Sam handed her backpack to her. “Did you look around?”
“I wanted to tell you first.” As she slung the backpack strap over her shoulder, Charlie gazed around. “Oh, that’s pretty.” High praise coming from a teen.
Sam thought it was gorgeous. The trees around the lodge were draped in Christmas lights, a dazzling variety of colors, from multicolored ones to blue and white to golden fairy lights. It lit up the woods like a magical forest.
“Is that Orion?” Charlie asked, pointing at the sky.
“Yeah. And there’s Sirius.” He pointed higher. “The Big Dipper and the North Star.”
“Cool.”
“Come on, Galileo, let’s go check in.”
“What are we going to do if they gave our rooms away?” Charlie asked, following him closely.
“We’ll be fine. Even if we don’t get the double we booked, there’s bound to be something. Watch the ice there.”
They went up the steps to the front of the lodge. It was even later than Sam had realized. The lobby was mostly deserted, with the lights dimmed and just a few people hanging out in front of the fireplace. As Charlie had reported, there was no one at the desk.
“Hello?” Sam called. The most likely place to find someone who worked here seemed to be the group in front of the fire, which looked like a few separate couples and singles, and one man crouched in front of the fire, doing something with a poker. Was that a real fire, with logs? It seemed to be. “Hi, do you know if someone here could help us?”
The man with the poker looked up. “Well, I hope I can.” He jumped to his feet and set the poker aside. He had a friendly grin, a mop of dark hair, and an easy manner as he shook Sam’s hand. “Mauro. I’m the co-owner.”
“Oh right, we talked on the phone. Sam Grange. This is my daughter Charlie.”
Charlie gave a little wave.
“Sam and Charlie?” Mauro’s easy smile dropped away. “We had an overbooking situation. I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow.”
“We had a reservation.”
“I know, but we let rooms go at eight if the booking party hasn’t contacted us to let us know about a late check-in. Hester was supposed to call you.”
“We didn’t get it,” Sam said impatiently, annoyed with himself as much as them. “We couldn’t contact you. There was no cell reception once we got into the mountains. Is it really full already?”
“I’m sorry. We filled the room about an hour ago.”
“Dad, what are we going to do?” Charlie whispered loudly. “We can’t just drive back to the city tonight, can we?”
“We’ll be fine, hon. They’ll find somewhere to put us.” He hoped.
“I’m so sorry. This is our screw-up, and we’ll make it right. I’m sure we can find something.” Mauro flagged down a passing woman in a hotel uniform, carrying a stack of towels. “Orla, the heat’s still out in 209, isn’t it?”
“Sorry, it is. But if a single is all right, I think 230 had a cancellation earlier.”
Mauro snapped his fingers. “That’s right, it did. We do have a room open, and it’s a doozy. It’s the honeymoon suite. There’s just one bed, but we can rummage up a cot.”
“Honeymoon suite?” Charlie repeated. She glanced at her dad. “Uh ...”
“There’s nothing inappropriate about it,” Mauro explained with a grin. “It’s just a big room. Tomorrow we’ll see about finding you a double like you asked for.”
“Sound good, hon?” Sam asked her. “I mean, it beats sleeping in the car, right?”
Charlie shrugged.
“Huh, that’s weird. There are supposed to be two keys.” Mauro rummaged behind the check-in desk and held up a key with a heart-shaped head. “I’ll check with Housekeeping and see if it was misfiled. You and your daughter will have to share a key for now.”
Sam passed off the key to Charlie, who examined it with a fascinated expression. It was an old-fashioned brass key with a long barrel and several prongs at one end, and the wrought heart at the other. “This doesn’t look very secure,” was her pronouncement.
