was thankful for because it got her mind off Theo and the fact he hadn’t even tried to make contact. She couldn’t believe how much they’d accomplished. After Judd had fixed the window he’d power washed the cabins, and when the painters had tidied up the blemishes with fresh stain, they’d left them all a gorgeous natural wood, their metal roofs with the new greenery and lights they’d added making them look like they were dressed up for Christmas.
Lila and Eleanor used Judd’s farm truck to bring back a five-foot Christmas tree for every cabin porch, loading each one up with sparkling white lights and red ribbon. Judd had offered them free of charge to say thank you to Lila for watching Rex. They’d also placed an evergreen wreath on every door and old silver farm buckets of pinecones lining each step.
Christmas music rang out over the hills. Eleanor had dug out speakers that had been used for events in the cabins’ heyday, and they’d just finished getting them all hooked back up. The grounds were a blanket of white, the twinkling lights on all the porches like stars in the night sky. They’d shoveled all the walkways and replaced the gravel, lining each one with topiaries, their buttery glow meandering up and down the hills.
“It’s amazing,” Lila said, taking it all in.
They’d both worked so hard. While Lila had been busy weeding, laying new mulch in the freezing cold, and coordinating the work on the outsides, Eleanor had been inside the cabins, showing the decorators where to focus their attention and cleaning the carpets. Lila had spent some of her money to buy every cabin a tiny Christmas tree for the interior in addition to the full-size ones on the porches, and she’d decorated each one with red beads and white snowflake ornaments, still hoping to push the PR and get a few new lodgers in for the holiday season. Trudy and Rex had come over throughout the week to help Eleanor with the interiors and Judd had been on duty outside.
“It takes the sting off for a minute, doesn’t it?” Eleanor said, rubbing her hands together as she admired the scene.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we’ve gotten a good start, but we still don’t have any revenue coming in. I have to cover my personal expenses, like food and healthcare. There’re things like merchant services and the website to pay quarterly; kitchen equipment, new linens for every cabin, business supplies, entertainment—we’ve made it look great, but we haven’t scratched the surface with the rest of it. The thought of selling it now and getting your money back has crossed my mind…”
Lila stared at her aghast, uneasiness swelling in her gut. “Now that we’ve got the cabins mostly done, we can take a look at the business side of things and make a plan.”
“It’s all a bit overwhelming. Chester used to take care of all that.” She fluttered her hands in the air. “But I won’t dwell on it now. We both need to get cleaned up and rest so we can enjoy the beautiful work we’ve done.”
“Maybe we’ll get a Christmas surprise somehow,” Lila said, trying to be hopeful. “Christmas is full of them, right?”
Eleanor raised her eyebrows and smiled. “You never know!”
Lila was on the sofa, curled up with the afghan, after a long hot bath. She’d soaked in the citrus and aloe bubble bath Piper had left, the zesty scent of it still on her skin. She’d spent the whole time thinking long and hard about what she really wanted in life. What she’d loved about working with Theo was getting to talk to all the customers. She kept wondering if there was some place here where she could do that and be around people, make them feel like they were family. And her mind kept coming back to Fireside Cabins.
She’d started a fire and finished her leftover bowl of stew while she researched on her iPad just to see what it took to run a property like Fireside Cabins. It was an absolutely crazy idea—she had no background in how to run an inn—but somehow she felt compelled to do it. Even if Eleanor were up for it, could Lila somehow take it over? Maybe get a business loan to see them through? Would she be approved for something like that? Probably not. Especially with no job. She could ask her friends to pitch in money… They couldn’t sustain it, though. And she would never really