Mia laughed. “Not at all. She keeps me quite humble, in fact.”
“Well, I think it’s great that you give back.” Levi looked down the trail, then at her. “You ready to hit it?”
“Whenever you are.”
fifteen
After a brief conversation at the front door, Levi thanked Erik and let him out. Fortunately his friend hadn’t seemed to recognize Mia. He had, however, given Levi a raised brow at having such an attractive guest under his roof.
Levi glanced up the stairs, wondering where his sisters had gotten off to. Was anyone even around to answer phone calls?
He went back into the living room. Mia was reclined on the sofa, her foot propped on a pillow with a cold pack, waiting for her medication to kick in. She’d taken off her cap, and her ponytail was askew, her face fallen.
“At least it’s not broken,” he said.
“Four to six weeks—why do I have to be such a klutz?”
He rounded the couch. She looked cute when she pouted, her lush lower lip turned out just a bit.
“You’ll be on your feet in a couple days. We need to get you a pair of crutches until then. Too bad your room’s upstairs. Maybe I could switch with you. Mine’s pretty small though, and when Miss Della starts breakfast in the morning, your sleep is pretty much over.”
She met his eyes. “That’s sweet of you, but I think I’ll just stay put.”
“At least you’ll be off the crutches by the time you leave.” A sound of the door opening pulled Levi’s gaze.
Molly was home. She caught sight of Levi standing beside the couch, then Mia, sprawled on it, foot propped.
“Oh no, what happened?” Molly rushed over. “Is that why Erik was here? What’s wrong?”
“Mia took a little fall up on the trails,” Levi said. “She’s going to be fine though.”
“I’m so sorry. How bad is it?”
Mia filled her in on the details, and Molly made a fuss over her, fluffing pillows and bringing her a glass of fresh lemonade. She thought she knew someone who had crutches that would work for Mia and promised to check.
When Molly was finished mother-henning, she turned to Levi. “Can we talk if you have a minute?”
“Sure.” He looked at Mia. “I’ll be right back.”
Levi headed to the front porch, where they could talk in private.
Molly pulled the door closed behind her and took a seat on the swing, a serious expression on her face.
He wondered if she was going to chastise him about all the time he was spending with Mia. He had a list of excuses at the ready. Plus, who was Molly to talk?
“Will you sit down?” Molly said. “You’re making me nervous.”
Levi took a seat and regarded his sister silently. She was biting her lip, making it twist.
Then she took a deep breath and let it out. “I think it’s time we expand in the restaurant area. I know. I know. We’d need extra licensing and all that, but we can handle it, and I think it would be worth it in terms of guest satisfaction. We might even be losing customers because we have no way of feeding them in-house. And you know how businesses are around here. Sometimes it’s tough to even find a restaurant open off-season or when it’s storming or when the owner feels a headache coming on.”
It was true, and he’d taken that up with the Better Business Bureau. It was hard enough to draw guests without the mom-and-pop places closing shop on a whim. But so far he’d gotten nowhere.
“You aren’t wrong. But we have to consider the bottom line.”
“It was always the plan to add a dinner menu. I’ve already talked to Miss Della and—”
“You what?”
