Chapter 2
Chapter Two
“ W ait!” Cathy untethered herself from Hunter’s arms and ran out the door. Her ex-husband started to say something, but she didn’t slow down enough to hear it. She tore through the lobby and was halfway up the stairs when Anne called out to her.
“He didn’t go back to his room,” she said, skipping steps so she could meet Cathy on the staircase. “He went out the front door.”
Cathy started to descend, but Anne grabbed her arm and stopped her. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go after him right now. Maybe you should give him some space. He—he looked pretty upset when he marched out of the door.”
“But that’s because he doesn’t know what he saw! I was hugging Hunter, but there wasn’t anything romantic about it!”
“And you’ll get a chance to explain that to him at some point, but right now I don’t think it’s the best time. You’re emotional, Hunter is here. Maybe you need to tackle one thing at a time.”
Cathy blew some hair out of her face and frowned at Anne. “I thought you were the one who was pushing me and Thomas together!”
“I was. I am! That’s why I’m telling you not to go after him right now. Everything is too tense. You need to deal with Hunter first, don’t you think?”
“Deal with him how?” Cathy hissed. “I don’t know what to do with him!”
“Did he tell you why he’s here finally?”
She put a hand on her hip. “Yes.”
“And?”
“And, I don’t really know how to put it into words,” Cathy said. “It’s all just so misguided and I don’t think he even knows what he’s saying. He thinks he wants to get back together, but that’s definitely not what he wants deep down.”
“Wait, what? He’s here to try and win you back?”
“No, not really. That’s what I’m trying to say. What he’s telling me and what he’s actually feeling are two different things.”
Anne raised a brow. “Are you sure about that?”
“Positive. He’s just having a crisis. After he spends some time with the boys over spring break, he’s going to realize that none of this makes any sense. In the meantime—” she bit the inside of her lip. “I don’t have the heart to send him back to Buffalo. I’m a little worried that he might do something drastic if he’s left alone for the next week.”
“You can’t possibly be suggesting that we let him have a room here?”
Cathy shrugged. “Why not?”
“I can think of about a dozen reasons right off the top of my head,” Anne argued. “First of which is the fact that you’re on the cusp of starting an amazing summer fling with a handsome British man, and having your ex-husband around is really going to kill the vibe! It already has.”
“That’s not a good enough reason! Anne, he’s depressed. And lonely.”
“So?”
She folded her arms. “So, it would be wrong of me to send him away when he’s so fragile. And I could never forgive myself if I did something like that to the father of my children. How could I explain to the twins that I just completely left him to his own devices when he needed a friend?”
“Doesn’t he have other friends?”
Cathy snorted. “He has beer buddies, but I don’t think he has any friends who he would actually feel comfortable talking to about something like this. I didn’t give any of this much thought when we broke up, because it wasn’t my problem, but now it’s dawning on me that he has probably been really isolated this last year.”
Anne rolled her eyes. “Sounds like something he should’ve thought about.”
“Yeah, well, ideally. But you know how men are.”
“Don’t give him excuses,” Anne said. “He shouldn’t be allowed to just drop into your life unannounced and force you to take care of him!”
“I’m not taking care of him. I’m just letting him stay here for a night or two. It’s really not that big of a deal. Please, Anne, just back me up on this.”
Anne tapped her foot with impatience. “You know I’m going to back you up. I always back you
up. But I want it on the record that I think this is a terrible idea.”
“Noted. Now I’m going to go get him, can you find him a room?”
“Fine,” Anne said. “But I’m giving him the one with the worst view.”
Cathy smirked. “Works for me.”
“So, this is.” Cathy clapped her hands together. She couldn’t help but feel proud of herself as she showed Hunter to his room. Even though this was the room with the worst view, it was still very clean and the new linens made the whole space look airy and modern. She liked showing off what she’d done with the place.“You can stay here as long as you need to. I don’t know if you got a return flight, or…”
Hunter shook his head. “No. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I bought the plane ticket out here on a whim, without a real plan.”
“Okay, well, I’m not going to rush you out of here, but I just want to let you know that I’m going to be pretty busy the next couple of days. Some people are checking out, and a big group is checking in.”
“I’m not going to get in your way,” he said. He went to the window and stared down at the street below. “But I’m still a little confused.”
“About?”
“Well, how did you end up running this bed and breakfast in the first place? The last time I saw you, you were working at the call center back in Buffalo. It seems like a lot has changed since then.”
“You can say that.”
He turned back to her. “Is this place yours now?”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s actually been mine this whole time, but I only learned that my grandmother left me the bed and breakfast in her will a few weeks ago.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s… a long story. My grandmother’s good friend has been living here, and she didn’t—she didn’t get in contact with me when she should’ve.” Cathy waved a hand in the air. “It’s not important now though. I just want to focus on making this place successful again. My grandmother worked her entire life to make this inn a success, and then she entrusted me with it. That’s all that matters to me now.”
“I don’t understand.” Hunter’s face scrunched up with confusion. “What do you mean this lady didn’t get in contact with you? And she’s been living here?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Cathy said. She wasn’t sure exactly where this determination to protect Julie was coming from, but she really just didn’t want Hunter to get the wrong idea. Yes, Julie had lied and lived here without permission for two years, but Cathy was just starting to feel a connection with her grandmother’s best friend, and that meant something to her. “The point is, I was given the deed and all the paperwork, so this place is officially mine now. We’ve only been open for a couple of weeks, but I think I’m getting the hang of things.” She smiled. “It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”
“It’s very cool,” he said. “And I’m sure you’ve put a lot of work into getting things running again, but I guess I’m just not sure why you seem so calm about everything else. It’s been two years since your grandmother passed away, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“And you were really upset when you thought your grandmother didn’t leave the inn to you in her Will if I remember correctly.”
“Yeah, I mean, I was definitely a little caught off guard. I had always assumed she would leave the bed and breakfast to me, but it wasn’t written in stone or anything. Now it doesn’t even matter anyway, because I found out she did leave the bed and breakfast to me. I’m finally getting the chance to do what my grandmother wanted me to. It’s all good.”
“What do you even know about this woman?”
“You mean Julie?”
“Yeah, your grandmother’s friend.”
“I know enough.”
This clearly did not satisfy Hunter, but Cathy didn’t let him argue any further. “I understand you have concerns, trust me, I did at first too, but I know this woman meant a lot to my grandmother and they were friends for a long, long time. For now, that’s enough information for me to go off of.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “But would it be alright if I did a little bit of my own research? Nothing too crazy, I just want to look into this whole situation a bit deeper. For my own peace of mind.”
Although Cathy really wanted to tell Hunter to just stay out of it, she wasn’t opposed to the idea of giving Hunter something to occupy his mind for the next couple of days. If this kept him distracted while she went back to work and hopefully patched things up with Thomas, then that wasn’t such a bad thing.
“Sure,” she said eventually. “Do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better about all this, and in the meantime, I’ll call the boys and make sure they are still planning on going back to Buffalo for Spring Break. I’m not going to be able to go back home myself, so they’ll be spending the entire week with you. Which could be a good thing. You would have plenty of time to talk through whatever you need to with them.”
Hunter’s expression curled in on itself. “They will never agree to that.”
“Just let me talk to them. We’ll figure something out.”
After that, Cathy excused herself and went back down to the lobby to see if there was anything work-related that needed her attention. She handed Hunter a distraction on a silver platter, and now she wanted one herself. Otherwise, she knew she would end up spending the entire night thinking about the look on Thomas’ face when he caught her wrapped up in Hunter’s arms earlier that night.
In a stroke of luck, Cathy found her work inbox full, and she decided to spend the rest of the evening working her way through inquiries one by one.