Riley hugged her goodbye and turned to Josh. “I need to say goodbye to Zach and Tess.”
He led her to the table where their host and hostess sat. After thanking them for the great party, Riley and Josh went hunting for Dillon. They found him lying on a blanket with Ana, Shane and Joe. Joe was telling them a story about Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and the Hole-in-the-Wall gang.
Dillon wanted to stay. “Can we please, Mom? Just for a little while…”
“Fifteen minutes.” She and Josh joined the kids and Joe on the blanket and Joe continued his exciting tale of Butch and Sundance’s adventures in Bolivia.
At eight thirty, Riley belted her son into his booster seat, then circled around her Tahoe and climbed up behind the wheel. Josh kissed her goodbye through the open window. It wasn’t a deep kiss.
But oh my. It was sweet.
She waited for Dillon to make some remark about her kissing Josh. But when she glanced in the rearview mirror, his eyes were already shut, his head drooping to the side.
“He’s out,” whispered Josh. “You tired?”
“A little.”
“Let me get Shane. We’ll follow you home…”
“You’re the best. But I’m wide awake. I promise to drive carefully.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Josh. I’m fine.”
Gently, he tapped his knuckles on the door and stepped back. “Drive safe.”
“I will.”
As she drove away, she kept glancing at him in her side mirror, drinking in the sight of him watching after her.
Not much later, she pulled to a stop inside her garage. Dillon didn’t wake up. She was tempted to try to carry him inside the way she used to do when he was little.
But no. That wouldn’t be wise, what with the baby and all.
“Aw, Mom. Not now,” he grumbled when she unhooked him from his booster seat.
“Sorry, sweetheart. But yeah. We’re home, and you have to wake up and come inside with me.”
He grumbled some more, but he got out of the seat and down from the vehicle.
In the house, she coaxed him up the stairs and stuck around to help him out of his clothes and into his PJ’s. After that, she supervised him as he brushed his teeth.
Finally, he climbed into his bottom bunk. He was out before she got the covers tucked in around him.
* * *
In the morning, Dillon woke up raring to go.
Not Riley. She could have slept till noon, at least. She’d gone to bed exhausted and then ended up lying there wide awake thinking about the baby and Josh and how everything was changing. Each new day made her more acutely aware that she had a lot on her plate. She probably needed to cut back at the hotel.
Maybe they should think about hiring someone. They had two competent weekend managers. She needed to get with Annette about possibly promoting one of them to full-time.
As of today, though, she had a hotel to run. She showered, got ready for work and fixed a hot breakfast for Dillon and herself. As she shoveled in her eggs and toast, she checked email and scanned the night shift report in order to be forewarned of pressing issues to deal with first thing.
At seven thirty, she dropped Dillon off at Bright Beginnings and made it to the hotel well before eight. First off, she began her daily review, the physical walk-through during which she made sure that all areas of the Statesman were up to standard.
During the review, she climbed and descended a lot of stairs. After all, the Statesman had been built in the 1880s. It had a wide set of stairs between the basement and the first floor, a sweeping curved staircase that soared upward from the lobby and one other switchback staircase at the rear of the building. The single elevator nestled in the curve of the main staircase had been added in the 1920s. Guests tended to monopolize it in order to avoid all the stairs.
