LITMIR.BIZ

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Mom? What do you mean it’s hexed?”

      “Nothing. I didn’t mean to say… that.”

      She was speaking Mom riddles again. “Can we stop sidestepping the real reason for once? Do you have some connection with the lodge I don’t know about?” My mind reeled through possible reasons. The previous owners? “Did you know the woman who lived there? The one whose husband abandoned her and the business?”

      There was a pause. My pulse sped up. Was Mom connected to the former owners? If so, why hadn’t anyone breathed a word of it to me? Evergreen was a small town. Surely something would have got back to me after all these years, unless… it was something they all wanted to forget.

      “No,” she said, her voice tight. “If you’re coming to stay here for the night, I’ll leave the key out. I have to go to bed…”

      “Actually, I think I’d better stay where I am and wait for news. I don’t want to disturb you.” In actual fact, I couldn’t be bothered with Mom and her delicate moods. And I knew she was hiding something and I’d probably push her to breaking point trying to find out what it was.

      “Pass on my love to Micah.”

      Did I imagine it, or was she rushing me off the phone, grateful for the reprieve?

      “Bye, Mom.”

      I turned to Kai, who’d reappeared, frowning.

      “Problem?” he asked.

      I shrugged. “Nothing serious.” It was too soon to confide my suspicions to anyone. Besides, I couldn’t exactly explain it when I had no real information. “I think we should go visit Micah at the hospital. Isla hasn’t called and I’m worried.”

      “Let’s go.” Nothing ruffled Kai. Maybe it was the Australian side of his nature – he was a laid-back, roll-with-the-punches kind of guy. I liked that he was still in control, but moved through life in a fluid, easy-going way.

      At the hospital we found the nursing station and asked about Micah and Joe. With a smile, the young nurse pointed us to a room further along the corridor with assurances that Joe had been discharged and was totally fine, and that Micah was being observed overnight and would likely be discharged first thing in the morning. Relief flooded me, and I pulled Kai forward, counting room numbers.

      We came to a single room, with the sound of a TV blaring some cops and robbers show. I was about to knock when I saw them and wrenched my hand back. Isla was on the small bed next to Micah, running the pad of her finger along his jawline, before kissing him softly on the lips and then murmuring quietly to him as he closed his eyes.

      I nudged Kai, who stood behind me, and moved out of sight. Kai grinned, lacing his hand through mine to pull me away. Once we were out of earshot Kai said, “I think Micah is totally fine. And in good hands.” He waggled his eyebrows just like Micah would do. My heart just about exploded with so many feelings – relief, awe, happiness… and hope that my two friends had opened their hearts to one another.

      “Let’s get out of here,” I whispered, wanting to dance down the hushed, antiseptic-scented corridor. Micah deserved to tumble into love with someone gorgeous, bubbly and free-spirited like Isla.

      “The night is young. Should we get a bottle of wine and head to the lake at Cedarwood?”

      I gasped. “The lake? Are you crazy? It’ll be freezing!”

      He shrugged. “We’ll take a couple of blankets. When’s the last time you switched off your phone, lay on your back and counted stars?”

      “Counted stars?”

      “Yeah,” he laughed. “Soak up some of the moonlight – it’s good for the soul, like midnight yoga… but I’ll let you off that activity for tonight.”

      The autumnal sky was pitch-black, and there was a bite to the air. “OK, why not? But it’ll be even colder by the lake, just so you know, you with your sensitive Australian skin.”

      “I can handle it,” he laughed. “The view will be worth it.”

      I shook my head, bemused to be getting myself into such a situation. Even though we’d been told to stay away from Cedarwood, I felt like a worried parent, and I’d be glad to see the lodge for myself from a distance and make sure it was OK. I’m sure, deep down, Kai sensed that and had made up the counting stars idea to make me feel like I wasn’t some needy parent, returning to the nest, when in fact I was.

      We gathered wine and glasses from Kai’s motel, pulled blankets from the bed, and drove back to Cedarwood, winding down the driveway past the lodge. It looked gloomy in its abandoned state, with the smell of smoke and sadness still heavy in the air. A part of me wanted to go inside and investigate, but we weren’t cleared as yet to enter. The thought of the lodge sitting empty for a night hurt right down to my soul. Sentimental or not, it was part of me now.

      “We were lucky today,” Kai said, as if guessing my mood as he drove past the lodge and toward the lake.

      “Damn lucky.” No matter what happened once we investigated tomorrow, if our plans ground to a halt, I’d for ever be grateful that Micah, Isla and Joe were safe.

      “Once we have the report from the firefighters, we’ll gear up to get the ballroom back into shape as quickly as we can. We can do it,” Kai said, his voice resolute. “We’ll just have to get everyone to help.”

      I searched his face. “You think so?”

      He nodded, parked the truck under a copse of white cedar trees, and killed the engine. “I know so. It’s important not only for your future but for morale. Everyone has worked so hard, and they want to see it finished. I didn’t tell you before, but I’ve had calls from the previous laborers, and they’ve offered to come back if we need them.”

      Those weary tradespeople who’d left Cedarwood with tired faces after such long, hard days? “They’d come back and start over?”

      “You treated everyone like they were part of the family, and they want to see this place done. Of course they will.”

      Something fluttered inside me, hope maybe. “Wow, OK.” I shook away the worry and angst from the day, their compassion giving me a boost. “We can do it! No matter what we find tomorrow, there will be a solution so Imelda and Edgar can still have their party here.” I was used to solving crises, right? That’s what I was paid to do. Make it work, no matter what!

      “That’s the spirit!” He grinned, and my heart beat staccato. Kai was one of the good ones.

      We laid our rug by the lake, the wind icy as it blew toward us. “We’re going to catch our death here.” I laughed and fell back, gazing up at the star-filled sky. The moon was a fuzzy yellow orb, illuminating the ripples on the water like diamonds.

      “Do you think they’ll end up together?” he asked.

      “Isla and Micah… I don’t know. He was with Veronica – Ronnie, we called her – for most of our teens, right up until a couple of years ago. I thought I’d come back to Evergreen and they’d be living the American dream. But she left, and it tore him up pretty bad. When I think of love, I always picture those two, the way they finished each other’s sentences, cast these long looks that conveyed some private meaning, and sensed each other’s needs on some deep level. He’s adamant he doesn’t want anything serious, but Isla is pretty damn amazing, and I think, despite being younger than him, she’s mature and sensitive in a way that suits him.” It still hurt the edge of my heart thinking that Ronnie had waltzed out of Micah’s life in such a blasé fashion, so coldly, leaving such damage in her wake. Though I was one to talk. I’d left my best friend too and hadn’t made a quarter as much effort at keeping in touch as I should have. Life had just got so busy…

      “Some relationships are a warm-up for the real thing. Maybe the first one was just practice.”

      I turned to face him. “Do you really believe that?”

      With

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