me move here?”
Mina laughed. “Well, that, and I want you to be happy. He seems like a nice guy.”
“He is. He also carries a lot of baggage. I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”
Her smile smoothed out as her forehead wrinkled. “Baggage? What do you mean?”
“Did you know he was married?”
“What? No. Wait, was? What happened?”
“She was killed by a drunk driver several years ago. And he really loved her.” I blew out a breath, ruffling the fine hairs around my face. “So, yeah. I’m competing with a ghost. And I don’t know what to do about that.”
Mina’s face melted, sympathy shining from her eyes. “I’m sorry. That’s rough. Is there anything Luke or I can do?”
“Distract me,” I answered, immediately. “He needs time. I need to sort out my own head. Distract me.”
She clapped her hands together. “I can do that.” Spinning on her heel, she marched back to the espresso machine. “Come over here. You can be my guinea pig.”
Relief loosened my shoulders. I followed her over. “Guinea pig? You already know how to make espresso. You own a coffee shop.”
“Right, but one”—she held up a finger—“this is a new machine, so I need to figure out how it works. And two”—she held up another finger—“I want to play around with some flavors. I’m thinking of doing some seasonal things.”
I hopped up on to the counter, swinging my legs. “I have a meeting in Juneau in a couple hours, but I have time for a cup.” I waved a hand at the machine. “Fire it up.”
The next hour was exactly what I needed. No pressure. No questions about what happened or how I was feeling. Just laughter and friendship. My brother had picked well for a wife. Mina knew when to ask questions and when to just be there in whatever capacity someone needed.
Back in my car, I let the breeze flow through the window, ruffling my hair, as I drove back to Juneau much more relaxed than when I left earlier. I knew I’d still need to process things later, but I felt like I was in a better headspace than before.
Pulling into my office twenty minutes early for my meeting with Tina, I saw her in her car, waiting. Dustin was in the passenger seat.
I parked and got out, smiling at the couple as they emerged from their vehicle. “Hey guys. You’re early. Come on in.” I motioned toward the building as I walked toward it.
“They released Dustin just a little while ago. We got some decent food, then came here. We’re just ready to go home,” Tina said.
I could understand that. I’d been in the same boat last night.
“How’s Toren?” Dustin asked as we walked inside.
Flipping on the lights, I glanced over my shoulder at him. “He’s doing all right. He needs surgery on his hand, which is Monday, and an MRI on his ankle, but otherwise, he’s fine.”
“His ankle isn’t broken?”
“Nope. It’s just a bad sprain. They’re checking the soft-tissue damage to see how long he needs to be off of it.”
Dustin’s shoulders sagged. “Good. I was afraid he did some serious damage.”
“He got lucky, that’s for sure. He took a nasty fall.” I still got a little sick to my stomach thinking about him disappearing over the rocks the way he did. “How are you doing?” I motioned for them to sit down in the chairs in front of my desk as I walked around it.
“I’m okay. I was dehydrated, so they pumped me full of fluids. They broke my nose too.” He touched his bruised face near the inside corner of one eye. “I got lucky too. It wasn’t terribly displaced, so the doctor doesn’t think I’ll need surgery. I’m supposed to see an ENT doc next week.”
“All things considered, I think everyone got lucky,” Tina said. “But no more solo hunting trips.” She aimed a look at her fiancé.
Dustin waved his hands. “Nope. Never again. At least, not that far from home. Maybe to a stand I’ve set up nearby that I’ll only be in for part of a day.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” I folded my hands on top of the desk. “So, about this wedding…”
Tina’s nose scrunched. “Yeah. We probably lost all of our deposits, didn’t we?”
“Actually, I’m hoping not. Before I left to look for you”—I tipped my head toward Dustin—“I called the vendors, explained the circumstances, and placed everything on hold. We’ll have to do some coordinating, and you’ll have to compromise on the location—I can’t fix that one unless you want to wait a whole year—but we should be able to keep the rest with maybe a bit of a penalty. ”
Tina visibly sagged, falling back in her seat. “Really?”
I smiled. “Yes. Everyone was very understanding.”
“Wait.” Tina sat up, her eyes widening and a ghost of a smile forming. “If we have to change venues, does that mean we can have it at the inn now?”
I tipped my head. “I suppose you could. And considering the circumstances, I’m sure Luke and my dad would be agreeable to waving some of the rental requirements, like using our kitchen to cater.
We could probably come down on the rental fee too.
” For this one event, we could forgo a profit, so long as the cost of staffing the event was covered. I’d have to do some math on that.
Tina’s smile bloomed into a wide grin. “Really? That would be fabulous. When do you think we could do it?”
“It would have to be after Luke and Mina’s wedding in July. I’ll call all the vendors on Monday and see what date I can get in common from them and let you know. I would think we could do October, though. Maybe September.”
Her shoulders fell slightly. “That long?”
Dustin put a hand on her thigh. “We can always forget the big wedding and just go to the courthouse. I don’t need all the trappings. If this experience taught me one thing, it’s that I just want to be with you.”
Moisture gathered in Tina’s eyes. “Really?”
He nodded.
“Oh.” She flapped a hand, then shook her head. “That’s so sweet. But no. We already paid out all this money for flowers and food and music. If they’re not going to charge us again and we can just move everything, I’d rather do that than lose all that money.”
“Whatever you want, sweetie. I just want to call you my wife.”
Tina’s smile could have powered the sun.
I couldn’t help but grin at her happiness. It made all the craziness and chaos of the past few days worth it.
I lightly tapped the desk. “Okay, then. That’s settled. I’ll get on rearranging everything and let you know what date I come up with.”