I looked at her in surprise.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you had a sister. Will I get to meet the other owners?”
She leaned against the wall and stared out the window.
“Unfortunately, my sister and brother-in-law passed away last year. It’s one of the reasons I’m so in over my head now. It’s hard to do this without them.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
She waved me off.
Bev’s sister. She hadn’t mentioned any other siblings. And if Giles was her nephew, did that mean… Shit, had he just lost his parents?
“So Giles’s parents…” I trailed off.
She just nodded. “I miss them like crazy. And I know it’s killing Giles. They were so proud of him. Used to talk the guests’ ears off about their professional snowboarder son. This place is a constant reminder of them.” We stood there in silence. “You got a sister?”
“Yes. I can’t even imagine losing her.”
We both stood there for a moment before Bev pushed off against the wall and gestured for me to follow.
“Come on. I’ll show you the computer and the books.”
* * *
“Now see,this tab is where I’ve put all the upcoming reservations. I’ve got it color-coded by room type and occupancy.”
I pointed out the features of the new spreadsheet I had whipped up to Giles. I had only been here a few hours, but I had already transitioned all of their upcoming reservations from a binder to the computer. Now I was trying to teach Giles my system.
“There wasn’t anything wrong with the binder,” he grumbled.
“Didn’t you say you had another job at the ski resort?” I asked with a sweet smile.
Surprisingly that got a smirk out of him. “Bev wanted me to be here for your first day.”
“Well, thank god for that.” I took a chance and winked at him, and he bit his bottom lip to keep his smirk from growing.
“All I’m saying is Bev and my family have been doing this for decades, and the binder system never failed.”
“You say that now but wait until someone spills a mug of coffee all over it, and it becomes illegible. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen.”
Key Ridge Lodge was pretty dead at the moment, but Bev assured me it was because it was still the beginning of the season. The ski area only had one run open, and it would be at least another week before it opened up more. Then guests would be flooding in.
She also informed me there was a large commercial resort just thirty minutes up the road. It had become so popular at this point that a lot of their spillover traffic had transitioned to Key Ridge. The past two years had been the busiest winters they’d ever seen.
I flashed back to a memory of Garrett promising to teach me to ski one day. He and his friends would always take an annual ski trip. One year, when we first started dating, I begged to go with him. I just wanted to see the snow and browse the cute shops. He declined, informing me it was boys only and that we could do a trip just the two of us another time. Funny how “another time” never came.
The front door opened, and I was jerked from my thoughts as a tall, burly man in a red flannel shirt came barging in.
“Hey, man.” The jovial-looking lumberjack hesitated when he saw me. “This the corporate hire you flew out here?”
Before Giles could speak, I threw on my most impressive smile. “Hi there, I’m Mattie.”
“Johnny’s the name.” He shook my hand enthusiastically. “I’m obviously the better-looking cousin.”
“Oh, so you’re Bev’s son? It’s so nice to meet you.”
“You, too. They didn’t say you were a looker.” He winked at me good-naturedly.
