“Why did you think that?” I asked. Maybe therewasa rumor spreading.
She adjusted her heavy pack. “I’m not really sure… It’s open? And free?”
“Open as ever!” I said, gesturing to my side, where the snowy trail led to the inn’s front door.
“That’s great news. I’m exhausted,” she said with a sigh. Her body slumped like it had already decided to stop.
“No better place to rest,” I said.
The woman walked up the trail to the inn, and Griffin sighed heavily beside me.
“Griffin—”
“We don’t have to chat, Cassian. I have nothing to say to you,” Griffin said.
I stood in silence, digesting his words for a few uncomfortable minutes while we continued waiting for passing travelers. It was early morning, so it was still slow and freezing out.
“Please don’t interrupt me,” I started again. Griffin didn’t acknowledge me, but I knew he was listening. “I’m trying really hard. It must be difficult to be managed by someone you once watched toddle around and chew candlesticks, but this is hard for me too. I didn’t know Grandpa would leave me the inn. Frankly, I told him when I left for Ladiall that I never wanted to be an innkeeper, so I’m just as confused as you.” Griffin watched me now, but with no more sympathy than before. “You didn’t ask for this to happen, but neither did I. We both have to make the best of the situation.”
He kept his eyes on me for a while before he spoke. “It bothers me how much I can tell you don’t want to be here, Cassian. People keep saying you’re just like your grandfather, but you’re not. He loved this place like his own child, and you tiptoe around it like it’ll burst into flames if you say the wrong thing.”
His words sting, but he’s not wrong. “That’s because itwill, Griffin. I do have that much power over the inn, and it scares me.”
“Don’t say those words, then,” Griffin said.
I didn’t know how to explain to him I didn’t even know what those words were. The responsibility of filling my grandfather’s shoes was too much to wrap my head around. “Please just show me some grace. I’m doing all I can.”
“That’s the problem, Cassian. ‘All you can’ is not enough,” Griffin said.
I turned my head away and exhaled through my nose. “No, I’m done begging you. You hate that I own the inn, but it doesn’t change that I do. You can’t speak to me the way you do. Telling me to step down in front of everyone is inappropriate. It makes us both look bad,” I said.
Griffin looked at me from beneath one elevated bushy black brow.
“Don’t do it again,” I added.
Griffin crossed his arms over his wide chest and gave a short laugh. “This is the most I’ve respected you since you came back, Cassian.”
I frowned at him. I wouldn’t congratulate him for respecting me, but I would take a win where I could. Clearly, it would be an ongoing battle to get him to stop patronizing me. “It’s cold out here. A sign could do this job just as well as we could,” I said.
“Then why did we waste our time with this?” he asked, following me up the path.
“This wasn’t really about the customers,” I said. Normally, I wouldn’t have shared that, but I didn’t need him thinking I couldn’t manage my time or my staff.
A beat of silence passed, and then he said, “Ah. Maybe you’re more like ol’ Boris than I thought.”
“Maybe so.”
Jasmine and I spent the rest of the morning working on making and painting a picket sign that we hammered into the ground beside the Fibbersnap Inn sign along the path. It read:
FREE ROOMS!
(YES, REALLY)
By the end of the night, we had already filled the first floor. Sterling had been right. Most peopledidpay. Some paid more than we would’ve asked, which made up for the people who didn’t.
Jasmine and I celebrated the success by sharing a glass of wine in the office. “Sterling is a genius!” Jasmine said, kicking her feet up on the other side of the desk. “Thank the gods he’s here.”
“Yes, we’re very fortunate,” I said, trying to sound impartial before sipping at my glass of wine.
