I heard my weekend guests pull up to the house. I took my spot inside next to the small check-in counter by the stairs and looked down at Hunter. “All
right, listen up. I’m letting you meet guests so you can get practice being a gentleman. But there’s rules.” I gave him a stern look. “You have to sit.” I gave him a raised index finger for the sit command.
He sat and I smiled.
“Good boy. No jumping. And no sniffing anything either—you know what I’m talking about. Understand?”
He gave me one of his goofy looks, his tongue lolled out.
I’d leashed him to the check-in counter, just in case, but with the exception of Alexis, he really didn’t jump on people.
He needed this socialization. With me running the B & B full-time, he was going to end up locked in the garage for most of the day if he couldn’t get his act together. The more interaction I could give him, the better.
The door to the house opened, and I put on a smile as I came around the counter to grab luggage handles. It was two women.
“We’ve got one more outside,” the brunette said, her tone bored. “She’ll be in, in a minute.”
They let in a dragonfly that zipped around the foyer. Hunter watched it, but he stayed put, and I gave him an approving pat on the head.
I fired up my laptop and started to check them in. I’d lucked out. I’d booked three of the four rooms with this reservation—and they’d booked
the Jack and Jill room, which was a bonus. Those two rooms had an adjoining bathroom between them, so I could only book them with the same party. This meant I still had an extra open room that could get picked up last minute. I needed it. If I was able to send Amber fat checks every week, she might actually keep her promise not to list the house until fall. Not to mention, I’d be able to save faster for the down payment.
“Is there a good place to have dinner?” the blonde asked, texting into her phone.
“There’s a complimentary wine and appetizer hour starting at five,” I said. “As for dining, I recommend—”
The door to the house opened with a slow creak, and the third woman came in. I looked up to smile at her—and it was Alexis.
I blinked at her in surprise, and she pressed a quick finger to her lips. She looked almost panicked. I didn’t really have time to process this, because Hunter saw her and lost his ever-loving shit. He dove at her.
The counter jerked sideways with the sudden yank of his leash, and my laptop fell to the floor with a clatter. Then he dragged the hundred-pound counter across the wooden floor of the foyer like some deranged sled dog and pummeled her.
He was going so wild in the confined space, the other two women retreated shrieking into the dining room to escape.
“Hi…dog,” Alexis said, petting him, clearly trying to hold him so the check-in counter massacre of the parquet floor would stop.
Hunter was crying like a puppy at the sight of her. Then he let out a long, excited ROOOOOOOOOOOOO!
“Wow…that dog really likes you,” the brunette said from the dining room.
Alexis laughed nervously. “Yeah, I must have one of those faces.”
What the hell? What was she doing here? And why was she acting like she didn’t know us?
Red-faced, I grabbed Hunter by the collar, unclipped his leash, and put him quickly outside. He immediately circled around to the window next to the door and jumped up, whining and crying to be let back in.
I looked at Alexis. She was disheveled after Hunter’s lovefest. She wore a spaghetti-strap yellow dress and sandals. Her cheeks were pink and one of her straps had fallen down her arm. I registered even in my confusion that she looked beautiful.
She held my eyes for a split second. Then she glanced away.
I turned back to the other guests. “I’m, uh…sorry about that. He has a thing for redheads.”
The other two women laughed, and Alexis smiled uncomfortably at the floor.
Not knowing what else to do or what the hell was going on, I picked up my laptop. The screen was cracked.
Dammit, Hunter.
I felt like the house had just been hit by a meteor. An unexpected cyclone of chaos.
The counter was sitting sideways in the middle of the foyer. It had gouged a large scratch into the wood floors that would need to be sanded and refinished.
Hunter made a pitiful rooooing noise from outside like being banished was some sort of torture I’d just inflicted upon him for no reason.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, let me show you to your rooms,” I said, giving up on checking them in. I grabbed the keys from the drawer in the counter, my face hot.
I carried their luggage up the stairs, giving them a disjointed version of the tour. My brain was misfiring. I couldn’t focus.
Ali Montgomery.
That’s the name the blonde had made the reservation under for Alexis’s room.
I’d talked to her for five hours last night. I’d been on two dates with her. I’d had my hands on every inch of her body, and I didn’t even know enough about her to circumvent this messed-up situation by knowing her full name. The absurdity of it bounced around my brain with everything else that just happened. She trailed at the back, quiet, and I could feel her there like a drop in the air pressure. I wanted to pull her into a closet and ask her what
the hell was going on, what was she doing here?
After pointing out each of their rooms, I smiled, hoping I looked collected. “My cell phone number is in the guestbook on your nightstands if you need anything.”
The other two women went into their rooms. Alexis made eye contact with me, and then closed her door. I blinked at it for a second. Then I pulled out my phone. I had a series of rapid-fire texts from her.
The last one said: I’m sorry.
