Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Michelle set the last plate into the dishwasher and breathed out an exquisite sigh of relief.
Around her, the kitchen gleamed and a cinnamon spice candle flickered, letting off a cozy glow and a wonderful aroma.
A boisterous winter wind blew around The Birchwood House, rattling the old windows slightly and sighing in the eaves.
I finally did it, she thought, rising up on her tiptoes with happiness. I finally got all my work done for The Birchwood House. Every email has been replied to, everyone has been called back, and all the guests are checked in and have everything they need.
She went over to the refrigerator and opened it leisurely, wondering what she would make herself for dinner.
She didn’t like the idea of cooking after she’d just finally finished all her work, and she decided to make herself a sandwich using some leftover roast chicken and coleslaw.
She’d just set the container of coleslaw down on the table when there was a popping sound and the kitchen was plunged into darkness.
Michelle squeaked, looking around in alarm. Only the cinnamon candle still glowed, casting a pool of golden light across the counter and gleaming on the kitchen windowpanes.
The power went out? she thought in alarm. Not in the middle of winter! This is an absolute disaster. I have to call someone right away.
She could hear the guests upstairs, calling to each other and shouting. She could hear that some of them were a little panicky, and she felt panicky herself. She ran to one of the kitchen drawers and opened it, pulling out a flashlight that they kept there for power outage emergencies.
She’d left her cellphone on the front desk, and she clicked on the flashlight as she hurried across the kitchen.
She hoped she’d be able to call for help and get an answer before one of the guests came downstairs, asking her what was going to happen.
She hated that the guests were dealing with the stress of a power outage at all—the last thing she wanted to happen was for her to have to tell them, “I don’t know how or when this is going to be resolved. ”
She located her cellphone and switched off the flashlight. Standing in the dark parlor, she dialed the number of the electric company. A woman on the other end assured her that the power would come back on soon, and there was no need to fret.
“Just hang in there,” the woman said. “If you’ve got a fireplace, light it. That will help with heat. Keep the fridge closed. Other than that, just hang tight and we should get that fixed for you within an hour or two.”
An hour or two? One hour sounded bearable, two sounded like a disaster.
It was an old house and it was the middle of winter.
Without heat, the hotel would become very chilly in a short amount of time.
She didn’t want the guests to have an unpleasant experience.
And what if the electric company was wrong, and they weren’t able to fix the power in a few hours?
She thanked the woman and ended the call. For a few moments, she stood in the dark parlor, feeling frozen with indecision. What should she do? Call out to the guests? Light candles? Start fires in all the fireplaces?
At that moment, the front door opened.
“Hello?” A man’s voice called. “Is anybody here?”
Michelle wanted to cry. She’d finally—finally!—just finished all the work for the hotel, and then the power went out. And now some random stranger had walked in, hoping to reserve a room at the absolutely most inconvenient time!
“I—I’m here,” she said. “But I’m sorry, we have no rooms available.” She let out a dry laugh. “Also there’s no electricity at the moment, so I doubt you’d find our establishment particularly comfortable.”
The man shut the door behind himself and started to laugh. “Michelle, it’s me,” he said, and she finally recognized the voice as Theo’s. “I can see you don’t have any power. I came inside to see if I could help.”
“Oh.” She felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her and incredibly relieved at the same time.
“Thanks, Theo. I’m grateful, really.” She wondered if she was blushing, and for a moment, she was glad the house was so dark.
“Can you help me locate all the flashlights and candles? I know some of them are in the linen closet. Then we can pass flashlights out to guests and light candles in the hallway.”
“Perfect,” Theo said, following her as she switched on her flashlight and made her way to the linen closet. “I’ll pass out the flashlights, you light all the candles. That way if anyone is grumpy, my dazzling personality will help soothe their irritation.”
Michelle laughed, feeling another rush of relief and gratitude.
The truth was that she had been nervous to speak with the guests under the circumstances because someone might be upset, and Theo’s offer meant more to her than he knew.
“I love that plan,” she said, lifting a box of miniature flashlights down from the top shelf.
“Here. Go ahead and pass these out and I’ll light candles. ”
“Aye aye, Captain.” Theo took the box of flashlights and set off down the hallway, whistling.
Michelle watched him go for a moment. Thank goodness he’s here, she thought. Now instead of freaking out by myself, I have someone helping me.
She grabbed a lighter from the kitchen as well as a few tealights, which she slipped inside mason jars.
She wandered around the hallways, slipping the tealights into the mason jars and lighting them.
She hummed a little as she worked, thinking to herself that everything was so much easier with a teammate.
She lit candles in the upstairs hallway, the downstairs hallway, and in the downstairs bathroom off the front hall. She made her way into the parlor, feeling that it was time to light a fire in the fireplace so that everyone could have a little warmth to gather around as the house became colder.
As she stepped into the parlor, she was surprised to find that it was filled with guests.
A fire had already been lit in the fireplace, and it was crackling merrily, letting off a soothing, smoky aroma.
Christmas music was playing softly, and she saw that a cordless Bluetooth speaker was resting on the mantlepiece, letting off a pleasant glow of changing neon colors.
Her mouth popped open in surprise. Do we have elves or something? she thought. How on earth…?
Of course. Theo.
He was sitting in the middle of the group, telling an outrageous joke about reindeer going to a football game that she’d heard him tell before. The guests were giving him their undivided attention, and Michelle paused to just soak in the sight for a moment.
Who knew Theo would turn out to be such a guardian angel for her? Not only had he shown up right when she’d needed help multiple times, and he was great at giving help, and now here he was, already making the guests feel more comfortable.
“Hey, Michelle.” Theo grinned at her and waved. “I thought we could roast some marshmallows. I got out the bag, but I didn’t know where the sticks were. Do you keep anything like that here in the winter?”
Michelle grinned back at him. Theo was proving to be a very clever ally in the situation at hand. “We do, actually. They’re in one of the kitchen drawers. I’ll go get them.”
She hurried off into the kitchen, using her phone flashlight to guide her way.
As she gathered a handful of roasting sticks from one of the drawers, she kept shaking her head and smiling.
She felt suddenly giddy, despite the fact that they were still in the middle of a pickle that might not be resolved before it turned truly problematic.
She handed out roasting sticks to the guests, and children and adults alike excitedly speared marshmallows with them. Michelle was just sitting down in the corner, breathing a sigh of relief, when she heard a whining in the distance.
Puddle, she thought, standing up again. Either she’s scared or she needs to be let out. It’s probably that she needs to go outside. I don’t think she’d be afraid of the dark, since the hotel is dark at night while she sleeps.
“Everything all right?” Theo asked her as she headed toward the doorway.
She paused, surprised he’d even noticed her moving through the dimly lit room. “I heard Puddle whining,” she explained. “I think I should take her out.”
“I’ll come with you,” Theo said. “The steps are a little icy and I don’t want you to slip in the dark.”
Michelle’s eyebrows lifted, and she almost pointed out that she was capable of holding a flashlight for herself, but she realized that she didn’t want to turn down Theo’s offer. She appreciated how gallant he was being. “Um, sure, okay.”
She made her way down the hallway toward Puddle’s closet, and Theo followed her, carrying his flashlight aloft. Puddle was whining more frantically now, and Michelle wanted to hurry in case the puppy was in danger of having an accident.
“Come on, buddy, let’s go outside,” she said, opening the gate. Puddle raced out, her claws making skittering sounds as she dashed into the kitchen.
“I guess it’s an emergency,” Theo said, laughing.
Michelle and Theo hurried after Puddle, who was wriggling in front of the side door, clearly eager to get out.
Michelle tugged open the door and slipped outside, letting the little dog tear down the steps.
Theo followed her and she shut the door quickly behind them, wanting to preserve the heat that was still in the house.
It only took her a few seconds to regret not grabbing her coat on the way. It was frigid outside, and even though she was wearing a thick sweater, she began to shiver violently almost immediately.
“You don’t have a coat,” Theo said, his tone playfully reprimanding.
“I’ll be okay,” Michelle said through chattering teeth. “Thanks for all your help, Theo, really. It means a lot.” For a moment, she looked up into his eyes, and he swallowed.
“Here,” he said, taking his coat off. He hadn’t taken it off since he’d arrived at The Birchwood House. “Put my coat on.”
“Don’t be silly,” Michelle protested, even though she was touched by the thoughtfulness of the gesture. “You need your coat.”
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I’m nice and warm. Put it on, okay?”
Michelle pressed her lips together and then shivered more violently.
Theo laughed and started to wrap the coat around Michelle’s shoulders.
She made a faint snorting sound in a final protest and then slipped her arms into the coat.
It was still warm with Theo’s body heat.
It smelled faintly of woodsmoke from the fire, and like Theo’s cologne, which was a woodsy, musky smell that she’d never realized how much she liked until that moment.
For a second, she just stood there, holding perfectly still.
She felt suddenly shy and didn’t know what to do with herself.
“Thanks, Theo,” she said after a few heartbeats. “You’re… this is really nice of you. Everything you’ve done this week has been really nice of you. I appreciate it a lot. I didn’t even have to ask you for help. You just showed up and gave it to me.”
“I’m happy to do it,” Theo said softly. “I like spending time with you, Michelle. Even when we’re verbally sparring.
But I do find it much more enjoyable when you don’t fight me on trying to be a decent person.
I don’t want our whole thing to be giving each other sass all the time. I like… I like just being nice to you.”
Michelle found herself laughing. “I feel the same way. I’m getting so tired of the way we act like we’re obligated to butt heads all the time. Why do we act like that? It’s like we signed a contract when we were kids and we pretend it’s still legally binding.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing.” Theo grinned. “It’s like we’re hard-wired that way. But I think we could change that.”
“How?” Michelle meant the question to be playful, but it came out breathless.
“Well, how about this?”
Theo brought his face closer to hers, and before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her gently. Her heart began to pound, and an electric feeling of happiness and excitement rippled through her.
In the next instant, the lights snapped back on. The porch lights sprang to life, and the lights in the kitchen glowed, casting light onto Theo and Michelle through the windows.
The kiss had felt easy in the dark, but as soon as Michelle could clearly see Theo’s face, she felt embarrassed and startled. Had she really been standing there kissing her nemesis?
They both laughed, feeling awkward, and Theo shuffled his feet. For a moment, they looked at each other, and neither of them said anything. Michelle felt as though she had no idea what to say.
The moment was interrupted by Puddle bounding up the steps and wagging her tail expectantly in front of the side door.
“I—I’d better get back inside,” Michelle said. “I should make sure the guests have everything they need. Have a good night, Theo.”
She hurried inside the kitchen, feeling as though her cheeks were flaming.
She was halfway across the kitchen before she realized that she was still wearing Theo’s coat.
She took it off and set it on the back of a chair, glancing over her shoulder.
Theo hadn’t come back inside, and she wondered if he was going to.
Go talk to him, she told herself. Go give him his coat back.
She felt overcome by shyness, however, and a moment later she hurried out of the kitchen. She wanted to distract herself with work for a moment before she even tried to process what that kiss might mean.
She went and spoke to all of the guests, making sure they were all comfortable and content. They seemed to be in excellent spirits, and most of them chose to stay gathered around the fireplace, talking and playing board games.
Michelle went around the house, blowing out all the candles. Her brain buzzed with the memory of her kiss with Theo, and by the time she got back downstairs, she was hoping with all her might that he was back in the parlor, chatting and laughing with the guests around the fireplace.
She stopped in the doorway of the parlor and looked inside. Theo wasn’t there, and her heart sank. She tip-toed into the kitchen and saw that his coat was gone. Theo was nowhere in sight. She walked slowly across the kitchen and looked out at the porch.
He wasn’t there either. Michelle bit her lip and turned around. She saw the coleslaw container she'd left out on the counter. She went over to it and put it back inside the refrigerator. She’d make herself dinner a little later. For the moment, she didn’t feel hungry at all.