Goldie stood in the center of the hotel she now owned.
She was exhilarated, filled with ideas, and excited to get started. In the entire time she’d been focusing on the hotel, she’d not once worried about her Hollywood career, or bro dude director Trevor Sunday, or causing wrinkle lines because it had been six weeks since her last filler appointment.
She was thinking a mile a minute, but none of it was causing her to feel sick to her stomach.
She owned the Two Lakes Grove Hotel. Or was about to.
Joe walked into the lobby. It distracted her from her mental celebrations and plans for the space.
“I did it. It’s mine.”
“This place?”
“Yes, I just bought it. That man was going to do tacky, tacky things to it. Or turn it into a place where you pay by the hour.”
“Ah, romantic.” Joe waggled his eyebrows at Goldie.
She waived her hand in dismissal. “This is supposed to be for family summer weekends, for maybe a wedding venue, or a family reunion.”
Hollywood could wait a few more days. Maybe this was the answer. Maybe distracting herself from the mess of her career was exactly what she needed.
At least, for now.
Goldie tried to remember if she’d ever made a business decision that had nothing to do with movies or endorsements. She’d just bought a hotel because she liked it. Because it was a good distraction. Because she didn’t want someone else to.
“Not to be a wet blanket, but do you have experience running a hotel?”
“Ah, kind of. I helped run a dozen cottages with my dad back in the day. I’m not totally inexperienced. I have stayed in a million resorts, the best in the country, the world. I know what they need.”
“Ah, well, okay, I guess you’re about to be the boss. So on that note, there’s a raccoon in the attic.”
“What?”
“Yeah, heard some scratching. You’ll need to help me trap it.”
“I’ll need to what? Raccoon?”
“A girl who was born and raised in Tecumseh certainly knows what a raccoon is.”
“I do, but trap it?”
“If we don’t, it will eat your roof, and it will move its entire family in.”
“Oh no! Okay, okay. We can’t call someone?”
“Nope, not that I am aware of.”
“Okay, so what do we need?”
“A trap, that’s key to the trap plan.”
“We’re not going to hurt him or her, are we?”
“No, we’ll get the little fluffy menace, and then I know a guy who will take him or her out to the country and release it.”
“Okay, so trap, where do I go for that?”
“To the hardware store, Batman.”
