“There’s another thing?” Sydney felt her relaxing summer, the one she was finally settling into for a reset and recalibration, quickly evaporating before her eyes.
Hallie began talking so quickly the words would have been unintelligible to Sydney if not for their twenty years of friendship. “I really think Stoneport will be good for you, but I knew that if the situation was complicated, you wouldn’t want to come. But, so, anyway, Grant is back.” She made a manic, frazzled noise in the back of her throat. “He’s getting married this summer and the town is acting like the prodigal son has returned and I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but, well, like I said, I really think Stoneport will be good for you,” Hallie said, starting to repeat herself like she was stuck on a loop.
The words struck Sydney, the sentences falling into place at the same time she pressed her head against the cool glass of the suite’s patio door. “Well, shit.”
Two
Nothing had preparedReese Devereux for the reality of taking over management of The Stone’s Throw Inn.
It was only ten a.m., and she’d already watched Hallie, her guide during the transition period, put out more fires than she could fathom a business sustaining.
And Hallie had told her this was a light morning!
Reese had done her research. Pored over every how-to guide on management best practices. Hell, she’d built an app that helped small hotels and inns manage their day-to-day operations seamlessly.
Building a website. Accepting and managing reservations. Check-ins. Cleaning. Dining Room reservations. Special requests. Guest engagement.
Reese was realizing—with stomach-churning clarity as she watched Hallie’s fingers move more quickly across the front desk’s keyboard than seemed possible—that she only understood these things in theory.
The practical application was, however, a completely different story.
Even when they were building her app, she and her ex-partner, Megan, had visited dozens of properties to ensure theyunderstood the nuances of the trade. The difference was, they got to leave at the end of the day with a significant amount of insight but no real responsibility on paper except to fix any bugs in the software.
She wasn’t prepared for Greg and Candace, both employees, to be in a lovers’ spat, Candace refusing to work a shift if Greg was scheduled, too.
And how did one person use twelve towels in a single night? They were probably better off being burned than put through the industrial-size washers that lived in the basement.
Let her not forget Mr. Ketterman, who, apparently, always stayed with his wife in a specific room, the name of which escaped Reese at the moment. Only, he’d forgotten to book the room for his anniversary next weekend, and now it was suddenly Hallie’s—and, by extension, Reese’s—problem that it wasn’t available.
“I understand, Mr. Ketterman,” she heard Hallie say with a calmness in her voice that was hypnotizing, nodding along as she added, “I don’t want you to be in hot water with the missus either.”
Sympathy for someone’s poor planning had not been on Reese’s bingo card today. She was all about operational efficiency but hadn’t considered that it would be the guest at fault, which didn’t feel like their problem to fix.
Still, The Stone’s Throw was a small location, with loyal guests who had come back year after year. She knew from Hallie pulling up Mr. Ketterman’s customer profile that he and his wife had stayed here on their anniversary for the last twenty-nine years, like clockwork.
Reese should really add a repeat booking feature to the software.
Stop it, she chided herself, looking again at Bruce Ketterman’s profile, which she’d already scanned a half-dozen times.
The hotel management software that she’d spent years pouring her heart into was no longer hers. Instead, she now had what may be a multimillion-dollar mistake on her hands.
Hallie continued to give affirmative sounds as Mr. Ketterman prattled on. “How about this, Mr. Ketterman?”
Blessed, blessed silence through the phone, for the first time in minutes.
“It’s your thirtieth anniversary, right?” Hallie nodded when his voice filtered through the receiver, but Reese already knew she wasn’t wrong. Scanning the screen, Hallie pointed to a room that wasn’t blacked out as already reserved. “We have a nicer suite available next weekend. I’ll give it to you at the same rate as your usual room. We’ll make sure it’s decked out beautifully when you arrive. You can let Mrs. Ketterman know that life with her is always new and exciting, and you wanted to give her an experience that signals a positive start to the next thirty years.”
Hallie hummed again, nodding along, a smile blooming as she listened to him. “Yes, exactly. Traditions are amazing, but show her that you still want to woo her! That you’re not a man who’s going to rest on your laurels when it comes to love!”
Less than a minute later, Hallie had his information updated into the reservation for the suite, had applied a promo code to give him the other room’s rate, and she’d added a note for housekeeping regarding the special occasion.
Reese was beyond impressed.
“I’m thinking a charcuterie board and a bottle of champagne for next week,” she said to herself as much as to Reese when she hung up the phone.
“You’re good,” Reese said. “More than good. I’m a little intimidated right now, and that doesn’t usually happen.”
Hallie laughed and adjusted the metal name tag attached to her chest so that it was perfectly straight. “Here at The Stone’s Throw Inn, we aim to please.” She looked back down at her computer. “Let me just finalize this reservation, and we can keep going.”
