Page 84 of Boston
But she swept her phone off the table and hid it under the table as she swiped it on and navigated to Boston’s text.
She grinned that he’d figured out her favorite place, and as she started to respond, a picture popped up.
Boston, in all his blond-haired, blue-eyed glory, shone with pure joy and a great big ole cowboy smile. He stood with a man a couple of inches taller than him, thicker through the shoulder, and beamed out just as much happiness as his cousin—but Cash was made of midnight and darkness in stark contrast to Boston’s lighter features.
“He made it,” Cora whispered to herself, and she deleted off what she’d started to respond with. Instead, she sent,Hottest cowboys in Wyoming!
Then she added:And you’re the winner! It’s Little Brown Bear Stream, and once I’m done with this scheduling meeting, we’ll both know our schedules for July, so we can put a date on the calendar for when we can go.
Boston didn’t reply, and Cora looked up so she could focus on the meeting. He’d told her he wanted to focus on Cash, that he suspected something major was going on with him, and Cora wanted to respect his space and desire to be there for his cousin.
They had lunch plans in a couple of days, and Cora had plenty to keep her busy until then. Heck, for the rest of her life, and she reminded herself that summertime was the busiest time at the lodge. Once the weather cooled and the snow fell, she’d be grateful to keep the rooms and cabins booked.
Feast or famine, her father had always said.
“Okay,” Reese said as he stood and unrolled the largest piece of paper Cora had ever seen. She blinked at it. “Let’s assign people to our adventures, managers to our shifts, and go over the time-off requests.”
Cora knew then that this meeting had just begun, and she suppressed a sigh as she got to her feet. “Okay,” she said. “Tell me how this works.”
Jana got to her feet too, as did Will. He handed her a handful of stickers. Cora looked down and found names had been printed on labels. In fact, Boston stared up at her, and she jerked her eyes to Will.
“It goes pretty fast. For example….” He leaned over and unpeeled the first sticker. “We know Anne goes in the first management slot for the main kitchen on Mondays….” He put the name there. “Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.”
“And Jenni goes there on Thursdays and Sundays,” Jana said, peeling off her stickers and adding them to the chart, which listed their restaurants, information desk, spa, fitness center, the front desk, concierge counter, events, and outdoor adventures.
Cora once again looked at the stickers in her hand. Boston would obviously only go into one of those slots, and she watched and listened as more chefs, their managers and assistant managers, and team leads got assigned to various operations around the lodge and resort.
When one of them had requested time off, others got moved into their spots, and Will wrote new names on blank stickers.
“All right,” Jana said, consulting her clipboard. “We have three weddings this month, and Julie is handling one.”
Will found a sticker and peeled it. “Which one?”
“The Martins.” Jana looked up and waited while Will put Julie’s name there. “Boston is on the Hamilton wedding, and the Frost anniversary party. They specifically requested him.”
Cora smiled, because she’d personally request Boston too. Everyone looked at her, and Cora startled. “Oh, right.” She practically ripped the sticker off the label. “I have Boston.”
She found the Hamilton wedding on July twenty-fifth and put the sticker there, then the Frost anniversary party the very next day. “Those are back-to-back,” she said. “Is that a concern?”
Cora peered around at the others, and Jana shook her head. “Maybe for someone else, but not Boston. He’ll have the wedding details done already, and he can reach out to confirm things with the Frosts at the beginning of next week.”
Cora nodded and Reese added someone to the third wedding, a woman named Theresa who Cora either hadn’t met yet or couldn’t remember meeting.
“All right.” He sighed. “Now for the outdoor adventures. I’m a little worried that we might need to hire another guide to handle everything we booked this month.”
Jana put one fingernail in her mouth and bit. “I told you guys at the beginning of last month not to open up those extra waterfall hikes.”
“They’re so popular, though,” Will said. “And there’s no way we can possibly list, interview, and hire someone, then train them, before these happen.”
“Do we have anyone who requested time off?” Reese asked, and he flipped open a folder and started pulling out pink papers. Cora had learned those were the time-off request forms, and they’d been pink since her mother had taken over after her father’s death. Before that, he’d had them printed on canary yellow paper.
“Let’s see.” Reese laid out the four papers. “Starla is out the week of the twenty-first. Her sister is getting married in Florida.” He looked at the chart. “She’ll be gone from Sunday to Sunday.”
Will whistled and said, “Okay, let’s fill the week first.”
“Wait.” Reese listed three more people who had requested time off, and there was only two days where two people would be gone. “Let’s do those two days first.”
“Cooper can handle the ATV tour,” Will said. “Because we need Boston on the family horseback riding excursion. Coop is not great with children and animals together.”
