The dark sedan’s driver side window silently rolls down, and to my surprise and renewed embarrassment, it’s the manager from the hotel.
“Miss? Miss, are you okay?” he asks.
A pretty dumb question given the circumstances.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just lost and very wet.” I admit as if he can’t see it for himself.
His mouth twists as he thinks a moment, then looks up at the sky and then at his watch.
“As long as you’re heading toward town I can take you…And you sit in back on the dog’s blanket,” he says firmly.
I can’t exactly gripe over his terms when I’m shivering and wet. And in minutes I’m sitting in the back of the car glad to be out of the rain.
“Quite a downpour, but the hotel was dry as chalk,” he muses, shifting the car into gear and resuming his journey.
“I think your friend was running after you,” he says, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
I sit forward with a loud wet squelch when he mentions Kyle.
“Kyle? You saw him? What did he say?” I gasp, fighting the urge to grab hold of the man.
“He looked about as worked up as you do.” The man drones, almost humming to himself like he’s seen it all before, which I’m sure he has.
“You’re not the first girl to sneak into a guest’s room,” he chides before smirking.
“Mr. Lundstrom can have a guest if he wants, hell. He’s the only guest we have right now,” he adds with a tone of bitterness.
“I’m just on my way to a meeting. Looks like somebody might be interested in buying the Old Mill Inn… And they’re welcome to it!” he exclaims, shaking his head and gripping the wheel tighter.
Absorbed in what I can see are problems of his own. Something my dad used to do before he left.
Staring down complete financial ruin.
But it sounds like Kyle’s promise to buy up the town is working its magic already, and it has me rethinking the whole idea, maybe it’s not such a bad one.
The town’s been struggling for years, broke without actually admitting it.
If there was new blood in the town it might bring new life with it.
“Where you headed?” The clerk asks once we hit the bitumen again.
The sun makes a swift and ironic appearance. Almost shrugging off the clouds as I feel a frozen trickle of water reach places I never knew could feel so cold.
“Uhh. Maybe just near Blossom Ridge Road? I can walk from there.” I figure since it’s stopped raining and I can make the walk home from there.
“Suit yourself,” the man sighs and slows to a stop to let me out. He politely ignores the mud I’ve brought into his car with me as he glances back to make sure I’m actually getting out.
“I hope it works out for you,” I tell him sincerely, but his dry scoff before he raises his brow in farewell tells me he’s not getting his hopes up.
“Oh! If you see your friend. Tell him the hotel’s still open. He can help himself to his key from the counter if he forgot to take his with him,” he calls out before driving off with a wave.
The sodden walk home leaves me feeling exhausted and just a little chaffed by the time I see my mom’s house.
I would say my house, but her attitude since I got home from college hasn’t exactly been welcoming.
It’s almost as if she’s hoping I'll get up and leave.
Something I might have considered last night or even earlier this morning.
Until I messed everything up by acting like a lunatic with Kyle.
Before I reach the yard, I check my phone, groaning at the mud cover screen, but also from the distinct lack of calls or messages. At least it’s still working despite all the mud.
But how can he call you if he doesn’t have your number, dummy?
Instantly I can hear Kyle in my mind, telling me not to be so down on myself.
Lifting me up, and he’s not even here.
Mindful of the carpet inside, I walk to the kitchen door around the back, peeling my soaked clothes off at the door before heading straight for the shower then a fresh change of warm clothes.
Bundling my dirty clothes into the machine, I wonder if that was it.
The most exciting thing that’ll ever happen to me in this life.
A guy like Kyle doesn’t just pop out of nowhere, especially in a town like Cherry. And he probably doesn’t take too kindly to outbursts like mine either.
I’ve blown the one big chance I had, but why?
I think I know why I went off the deep end.
Everything to do with Cherry and the people in it, the ones like my dad who did well from it. The ones who didn’t.
They all left. My dad left.
Hell, even the people who bought everything after he’d gone never showed their faces.