Page 34 of In Spades

“I was thinking,” she said, pausing to giggle. “That you smell the way I think Hugh Jackman smells.”

I laughed. “Is that a good thing?”

“Yeah, that’s a good thing.”

As much as I didn’t want this to end, I glanced at the time and offered my hand as she got up. “You should probably head back. I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

She dusted off her dark green pants and took my hand, slipping her fingers between mine. We strolled back toward the courtyard together in silence. After a moment, she looked up at me, opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and looked down at her feet.

“Everything oka?—”

“I’m scared that, uh—shit,” Kristin said abruptly, pausing as her eyes welled up. Her grip on my hand tightened as she exhaled sharply. “I’m scared I’m going to lose my job.”

My mind fumbled over how to respond. Her sudden vulnerability caught me off guard, and I didn’t want to say something to fuck it up. Chase’s warning echoed in my mind.

Kristin’s a private person. If she decides to open up to you, don’t shit all over it.

I cleared my throat. “Kristin, that—I don’t understand? You’re amazing at what you do. Why would you think that?”

“Some big holding company bought the inn a few weeks ago.”

Fuck. My back stiffened. How much did she know?

“Everything’s up in the air, and I don’t know if I’ll still have a job if they decide to bring in new staff.” She looked up at me and smiled sadly. “That’s what was bothering this morning.”

“Wow, that sucks,” I said gently, offering a sympathetic smile to mask the conflict in my mind. “That’s gotta be hard to deal with.”

“It’s the way my life goes, I guess,” she said, voice tinged with regret. “I just don’t know what I’ll do when it happens.”

“Kristin—” I cut myself off, unsure of what to say next. Everything inside of me wanted to put her mind at ease—to make her feel safe. But I knew I couldn’t do that.

Not yet, at least.

But I needed to say something. “Thank you.”

She stopped walking and looked up at me, confused. “For what?”

I turned to her and smiled. “For telling me what’s on your mind. It’s not fair that you’re going through that. I wish I could fix it for you. I’m sorry.”

She squeezed my hand. “Thank you for saying that. But there’s no need for you to be sorry. You didn’t cause any of this.”

Shit. Unease boiled inside of me. It’s like she knew, and she was testing me.

I scrubbed along my jaw with my free hand, quickly weighing my options. Fuck. My hands were tied.

Revealing anything too soon would’ve put more than one job at risk. It would’ve only made things worse for Kristin. I’d have to find a way to make her understand when the time came. But right now I needed to gauge how much information had been shared with the staff. It was supposed to be zero.

I did my best to sound relaxed. “How, uh—how much do you know about the sale? Are you getting new management?”

“Not much. Most of what I know is from Hannah Jane, only because her boyfriend was involved with the sale. Isaac can’t really tell us any specifics, though. Apparently, there were a lot of non-disclosure agreements with the whole deal—or something like that.”

“Isaac?” I asked as we approached the table. Oh, fuck.

I grabbed the bags from lunch and tried to hide my panic.

She nodded. “Yeah, Isaac Lawson—that’s Hannah Jane’s boyfriend. You know, like, the Isaac Lawson. He lives here with her, but he travels a lot.”

“Holy shit,” I croaked, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

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