He won.
But he lost.
And so did I.
Because the next day, before I got up, he was gone, but he left behind three hundred-dollar-bills on my registration book, taking away the kindness I’d given him, seeing as he paid for it.
And two months later, when he came back, Christmas had not changed him. He rented cabin eleven. He paid in cash. He spoke few words. After he checked in, I barely saw him. And when he checked out, he shoved the key through the mail slot on my door.
Three months after that, more of the same.
Six months after that, the same.
This lasted for four years.
Four.
I told myself I wasn’t doing it, but I kept cabin eleven open as best I could, just in case. It was always the last cabin I rented when I was full up.
And I did it so every time he came—not constant, but consistent—the only thing I had to give him was open for me to give.
* * * * *
That was the way it was.
And that was the way it remained.
Until that night.
That night that would be the best night by far in my entire life.
A night that would also be the worst thing that ever happened to me.
Chapter Four
Honey
My eyes opened the instant I heard the loud music start.
I knew.
I knew by the looks of the family there was going to be trouble.
Three boys, all the same age, obviously not brothers and they couldn’t be a day older than eighteen.
Two parents in a fancy Escalade, the boys in a not quite as fancy Navigator. Two parents that checked them in to a cabin and I hadn’t seen them since. Checked them in because they knew no way in hell the proprietress of kickass cabins in the Colorado Mountains would let three underage boys itching for spring break fun stay alone in one of her cabins. Checked them in and took off, probably to check in to their own fancy condo closer to the slopes.
Checked them in and left them to their spring break to do what those boys clearly, by their car and clothes and snowboards and attitudes, felt entitled to do.
That being whatever the heck they wanted.
It had been so far, so good. Three days and they were mostly not there. No noise. SUV gone. More than likely hitting the slopes and carousing elsewhere.
I’d gone to bed and done it after checking the lot.
When I did, they were gone.
Now I knew they were back.