Page 26 of Never Been Witched (Starfall Point #3)
“Cynthia,” Lawrence barked. “That’s enough.”
Collin drew a breath through his nose. “Now, as a former employee, Robert’s not welcome on the grounds. Please understand, you’re only welcome on the grounds as paying guests.”
Julie’s eyes went wide, but she only mouthed the word, “Wow.”
Cynthia gasped and clutched at the chunky peridot beads at her neck. “You wouldn’t do that to family.”
“Watch me,” Collin shot back. Julie rose and crossed to what used to be a wet bar in his grandfather’s day, hidden behind a sliding wooden panel.
In the interest of good decisions, Collin had refitted the space as a coffee bar, with a very expensive digital espresso machine and all the flavored syrups and milk options a caffeine enthusiast could want.
Lawrence looked disturbed for a moment. “You would do that? Embarrass the family that way, instead of giving us our due?”
“I think I’ve made it clear I would,” Collin retorted as Julie poured them both cups of coffee. “Until this legal situation is straightened out, I think we should let the lawyers handle any communication between us. Good luck to you.”
Collin ended the call with a decisive beep.
“Remind me never to piss you off in a legal fashion,” Julie muttered, handing him his coffee. “Or an illegal fashion, for that matter.”
They shared an easy laugh, and that cold tension in Collin’s chest eased.
Julie had proven over and over that he’d made the right choice in hiring her.
She’d taken off running with the computer equipment and programs he’d purchased for the hotel, completing her training in a week and turning around to train the front desk staff herself.
She had great suggestions and better instincts, and she was not shy about telling him when he was making a bad call.
In his summers on the island, he’d had plenty of acquaintances, but very few real friendships.
He hoped he was on the way to having that with Julie.
Of course, it would be a friendship in which he could never, ever talk to her about ghosts or haunted objects or sleepwalking in the hotel hallways, but he would take what he could get.
“Are they really going to try to get ‘partial custody’ of a hotel you bought with your own money?” she asked as he doctored his coffee with almond milk.
“I don’t think my aunt and uncle have the resources for that. I don’t think they really want the hotel,” he said. “They just want to play the victim over it, complain to whoever will listen about ungrateful I am, and maybe squeeze a little money out of me to hold off whomever they owe.”
Julie wrinkled her nose. “Well, I don’t want to rub salt in the family wound, but…yeah, that tracks.”
“So did you come up here to make sure I hadn’t pitched Clark’s legal papers out the window?”
“No, I just wanted some decent coffee,” she scoffed, sipping from her cup.
“The employee lounge doesn’t have decent coffee?” he asked, frowning.
“Not like this,” she said, shaking her head.
“Please purchase all the supplies you’ll need for the staff to have ‘decent coffee’ in every staff break room. Landscaping crew to café waitstaff to housekeeping,” he replied, toasting her with his cup. “I hereby appoint you ‘hotel coffee czar.’”
“Do you mean ‘decent coffee’ or the kind of coffee you’re making for yourself in here?” she asked, brows lifted.
Collin silently pointed at his coffeemaker. Julie broke out the little notebook she kept for tasks like this and started scribbling. “Have I mentioned how much I like working for you?”
“Coffee fuels our business,” he said. “Also, I’m not sure I would survive the aforementioned staff mutiny. Some of those ladies who work in the gift shop look like they would throw elbows.”
“They would,” she assured him. “And they have extremely bony elbows. Item two on the ‘checking on you’ agenda—do you really have Alice staying in the guesthouse?”
Collin nodded, while sipping his coffee. “Is that a problem?”
“Absolutely not,” she assured him. “Alice is a dream guest. Makes her own bed, for goodness’s sake.
Besides, we’re already keeping housekeeping and kitchen staff on to take care of the construction crews staying here, which is going a long way to building you some goodwill with the locals, providing work during the slow season.
And this is good for Alice. She needs to be away from her grandparents. Far, far away.”
“I met them. Do they always talk to her like she’s a disappointing employee?” Collin asked.
Julie sighed. “I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve heard stories. I’m glad she has you, someone who will give her other options.”
“Speaking of other options.” Collin cleared his throat. “Do you know anything about her relationship with Clark?”
“Graves?” Julie’s brows lifted. “I wasn’t aware that they had one beyond nodding at each other at the grocery. And frankly, with the Nana Grapevine, it would be almost impossible for them to have one without me hearing about it.”
“So why would he chase her down the sidewalk and scare her?” Collin mused.
“That sounds like a question for Alice,” Julie told him. “To be fair, Alice is someone who frequently seems frightened. Or, at least, she was until Riley came around.”
Collin made a mental note to spend more time around Riley. Anyone who made Alice’s life better was worth knowing.
“Well, unlike your family, I come bearing helpful papers,” she said, flipping open her notebook to a page heavily occupied by scribbles.
“What would you think of making more changes? Centered on the hotel’s new, more historically accurate look?
Curated tours, now that the halls have been de-oranged.
Special themed afternoons, where we have reenactors demonstrating proper high tea. That sort of thing.”
“I think that would be a great idea,” he replied. “How would we organize all that?”
“I don’t know,” Julie said. “I was always more of a math person than a history person.”
Collin grinned. “I think I might know the person for the job.”