Chapter 3
Adrienne hadn’t been sure if Ethan would still want to have dinner with her, now that Ava was gone early, but just in case, she wandered towards the main building, thinking she’d at least check the dining room.
She would have let him off the hook, no questions asked, but when he looked up from the front desk to see her enter, his look of instant relief brought a fresh sense of relief to her as well.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d still be wanting to have dinner tonight. I know that Ava left early and that was probably a bit of a shock.”
Ethan gave her a rueful smile. “It was. But it made sense. The storm is coming in quicker than anyone anticipated and they didn’t want to get stuck here.”
“I noticed it got much colder today. Do they live far away?”
“A few hours. But it’s up and down a few passes that get rather treacherous with the weather.”
“Well, I am glad she will be safe.”
“Me too. I just got a text that they arrived safely.”
“Good.” Adrienne smiled. She looked around the room, and she had to admit, it positively screamed Christmas now.
“You two did a great job,” Ethan followed her gaze, hands clasped behind his back.
“Thank you. I think your other guests will be pleased with the ambience.”
Ethan made a noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. “You’re the one that matters, being our star guest.”
“Aw.” Adrienne curtsied. “I was serious though. This is nice. It’s not exactly like the website or anything, but it’s really festive.”
“I wasn’t joking either. You’re the only remaining guest for Christmas.” Ethan crooked his elbow in a gesture for her to join him. “Shall we proceed to dinner?”
Adrienne put her hand in his elbow, mind reeling with that information.
She didn’t want to be rude, but she was surprised that a place of this size, of this magnitude of cute, was so unoccupied.
She wasn’t going to ask though. Rubbing salt in a business wound that already smarted with the loss of his wife, was not how she was going to start out their dinner.
“So what are you going to do for Christmas, then? Deep clean all the empty cabins or something?”
“Right. Yes. I have been waiting all year for the holidays so I could celebrate with the time to finally dust and vacuum. Christmas is like my Black Friday. You know…if Black Friday was the one day I spent being this intense.”
Adrienne blinked in confusion and when she finally looked over at Ethan, he laughed. “Oh good, you’re kidding.”
“Yeah, I’m kidding. I’m a single father. Unless someone last minute checks in, I’m going to take the time to relax. One rarely gets that, you know.”
“So…sleep, then?”
“I’ve had a date with my pillow since they suggested taking her and I’m very excited about it.”
Adrienne laughed and let him guide her to a table. He didn’t sit down, though, but instead disappeared to the kitchen to return with a tureen of soup.
“I hope you don’t mind a rather simple meal. I wanted to send the chef home for the holidays.”
“I’m not picky.” Adrienne peered into the tureen and inhaled. “It smells lovely. What is it?”
“Cauliflower soup.”
“Ok, now I’m surprised it smells lovely.” She joked.
“Yeah, it’s a specialty. We have some of Chef’s homemade bread and butter to go with it.” Ethan gestured at the table as he sat. “There’s makings for cold cut sandwiches too, if you want something more than soup.”
“Honestly, soup is life.” Adrienne watched as he ladled some into her bowl. It looked thick and delicious. “But thank you for the offer. I’m sure this will be filling though.”
“I think it is.” He served himself some more and then took a slice of bread. “Please, enjoy.”
Adrienne spooned some, blew on the contents and then sipped it. “Ok, this is downright delicious.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He beamed. “Ava doesn’t particularly care for it.”
“She might come around. Sometimes it takes time for kids to decide to actively like veggies and veggie-like foods. It’s actually one of the funny little side stories my Dad and I have in our book series.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. One of our main characters has the most ridiculous aversion to vegetables, to the point where he tries to create an electronic tool to detect even trace amounts of vegetables in his food.”
“A budding engineer degree, used for very serious purposes?”
“It’s a YA…I mean, young adult series, and yeah, he’s our technological smartie pants. But he’s not particularly bright when it comes to socializing.”
“I can understand that,” Ethan laughed. “Introverted?”
“Very. But you know how it goes. There’s a friend who drags him out of his comfort zone and there’s a girl.”
“Yes of course it’s always a girl. Is she going to help cure him of his rampant Veggie Aversion?”
“Absolutely, she’s on a sly mission.” Adrienne laughed, thinking of this soup, and how her character could make it for him, minus the obvious carrot chunks. “You know…the cauliflower in this soup hides as a thickener with the smaller pieces. One might think it’s just cream and corn starch.”
“He doesn’t hate corn starch for having the word corn in it?” Ethan joked.
“Well, you know, that’s a good point. I’ll have to work through that one. But anyway, this might just be her breakthrough with him. I’ll have to noodle it.”
“I’d be thrilled to have my soup featured in your story.”
“I’ll have to get the name of your chef, for the acknowledgments.”
“Ah.” Ethan dabbed at the side of his mouth. “His name is Finster, but he didn’t make the soup. That’s, ah…that is to say, I made the soup.”
Adrienne paused, spoon halfway to her mouth. “You made this glorious soup?”
Ethan smiled shyly. “Don’t get too excited. It’s about the only thing I can make. And like I said, Ava doesn’t even like it. Hence, Finster and his amazing cooking, and homemade bread.”
“Wow.” Adrienne flushed. “Well…thank you. I wasn’t expecting an Ethan Original for dinner.”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d like it. Some people don’t like homemade.”
Adrienne gestured around her. “I’m at a sweet family run inn.
I love homemade. In fact…” She told him about Herman, and where he was at in her story, homemade ornaments and all, and Ethan was immediately enraptured at her storytelling, asking her questions that had her alternately answering, and making notes in her phone for ideas that she could move forward with.
When she paused for some more soup, Ethan confirmed, “I take it my suggestion has helped you?”
Adrienne let out a happy sigh. “Definitely. I mean…I still haven’t moved forward with my actual story yet, but this soup and our conversations tonight have made me more inspired than I’ve been in a long time. And you know…it’s really helped me work through my grief too. Silly ol’ Herman, who knew.”
Ethan smiled. “I am happy for you that you have this outlet. Not everyone has a creative way to get things out. I’ve often wished I was a painter or artist of some kind, and been able to go and brood in my studio or something.”
“Hey, you never know, sometimes these things come to people later in life.”
“Maybe. Who knows.”
Adrienne looked around the room. “Creativity doesn’t only manifest in the arts you mentioned though. You created all this,” she gestured around them. “Give yourself some credit.”
Ethan pondered. “I didn’t think of that. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And thank you for giving me the gift of allowing me to write whatever I want right now.
It’s been a blessing. I mean…I have about 20,000 words of complete nonsense that I can’t imagine ever publishing, since it doesn’t fit in the context of our characters at all, but it’s been cathartic. ”
“You don’t see a future for yourself as a writer where you can expand into something else? Not saying you should leave behind the series you’ve worked so hard on, but don’t authors often also do standalone stories? Would your publisher let you do that?”
Adrienne put down her spoon and rested her chin on her hands, looking over at Ethan. “You mentioned that the other day too. I honestly don’t know. I guess I hadn’t considered it before now.”
“If I’m putting myself into a situation where I don’t function right because I feel like Ava somehow needs someone else, and you disagree, then I can maybe help you see that you might be putting yourself into a box of your own making as well.
Maybe there’s more for you out there. More opportunity than you give yourself credit for. ” Ethan winked at her.
Adrienne felt herself blushing again, that wink doing things to her stomach that she still wasn’t ready for. Ethan ladled some more soup into both of their bowls and then looked at her.
“You know what I don’t understand?” He asked.
“What?”
“Why it is so easy to talk to you. I haven’t really been able to talk about Lani to anyone since it happened. And here you probably think it’s an amenity, for me to unload all my feelings to everyone who checks in.”
Adrienne laughed. “Do you charge extra for that amenity?”
Ethan laughed back. “No, consider it a wash for the labor for the Christmas decorations.”
“Oh perfect. Then I don’t have to get my lawyer involved in the whole unpaid labor business.”
“Ha!” Ethan coughed into his napkin, sounding like he’d inhaled some of his soup. A few hacks and back slaps later, he let out a small laugh. “On a serious note, I did refund you the price of your stay. It probably won’t hit your account until after the holidays, though.”
Adrienne stared at him. “Wait. Why would you do that?”
Ethan shrugged. “You really did do a lot around here this week. I haven’t seen Ava so vivacious in a long time. Helen even said she did a pinky swear. This all means a lot to me.”
So many questions swirled around Adrienne’s mind, but what came out was, “Pinky swear?”
Ethan gave a small smile. “She only ever did that with Lani. It was their thing.”
Adrienne felt tears rush to her eyes. “And this doesn’t upset you?”
His dark eyes bored through her, and she felt like they saw straight through to her soul. “No. It doesn’t.”