Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Which reminded me of something. Something not good. “Did your grandmother make those wreathes of twigs in the basement?” I asked hesitantly.
Brady chuckled. “No, she didn’t, and I agree, they’re pretty ugly.”
“Not when compared to the antlers,” I ventured, and both he and his cousin laughed. Gideon remained stone-faced, however. I didn’t know what that guy’s story was, and I didn’t want to.
“We spend a lot of our time making repairs. Decorating hasn’t been at the top of the list,” Cole explained.
“Maybe you’d get more customers if it was,” I blurted out.
That got Gideon’s attention. “Pretty things on the walls don’t make reservations magically appear out of thin air,” he said gruffly. “It might make guests think better of the inn once they’re here, but it won’t get them here.”
“It would if there were pictures of those pretty things on the website.”
Cole looked interested. “We do have some pictures up.”
“But they take forever to load. I doubt most people would even bother to wait for them. Plus, there’s nothing there as nice as your grandmother’s landscapes.”
Penny sat up straighter in her chair. “If you could get a photographer to take some good nature scenes, that might help attract customers. You’d need someone who has an eye for it, like your grandmother.”
“And like you?” Cole asked.
Penny looked taken aback, but she nodded slowly. “I could try. I’ve only got my phone with me, but it’s got a good lens on it.”
“May as well since we’re stuck here for a week,” I added.
Brady sighed. “Would it hurt you to think of it as getting to stay here for a week instead of having to?”
“It might.”
He shook his head. “At the risk of sounding childish, you started this.”
There was nothing to say to that because it was true.
Cole ignored the exchange between Brady and me. “But if what you’re saying is true, it wouldn’t do any good to put new pictures on the website.”
“Not that website, no,” I began. “It’s too slow and it’s horribly outdated. It needs to be responsive so that people can access it on their laptop or their phone. And if you’re upgrading, an online reservation system would help. People don’t like to have to call places anymore.”
“That would explain a lot,” Brady said.
Cole just looked thoughtful.
He seemed lost in thought for the rest of the meal, which wasn’t a bad thing. The food was just so damn good that I was more interested in eating than talking. By the time I was done, I felt fuller than I had in years. I was tempted to change into stretchy yoga pants.
But since we didn’t have to do dishes, Brady took us out back and lit the fire pit. The inn’s lawn chairs were rather old and threadbare, but Brady made a trip inside and returned with wool throws straight from the dryer.
Between the warm blankets, the crackling fire, and the rest of the wine, it was a pleasant evening. The stars were more vivid than anything I’d ever seen before, and the cool nip in the air just made me want to snuggle under the blankets even more.
By the time I returned to my room, the food, the wine and the fresh air had all combined to make me good and tired. As I brushed my teeth with the incredibly cheap and flimsy brush the inn had provided, I hoped that meant I’d sleep straight through the night.
Hopefully.
12
LILA
I slept like a baby—at first. Even though the sagging mattress meant I kept rolling into the middle of the bed and getting stuck there, I slept deeply.
Until I didn’t.
It was around three o’clock when I had to admit things weren’t going well. Normally at this point in the night I’d read for a while on my eReader, but thanks to the electronics police, I couldn’t do that. They’d also taken away other means of helping myself relax before bed.
Those bastards.
Of course, they couldn’t have known what happened when I couldn’t sleep well, but I did, and I really didn’t want it to happen here.
I thought about getting up and going out into the lounge. I was probably desperate enough to start a damn puzzle. But who knew, maybe these country boys were the type to shoot first and ask questions later if they heard someone wandering around at night.
Then again, innkeepers who did that kind of thing wouldn’t stay in business very long; but hey, it looked like that was the case anyway.
I caught up on the news on my phone, the only electronic device they’d allowed me to keep, and that was only because I had to be able to record. But despite my reputation as a tech girl, I’d never liked using the phone at night. Even with blue-light blockers on, it messed up my sleep.
As if my sleep wasn’t already messed up enough.