Suddenly it felt so overwhelming. All of it. I had no guests, bills that had to be paid, probably a mortgage of some kind…and no revenue.
“Do you know a good Realtor?” I asked Marilee, thinking,
More importantly, who would be crazy enough to buy Hideaway?
Marilee turned to me, her eyes no longer unreadable but now filled with shock. “You’re selling?”
“I’m just going over my options-”
“But Gertrude told us you’d never sell. That you loved her so much, you’d keep everything status quo. That’s why she left the place to you. You weren’t supposed to even think about selling.”
Um, okay. Except I hadn’t “loved” Gertrude, as Marilee thought. I hadn’t even known her. She’d never shown the slightest bit of interest at all in me or my life.
There was a six-pack of water on the coffee table, and since my throat had suddenly become parched, I grabbed one. Only I was still shaking a bit, and the bottle hadn’t been perforated correctly, so with a frustrated sound I handed it to Kellan, who had no luck opening it either.
“Look,” I said as gently as I could. “I don’t know how I can possibly afford to keep up with everything this place requires.”
“It’s not hard.”
Seriously, she had no idea. This place was so far out of my realm, not to mention that it probably required organization and planning skills, neither of which was part of my repertoire.
Plus, Gertrude and I had spoken exactly twice in my lifetime. Once had been at my high school graduation, where she’d handed me a card with five bucks in it, then demanded to know what I was going to do with my loot. The second time had been at my father’s funeral, after he’d died from a fall off a building he’d been painting.
Great-Great-Aunt Gertrude had stood by his casket at his funeral and tutted, then looked over at me. “You an artist, too?”
Unable to speak for the grief, I’d nodded.
“Well, that’s a damn waste,” she’d said.
Yeah, family closeness at its finest. Needless to say, that she’d left me the inn still had me speechless.
But now Marilee was looking at me, waiting for reassurances that I didn’t have. I dug up a small smile. “Looks like I have a lot to think about.”
Marilee seemed as if she might argue with that, but in the end, she only nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just…tired after this whole day. I need a few minutes to freshen up, rest a little bit. Do you mind?”
“No.” Ever the hostess, Marilee bowed her head briefly, expertly masking any emotions, as if she’d never had them. “Of course I don’t mind. This is your home while you’re here. You do as you please.”
Kellan looked at me. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Nodding, he turned to Marilee. “I’ll help you get all the supplies inside.” He sent me a look over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
Yep, with your tail dragging, I thought. Ah hell, Kel, don’t get hurt.
But of course he would, poor bastard.
“Oh.” Marilee hesitated. “It’s Friday afternoon.”
“Yeah.” I waited for more, but she just looked at me expectantly. “What about it?”
Marilee blinked. “You…don’t know?”
“I don’t know what?”
Another long, assessing gaze, but she didn’t answer.
Earth to Marilee…
“Nothing,” she finally said. “Just…be careful.”
Okaaay.
“And, uh, you should stay close,” she added.
As opposed to what-walking back to civilization? “I can do close.”
After she left, with Kellan following her-exuding that eternal hope only a man can summon-I stood there, in the doorway of Gertrude’s place, not belonging inside and definitely not belonging outside.
Belonging nowhere.
With the late-afternoon air came a cool breeze that felt crisp and refreshing against my heated skin. I could see a path that wound its way into the woods.
The words echoed in my head. I’d stay really close, and right on the trail, but the scenery drew me. I wanted- needed-to soak it in for a minute. Then tonight, maybe I’d spend some time drawing, to soothe my nerves.
I’d gone about twenty yards when four deer appeared, silent and watchful. They looked shaggier and darker than I’d imagined they would be. But then again, my deer experience was pretty much limited to the movie
So did they.
After a moment, at some invisible sign I didn’t catch, they all bounded back into the woods, vanishing as quickly as they’d appeared.
I let out a long breath, feeling…changed somehow, and kept going. It was gorgeous out here, I had to admit. Gorgeous but foreign, in another-world kind of way. There were so many trees and bushes and growth that I couldn’t see farther than a few yards in any one direction. Yet when I lifted my eyes, I was surrounded by a three hundred sixty-degree vista of jagged, granite mountain peaks that looked like something right out of a book. My artist’s soul ached, it was all so beautiful, and my fingers itched for paints.
Maybe my next mural would be of these mountains. You know, when I was back safe and sound in the city.
In less than three minutes, I was completely swallowed by the forest, and I stopped, a little unnerved by how quickly that had happened, and by how isolated I was. I couldn’t be more than a football field’s length away from the B &B.
Right?
And then I realized something: The temp had dropped. I looked up, and gasped.
The sky had changed from a stunning blue to a dark, swirling mass of black and gray. A storm was brewing, and I hadn’t even seen it coming. This storm wasn’t like anything L.A. ever saw either. I was talking a big, badass storm.
Adding to the sense of urgency was the utter and astonishing silence. It was as if even the insects had stopped breathing. And then…
And then another.
The sudden and overwhelming urge to turn back and run like hell to the inn nearly overcame me, but one, I never run, and two, my mother always warned me about running in a storm.
“Rachel!”
I nearly collapsed in relief at the sound of Kellan’s voice. He was coming…down the path? I couldn’t see him. Why couldn’t I see him?
“Rach!”
I whipped around in a circle, but I still couldn’t see him. “I’m here!” I yelled.
He’d sounded so close a moment ago, but now-now he could have been calling to me from another country. Hell, another planet.
“Rachel, where are you?”
I circled again, panic racing up my spine, blocking my throat.
