Touching Stars (13 page)

He remembered the importance of mastering each of those moments, but they seemed like a century ago.

“It’s not very high,” Dillon called down hopefully. “I could give you a hand once you get to the top.”

“What…I…want…” Eric took a deep breath. He was just inches from the ladder now, and he grasped it and looked up. The roof seemed to sway, and Dillon with it. “What I want is for you to get down. Like I told you to a little while ago. Only I want you to do it right this minute. No more talking. Get down!”

Dillon’s face fell. He looked as if Eric had slapped him.

“Yeah, sure.” He slid over to the ladder, grabbed it, and with one lithe motion swung himself around and onto the top rung. At the bottom he checked for the ground below him, found it with his foot and in a second had both feet on the ground again. Then, without another word, he turned and took off for the carriage house.

Eric watched him disappear into the family home.

“Strike two, Fortman.” Eric hoped he didn’t run into Jared in the next few hours. He was very afraid he was on the verge of his third and final out with his sons.

The moment she returned from shopping for groceries, Gayle called Cissy to set up an interview, and Cissy volunteered to come that afternoon. Considering that she had nearly forgotten the young woman, Gayle was more than willing to juggle her own schedule to accommodate her.

Cissy arrived when Gayle was in the process of checking in new guests. She quietly explored the downstairs rooms as Gayle completed the registration process and took care of payment. Experience had taught her that getting the money up front saved a number of hassles in the long run.

Gayle asked Cissy to wait a bit longer while she showed the guests upstairs. The Blazing Star was the inn’s largest room, with natural maple furniture, sage-green walls and an elaborate Blazing Star quilt of peach, sky-blue and green that took up the wall farthest from the windows. She explained where they could find anything they needed, when breakfast was served, and checked once more to be certain there were no food allergies. She recommended several restaurant choices for dinner and a short hike to see the countryside. Then, the moment she sensed all questions had been answered, she wished the couple a good stay and left.

She was sidetracked in the hallway by one of the new housekeepers, a particularly meticulous woman, who had questions about the way Gayle wanted the wastebaskets cleaned—simply dumped and lined with a new plastic bag, or washed out and dried. That led to a discussion about removing and replacing the fading flowers in each room. Since Gayle had some questions herself about how well the environmentally friendly cleaning products she had discovered were working, she was gone longer than she’d expected.

She found Cissy in the morning room examining the Touching Stars quilt. Every day since the guests had returned, two quilters had arrived to quilt. So far none of the guests had tried their hands at it, but everyone had been interested in the process.

“Thinking about taking a stitch or two?” Gayle asked from the doorway.

“Ms. Henry’s made a quilter out of me, but my stitches still aren’t small enough to suit her.”

“You’re welcome to work on this one anytime.”

“I like the way the rooms are laid out here,” Cissy said. “If I was staying at the inn, I’d feel like I was right at home, only with somebody taking care of me, instead of me taking care of them.”

“That’s exactly the way I want people to feel. Like they’re part of our family, only they don’t have to lift a finger.”

“I noticed you ask people to pay when they come in. Do you have information printed up that you send in advance? So they know?”

The question was a good one. Gayle answered as they walked back into the reception area and through it to the tiny office. Cissy followed with other, equally thoughtful questions, and Gayle was impressed. So far the only job candidate who had taken this kind of initiative was Paula, the woman Gayle had hired.

“I’m not a fan of answering machines,” Gayle said at her desk, “but sometimes nobody’s around to answer the telephone. So any time we see this light flashing, we call back immediately. I’d much rather have someone answering, though. I don’t think it looks good for us if no one is here to catch calls. It gives guests the idea that they’ll be on their own if they stay at the inn.”

Cissy trailed a finger over the computer keyboard. “I can understand that.”

“There’s a lot of information we get and give in that first phone call. That would be one of the things you’d have to learn.” Gayle held up a laminated sheet of typing paper. “But I made a cheat sheet that we keep by the phone at all times. We all use it. It has everything.” She handed it to Cissy to peruse.

“That’s a good idea. I can see it would be easy to forget something or other.”

Gayle gave a quick recital of the things she required. “We’ve got calendars all over the house, but we never take a reservation unless we’re looking at this one. Double booking is an inn’s worst nightmare, so this calendar is always up to date. We repeat all the information in a format that makes it impossible for guests to misunderstand. We ask if they’d like to put it on their credit card, and if not, we explain our deposit requirements.” She continued to tick off the finer points as Cissy nodded.

A woman’s voice drifted down the stairwell. “Miss Fortman?”

Gayle recognized the housekeeper. “There must be another question. I’m sorry, do you mind waiting a little longer?”

“I cleared the whole afternoon,” Cissy said.

Gayle fled up the stairs to find out what the latest problem might be.

She was immersed in a conversation about what to do with half-used toiletries, and whether she liked the end of the toilet paper folded into a point, when the telephone rang. She was tempted to abandon the conversation and answer the line in the housekeeper’s office at the hall’s end, but finishing and getting back to Cissy seemed more important. They completed the newest round of instructions, and Gayle retreated downstairs.

When she entered the office Cissy was on the telephone, nodding, as she spoke. She was concentrating so hard she didn’t hear Gayle approach.

“I can certainly understand why you want to visit our area,” Cissy was saying. “And the inn’s a perfect place for families to gather. Views of the mountains, the river right in our front yard. You’ll love it. There’s so much to do and see.”

As Gayle watched, Cissy made notes on the pad Gayle always kept by the phone. “So as I understand this you’ll need three rooms, and from what you’ve seen on the Web site you’d prefer the Blazing Star, the Mountain Star and the Seven Sisters rooms? Do you have any questions about them?” She waited before she spoke. “Good, and you noted that the Blazing Star room has a whirlpool bathtub and private porch? Yes, the porch will be a wonderful place to gather the family.”

Cissy listened and made more notes.

“Yes, they’re all available for those nights.” As Gayle waited unseen, Cissy held up the cheat sheet she had been using and proceeded to read off the correct room rates with tax included. “Good. And you’ll be checking in after three on Friday the fourteenth and checking out before noon on Monday the seventeenth of July. That will be two people in each room, correct? And you’ll be putting this on your credit card.”

Cissy carefully wrote down a long string of numbers, then asked for the expiration date. “I think we’re about set. I’m going to have Mrs. Fortman, our innkeeper, give you a call just to finalize everything. She’ll want to know if anyone in your family has allergies so she can plan your breakfasts. Just a reminder. We’re a no-smoking inn and unfortunately we can’t allow pets.” She listened and nodded.

“It’s been a pleasure talking to you, too. We’ll look forward to seeing you in July.”

She hung up. When she turned and saw Gayle standing there, she drew back, startled. “Oh, I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t have answered. I don’t know what got into me. But I remembered what you’d said about letting it ring, and before I knew it, I’d picked it up. That information sheet of yours has everything on it, doesn’t it? I took down everything so you’d have it. If I’d known you were there, I would have handed you the phone.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Gayle said. “That was great practice for your new job. Welcome aboard.”

Cissy was flushed with victory, and Gayle gave her a quick hug. By the time the girl left an hour later, they had worked out all the details of scheduling and training. Gayle was absolutely delighted. Cissy was clearly a natural. Besides, anyone who could live with Helen Henry and survive to tell the story should be a shoo-in. Gayle wondered why she hadn’t hired Cissy the moment the young woman had first shown interest.

To celebrate having a full staff, she made herself a cup of tea from the urn of hot water she always kept on the sideboard in the dining room, took an apple from the bowl of fruit beside it and went out to the front porch.

Eric was sitting on the bench at the corner under a whirling ceiling fan. His eyes were closed, and he had a glass of water on the table beside him. But she didn’t think he was dozing. Before she could turn around, he opened his eyes and saw her.

“Am I in the way out here?”

“Of course not.” She balanced the apple in one hand and the tea in the other as she weighed her options. She decided to join him, since it was obvious she’d intended to sit on the porch.

She settled beside him on the bench. “I just hired another staffer. I’m all set for employees now. And Travis has offered me a job catering for the archaeology camp, so this was just in the nick of time.”

“Catering, too? Do you have time for everything?”

“I will now. Jared and Dillon are going to be involved in the camp, and Noah can help me with the meals. I guess it’s about to become a family affair.”

“Have you seen Dillon since you got back from town?”

“He’s over at the house playing video games with Noah. They’re killing monsters. You ought to join them.”

Eric folded his arms and leaned his head against the wall. “I wouldn’t be welcome.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. “Had a bad day?” she asked at last.

“When you married me all those years ago, did you give any serious thought to what kind of father I would be?”

She tried to keep her voice light. “You mean back in the Dark Ages?”

He didn’t smile. “Was it that recent? Seems to me it was more like the dawn of time.”

She’d bought herself a moment or two, but no more. She dunked her tea bag and considered how best to answer. “We were awfully young, Eric. And how could either of us gauge something like that?”

“You
didn’t
think about it.”

“I guess I didn’t see the need. You didn’t torture small animals. You played piggyback with the Rileys’ little boy whenever you got the chance. What was there to know?”

“I’d forgotten about little Tommy Riley. He’s probably working on his MBA about now.”

She didn’t often think about their newlywed apartment in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, or the families who had surrounded them. They’d all been young and poor, but on their way to greater things. She had been blissfully happy.

“What brought this on?” she asked, sticking with the lighter tone. “It’s a little late to decide you’re not father material, isn’t it? We can’t very well give the boys up for adoption. Nobody wants teenagers.”

“I’m failing more miserably than usual.”

She didn’t ask what had happened. This wasn’t about individual mistakes or rejections, and she understood that.

Instead, she tried to help. “Kids react to crises in different ways. The boys have been worried sick about you, but they handle it differently because they’re very different kids. I don’t know why, but Jared seems to feel guilty you were kidnapped, like he should have been there to stop it. I think Noah’s afraid something like this might happen again, so he’s withdrawing. And I guess for the first time in his life Dillon’s aware that bad things really can happen to people he loves. So he’s frantically trying to make the most out of every minute with you.”

“You have them all figured out.” His tone wasn’t quite bitter, but it verged on it.

“It’s natural that I’d understand them, isn’t it? I spend a lot of time with them.”

“Noah seems convinced that every bad thing in the universe from global warming to world hunger can be laid at my door.”

“Noah may well blame you for some things, but I think mostly he’s trying to insulate himself.”

“You’re putting a great spin on this.” Eric smiled a little.

She was encouraged, so she went for broke. “When Noah was, oh, maybe six, he won a parakeet at the school fair. You’ve never seen such a love affair. He even taught him to talk. Then one day he came home from school and the parakeet had died. No telling why, because no bird’s ever been taken care of that well. He was the one who found it, and he’s never had a pet since. Jared kept hamsters until he was sixteen or so, and Dillon’s fond of anything he can keep in an aquarium. Fish, insects—”

“Snakes?”

“I draw the line at snakes. And anything four-footed that a guest might be allergic to or afraid of.”

“And your point?” His eyes were open now, and he was looking at her. She remembered that look. When Eric really paid attention, there wasn’t a molecule in his body that wasn’t engaged in discovering the truth. She felt warmed by the sheer force of it.