Page 38 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)
Cash did the same, and the three of them wore smiles that seemed a tiny bit frayed around the edges. Bailey started talking, and she waved her hand toward the check-in desk. Cora’s heart started to pound, and she pushed away from the counter and strode toward her boyfriend.
“Hey, here’s someone gorgeous,” Boston said easily, and he drew her into a side-hug as she came to a stop. “This is Cora, guys.” He beamed at her and leaned down to touch his lips to her temple.
“This is my cousin, Cash.”
“Howdy, ma’am,” the dark cowboy said, lifting his hat an inch or two in greeting. “If I can get this man to stop talking about you, it’s because he’s got food in his mouth.” He grinned at Boston, who rolled his eyes.
“That’s not true,” Boston said. “I didn’t say anything too bad.”
“He didn’t say anything bad,” Cash said. “He’s sweet on you, Miss Cora.”
Warmth filled her, and she smiled at Boston. “What have you been saying?”
“As if he’s telling any of us something we don’t all know.” Boston shot his cousin a dark look.
“I didn’t know,” the blonde said, raising her hand. “I’m Bailey.”
“Cora, this is Bailey McAllister,” Boston said, immediately clearing his throat. “She’s—she’s a real good friend of our family.”
Cora heard so much more in those words, but she knew better than to ask right now. “So great to meet you. I’m Cora.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder toward the check-in counter. “Are you checking in? I saw you gesture over to the desk.”
“I was supposed to,” Bailey said. “I actually paid for a room here for last night, but I had car trouble and ended up stranded in a tiny town I don’t even know the name of on the Montana border.”
“You did?” Boston asked. “We could’ve come to get you.”
“Well, I didn’t know you worked here, now did I?” She grinned at him, and while she spoke in a flirty tone, Cora got the impression she just talked like that and wasn’t actually flirting with Boston or Cash.
She sighed. “Anyway, I called and told the woman who answered that I wouldn’t make it, but that I still wanted to pay for the room, so I could check-in whenever today. I was charged, but she says my room isn’t ready.”
Cora didn’t like the sound of this. “That doesn’t sound right.”
“That’s what I said,” Bailey said. “I told her that if I’d been here yesterday, they’d have had a room for me, and they took my money, so why don’t I have a room right now?”
Cora gestured for Bailey to come with her. “Come with me. I’ll get you in right now. You shouldn’t have to wait.”
“It’s—” Bailey looked at Boston, a touch of alarm in her eyes.
“She owns the place,” Boston said. “Go with her, and she’ll probably put you in the best room they have.”
Cora would, yes, because the situation Bailey described wasn’t right.
If she’d paid for a room for last night, she should absolutely not be waiting by the pillar for the room right now.
She stepped over to Sheela and said, “I need you to look up a reservation, please.” She glanced over to Bailey as she came to her side.
“Bailey McAllister, please,” Cora said. “She should have a room right this very second, as we charged her for last night.”
Sheela tapped and muttered, “McAllister….” Her eyes zipped left and right, and she clicked. “Yes, it’s right here.” She looked up. “July second to the twelfth?”
“Yes,” Bailey said. “Until next Saturday.”
“Why doesn’t she have a room key, then?” Cora asked. “Why is she standing over against the pillar?”
“They’re cleaning the room now, ma’am.”
Cora shook her head, her irritation firing on all cylinders, only accelerated by being called ma’am from someone she’d started to consider a friend.
She moved around the counter and looked at the screen, though she certainly wouldn’t understand all of it.
“No, that’s not right, Sheela. It can’t be.
She was supposed to be here last night, so why would the room she’d been assigned yesterday need to be cleaned? ”
“She booked a king suite,” Sheela said. “With the mountain view, and—” She swallowed. “We don’t have any available right now.”
“That makes no sense.” Cora looked at the screen, and she saw the room type there. “What happened?’
“We probably upgraded someone last night,” Sheela said, her eyes wide and full of anxiety.
“What have we got then?” Cora said.
“It’s really okay,” Bailey said.
Cora looked at her while Sheela started tapping furiously on the keyboard.
“I can do one of two things. I can refund you for last night and put a rush on the cleaning of your room type. Get you up there as quickly as possible.” She looked over to Sheela.
“We’ll comp you with restaurant vouchers too, and give you a free drink coupon for the pool bar. ”
Sheela nodded, and Cora actually loved situations like this. She thrived on them.
Boston and Cash arrived, flanking Bailey. “Is she taking care of you?” Boston asked, his smile made of stars and diamonds and all other shiny things.
“Yes,” Bailey said.
Sheela pointed at the screen, and Cora zeroed in on it. “Or, I can get you in a one-bedroom woods-facing cabin right now.”
Bailey’s eyebrows went up. “A cabin? I don’t think I need a cabin.”
“Take the cabin, Bay,” Boston said. “They’re nice, and the woodsy ones are more private. Right up against the trees. They’re beautiful this time of year.”
Bailey nodded to Cora, a small smile appearing on her face. “I am exhausted and was hoping to take a nap before I have to go over to my parents’ farm.”
“The cabin, please, Sheela,” Cora said as she lifted the badge on the lanyard around her neck. She held it out so Sheela could type in Cora’s management authorization code. “Same price, please, and I want her to have a restaurant voucher for two nights, and the drink coupon.”
She moved out from behind the counter, her job done. “I hope that’s okay,” she said. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
“It’s okay,” Bailey said. “Really. And I’ll take the restaurant vouchers, because I chose to stay here because you have places to eat on-site. But I don’t drink, and the coupons will just go to waste.”
Cora raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure? You can get mocktails or even just bottled water with them.”
“Oh, okay,” Bailey said. “Then I’ll take them.”
Sheela started taking care of everything, and Boston turned to Bailey again. “You’ll be here through next Saturday?”
She nodded, something tightening around her eyes and the corners of her mouth. “Yes. I’m doing all the rounds—my parents, aunts, uncles, your family, OJ.” She gave a light laugh that didn’t sound happy at all. “No wonder I need to front-load with a nap.”
“Take some painkillers too,” Cash said, and he chuckled.
“All right, ma’am,” Sheela said in her uber-professional voice. “This is a map of the property, and I have you in cabin three.” She circled it on the map, and Cora backed up a step.
Thankfully, the cowboy cousins could read a situation, and they both quickly hugged Bailey one more time and came with her.
Cora had so many questions, but she waited until they’d all piled into Boston’s car to ask, “OJ? Why would she go visit OJ specifically?”
Boston looked over to her, but it was Cash who said, “Because she’s his biological mother.”
Cora had no idea what she’d been expecting either of them to say, but it wasn’t that. “What?” burst out of her mouth. “She had—she’s—with Otis?”
Boston burst out laughing. “No, she and Bryce. OJ is Bailey and Bryce’s biological son; they had him when they weren’t married and neither of them felt capable and ready to raise him. Otis and Georgia adopted him as a newborn.”
“It’s an open adoption,” Cash said from the backseat. “Everyone knows about it. OJ texts Bailey all the time. She comes to town from time to time. That kind of thing.”
“She’ll go out to Bryce’s farm too, probably with OJ,” Boston said. “It’s a whole thing.” He looked in the rearview mirror. “I just keep wondering when she’s going to move back here.”
Cash chuckled. “Who knows, brother? If OJ asked me to do something, I wouldn’t be able to say no. That kid’s got character.”
Boston laughed too, but Cora hadn’t met OJ yet, and she blinked as the branches of the Young family tree splintered and reformed themselves. She thought of the larger-than-life Bryce Young, and the way he held his baby boy in his arms, so much love and joy radiating from him.
To think he’d had a baby with someone who wasn’t Codi and given him up for adoption…and could be filled with such light—it gave Cora nothing but hope for herself.
Hope that she too could find the path that God wanted her to be on and have the courage to take steps down it.