One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(32)
Knox gave a little farewell salute, then brushed past Haylie’s desk en route to the lobby, a man on a mission to get out of the office before Ty got on his nerves even more.
“Bye, Daddy,” Haylie said, hustling to keep up with Knox.
As soon as they were standing on the far side of the Spanish-style tile fountain that dominated the center of the lobby, Knox slowed his pace for her.
“What do you want to see first?” Haylie asked.
“I thought we might start inside and work our way out and around the grounds.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too. We’ll start at the spa on the basement level. And it’s Monday, too, so my mom’s probably there.”
Oh, good. He’d finally get to meet the elusive Eloise Briscoe.
They headed to the grand staircase that curved from the basement through the ground floor and up to the second level. When they reached the basement, Haylie steered Knox right, through an Employees Only door and into a poorly lit hallway. “First, let me show you where all of Emily’s magic happens. The catering kitchen.”
Looked like he’d escaped the minefield of his office and was led right into another one. Given the disparate but equally unnerving feelings Emily and Ty stirred up in Knox, and their uncanny abilities to pop into his day at will, he was beginning to wonder if there were anywhere on the resort grounds that he could have a moment of peace. As Haylie pushed open the second door on the left, Knox girded himself for the sight of Emily.
The door opened into a sprawling, stainless steel kitchen that was empty of people, but cluttered with used pots, pans, and ingredients amid a mouthwatering aroma that reminded him of the sausage Emily had served him that morning.
“This is the catering kitchen. We use it for special events, weddings, and things like that. It usually doesn’t get busy with workers until closer to noon because most of the special events are in the evening. Emily’s in charge of it all, and you can see her office right through that glass window on the far side.”
Emily wasn’t in her office, either, Knox noted with relief—as well as an unwanted shot of disappointment. He moved through the kitchen to study her office more closely. It was a bright space, or, as bright as it could be given that it was windowless. She’d painted the walls a cheery pale yellow and covered one of them with bookshelves. Most of the tomes looked to be cookbooks and other reference guides. Her desk was a massive, espresso-stained wood piece, tidier than he would’ve guessed, given her passionate nature and the current state of her kitchen.
“If you ever need Emily and she doesn’t answer her phone, which she, like, never does because she can hardly ever remember to charge it, this is where you’ll find her.” Haylie pointed to a baby blue sofa along the near wall of the office that Knox hadn’t noticed yet. “She sleeps here most nights, too, because she works such funky hours and lives far away.”
“Huh.” Did she crash on this sofa rather than make the trip home when she left his house every evening? She’d referenced her long drive home once, on the night Granny June joined them for dinner, but that was the only time he could recall her mentioning a home, and even then, he couldn’t quite remember the circumstances surrounding that conversation, he’d been so overwhelmed with emotions that night.
He made a mental note to look up where Emily lived, then immediately rejected the idea. Overstepping an employee’s boundaries was not a flattering attribute. If he wanted to know so badly, he’d have to ask her.
Haylie tugged on his arm. “Moving on. I want you to meet my mom, if she’s at the spa.”
“How do you know she’s there?” Knox asked as Haylie led him down one hallway and then another in a seemingly endless maze of them.
“It’s Monday, and that’s the day she gets her hair done.”
“Every Monday?”
Haylie pushed through a door marked public and they re-entered the guests’ public space right in front of the spa entrance, comprised of a lovely atrium with a small fountain and some tasteful, low-light plants. “Why not every Monday? Hair on Monday, nails on Friday, massages or facials whenever. Keeping up her appearance is, like, her hobby. She’s always been into fashion, even more than me.”
And therefore, apparently, she availed herself of the resort’s spa whenever she pleased. Haylie probably did, too. Knox was willing to bet the resort comped all the Briscoe women on their beauty treatments. That might have made sense when their family was a majority shareholder, except for the fact that the resort had been nearly bankrupt when Knox signed on. An occasional haircut was one thing, but unlimited use of the spa’s facilities and its employees’ time was quite another.
“Did you know Mama was crowned the Queen of Ravel County three years in a row?”
“I think I read that somewhere.” Actually, he’d read that and more. After his first morning working at the resort, when the mention of Eloise’s name and her absence from his warm welcome had dropped a blanket of tension over the room, he’d looked her up online.
Back in the day, Eloise Clark, as was her maiden name, had been a classic beauty. Flowing blonde hair, perfect bone structure, thin, and tall. After her run of local pageants, she’d set out for Dallas, where she’d won a single pageant before marrying Ty and reinventing herself as a housewife. In many photographs, even those from her high school days, Ty appeared alongside her. From the shot of them as prom king and queen as high school seniors to their wedding photo that had made the Home and Lifestyle section of the San Antonio Sentinel, the two seemed inseparable.