Those Sweet Words (Misfit Inn 2)

Ari reached for the bow.

“Not yet. You have to make sure you’re holding things properly, while you get to know your strings. You’re going to take your finger and pluck, like this.” He demonstrated on his own fiddle, plucking the bottom string. “This is a G. Then D. Then A. Then E.”

Ari followed suit.

“Good. Now each of these is tuned—”

“A fifth apart. I can hear that.” The impatience simmering in her voice made him smile.

“That’s right. Okay, pick up your bow.”

She did, and he patiently corrected her hold.

“Good, now we’re going to go with the G. You’re going to place the bow on the string down by the frog.”

“The what?”

“Down the bottom there, where the bowstrings are attached. That’s it. Mind your elbow. Most of the action is in the wrist. You’re going to play the G, drawing the bow down all the way to the tip.” He demonstrated and she repeated. “Now the D going upbow. Then the A all the way down. Now the E all the way back up.”

Ari mimicked his motions, drawing out a shaky note from each string.

“Remember that the transition from one string to the next is a very small motion. You don’t want to expend a lot of unnecessary energy. Try again. You’re going for a clear, bright sound from each string.”

She repeated the motions until she finally coaxed forth the tone he was looking for. “I did it!”

It was a small thing, but he felt an absurd amount of pride and pleasure at seeing her excitement. “You did indeed! Now—”

“Flynn!” Pru’s shout echoed from the hallway.

He was half out of the family room, Ari on his heels, before he registered the tone as excitement rather than alarm. “What?”

She raced out of the office, eyes wide. “The whole house. They’ve booked the whole house.”

“What?”

Pru took his hands and danced him in a circle. “I just got a booking for every remaining room in the house for this weekend!”

“You mean we’re full up?” Ari asked.

“For the first time since we opened, other than the wedding. And none of these people are related to us or former fosters of Mom’s!”

Ari whooped and did an impromptu dance of her own. Then she stopped. “Wait a minute. But we were airing everything out and in the middle of that deep clean. Almost none of the beds are made.”

“And everybody will be showing up for the jam session at six,” Flynn added. Perhaps today hadn’t been the best time to try making that a more regular thing.

“I know,” Pru said. “We’ve got a thousand things to do. It’s a group of women from Nashville coming for a girls’ weekend. They were already packed when they called, so they’ll be here in four hours.”

“How will we get everything done?” Ari asked.

“Divide and conquer,” Flynn told her.

They made a list, prioritizing tasks and assigning them via time-honored tradition: Rock. Paper. Scissors. When Ari’s rock crushed Flynn’s scissors and he got stuck scrubbing toilets and cleaning showers, he accepted it with considerably more good humor than he ever had when he lost to his sister. He’d hated this duty more than anything growing up and had often spent the time honing his cursing skills. By the time he’d turned eighteen, he’d developed astounding proficiency and creativity in that arena.

He hauled the caddy of cleaning supplies up to the third floor and waited for the resentment and irritation to kick in. It didn’t. Instead, as he moved from room to room, he found himself lifting his voice in song, testing the acoustics of each bathroom. He was cleaning bathrooms and singing. His mother would be immediately checking him for a fever, maybe calling up Dr. O’Dwyer. But it just didn’t

feel the same. Instead of that envy of the very guests he prepared for, he felt an odd satisfaction. It was different with Pru. Everything was different with Pru. He was contented here in a way he’d never imagined he could be.

Hearing her laughter, Flynn went to the window and looked out. She and Ari were gathering sheets from the line. It was a thing he’d seen his own mother do a thousand times and never thought a thing about, but he found himself staring as they worked to neatly fold the sheet. Pru added the square to the basket, then stroked a hand down Ari’s hair. The girl tipped her head to Pru’s shoulder, one arm around her waist, as the two of them looked off toward the mountains. The quiet moment hit him right in the gut.