Chapter Twenty-Two
Me: If you breathe one word of this to anyone else, I’ll junk punch you.
Wyatt: Noted. What’s the big secret?
Me: Aubrey has a stalker. Drug dealers that Jack got mixed up with.
Me: Apparently he stole from them and they want their money back. When we got home tonight, she had an envelope of photos under her door.
Wyatt: Shit. How did none of us know? Do Aggie and Tommy know? Who are they? What were the photos?
Me: She hasn’t told anyone but me and made me promise not to tell anyone.
So this needs to be on the down low. Just me and you.
I don’t know who they are but they’re associated with her best friend, her father, Hugh, and her brother, Ryder.
That’s all I have. I’ll let you know more when I get back inside and we talk to Sophia.
Wyatt: Where’s she from in Montana? I’ll start searching. It’s a slow night.
Me: Sanders Hollow.
Wyatt: On it.
Me: Ryder swears it wasn’t his father’s guys. Says that his father never would have sent a low man on the totem pole, and that all his right hand men were in town for a delivery. This could be Nolan too. We can’t rule him out.
Wyatt: Did you tell her about Nolan?
Me: Not yet. But you can bet your ass I’ll be going to Boston to pay him a visit when I’m in town. He can’t come after her, and I want to see his face to know if he’s lying.
Wyatt: Let me know what you need. I’ll keep digging. I found a Hugh Chiave that owns a Black Key Ranch. Try to find out if that’s who it is. I’ll do some more digging before I reach out to the local PD.
Me: Thanks, brother.
Settling into my desk, I pull up my email for the blog. I’ve been getting quite a few requests for travel content and it makes me happy that my blog is doing well. I always knew that Nolan was full of shit, I just should have listened to my gut long before I did.
After my email is cleared out, I start on scheduling some social media content when my phone rings, interrupting me.
“This is Cooper Keaton,” I answer.
“Cooper, this is Ryan Martinez. I’m a manager over at the The Liberty Bell, a boutique hotel in Boston. We recently found your blog and are under new management. We were hoping that you would want to come spend a night and blog about the hotel?”
This is perfect. I can take a job and make a visit to Nolan.
“When were you thinking?”
“We’re open whenever you have the time. We’d really appreciate the exposure on our renovations.”
Tapping my pencil on the calendar in front of me, I ask, “How about tomorrow? Is that too soon? I could come and then get you up on the blog in the next two weeks before the summer season.”
Maybe if I offer the incentive they’ll let me come tomorrow and then I can go see Nolan in the next couple days before he gets too far into his shit with Aubrey.
“Wow, that’s great! We’d love to host you tomorrow. We’ll have the suite ready for you.”
“Perfect. I can’t wait to see the hotel. See you soon.”
Hanging up, I lean back in my chair, happy that I have an action plan to help Aubrey. Or at least to try to help her by doing something. I don’t like sitting around waiting for Wyatt to come up with an idea.
Me: Hey, I got a job in Boston tomorrow night so I won’t be around to watch Aubrey. Are you on shift?
Wyatt: Yeah, I can do a couple drive-bys. Let her know that she can call me if she needs anything.
Me: Thanks. Will do.
I push off from my desk to go find Aubrey and Lily. They’re probably in the pig barn if Lily had anything to say about morning chores. She’s obsessed with those little piglets.
Me: Where are you guys?
Aubrey: Take a guess.
Me: >
Aubrey: Winner, winner. >
Laughing, I slip on my boots and head out the door to go find them. I’ve mostly been sleeping at Aubrey’s and the cabin that I moved into has become one big office. On the off chance I sleep here, like last night, it feels weird waking up without the girls.
The barn doors are open and I hear Lily’s giggles echoing through the large space.
“Where are my favorite girls?” I call out.
“Ova hewe!” Lily calls back.
“With your best friend, I see?” I point to the small black piglet sitting in her lap and sniffing at her face. “Is she looking for leftover syrup from pancakes this morning?”
“You know she is. At least her face gets cleaned one way or another.” Aubrey laughs.
I wrap my arms around her and pull her in for a hug. “I was a little sad waking up by myself today.”
“It wasn’t my favorite.” She places a quick kiss on my cheek.
“I had no one to snuggle into my pillow and steal it, or put their cold toes on me this morning,” I say to Lily.
“Betause I was not thewe!” She giggles. “You can sweep ova tonight?”
I look at Aubrey. “We could probably arrange that, but I came to find you to tell you that I have to go out of town tomorrow.”
Aubrey’s eyes widen slightly when I tell her. “Where are you going?”
“I have to go down to film content for a boutique hotel in Boston. It’s just one night. Wyatt is on shift tomorrow night so if you need anything you can just call him. And I already asked him to do a few drive-bys for me just to make sure.”
“Oh okay.” She pouts.
Leaning in to whisper in her ear, “Do you want to come? I’ll be busy during the day because I’m filming and photographing the hotel, so it won’t be like last time but you guys could do something fun on your own.”
“No, that’s okay. Emma called me this morning to ask if I’d help her with the wedding coming up. I think she’s a little nervous to host it, especially with the whole wedding party staying on site. She was bribing me before she even finished asking me.” She laughs.
“Well I hope you milked that for all it’s worth.”
“I traded my help for a dozen donuts and childcare from Anna. So tomorrow we’re planning and going over some of the details when we have a meeting with the bride on a video call.”
“A dozen donuts from Violet is well worth it. I bet you’ll have fun. You’re so good at planning the events here.” I let her go and step into the pig pen with Lily.
“That was actually Emma’s opening line.” She raises a brow at me. “Did you talk to her?”
“Nope, not me.” I shake my head.
“She told me that she wants this to be a trial run to see if I like event planning and then she’d like to offer me a job to be the inn’s event planner.” She fidgets with her hands, nervously.
“I think you’d be great at that. Do you want to do something like that?”
“Before Jack and Lily I wanted to go to school for hospitality. I love planning fun events and when I get to do it with other people’s money, all the better.
Plus what better job than to be surrounded by love all the time.
” The dreamy look in her eyes makes me want to pull her in and kiss her senseless until she realizes she can do whatever makes her happy.
“But. I never got the chance. So maybe this is it?”
“I think you’d be a great planner for the inn.
Emma likes to do a lot of themed weekends and you were great with the Easter event, plus I think you’d be great at tying in the farm for the events.
You could do something at the inn for the apple blossom photos we’re doing soon and tie in the two businesses.
Make everyone money. And you know I’d love to feature anything you do on the blog. ”
“You really think so?”
I stand, taking her hands in mine. “I know so. You’re amazingly talented and will do amazing things for Emma and the inn.” I kiss her on the forehead, trying to keep it PG around Lily.
She gives me a smile worth a million dollars. “Thank you, Cooper.”
“Coopa! Wanna go pway puzzles wif me?” Lily tugs on my pant leg.
“Sounds great, but did you finish your morning animal chores?” I raise my brow, taking in her face as she fidgets just like her mother.
“No,” she admits softly.
“Well then, sounds like we have some work to do before we get to play.” I open the gate, letting her out of the pen. “What’s first on the chore list?”
“Feed da piggies.” She takes off to the small storage room that houses the feed.
Following behind her, I reach in and grab the bag to carry over to the pen while she gets the cup to scoop it out. Tommy gave her the job of morning chores with the animals because she loves them so much and Aubrey thought it would teach her a little responsibility.
So in the feed room is a little chore chart and each task she completes, she gets to put a sticker in a square.
For small children, I’ve learned, this is the most phenomenal form of payment.
But in addition when she gets a week’s worth of stars, she brings her chart to Tommy and he gives her some cash to tuck away in a piggy bank he got her.
It’s been going really well and she’s almost independent at a few of the small chores, like filling the pig’s water.
These are my favorite moments, getting to spend time with Lily and Aubrey doing mundane tasks and chores. After all the travel I’ve done in my life, this is what feels like home.