Saving Home. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ as she needed it. More than that, he had offered the woman hope.

      Twenty-five years later, Dorothy was still living and working at the inn. Along the way, she had become part of the family in every sense of the word.

      Seeing Andy, the woman looked at her with concern. “Is Alex all right? She was a little pale when she left here.”

      “Alex is pale. But I think she’s just very impatient to have all this behind her,” Andy confided.

      Dorothy chuckled under her breath. “You’re probably right.” She tucked the well-worn paperback novel she’d been reading back into the oversized pocket of her apron. She didn’t like being idle for long. “What can I do for you?”

      “It’s what I can do for you,” Andy corrected her. “I’m here to take over the desk.”

      Had this been in the middle of the morning, she would have quickly relinquished the duty.

      “If you have something else you need to do, I can stay here a little longer,” Dorothy said. “I don’t mind. All the beds are made, the rooms are cleaned.”

      They were almost booked up, which meant that most of the various rooms and suites were filled.

      “I don’t know how you do it, Dorothy.” Andy shook her head. “Anyone else would still be making beds. If I ever move away, I’m taking you with me.”

      “Are you?” Dorothy asked before clarifying, “Moving away?”

      “Maybe,” Andy replied.

      Wasn’t that what people did after graduation? Moved away? Of course, none of her sisters had. They’d just become integrated into the business of running the inn. Alex handled bookings and the business end, Cris manned the kitchen and Stevi did the on-site event planning.

      With her future in a state of flux, Andy shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Everything’s such a big question mark.”

      “You have one semester to go before you graduate.” It wasn’t a question. Dorothy kept close tabs on everything that went on in the lives of the family she’d adopted. The family that had taken her in when she most needed to attach herself to something solid. She was certain that Richard, and subsequently his daughters, had saved her life. As far as she was concerned, her life was theirs.

      “I know,” Andy replied. Even to her own ears, her tone didn’t reflect an eagerness to get her degree and get on with her life. Her voice sounded rather hollow and empty.

      “It’s only natural to be confused, dear, frightened of what lies ahead of you in the next few months and years.” Dorothy gave her a heartening smile. “Feeling that way, Andy, doesn’t mean that you’re going crazy.”

      Andy’s eyes widened. “How did you know?” she asked incredulously.

      “Because almost everyone goes through that—if they’re lucky. The future can be a scary place.”

      “Lucky?” How could feeling this nameless confusion be considered lucky?

      “Yes. The ones who aren’t lucky, who don’t feel scared, are the ones whose future has been dictated and sewn up for them right from the moment they first drew breath. They’re the ones whose choices are limited and whose options are nonexistent.”

      Andy considered what she’d said. “Put that way, I guess I am lucky.”

      “Absolutely,” Dorothy confirmed with a good measure of enthusiasm. “The whole world is opening up for you, Andy. You can be anything you want to be.”

      “Anything, huh?” Andy asked, a touch of mischief shimmering in her eyes. “What if I want to be a six-foot-tall, skinny brunette model?”

      “You can be almost anything you want to be,” Dorothy amended without skipping a beat. Twenty-five years in the family had taught the woman to be ready for anything.

      Andy laughed, brushing her lips against the housekeeper’s soft cheek. “I love you, Dorothy.”

      The housekeeper looked immensely pleased. She’d heard this declaration from the girls more than once. However, each time was special, as touching for her as the very first time she had ever heard the words.

      Andy, barely a toddler, had been the first to say I love you. They were grown women now, but they were her grown women even if she didn’t share a surname or their blood.

      “I love you right back,” Dorothy told her, slipping off Wyatt’s stool. “Remember, call me if you need anything.”

      “Don’t I always?” Andy asked innocently.

      Dorothy snorted in response. “You’re just as stubborn as your sisters so, no, I’m sure you don’t.”

      “I’ll work on that,” Andy promised, and then a thought hit her. “Okay, here’s something you can do for me—and I’d really appreciate it if you did.”

      “I’m listening.”

      “I want you to quietly look in on Dad,” Andy told her.

      “Because?” Dorothy asked.

      Andy shrugged, knowing that the request sounded a little strange—maybe she was worrying for nothing. But having Dorothy confirm that would go a long way toward making her feel better. “Just to see if he’s okay.”

      Dorothy cocked her head, scrutinizing her. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

      Andy shrugged again. “Something is off about Dad. He’s slowed down lately, like there’s some big rock pressing down on him, taking the zip out of his step.”

      Dorothy smiled indulgently. “It’s called getting older, dear.”

      “Maybe,” Andy said. But she really didn’t believe it. Granted, her father could never have been accused of being an athletic go-getter. He certainly wasn’t anywhere near as full of life as Alex and Stevi. Still, her father had always been slow but steady, like the tortoise in the fable.

      “But I’d feel better if you peeked in on him,” Andy said. She gave Dorothy a plaintive look, one that had never failed to melt the housekeeper’s kind heart.

      As if Dorothy could ever say no to any of them. She nodded. “Consider him peeked in on,” she said as she left reception and went in search of Andy’s father.

      There were no new guests checking in and, according to the roster, there wouldn’t be any arriving until around noon the next day.

      It took Andy all of about thirty seconds to remember Cris’s comment about the Christmas tree needing more decorations on the one side.

      That was easy enough to do, she thought. And while she enjoyed the camaraderie of decorating the tree with everyone else in the family, there were times when she savored doing things alone.

      This felt as if she was carving out a niche for herself. Okay, it was only a niche partially filled with decorations and a couple of barren branches belonging to a Scotch pine. But it was her СКАЧАТЬ