LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ONE

      THERE WERE MORNINGS when a girl just didn’t want to get out of bed, but she had to because a) she had to pee and b) she had to go to work because no one else was going to pay the bills.

      Tori closed her eyes, gathered her get-up-and-go and threw off the covers. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her job; she loved it. The Sandpiper Resort was her life. She’d started there doing housekeeping as a teenager and had worked her way up to assistant general manager, overseeing many of the day-to-day operations. Stepping inside the doors each morning felt as much like being at home as entering her own small house, bought just last year.

      So even though she was bone tired, despite having slept all night, she flipped on the light switch and turned on the shower. At least the morning sickness had been fleeting, lasting only a few weeks and consisting mostly of inconvenient nausea. Now in her second trimester, she simply got tired more easily. And was in the process of overhauling her wardrobe. Things didn’t fit anymore now that her baby bump had made an appearance.

      Thirty minutes later, hair blow-dried and makeup on, she left the house with her decaf coffee in a travel mug and made the five-minute drive to work. It had been mild for November, and she didn’t have to scrape the frost off her windshield this morning, which was a plus. On arriving at the hotel, she stepped inside, inhaling the fresh scent of evergreens. Once Remembrance Day had passed, the Christmas decorations had come out, turning the resort into a fairyland of white twinkle lights and pungent pine and spruce boughs punctuated with gorgeous red and gold bows. She greeted the staff at the front desk with a smile, then stopped at the kitchen to ask for a toasted bagel and some fruit—her usual breakfast fare.

      “You need some eggs for the little one, there?” Neil asked, his chef’s hat bobbing. “Mamas need protein.”

      She grinned. “When are you gonna stop pampering me?” she asked, taking a sip of her coffee. For a few weeks, she’d been turned off the smell of the brew. Now she inhaled the richness of it and sighed.

      “Never,” he replied, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Neil had been working in this kitchen since before she’d started cleaning rooms. Pretty soon his granddaughter would be looking for a summer job.

      Eggs did sound good this morning, so she smiled. “You know how I like them,” she acquiesced. “Thanks, Neil. You’re a gem.”

      “You betcha.”

      Ten minutes later one of the waitstaff brought her breakfast, as well as a glass of milk. “Neil says you need your calcium,” Ellen said, and even though she was younger than Tori, her voice came across as motherly.

      “Neil is being overprotective and I love it,” she remarked, smiling up at the waitress who’d joined their team last May. “Thanks.” She unrolled her cutlery from the napkin. “Everything going okay in the dining room?”

      Ellen nodded. “Slower now that the leaves are gone and no one really comes for the beach.”

      “I know. I’m sorry about the cut hours.”

      “It’s okay. It’s a seasonal thing. We all get it.”

      “We’ve got some holiday events planned, so if you’re up for working those, I’ll make sure you’re on the list for scheduling.” The ticketed events always meant decent tips, and Ellen’s eyes lit up.

      “I’d appreciate that. Thanks, Tori.”

      “No problem. It helps a bit when regular hours are short and Christmas is coming.” Besides, Ellen had proved herself to be competent and reliable. Throwing a few extra hours her way was small reward.

      Once Ellen was gone, Tori dug into her breakfast. Neil had added cheese to her eggs, and a little parsley…delicious. There were two slices of honeydew and a little dish of fresh strawberries, plus a whole-grain bagel with her favorite topping—plain cream cheese sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

      They really were a family around here, taking care of each other. Which was good for Tori, because it was only her and her mom now. Her mom, Shelley, was a nurse and had taken a job at the hospital in Lunenburg. It wasn’t far away, but after Tori’s father had died of cancer, Shelley had moved into an apartment right in the town for convenience. It put her about fifty kilometers away—close enough for weekly visits.

      Tori put her hand on the swell of her belly. Now she was going to have her own family. And she was happy, deep down. The question of whether or not to have the baby hadn’t even been brought up. She didn’t have much family, and now she’d have a baby to love, and he or she would love her in return. Her mother would have a grandchild. Circumstances weren’t ideal, but Tori had started thinking of this pregnancy as a surprise blessing.

      The bagel caught in her throat and she took a deep drink of the milk to wash it down along with the unease that kept nagging her when she thought of her decision not to tell the father—at least not yet. Every time she’d determined to say nothing, she heard her mother’s voice telling her that Jeremy deserved to know. The problem was, she agreed with her mom. She wasn’t going to be able to keep this from him forever. She just had to figure out the logistics. The right way.

      Jeremy Fisher… What had she been thinking, getting caught up with him last summer? It had been two weeks of sheer bliss, during which time she’d completely lost her head. They’d agreed it was a holiday romance, and boy, had they made the most of their time together. When it was over, he’d gone back to his life in New York and she’d been left behind in small-town Nova Scotia, in a tiny house on the water. And that had been exactly as she’d wanted it. She wasn’t a fairy-tale kind of woman, with dreams of being whisked away to a lavish lifestyle and a happy ever after. Well, she had been, once. She’d been swept off her feet by a handsome man with tons of plans. Riley had seemed perfect on the surface. And she’d fallen for him, hard.

      Until she realized he’d been living a double life. He’d showered her with gifts and affection, but behind it all was a history of defrauding people and going into debt. For a long time she’d blamed herself for being so stupid.

      She bit into a strawberry and considered her summer affair. Perhaps her “relationship” with Jeremy had been different because from the start there had been no question that it would be anything other than a fling. Indeed, it had been quite out of character for her, considering he was a guest at the resort. But they’d been discreet. And after two years of hard work, losing her dad and feeling alone, she’d given herself permission to enjoy this one thing.

      She hadn’t thought there’d be these kinds of consequences.

      The power dynamic hadn’t mattered during those few weeks. But it mattered now. Jeremy was a rich, powerful man, and she was…well, not nobody. She had enough self-esteem to give herself that much. But she certainly didn’t have the same clout and resources at her disposal, and it made for a very uneven balance between them.

      She shook her head and pushed her plate aside, eager to get to work. The hotel manager, Thomas, was on vacation this week, so it was up to Tori to steer the ship. She spent the morning at her desk, then met with the housekeeping manager and the catering manager about requirements for a holiday function scheduled for mid-December. There was a Christmas wedding planned for the weekend before the twenty-fifth, and another on New Year’s Eve, where the ceremony would actually begin just before midnight so

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