Page 28 of Recklessly in Love

“I’ll say,” Mia agrees. “The bakery has never been busier. I’ll need to hire more staff next year to keep up if it’s like that again. My property manager said the B&B was full all week for the first time since we converted it. Gran would be pleased that so many people are staying in her house and learning to love this town.”

“I know you remodeled, but I haven’t had a chance to see it,” I remind her. “It was pretty dated. I bet you had to use a good chunk of the cash Gran left to convert it.”

Mia nods. “Yes, but not nearly all of it. Though the rest will probably go into maintenance and the bakery. Business isn’t always so good, after all.”

Mia smiles in a way I know she thinks is reassuring, but I’m her best friend. And I see the exhaustion under that smile.

As if reading my thoughts, Greg says, “I know I’ve been here for it all, but I never thought about how hard it must’ve been this past year converting your grandmother’s house into a bed and breakfast while starting up your bakery at the same time. How are you doing with all this, Mia?”

Mia smiles sadly. “Honestly? I miss Gran every single day. Sometimes, I swear I can feel her around me. But I think she’d be happy with the changes, and business is better than I expected, in no small part thanks to her.” She lifts her glass again. “To Gran.”

“To Dorothy,” Nate and Greg chime in as I echo Mia’s words, swallowing around the lump in my throat. She was like a grandma to me, too, after all. I shake myself. All this emotion lately is a lot.

“What about you, mountain man?” I ask lightly, turning to Greg. “How’s business at the community center?” The seemingly superficial question is a disguise for my curiosity over what his official day job is really like.

Greg gives me a quizzical look. “How’d you know I own it?”

I raise a brow. “I didn’t; Mia just told me you ran the place. Though I guess I know now. Except, aren’t community centers usually public property?”

“Alpine Ridge is unincorporated,” Greg reminds me. “The only public property is owned by the county, which doesn’t include any actual buildings. Just land, some utility access points, main roads, that sort of thing.”

“Huh,” I reply, wheels turning.

“Anyway, I definitely saw a lot more activity during the festival. Some of our residents live pretty far out, so it was good visibility for the center. I’m hoping we got enough traffic to make an impression so more folks will use the facilities regularly now that they know what’s there.”

I nod and turn to Nate, now curious about how this tiny town works. “And the wellness center? I bet you all are regular business moguls by now with all the festival traffic.”

Nate huffs a laugh. “I wish. I mean, it definitely drives more people looking to get fit after gorging themselves on sweets —” he cuts a playful glance at Mia, who feigns indignation in response, “— but I’m getting more and more folks with actual medical problems that I’m not equipped to deal with.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

He sighs. “I have people coming in with undiagnosed conditions looking for help since the nearest medical facility is anywhere from half an hour to an hour away, depending on where in town they live, and as you know, there’s no urgent care here. Or medical care of any kind, as it were. It kills me to turn them away, knowing I probably could help with my medical background, but I can’t risk the liability, and I sure don’t have everything I’d need to treat patients.”

I’m confused. “But you helped me when I fell during the race. What was different about that?”

Nate shakes his head. “I didn’t do anything any other bystander with first aid training wouldn’t do. I checked you out, then got you to a hospital for scans since you’d lost consciousness. I wasn’t diagnosing or treating you in any formal capacity.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” I allow. “But surely, with the older population base, the town council would prioritize having emergency medical services available? There have to be hundreds of people who live here.”

Mia sighs heavily. “You’d think. And it’s actually a few thousand. But we’re unincorporated, so there’s no established tax base for that kind of thing. No local ambulances, police, fire department, or any other municipal services. It’s crazy. And not helping the town any.”

“Didn’t you say you tried to get the town incorporated?” I ask, recalling an earlier conversation.

Mia nods. “Yep. I went to the town council and everything. They shot me down immediately. They said it would drive up costs, that people choose to live here precisely to avoid those things.”

“Same thing happened to me when I tried,” Greg commiserates.

“Sounds like the town council needs some new blood,” I muse.

Greg shakes his head. “They’ll never go for it, Joanie. We’ve tried everything.”

“If you say so,” I murmur, ideas already taking root.

The conversation moves on as Nate asks Greg about equipment sharing between the wellness practice and the community center, but I don’t miss Mia giving me an assessing look. Like she knows what I’m thinking about doing.

I give her an innocent smile even though I know it won’t fool her. It doesn’t matter. Either way, the town council won’t see me coming. Because if I’m going to stick around and see where things go with my mountain man, I might as well make myself useful. And what better way than to help my friends out? With that thought, I decide that making Alpine Ridge an official town, with all the bells and whistles, just became my new mission.

Thankfully, the conversation soon turns to other topics I can engage in so nobody else catches on to my scheming. For example, Nate and Mia’s wedding plans, when Greg jokingly asks if they wouldn’t rather elope than deal with the hot mess that is the situation with Mia’s parents.

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