Adrienne hadn’t beensure if Ethan would still want to have dinner with her, now that Ava was gone early, but just in case, she wandered towards the main building, thinking she’d at least check the dining room. She would have let him off the hook, no questions asked, but when he looked up from the front desk to see her enter, his look of instant relief brought a fresh sense of relief to her as well.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d still be wanting to have dinner tonight. I know that Ava left early and that was probably a bit of a shock.”
Ethan gave her a rueful smile. “It was. But it made sense. The storm is coming in quicker than anyone anticipated and they didn’t want to get stuck here.”
“I noticed it got much colder today. Do they live far away?”
“A few hours. But it’s up and down a few passes that get rather treacherous with the weather.”
“Well, I am glad she will be safe.”
“Me too. I just got a text that they arrived safely.”
“Good.” Adrienne smiled. She looked around the room, and she had to admit, it positivelyscreamedChristmas now.
“You two did a great job,” Ethan followed her gaze, hands clasped behind his back.
“Thank you. I think your other guests will be pleased with the ambience.”
Ethan made a noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. “You’re the one that matters, being our star guest.”
“Aw.” Adrienne curtsied. “I was serious though. This is nice. It’s not exactly like the website or anything, but it’s really festive.”
“I wasn’t joking either. You’re the only remaining guest for Christmas.” Ethan crooked his elbow in a gesture for her to join him. “Shall we proceed to dinner?”
Adrienne put her hand in his elbow, mind reeling with that information. She didn’t want to be rude, but she was surprised that a place of this size, of this magnitude of cute, was so unoccupied. She wasn’t going to ask though. Rubbing salt in a business wound that already smarted with the loss of his wife, was not how she was going to start out their dinner.
“So what are you going to do for Christmas, then? Deep clean all the empty cabins or something?”
“Right. Yes. I have been waiting all year for the holidays so I could celebrate with the time to finally dust and vacuum. Christmas is like my Black Friday. You know…if Black Friday was the one day I spent being this intense.”
Adrienne blinked in confusion and when she finally looked over at Ethan, he laughed. “Oh good, you’re kidding.”
“Yeah, I’m kidding. I’m a single father. Unless someone last minute checks in, I’m going to take the time to relax. One rarely gets that, you know.”
“So…sleep, then?”
“I’ve had a date with my pillow since they suggested taking her and I’m very excited about it.”
Adrienne laughed and let him guide her to a table. He didn’t sit down, though, but instead disappeared to the kitchen to return with a tureen of soup.
“I hope you don’t mind a rather simple meal. I wanted to send the chef home for the holidays.”
“I’m not picky.” Adrienne peered into the tureen and inhaled. “It smells lovely. What is it?”
“Cauliflower soup.”
“Ok, now I’m surprised it smells lovely.” She joked.
“Yeah, it’s a specialty. We have some of Chef’s homemade bread and butter to go with it.” Ethan gestured at the table as he sat. “There’s makings for cold cut sandwiches too, if you want something more than soup.”
“Honestly, soup is life.” Adrienne watched as he ladled some into her bowl. It looked thick and delicious. “But thank you for the offer. I’m sure this will be filling though.”
“I think it is.” He served himself some more and then took a slice of bread. “Please, enjoy.”
Adrienne spooned some, blew on the contents and then sipped it. “Ok, this is downright delicious.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He beamed. “Ava doesn’t particularly care for it.”
