to get my attention, she ensured it by offering me a genuine grin, a cotton-candy hue painting her neck. “It really is a comfortable mattress. Whoever picked it out did a fantastic job.”
“We make sure our guests are happy here at Black Bird Resort,” I retorted in a dramatic, over-the-top, cheerful voice one would expect from a manager.
The cart lurched forward slightly as I took my foot off the brake to drive away.
“What about you?” she asked as we made our way down the dirt path. “Did you sleep all right? I know you said that you had to get up early this morning.”
“I hit the snooze button a couple of times, but I managed to get up. Although, I’m pretty sure that had more to do with the time than how well I slept, because I don’t particularly feel tired at the moment.” That could’ve also been because of the adrenaline coursing through me, knowing what I was about to show her. I’d never been more excited to see someone’s reaction to the steeple; I just knew she wouldn’t be disappointed.
At the fork in the path, I veered right, which caught Kenny’s attention. She craned her neck to peer behind us and then settled her gaze back on me. If it hadn’t been for her pinched brow, I would’ve never picked up on her confusion from behind her sunglasses.
“Where are we going? I thought the dock and boats were that way.”
I hadn’t intentionally misled her, but I had to admit that the sudden suspense of the moment excited me a bit. “Yeah, they are, but we’re not going on the resort’s boat. We’re taking mine. I keep it at my dock…at my house. I live a little ways up the mountain.”
Kenny’s brow furrowed even more, causing my excitement to turn to worry.
I slowed the cart until it was at a snail’s pace and looked her way. “I hope that’s all right. I would’ve mentioned it to you last night when we made plans, but honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about the specifics.”
“Oh, you’re fine; I don’t care which boat we take. I just wondered how you live up the mountain, yet your boat is in the water…which is down there.” She pointed off into the distance toward the lake.
“You’ll see.” Rather than explain something she’d understand in a few minutes, I picked up the pace, knowing I didn’t have far to go.
“Did you get all your work done this morning?”
“Yeah, it was just paperwork. Really, I should have my dad take over that side of the business, considering he’s in the office most of the time anyway. It’d be one less thing I would have to deal with.” I gave that suggestion a quick thought and then shook my head. “Well, maybe not. I’d likely end up stressing over his accuracy.”
“Why? Doesn’t he know how to do math, or whatever it is you do?”
Part of me wanted to slow down and enjoy yet another conversation with Kenny. But the biggest part of me wanted to hurry up and get her on the water—not because I still had a day’s worth of work to do, but because we were in a race against time, and I didn’t want to chance missing our moment.
“My grandmother taught me how to do the books, so when she got sick and had to take a step back, she handed that particular task to me. Since then, I’ve created a more organized system to keep track of expenses and whatnot, and honestly, I doubt my dad would understand much of it. He doesn’t tech.”
There went that giggle again, and it made me curse the breeze that swept it away.
“So are you done with work for the day?”
“Not even close. I managed to spare a couple of hours to take you out on the water, but I have a tour at three, followed by dinner shift at The Feeder.”
I slowed down as we rounded a curve in the trail and ducked to avoid being smacked in the face with a wayward branch. The pathway got a little thicker back here, probably because I was the only one who came this way. The only thing ahead was my house, so there was no reason for anyone—other than my dad—to be back here.
“You run the tours, too?” she asked with genuine awe in her lilted tone. She made it sound like driving a boat around a lake and pointing things out to people was an impressive skill.