Page 27 of Before and After

Why wereMondays at the hotel always crazy?

I hustled down the corridor, carrying a stack of muddy towels. My quiet weekend with Ollie seemed like a distant memory. I’d spent most of Sunday cleaning the condo and doinglaundry. How one small five year old got so many clothes dirty was still a mystery I hadn’t solved.

I’d had no time to think about sharing ice cream with Caden. Okay, that was a lie. I’d thought about it. A lot. I’d especially thought about him swiping ice cream off the side of my mouth and licking his own ice cream. Caden licking had given me lots and lots of ideas. Of him licking me in lots of places.

I spotted Wade, pushing his cart, and jolted myself out of my Caden spiral.

The young man gave a groan. “Why are Mondays always so crazy?”

“I don’t have an answer for you, my friend.” I held the towels up higher.

“Dump them in here.” He grimaced. “What happened?”

“Don’t ask.” Gratefully, I dropped them into his cart.

“You working the later shift today?” he asked.

I nodded. I tried to stick to school hours, but it didn’t always work out. Mrs. Jenkins was collecting Ollie from school. She’d hang with him and make him dinner.

“I need to wash my hands. Catch you later.”

“Bye, Allie.”

In the locker room, I washed my hands. My stomach growled, reminding me that I’d worked through lunch. I thought I might have a packet of pretzels stashed in my locker.

This morning, I’d been in a rush and shoved my gear in without thinking. I opened the locker and waded around my bag and jacket.

My hands closed on glossy paper. I pulled out the Dandelion chocolate bar and gasped.

I would have definitely remembered leaving that in here.

Had Tessa left it for me? I stroked a finger over the gold foil wrapping. But how would she have accessed my locker?

The only other person I’d recently confessed my Dandelion obsession to was…

No way.There was no way Caden Castro had left me chocolate.

I broke off two squares and stuffed them in my mouth. Biting back a moan, I enjoyed the rush of chocolately goodness.

Was Caden hiding a thoughtful, kind guy under the scowly exterior? And what exactly did this mean?

My radio crackled. “Allie, are you there?”

It was Karen, who I knew was working up on level four. My chocolate mystery would have to wait. I plucked the radio off my belt. “I’m here. Go ahead.”

“We have a locked safe in a room. The guest checked out a couple of hours ago.”

I sighed. “On my way.” I glanced at Wade. “See you later.”

Ignoring the elevator, I took the stairs. The incident the other day had left me wary. I couldn’t wait for the renovations and upgrades to be completed. On level four, I motored down the hallway to the open guest room with the housekeeping cart out the front.

“Karen?”

“Here.” She waved from where she was making the bed, then pointed to the safe in the closet.

I pulled my keys off my belt. I had a master key for all the room safes. If someone had left valuables, I’d need to document them and call security. My heart gave a little wiggle. Maybe Caden would come up to deal with it.

Shaking my head, I unlocked the safe. Karen pressed in behind me, looking over my shoulder.