Page 54 of High Side
“If I could do anything else, I would.” He winked at her. “I’m just an outdoor kind of guy.”
“I hear that.” They worked together to mark off the safety checklist, then moved on to the visual inspection of the rafts.
“So who do you think did this?”
Kylie gave that the thought it deserved, but she came up blank. “I don’t know, man. I really don’t. I’ve gone through possibles, and we had a few wash out of training this year, but this speaks to more ambition than I thought they had.”
“Ditto. Well, I’ll keep an eye out.”
Kylie handed Joe back the clipboard. “I will too. Doughnuts in the staff room if you want one before guests arrive.” It was going to be business as usual, even if they were all a little wigged.
“Yum. I’ll spread the word.”
Kylie nodded, heading out, and Brittany was pulling up when she walked across the parking lot. So she waited for her, grinning as Brit bounced over to give her a kiss.
“You let me sleep in.”
“I did. You were up late. Surfing the web?”
“Taking an online class, actually.” Brittany chewed on her lower lip, a sure sign that she was thinking too hard. “My old school has a community education online thing.”
Kylie tilted her head. “Yeah? What kind of class?”
“It’s a hospitality course. I think it’s meant for, like, people who want to open a B&B or something, so it’s pretty basic, but it seemed like a good idea.”
Shit, Brittany had just graduated, and she was still taking classes? That was some go-getter attitude. “Well, you should have said, honey. I wouldn’t have been so pushy about, uh, certain activities last night.”
Brittany’s cheeks pinked. “Like I was going to say no to that.”
“Well, I’m glad of it.” She winked over and gave Brit a quick hug. “If you want to talk about the course, it sounds interesting.”
God knew, she was in the hospitality business.
“Cool. Thanks. I might, at that. I have to write a big proposal thing by the end of the course, and I might need help coming up with something. Everything good this morning?”
“Looks like it, yeah.” Kylie shrugged. “The boss has the insurance guys coming, but Joe and I checked, and the equipment all looks good.” She felt her cheeks heat and she hated it. “It was hard to face Liz this morning.”
“Yeah? She wasn’t mean, was she?” Brit frowned, and Kylie thought she was ready to leap to her defense.
“Not even a little bit. That almost was worse. She was proud of me.”
“Why is that bad?” Now Brit’s frown deepened. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No. No, but I feel so guilty, like I should have caught him.”
Brittany scoffed. “The only way you would have known was if the cameras had motion sensors, and that would drive you all nuts. Deer would set it off. And people come and go all day.”
“All day long,” Kylie admitted. Brit did have a good head on her shoulders.
“Now, if Liz and Lupe can afford monitored cameras, then if someone tried to do that spray paint thing again, then they would get an alert.”
“I’ll ask about that.” Couldn’t hurt. It had to be cheaper than paying for all the repairs, right?
“Awesome. Give me another kiss so I can get to work.” Brittany lifted her face, and Kylie did just as she was asked. She kissed that soft, warm mouth, feeling like she and Brit were really on the same page, like they were a matched set.
“Have a good day, honey. Want pizza for supper tonight?”
“Sounds great.” Brit waved and headed off, while she worked her way back to the office. She would put a proposal about the cameras, and about a better set of walkie-talkies to communicate across the ever-growing compound, in an email.
