Page 67 of Beauty and the Beard

“Okay, we have the satellite on the roof and with the tower above the tree line, you should have a fairly reliable and stable connection for the internet and cell phones now.” He offers his hand to shake. “Welcome to the 21st century.” He laughs while I stare at all the equipment that now clutters my desk instead ofpaper. I may have gone a wee bit overboard in the technology department.

“It will save me from paper cuts, right? And hopefully free up time since I’m told a computer program is the way to go with bookkeeping these days.”

The guy snorts and shakes his head.

“Now, with the satellite, you also get to have a cell phone tower signal. We have that set to bounce here for you, too.” He takes out his cell phone and waits a second before a smile splits his face. “Ah-ha! You now get 3 bars of service. That’s not too shabby for up here.”

I’ll take his word for it.

“Um, okay… could you help me figure this all out? You said I can connect the business through my phone? And get internet… on my phone?”

Snorting, he asks me to pass him the cell phone I bought two days ago along with the laptop, printer, router, and whatever the hell he had to install on my roof.

He talks the whole time about what he’s doing and how it works, but it’s honestly over my head. Worst case, I can get Perry over here to explain it when needed. He knows how to do all this techy shit.

When the man finally has me all set up and leaves, I stare at the laptop like it’s a bomb ready to go off. He said I could take this upstairs and connect through Wi-Fi. Which means this list of passwords will need to come with me upstairs too.

Ignoring all the commotion for the approaching dinner service, I tuck the laptop, phone, and passwords under my arm and head up to my suite through the kitchen.

Millie gives me a nod and says nothing, which I’m grateful for. She likely knows what’s driving my odd behaviour.

Once in my space, I heave a sigh of relief and collapse on the love seat.

Ever since the encounter with the loon at the park, I’ve been laser focused. To enjoy life and to move ahead. But it’s tricky with Sasha.

He’s so guarded. Far more than I ever was and with good reason. But it’s been three days since I’ve heard his voice or seen his face. He left me his number for a reason. I wanted to video call, but Perry explained I would need to set up social media and a bunch of other stuff I wasn’t keen on.

So I’m going the old-fashioned way and phoning him.

It rings four, five, six times before his voice mail picks up and when I hear his sweet voice, I sigh like a boy with a crush. The tone sounds and I stammer out a message.

“Um, hi. Sasha. It’s me. Leaf. I’m leaving a message. Of course I am. Anyway, I… I miss you and I hope you call me back.” I rattle off my number and say some other lame thing to end the call.

Feeling deflated that he didn’t answer, I open the laptop, intent on figuring out all this social media stuff Perry told me about.

My phone rings before I get very far.

And it’s Sasha.

Fumbling around, swiping to answer and silently cursing for a simpler phone, I hear his voice.

“Leaf! You got a cell phone?”

“Hello to you too, beautiful.”

“Sorry, I just… I didn’t think you had a cell. And… hi, I miss you too.”

“I got it two days ago. And the guy was just here setting me up with, uh, a router and stuff. So the lodge has Wi-Fi and a decent cell signal now.”

“Wow. That’s very modern of you. What changed?”

I consider the best way to answer that and decide to go with the truth.

“I want to stay in touch with you. And also, I hate all the paper cuts I get when I do the books every month.” Swallowing hard, I dare to say what I’ve been thinking about before he even left my bed. “But mostly because I hope it persuades you to come back.”

I know he’s there because I can hear him sniffle.

“Please tell me what it is, Sasha.”

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