Into the Storm (Signal Bend #3)(4)
I’ll have Omen pick a bunch of boxes up, bring ‘em to you.”
Show had a lungful, but he shook his head. When he could, he said, “I’ll go. Pack it up tonight. Think I can borrow your trailer? I’m gonna drive this shit down to Holly myself. Cheaper. And maybe she’ll let me see the girls, take them out to lunch or something.”
Isaac nodded. “’Course, man. You want backup? I could take a day or two, ride shotgun.”
“No. You stay home, where you’re needed. You don’t leave a woman alone with a month-old baby, brother. Not and live to tell the tale. I’m good. I got it.”
He wasn’t sure that was true, but he knew he had to go, and go alone.
CHAPTER TWO
“So, we’re booked solid all the weekends until mid-October. I was worried about September, since that’s sort of a dead space between summer and the fall foliage, but it looks good. I’d say we’re still riding the publicity wave, though it is slowing down a little. We’ve got that wedding, now, too, the last weekend in September. Great luck for us, their venue falling through so late.” Shannon Bannerman turned her laptop, so Lilli, the owner of the Keller Acres Bed & Breakfast, and therefore her boss, could see the booking pages.
Lilli was nursing her newborn daughter, Gia—which was the only reason they could have this conversation. As far as Shannon could tell, unless she was asleep or eating, little Gia was screaming. Having the baby around was a distraction, but it didn’t look like Lilli was one for maternity leave—or for daycare, for that matter. Nor was she one to let the manager she hired actually manage. Yet. Shannon was working on that.
Now Lilli was giving the laptop screen a skeptical look. “I’m not so sure it was great luck. A wedding, only a few months after we open? Do you think we’re ready for that?”
Shannon nodded. “I do.” She turned the laptop back to face her. “I have lots of experience planning weddings, Lilli. In Tulsa, there were several months of the year when we had at least one wedding just about every weekend. This one we’ve booked is small. They were very grateful and relieved that we could accommodate them on such short notice, and they are paying top dollar. We do this right, and it could bring really great word of mouth. It’s lucky.”
Setting Gia on her shoulder and closing her shirt, Lilli nodded, but her brow was furrowed. “Okay. I just don’t want the word of mouth to be that we ruined somebody’s wedding day because we had no idea what we were doing.”
“But I know what I’m doing.” Shannon liked Lilli a great deal. She was smart and she didn’t bullshit.
They’d had a mutual respect since the day of the interview, and they had a similar way of seeing the world that made Shannon think they might be friends someday—though Lilli didn’t seem like someone who sought friends out. But she had a hard time not being in charge, and she’d hired Shannon to run this bed and breakfast—to be in charge—because she needed someone who knew how.
Shannon sighed, and Lilli caught the frustration in it, her eyes sharpening in response. Shannon met those sharp, grey eyes steadily. “You hired me because I know what I’m doing. Let me do it, Lilli. I met with the bride and her mother this morning, and I’ve got the plan. The bride actually jumped up and down when she saw the garden and the gazebo. I’ll hire some people for event staff, and they’ll be trained and ready by the day. We’ll do some dry runs to be sure. If this goes well and word gets out, that event staff could be working fairly steadily. That’s what this is about, right? Helping Signal Bend stay on its feet?”
Gia was sleeping, curled into a ball under her mother’s chin, so Lilli’s voice was low when she responded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should shut up and let you do your job.”
Yes, she should. But Shannon understood. She grew up in a town like this, but one that had actually died. She understood the stakes here, and she admired the way these people hung together. “Thanks, Lilli.
It’s going to be beautiful, and this little inn is going to be known as a perfect venue for an intimate wedding…oh, one thing. You said Edgar is trained to pull a cart. Any chance of having a little carriage in time? I think the bride would literally swoon if she could make her entrance in a horse-drawn carriage. Do we have someone who can drive it?”
“Yeah. Badger. He’s been pushing me pretty hard to get one for Edgar. I’ll look into it.” Lilli set her sleeping daughter in her car seat/stroller thing. Gia stirred, her pretty little face screwing up, and both Lilli and Shannon froze, waiting for the wailing to start. But she settled and kept on sleeping. “Okay. I’ll work on the cart. What else do you need from me?”
Shannon moved to the door leading from the office into the front room, and Lilli rolled Gia out.
“Nothing. You’re still supposed to be resting, as I understand it. You know that people keep telling me to make you go home.” Gia’s birth had been difficult, and Lilli had almost died. Nevertheless, she’d started schlepping the baby to work before three weeks had passed.
Lilli laughed. “Isaac?” Isaac was her husband, the President of the local motorcycle club (Shannon had learned quickly not to call it a ‘gang’), and, apparently, the town leader, Mayor Fosse notwithstanding.
“Yeah. And Badger, too. They seem to think I’m in charge here and you’d listen if I sent you home.”