Chapter 2 #2
Remaining behind the counter, she watched at Jeff drove off in his SUV. “I don’t think he should be allowed to book again,” she said once the vehicle had gone. “If you hadn’t been here, I don’t think I would have been safe.” The slight quiver in her voice made his gut clench.
“I agree.” Dragging his hand though his hair, Parker swallowed. “I’m sorry that you had to deal with that, especially on your first day.”
Eyeing him, some of the tension left her face. “He sure was pushy,” she said. “Thanks for getting him to leave.”
Though he wondered if she had to deal with stuff like that often, he also knew it wasn’t any of his business.
“After the Fiancée Killer started murdering women, Lakin had a panic button installed near the computer,” he told her.
“Thankfully, guys like that are rare. But if you press that button, it sends out an alert to the police station and also to mine and Spence’s phones. ”
“Good to know.” Green eyes pensive, she shrugged. “I sure as heck didn’t expect something like that to happen on my first day. And, yes, with four women dead, that serial killer has just about every single female in Shelby nervous.”
“Justifiably so. Hetty is our only female tour guide, though she’s also a pilot, and she’s nervous, too. We’ve instituted a policy where no female, whether employee or guest, is ever left alone at night on the premises.”
“Good.” She glanced around. “I’m guessing that’s not possible in the daytime.”
“We try, but mostly it’s not,” he answered. “The good thing is, since we’re super busy, there will nearly always be a guide either coming in or out, not to mention constant groups of guests.”
“Good. I confess, I wasn’t too worried until you brought up the Fiancée Killer.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. Deciding now would be as good a time as any, he swallowed. “There’s something else I need to apologize for.”
“I doubt it.” After this clear dismissal, she turned to head into her small office.
“Wait,” he said then softened his voice. “Please.”
She turned slowly. “What’s up?”
Slightly nervous, he cleared his throat. “Back when we, uh, got together. A year ago. I said I’d call you, but didn’t. I wanted to explain why.”
“Oh, there’s no need—” she began.
“But there is,” he interrupted. “I lost your number. Then, when I went to ask my sister for it, she told me you were married. Since I didn’t want any part of being the other person in an affair, I didn’t even try to call you.
It was only when you came back to town that Lakin realized she’d been wrong. ”
“I was going through a pretty nasty divorce,” she said.
“But it’s been a year and you shouldn’t even give that a second thought.
I wasn’t upset that I didn’t hear from you.
Not at all. You were exactly what I needed at the moment—a good time.
Nothing more.” She laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I haven’t.”
Then she turned and disappeared inside her little office in back, leaving Parker staring after her, his ego bruised. No, more than bruised. Battered.
If she hadn’t hung up on him when he’d first called to offer her the job, he might have believed her. He’d explained why he hadn’t contacted her. That’s all that should have mattered. What had he expected anyway?
Despite the fact that he hadn’t ever stopped thinking about her, he knew he should figure out how to put her out of his mind.
Maybe working side by side with her, day after day, would help. Though, when Spence had first come up with idea, Parker had felt it would be almost a kind of torture.
He’d have to get over that. And pronto. Because, like it or not, she worked for RTA now. And he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. The family business had to come first.
Alone in the small manager’s office, Genna tried to focus on getting used to everything. Lakin had always been organized; so, mostly, Genna needed to familiarize herself with the system. The detailed notes in the binder would definitely help with that.
The reservations were all online, as were the schedule of the tours. As she scrolled through the upcoming groups, she saw that Parker’s assessment had been right. RTA appeared to be booked solid. Most days had back-to-back tours.
Good for them. Might as well get as much done before the snow started falling.
Scrolling ahead to the month of December, she saw Lakin hadn’t been kidding. While the types of outings had changed, each weekend was marked “Full.” During the week, things slowed quite a bit, but Genna imagined the employees were glad to have a bit of a break from the nonstop bookings.
She remembered from working here before that the summer was the busiest season.
Tourists flooded the area in good weather; families on vacation and work groups needing a bonding activity.
Since school wasn’t in session, RTA made sure to have child-friendly activities such as whale watching and wildlife tours.
She heard the bell tinkle over the door and realized Parker must have unlocked it. The sound of voices told her the next bunch of clients must have arrived.
Putting down the binder, she hurried out to greet them.
By the end of the day, exhaustion had Genna dead on her feet.
She’d met four of the ten RTA guides, not including Parker and Spence, whom she already knew.
When Spence had arrived for his group and had walked into the building to see her working, he’d grabbed her up into a laughing bear hug.
After twirling her around, he set her back on her sneakers.
“You’re here!” he exclaimed. “Thank you so much.”
His enthusiastic greeting made her grin. “It’s been busy. Luckily for me, Lakin made detailed notes. I remembered quite a bit from when I worked here, but she made it easy for me to look things up and double check to make sure I was doing everything correctly.”
The front door opened then. A large group that appeared to be several families, including six teens, came inside. They were all talking at once, the teens roughhousing, and Genna simply waited at the front counter for them to choose one person to speak to her.
“You’ve got your hands full,” she muttered to Spence.
He smiled. “Just the way I like things.”
Once she’d checked the group in, she watched as Spence herded them off to a bus to ride out to where RTA docked their boats.
Since the days were still long this time of year, RTA took full advantage of the sunlight.
This group would be doing some fishing, which ought to be interesting with so many rowdy teens.
Taking a final glance at the schedule to make sure that was the last group, Genna dropped into a chair and sighed.
The bell above the front door tinkled again, making her look up. Parker strode in, glancing back over his shoulder and shaking his head. Once again, she caught herself melting at the sight of him.
“Spence should have a time with that group,” he said, smiling.
Her stomach clenched.
Pretending that his smile didn’t affect her, she nodded.
“That’s what I told him. He didn’t seem to mind.”
“He doesn’t.” Moving closer, he studied her. “Personally, I think he thrives on chaos. How was your first day?”
“Part day,” she corrected, trying not to let her eyes roam over him. How any man could look so sexy while just standing there bemused her. “This job is definitely fast-paced. It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Her choice of words had his smile widening. “But do you think you’ll enjoy it? Or at least find it tolerable?”
Not sure how to respond to that, she made busywork organizing a stack of brochures and settled on a noncommittal answer. “It’s fine. I like it so far.”
“I’m glad.” He came a little closer, though he stayed on his side of the counter. “Listen, would you like to go have a drink with me after we shut this place down? My treat?”
As tempting as she found the idea, she knew she had to decline. Opening her mouth to tell him no, she lost the capacity for thought when his gaze met and held hers.
“Strictly as coworkers,” he continued, possibly noticing her hesitation. “I thought I’d invite the rest of the gang, too, so you can get to know everyone a little better. I know you already know most of them, but you’ve been gone awhile and might want to get reacquainted.”
Despite being tired, she appreciated the thought. “How about we do that, but maybe on Friday night instead? With this being my first day, I’m really tired.”
Immediately, he nodded. “Friday sounds great. I’ll let everyone know. Maybe we can do dinner and drinks.”
“I’d like that,” she replied. Hopefully, she’d have grown accustomed to being around him by then and she wouldn’t feel that low-key electric buzz under her skin every time he got close.
Gathering her things, she waved goodbye and left.
Her parents called shortly after she arrived home.
Though they’d both lived in Alaska their entire lives, they’d decided to make a major change.
Shortly after Genna had asked to move back home once her divorce was finalized, they’d decided to move to Hawaii.
“We’re not getting any younger,” her father had announced, grinning from ear to ear.
Her mother had been giddy with excitement.
Now that they were retired, they said it was time to live somewhere warm.
They’d leased a modern condo near the beach and were loving the tropical weather.
They were thrilled when Genna told them about her new job.
“That’s wonderful, honey!” her mother exclaimed. “You loved working there before.”
“I did,” Genna agreed. “And I’m sure it’ll be the same this time. Right now, I’m just relearning how the operation is run.”
“The Colton family do a great job with RTA,” her father said. “They treat their employees right and they have a great reputation around Shelby. Heck, around all of Alaska, the Lower 48, and even into Canada. People come from all around to go on one of their adventure tours.”