Not Just for Christmas

Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

L ewis’s blood pulsed hard in his veins when he strode through the hotel, making a beeline for the kitchen and purposely avoiding eye contact with anyone along the way.

“Where’s Warren?” he asked Jamie, who was busy loading the dishwasher at the back of the kitchen. The teenager pointed to the food storage area.

“I’m here,” Warren said, wandering out. A frown wrinkled his brow. “What’s up with you? I thought you were going out for a romantic lunch. Why do you look like you want to start a fight?”

“I don’t,” Lewis said automatically, then realised it wasn’t entirely true. His instinct had been to come and talk everything through with Warren, but now he was here, he wasn’t sure he did want to talk. He’d never seen the appeal of fighting, but he wouldn’t mind hitting something now if it meant getting rid of some of the adrenaline pumping through his system.

“What’s going on?” Warren lowered his voice and moved to the opposite side of the kitchen to where Jamie was working.

“Nothing.” Lewis gave a small shake of his head. “How was the lunch service? ”

“Fine.” Warren’s brow wrinkled. “Did you think we wouldn’t be able to cope without you around to micromanage everything?”

“I don’t micromanage,” Lewis said through gritted teeth. “But if I do, it’s because I need to. Today I asked Helen to sort out the spare chairs for this evening and she can’t even manage that.”

“Why not?”

Lewis rubbed his hand across his forehead. “She can’t find the covers for them.”

“Do the chairs really need the covers?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure? It’s a quiz, not a wedding reception.”

“I realise that.” He couldn’t be bothered to get into how unkempt the chairs looked without the covers. “It doesn’t even matter. I’ll go and find them myself.”

“You know what your problem is?” Warren stalked over to the doors which led to the dining room. “You’re too nice.” As the door swung open, Warren’s eyes did a sweep of the room before he called Helen over. “Go back downstairs and look for the chair covers again,” he told her.

“I couldn’t find them,” she replied.

Warren tilted his head impatiently while Lewis hung back, out of sight. “So you think it’s appropriate to run back to Lewis and ask him to do your job for you?”

“He knows where they are,” she complained. “And I don’t.”

“I’m assuming he told you where they are…”

“He just said in the storeroom––”

“So go and look in the storeroom. And don’t stop looking until you find them. Because if Lewis has to do your work and his own, then there really isn’t much point in you working here. Either find the chair covers, or go home and start looking for a new job.” He let the door swing and walked back to Lewis. “That’s how you effectively manage staff.”

“No,” Lewis countered. “That’s how you traumatise staff, so that I have to spend the afternoon placating them while they cry in my office.” There was barely a week went by that Warren didn’t reduce someone to tears.

“She’ll get over it,” he said flippantly. “Now tell me what’s really going on with you.”

Lewis fought the urge to go after Helen. “Nothing.”

“How was lunch with Erin?”

“Fine.” He frowned and his blood pumped harder.

“I’m guessing it wasn’t really fine, or you wouldn’t be gritting your teeth so hard.”

“She leaves tomorrow, so it’s not as though it was ever going to go anywhere.”

“You could keep in touch,” Warren suggested. “Maybe visit her…”

Half an hour ago he’d been excited by exactly that prospect, but now it felt unrealistic. “Maybe Ivy has a point,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “I don’t even know Erin properly. It’s kind of weird that she came here alone… and the thing with her saying she was engaged is kind of fishy.”

“I thought you said it was just a misunderstanding.”

“I did, but I hardly know her. And since she’s leaving tomorrow, I don’t have time to get to know her to see if there might really be something between us. And it doesn’t matter, anyway. I don’t have time for a relationship and definitely not a long distance one.”

When he ran out of steam, Warren stared at him for a long moment. “You need to take more time off,” he finally said.

“Right, okay.” Lewis rolled his eyes. “So you’re going to give me lifestyle advice now, as well as telling me where I’m going wrong with my hotel management style?”

“You work too much, and you don’t sleep enough.”

“You’ve been working just as much as me for the past couple of weeks,” he pointed out .

Warren shook his head. “I arrive at least a few hours later than you and I leave earlier than you. Plus, I have time off booked for the new year when things are quieter around here. I have a life outside of this hotel, but I’m not sure you can say the same. You’re obsessed with this place and it’s not healthy.”

“I have a life,” Lewis growled, feeling his anger levels rise. “I never asked for your advice.”

“Maybe not, but you came in here looking for an argument.”

“No, I didn’t.” That might be a lie. Maybe he had been looking for someone to take his anger out on.

“Well, I have stuff to do, so get out of my kitchen now.”

“ Your kitchen?” Lewis scoffed.

“Yes.” His smile was all amusement. “You might be the manager of the hotel, but in this kitchen, I’m the boss. Unless, of course, you fancy making dinner for all the guests tonight?”

Lewis straightened his shoulders but had no argument. It didn’t matter what the hierarchy was with the hotel staff, Warren was the one person he couldn’t afford to upset.

He walked out feeling just as annoyed with the world as he had when he’d walked in.

Getting changed for dinner was a luxury that felt completely indulgent to Erin, but one she was going to miss when she was back eating dinner on her couch tomorrow.

The three-course meal in the dining room was as delicious as ever, despite the uneasy feeling at the thought that Lewis was avoiding her. She’d swear that was what was happening. She hadn’t seen him all afternoon, and he was still nowhere to be seen over dinner, which was a first.

Erin was sure he was hovering in the background somewhere – keeping an eye on things. At one point, she could’ve sworn she heard his voice drifting from the kitchen, but maybe she was imagining it.

Only when she moved to the lounge, after dinner, did she spot him crouched beside the fire, giving Molly a rub down. Mr and Mrs Ward sat nearby and he chatted easily with them.

He didn’t spot Erin until he stood. His smile slipped before his features recovered and morphed into polite and professional. Given the way he’d kissed her at lunchtime, polite and professional felt like a slap to the face.

“How was dinner?” he asked pleasantly.

“Delicious, as always.”

“Glad to hear it. I’ll tell the chef.” When he went to pass her, she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Have I offended you?” she asked.

“Offended me?” he asked with unconvincing surprise. “No. Of course not. Why?”

“Because you disappeared on me earlier and you seem to have been avoiding me since then.”

“I’m not avoiding you. I just have a lot to do. It’s busy around here.”

Erin could have let him go and left it at that. She should leave it at that. This was exactly why she enjoyed being single – so she didn’t have to deal with other people’s drama. Drama was the last thing she needed. As was spending her time wondering what she’d said or done wrong.

Except, she also didn’t want things to be stilted between them. If she’d said something wrong, she’d rather just know.

“Was it because I asked what the pay is like here?” That was the point at which he’d exited the conversation, but she couldn’t see why that would be offensive.

His eyebrows rose slowly. “Are you seriously surprised that I was unimpressed by you asking how much I earn?”

“I didn’t ask how much you earn,” she said, shaking her head. “I only wondered–– ”

He cut her off. “You wondered if hotel work pays well?”

“Yes.” She held his gaze. “I don’t know why you’re so affronted by that.”

He huffed out a humourless laugh. “I realise I don’t actually know you very well, but I just didn’t imagine you were the sort of person to judge a person by their bank balance or how much they earn.”

“Good,” she said, not breaking his fierce gaze. “I’m definitely not the sort of person to judge someone by their income.”

“And yet, after just a few days, you’re asking me how much I earn.”

“No.” Part of her wanted to laugh at the misunderstanding, while another part of her was annoyed with him for jumping to conclusions and thinking the worst of her. As she caught Mr and Mrs Ward looking at them curiously, she pulled Lewis to the edge of the room. “I didn’t ask how much you earn. I asked if you were well paid.”

“It’s kind of the same thing.”

“No, it’s not,” she snapped. “I asked because I see that you work hard. You seem to run the place with no input from the owners. In fact, everyone here seems to work tirelessly. I also noticed that most of the staff members are young. I only wondered if you are appropriately compensated for your hard work. Or if the owners are employing young staff so they don’t need to pay them much, and you’re all running around like crazy while the owners are relaxing at home and reaping all the rewards.”

She paused and took a breath. “Which is of course how the world works, but my point is, I was curious about how the hotel is run and wasn’t prying into your financial situation.”

Lewis held her gaze for a moment before his shoulders drooped. “Sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Erin said. “We barely know each other and things don’t need to be weird just because we kissed a couple of times. It’s Christmas, and we got carried away in the moment, that’s all.” A lump rose in her throat and she swallowed hard. “I’m just surprised you’d assume the worst of someone.”

He sighed heavily and looked exhausted. “I’m sorry. I jumped to conclusions and I shouldn’t have…” He trailed off as the front door opened and his sisters walked in.

“It honestly doesn’t matter,” Erin said quickly. “I don’t want things to be awkward between us, that’s all.”

He nodded, and then Carla was in front of him, flinging her arms around him and becoming the focus of the conversation.

Which was quite convenient. Erin just wanted to enjoy her last night at the hotel and not get dragged down by Lewis’s bad mood.