Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
A Stack. Like Wombats Do.
GHOST
I went to bed feeling calmer than I probably should have, given that I’d just blithely wandered across a line I took pretty seriously. I didn’t have enough emotional reserves to promise anything to anyone else, and so I hadn’t. Not in a long time.
Emily was the first woman I’d kissed in . . . years.
My abstinence had only been partially intentional. Immediately after the mishap, there was the investigation and way too much worry and guilt and grief to even imagine dating. And I hadn’t been seeing anyone seriously when it happened. Weird how being gone six or more months at a time makes you less attractive as a date.
And then, in the weeks and months that followed, I was essentially a zombie. I’d lost a friend, so there was the obvious grief. But being responsible for his death was another thing. In some ways I thought it would have been simpler if the investigation had found me at fault. It didn’t matter though—I knew it was true, and most people agreed. And that was an entirely different kind of grief.
On top of all of it was the navy’s inability to recover the body, which somehow prevented any of us from getting true closure—not that I was sure I could’ve handled seeing Jake that way. Knowing it was my fault...
Point was, dating was not really something I remembered much about. Kissing either, though that had seemed to go pretty well outside Emily’s room. But in the clear light of morning I wondered at the wisdom of the whole thing. It had been impulsive and really not very smart.
“I got all the Post-Its out for you,” Aubrey told me as I approached the front desk, where she sat, tummy perched on the low counter behind the main desk. “So you won’t have to get all gropey and rude.”
There was a tower of Post-It notes stacked in the center of the desk between the two terminals.
“Thanks?” I stared at the tower and then chanced a look at my sister. Aubrey was scary even when she wasn’t hopped up on hormones. I wasn’t sure what version of her I’d get today, and I’d learned well enough to tread lightly.
“It’s a joke,” she said, sounding annoyed that I wasn’t rolling on the floor with laughter. “I had to look everywhere to find enough to make you a little tower.”
“Well, we won’t run out, I guess,” I said, moving to the computer to check the activity schedule for the day. I needed to make sure I’d have time to take Emily to check out the church.
“No, but the shop might. And the bar. And the kitchen.” Aubrey giggled.
I shot her a look and blew out an exasperated sigh. “Funny.”
“So,” she said, drawing the word out in a way that told me my sister was about to ask a favor.
I steeled myself, already knowing I’d say yes. I would bend over backwards for my sister. She was all I had. Plus, the fear of tears was a driving force within me. “What?”
“Better plan this whole wedding thing.”
I swiveled to face her. “You said you wanted a summer wedding. Next summer. This is November.”
Her smile dropped and the big eyes filled immediately with tears.
No, no, no, no. Crying-Aubrey was not a good version of Aubrey. “Or yes? I mean yes. Just...what changed?”
She sniffed and wiped the single tear that had escaped as her kaleidoscope moods shifted yet again and a tiny smile appeared. “I don’t want to have to worry about it afterwards. Wiley and I know we want to get married and there’ve been so many reasons to delay, and now we’re running out of time.”
She looked so desperately upset, but I didn’t see the rush. “Aubrey, there’s no law that you have to be married before the baby comes. You’re a family no matter how you decide to tackle the paperwork.”
“I know that,” she snapped, and I took a step back. Then she softened again. “It’s more about logistics. There’s going to be a ton to do once the baby is here. I just don’t want to put this off until then because I’m afraid we’ll just keep putting it off. The kid will graduate from college and we’ll still be finding reasons why it’s not a good time.”
I understood her point. It was one of those line in the sand things—there was never really a good time. “Okay, we can figure it out.”
“Plus, I don’t want the baby to be excluded from society.”
I looked around, pointedly gazing at the small groups of writers clustered here and there, one of the bellmen pushing a broom out on the sidewalk. “You need to stop watching those shows about marrying off young women and finger sandwiches. None of that applies anymore. The only ‘society’ you have to worry about here wears flannel and owns three different kinds of snow shovels.”
Aubrey sniffed. “None of that matters. I just want to be married when the baby comes so it’s one less thing to worry about.”
“Okay.” It was best to agree, though I didn’t know that thinking of a wedding as something to worry about was quite right. “But Aub, the baby’s due really soon.”
“The week before Christmas.” She said this defiantly, as if she could change the date just by being angry enough about it.
I nodded, pulling up the whole calendar on the screen in front of me. “So we’ve got this conference until Sunday, then a week and a half until Thanksgiving, and then the holidays. For which we have planned two full weeks of events.”
Aubrey’s chin was beginning to wobble as she looked at me with those wide, watery eyes.
Shit.
“So that means,” I amended quickly, “that we can definitely do a wedding...in two weeks?” It was sudden, but it was the only space we had between fully booked holiday events at the resort.
“That’s so soon,” she said.
I shot her a narrow-eyed look and her hands went out in front of her, palms to me, as she added, “which is totally perfect. I’ll just tell Wiley.”
“Wait, Wiley knows you’re planning this, right?” Not that Wiley would ever complain about a single thing Aubrey did or wanted. He was utterly smitten, and I was glad.
“He knows we’re getting married, yes. I’ve got the ring to prove it.” She slid carefully off the high stool.
“I mean, he knows you’re wanting to do it soon.”
“He will in a minute,” she said, and then my sister turned and moved across the lobby, every step demonstrating how uncomfortable it was for such a small woman to carry what was clearly a big baby inside her. My sister was a badass, though. If anyone could handle it, she could.
A wedding. One more thing to add to the agenda.
I blocked out a weekend before guests would begin arriving for Thanksgiving week, and made a few notes. There were a few rooms booked, but the resort would be pretty quiet, and having a small ceremony and party in one of the special event spaces shouldn’t be an issue. I’d need to enlist some help, obviously, but it wouldn’t be the first wedding we’d had at the resort, and most of the guests would already be on site, so the logistics of receiving and hosting people weren’t an issue.
I heard a happy shout from the bar, where Aubrey had disappeared, and a moment later, Wiley and Aubrey appeared together, both grinning.
“So you already heard?” he asked me, practically shouting across the lobby. “We’re getting married!” He scooped my sister up into his arms to the extreme enjoyment of the writers scattered about, who all clapped and cheered.
“I heard,” I said, smiling because the mood was completely contagious. “I’m blocking the date right now.”
“Yay!” Aubrey cried from Wiley’s arms. “I’m going to go find Penny and Annalee to help plan.” She tilted her head up to kiss her fiancé, and then beat at his chest. “Put me down, you caveman!”
“You love it.”
My sister whispered something I worked very hard not to hear in response, and then she disappeared toward the offices at the back of the building.
“Thanks, man. She’s super excited.”
“You okay with rushing it?” I scanned Wiley’s face for any signs of well-hidden panic, but he seemed genuinely pleased. I was happy for my sister. She’d found the perfect partner.
He grinned. “As long as I end up with Aubrey and our little tater tot? I’m fine with anything. Just hope my brother will be able to get out here for it. What’s the date she’s planning?”
I gave Wiley the information and he texted his brother Wade and then leaned on the top of the massive wood registration desk. “How you holding up with this whole conference thing?”
I shrugged. “Honestly? It’s been fine. We’ve got enough staff on now that no one really comes to me except with emergencies.”
“Like stuck elevators.”
“Like that, yeah.”
“Fake Tom says you had a lady in there with you.” Wiley wiggled his eyebrows and I braced myself for the teasing. The weird thing was, I didn’t really care if he knew.
I felt my cheeks warm at the thought of Emily. “A guest. That’s why we were comping her drinks last night. And her room.”
“Gotcha,” he said. “So she was the one you were with in the bar?”
“Yeah.”
He nodded but hesitated, his head tipping to one side. He was clearly considering adding something else he wasn’t sure he wanted to say.
“Go ahead.”
Wiley met my eyes then. “I was just going to say, she seemed cool.”
“I think she is.” I hated this. It felt like we were talking in code. Everyone was so goddamned careful with me all the time, sometimes I worried I really would break. “You can ask me what you’re really wondering. I might even answer.”
“You like her, then?” Straightforward. Much better.
“Yeah, I like her. Actually kissed her last night.” The second the words were out, guilt replaced the warmth I’d felt at the thought. I’d said it because everyone here made me feel like I needed to prove I was okay, that I was functioning. I was tired of it. But Emily didn’t deserve me sharing that about her.
Wiley grinned, his eyebrows shooting up.
“Dammit, I shouldn’t have said that.”
The eyebrows dropped. “Because you didn’t kiss her?”
I shifted my weight. “No, I did. It’s just probably not cool to run around talking about it.”
“I’m not telling anyone.”
I thought about our plans for later, and Aubrey’s wedding made me tell Wiley. “Hey, I think I’m going to the church in town later, you interested in checking it out?”
“Dude...” Wiley laughed. “You don’t have to go to church just because you kissed someone.”
“What? Oh for shit’s sake.” I took a breath. “I thought you might want to look at it for the wedding? If you guys want a church wedding. It’s the only one up here. But the reason I’m going is for the treasure hunt. Emily thinks she might have an idea we missed.”
Wiley straightened. “Seriously? Something that doesn’t involve lawyers and bad karma?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m in.”
“Only...I know the writers have free time this afternoon. Do you have backup in the bar?” So far, it had become clear that writers enjoyed the bar when they were not writing. And sometimes when they were.
“Yeah, I can get Antonio to cover for a bit, and Helen’s doing really well in there.” Helen was a townie who’d come by looking for work a few months ago, willing to do just about anything but without any real experience. She’d gotten her wish, and had become kind of a roving employee, helping out wherever we were short.
“Okay, great. I’ll grab you when we head out. Better invite Aubrey too.” I wondered briefly how Aubrey and Emily would get along, but wasn’t too worried. More concerning was the level of shit I’d be getting when Aubrey figured out I was interested in Emily. But the risk was worth the reward. The thought of going anywhere with Emily made me irrationally happy.
“I’ll tell Aub,” Wiley promised, shooting me a grin before heading back to the bar.