military is working for you.”
“Yeah.” A cloud passed over his face and I realized it was probably the wrong thing to say, but we’d have to get past that kind of awkward if we were going to be together all summer.
“Love what you’ve done with the place,” I quipped.
He turned to look at the dilapidated resort with me and laughed. “Yeah, I know it doesn’t look like much right now. But the bones are good. I’m pretty confident this is going to be something great.”
“Cool,” I said. I was up for an adventure. The flight and long drive up the mountain had given me time to think, and it felt like this was a next phase in my life. A new door opening. To reveal a really run-down hotel.
“Come on in, I’ll show you around. And you can say hi to Aubrey.” He grabbed a duffel bag I handed him as I pulled it from the car. “You remember my sister, right?”
“Kind of? She was like twelve, I think.”
“Yeah, she was twelve. But now she’s twenty-three.” He led me through the big doors of the building and into a high-ceilinged space that must once have been beautiful. I could see how it might be again, with the right attention.
“This is all yours?” I asked him as he led me to an elevator and we stepped inside.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s either a blessing or a curse, I guess. But it came right when I really needed a focus, and so I’m going with blessing.”
“You guys both staying here then?”
“Yeah, Aubrey was just finishing school, and instead of looking for a job, I convinced her to come back here. Wasn’t a hard sell. She’s always loved it here.”
We stepped out of the elevator and into a hallway where half the carpet had been pulled from the floor and lay in tatters at the sides of the wide space. Ornate chandeliers lit the way down the long corridor, half the bulbs dark.
“Set you up in a room down here,” Archie told me, leading me along the hall. Eventually, we stopped outside a large set of double doors. “This room is on the corner. Awesome views. Might still need a little work, but it’ll be good for now, I think.” He unlocked the door and handed me the old-fashioned metal key as we stepped inside.
I dropped my bag and walked into the space. This room had clearly been one of the higher end accommodations. I saw three doorways leading off from the central space, which held a long dining table, a living area with low couches situated in front of sweeping windows looking out on the mountains, and a little kitchenette. “Nice,” I said, grinning at my friend. “This is the nicest place I’ve ever stayed, if you don’t count the holes in the furniture and the way the rug is kind of half-eaten over there in the corner.”
“One day, my friend, we’ll get thousands a night for this room.” Archie smiled, and I could almost picture the place fixed up.
As I looked around my new home, which was a two-bedroom suite with a king-sized canopy bed in one room and a second space that had been turned into some kind office, I felt a sense of rightness. The lingering sadness over Amberlynn and her absence from my life fluttered around inside me, but they were overshadowed by the potential of a new adventure, and this was certainly going to be an adventure.
“Hey,” a voice came from the doorway to the suite, and I turned to find a woman leaning against the frame, her arms crossed over her chest and a little smile on her face.
“Hey,” I managed, though something about the way she gazed at me had me a little off balance.
“You remember my sister, Aubrey.” Archie walked over and pulled the woman into a rough hug and then proceeded to give her a noogie. She responded by performing some kind of maneuver I’d only seen previously in kung fu movies, but it happened fast, and she executed it so adeptly that Archie was on his back on the floor in a matter of seconds.
“Remind me never to challenge you to a fight,” I said. I reached out to shake her hand over Archie’s gasping body.
“Don’t manhandle me, and we should be fine,” she said. Her voice was raspy but feminine, and I was intrigued by her total self-possession, her clear take-no-prisoners attitude. She wore tight jeans tucked into sturdy looking hiking boots