The Albright Hotel (A Frosty Season #4)

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

I t was Monday morning after the wedding. Sunday had been eventful: check-outs, a big mess in the kitchen, a brunch incident that left staff members reeling, and another meeting with the accountant, who said, “The hole is still there, and you’re losing more and more every day.” Maya and Olivia still hadn’t found the source. Olivia had nightmares they ran the hotel into the ground.

They weren’t ready to tell anyone else. Not yet. Especially not Aunt Veronica.

But that Monday morning was calmer than normal. It gave Maya, Olivia, Phoebe, and Aunt Veronica a bit of time to themselves in the family kitchen, where they listened to old Christmas songs and ate eggs and toast. Olivia still hadn’t confessed what had happened Saturday night at the wedding, but her heart felt sloshy with it. She was going to burst.

“By the way,” she said, setting down her fork, “Robby talked to me the other day. At the wedding.”

Maya gave her a bug-eyed look. After a dramatic pause, she said, “I mean, I saw you guys leave together.”

“And then you came back thirty seconds later,” Phoebe said.

Olivia should have known. She couldn’t get away with anything. Not here.

“What happened? I’ve been dying to ask,” Maya said. “But I didn’t want to bother you.”

Phoebe nodded furiously.

Olivia glanced at Aunt Veronica, who’d hardly touched her eggs and sipped her coffee now with a furrowed brow. Olivia knew how tender Aunt Veronica felt toward Robby.

“He could barely get two words out. He was really nervous,” Olivia admitted. “So I just told him how much I’d tried to trust him. How much I’d really loved him. And he said, ‘Me too!’ But he didn’t mention what happened in Vermont. He gave no indication he felt bad about it.”

Maya pressed her lips together. “You’ve really never talked about it?”

“No.” Olivia bowed her head. Did she feel ashamed about never approaching Robby about what happened with the bird-watching woman? A little. But it was like looking at the sun or pressing on a wound. She knew it would end with more pain. Pain she couldn’t handle.

“Let me get the story straight,” Aunt Veronica said, setting down her mug of coffee. “You were spending the evening together. And then he just up and went off with a bird-watcher?”

Olivia’s head throbbed. “It’s a little more complicated than that. He mentioned marriage. I panicked.”

“Which makes sense, given your history,” Maya said. Her face echoed understanding.

“I just wanted to take a walk and clear my head. I told him I needed an hour,” Olivia said. “But when I got back, the bartender told me he’d gone off with a woman at the bar.”

Aunt Veronica’s lips were pale. “I don’t understand. Robby wouldn’t do something like that.”

Olivia raised her shoulders.

“Is it possible the bartender got it wrong?” Aunt Veronica asked.

Olivia had, of course, wondered that. But there had only been three people in the bar when she’d walked past the window: Robby, the older bartender, and the other person she hadn’t been able to see. Plus, she’d spent time in their suite, packing and hailing a cab. He hadn’t come back. He hadn’t texted.

“I just can’t think of another explanation,” she said.

“Do you think he was trying to give you one at the wedding?” Aunt Veronica asked.

“I think it’s too late,” Olivia said softly.

Aunt Veronica tilted her head. “For him? Or for you?”

“For both of us,” Olivia said. Her voice broke. “Besides, I’ve moved on. Harry and I are having a great time. I’m trying to open myself up to new things. And Robby wasn’t at the wedding by himself. He was on a date with Joanna.”

Maya shook her head. “They agreed to only be friends.”

Olivia felt a spike of adrenaline. Her heart couldn’t be controlled. “Oh?” She tried to make her voice sound normal.

“Joanna met someone else that night,” Maya said. “After Robby went home. They danced the night away. I think they were the last people here.”

“It was cute,” Phoebe agreed. “I was happy for her. Robby didn’t look very much fun to be with.” She stuttered, “I mean, normally, he’s fun. Or he was fun. Before you guys broke up.”

Olivia felt exhausted.

But before she could ask for more details about Joanna, Robby, and Joanna’s new beau, there was a knock on the kitchen doorway. Phoebe popped up to greet Braxton.

“Good morning, honey!” She hurried to hug him. “Can I pour you some coffee?”

Olivia hardly glanced up. She was sick of Braxton and his stories of his wealthy family and his flippant accent. She was sick of him telling them just how much better the hotel could be if they changed this or fixed that. Being a hotelier was hard enough as it was without him around.

Where did this guy come from? Why did he rub Olivia the wrong way?

Feeling brash and confident, Olivia forced her eyes to Braxton and Phoebe. “I don’t think I’ve heard the story of how you met yet. I’m a sucker for romantic stories.”

Phoebe blushed. “It’s a really good story.”

Braxton tucked her hair behind her ear. “Why don’t you tell it?”

Phoebe smiled. “I was coming out of work on October third. I was really overworked and unhappy, carrying a coffee to a meeting I was hosting at a park down the way. And suddenly, I stumbled into someone. Coffee and papers went everywhere. I screamed. I couldn’t believe it! But then I found this man crouched on the ground, picking up the papers and apologizing. My heart melted. It was like it was meant to be.”

“That sounds like something from a romantic comedy,” Maya said.

“Doesn’t it?” Phoebe asked, filling Braxton’s mug with coffee.

Maybe because Olivia was cynical, she caught herself thinking, It sounds too perfect.

She tried to catch Braxton’s eye. But he avoided her gaze.

Was he hiding something?

“Where was it you said you’re from, Braxton?” Olivia asked, surprised by how forward she was. She didn’t want to frighten Phoebe’s “new love” away.

“All over,” Braxton said. He still didn’t meet her gaze, and there was something off about his accent. It warbled slightly.

“That’s why you have that accent,” Maya said. “Like you were raised on both sides of the Atlantic.”

“Exactly,” Phoebe affirmed, nodding.

Braxton took his mug of coffee and stood at the kitchen window, looking out at the forest. The sunlight wove its way through the branches and cast fragments across the white snow of the lawn.

It looked like a poem.

Very soon after that, Phoebe and Braxton decided to go on a walk. Aunt Veronica excused herself for a nap upstairs, and Maya and Olivia found themselves in another confused conversation about their lost funds and where on earth they might have gone. Again, they pulled up chairs in front of the office computer and pored over the spreadsheets, the bills, and the pay stubs. They were far from breaking even.

“They said doing a wedding would be the best thing for our budget!” Maya said into her hands.

Olivia touched her sister’s shoulder. Maya pulled her hands back and looked at her.

“We don’t have to do this,” Olivia said, not for the first time. “We can close our doors whenever we want. We can go traveling, or you can go back to food blogging. We don’t have to put ourselves through this headache.”

Maya bit her lower lip. “The thing is, I want this headache. I want to build something.”

I want to build something. It was almost exactly what Olivia had thought when she and Robby had been dating.

What if Harry wants to build something instead?

“Okay. But is there a way we can lie to Braxton and tell him we’re closed?” Olivia joked. “Maybe he’ll get the hint and leave?”

Maya chuckled sadly. “It’s Christmas. They’re newly engaged. My hope is Phoebe will get the hint once January or February rolls around. She’ll wake up one morning and realize she doesn’t want to get married to an adult baby.”

Olivia burst into giggles.

Maya rubbed her forehead. A moment of silence passed. “I can’t help but wonder if Brad’s getting cold feet about our relationship, too.” She got up and walked to the window. “Maybe it’s just all the stress from the hotel. But I worry he’s pulling back.”

“He’s not,” Olivia said. She was certain.

He wants to ask you to marry him so badly.

“I’ve never felt like this,” Maya said. Her breath steamed the window. “The other day, I surprised him at his elementary school. And when I got there, all the kids stood and sang Christmas songs for me. They’d even made me Christmas cards! I couldn’t believe it. Brad didn’t even know I was coming by. But it was like he was ready for me.”

Olivia smiled. “That’s the guy you think is pulling back?”

Maya’s shoulders dropped. “You’re right. I’m being silly.”

“You really are.” Olivia followed her sister to the window. She thought about the confusing spreadsheets, about their team of staff working hard below them, and about Robby somewhere in Hollygrove, fixing someone’s stove or cabinet or back closet door. She was mostly glad that he and Joanna had decided not to date each other. But it also mystified her. Didn’t Joanna know what a catch Robby was?

Stop thinking about him!

Stop thinking about him unless you’re brave enough to ask him what happened that night.

“What are you doing for the rest of the day?” Maya asked suddenly.

Olivia searched her mind but came up blank. “Nothing is pressing. Maybe a few emails. A social media post.”

“Schedule the post and get ready,” Maya said. “Let’s go shopping downtown and grab dinner. I have to get out of this office and away from those spreadsheets, or I’ll scream.”

Olivia went to her room to change and grab her bag. A soft snow had begun to fall, and she took a moment at the window, watching as Phoebe and Braxton ambled along the edge of the woods. Olivia wondered how much “work from home” Phoebe was actually getting done. Perhaps Phoebe would quit that silly job in Pennsylvania and come work for them at the Albright Hotel soon. Maybe that was always her destiny.

Hopefully, Braxton would catch a boat back to wherever he came from—if he even remembered where that was.

Olivia and Maya parked downtown and strolled from shop to shop. It was warmer than it had been—nearly thirty degrees—and it felt balmy after the fifteen degrees of last week. They went through the little makeup emporium, slipping lipsticks and eyeliner into their bags—little treats for each other and Phoebe and Aunt Veronica. Then they cut into the shoe store across the street to try on ankle boots and chat with the store clerk, who’d also been at Calvin and Stacy’s wedding and wanted to gossip about Joanna’s new boyfriend.

“That reminds me, Olivia,” the clerk said conspiratorially. “What did happen between you and Robby when you went away to Vermont? Nobody knows! And in a town like this, gossip like that should travel fast!”

“It was just one of those things,” Olivia assured her.

The clerk bowed her head in disappointment. She wanted to be the one to take the gossip to her friends. But Olivia wouldn’t give it to her.

After shopping, Olivia and Maya grabbed dinner at a burger restaurant on the corner, where they shared a burger, a salad, and a little portion of truffle fries. Some of the televisions showed basketball, but a few of them showed a popular cooking channel that Harry had said he liked. It reminded Olivia of Harry’s dream of living in a cottage and becoming a pastry chef. She shared it with Maya.

“He certainly has the looks for it,” Maya said.

“True.”

Maya tilted her head. “How are you feeling about that? I saw you dance a little at the wedding.”

Olivia’s hands were clammy, and she shrugged. “Maybe I’m just afraid of commitment.”

“Or maybe he’s not right for you.” Maya set down her fork.

Behind her, a big Christmas tree towered over the restaurant. It was filled with photographs of locals through the years. A photo to the right featured a younger version of Robby with his sons, Stan and Adam. They were probably teenagers in the photo. Olivia could imagine them coming to this restaurant all the time. Robby had mentioned it was difficult to keep up with Stan’s and Adam’s appetites when they were teenagers.

“Last year, I thanked my lucky stars for finding you,” Olivia said, taking a fry. “I couldn’t understand why I’d gotten so lucky. And then I met Robby, and I thought wow. This too? But it was too good to be true. And that’s okay.” She chewed the crunchy end of the fry. “In many ways, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. And it’s Christmas!”

Maya gave her a loving look that meant she didn’t quite believe her.