Page 14 of Heart of Stone
Danielle’s eyes roamed over my face in a way that made me think she was having thoughts about the situation that she didn’t intend to share. I was curious about them but too exhausted to demand answers. Whatever those thoughts were, I never learned, because she asked, “So, he said he didn’t want you to decorate his cabin, and you threw an ice pack at him?”
“More or less,” I said as a smile crept onto my face. “He used the fact that I’d fallen and hurt myself to insult me first, so I told him he could be a miserable jerk all he wanted but that he wasn’t going to steal my joy. Then, I walked off to the next cabin. And before I finished up last night, I put an autumn wreath with a big, fat turkey in the middle of it on his door.”
Her face lit up as she tried to stifle the laughter. “So, he was a grump, you put him in his place, and eventually, you made a peace offering with a wreath?”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “That about sums it up.”
“I don’t think that means you’re going to need to look for a new job,” she said, her tone confident.
I sighed and reasoned, “I don’t think you’ve spent enough time with Reid Erickson to make that kind of statement.”
She cocked a brow, one half of her mouth quirking. “And you have?”
Danielle didn’t need to come out and tell me what had been going through her mind before, because seeing that look on her face now, I knew. She thought I liked the guy. “You can get that thought out of your head right now. I’ve spent more time withhim than you, because it’s mostly been a requirement of my job. If I still have one, if he doesn’t fire me on Monday morning.”
“He’s not going to fire you. I don’t even think he has that kind of authority.”
“Reid hates my guts, Danielle. It’s awful.”
This wasn’t so much about Reid as it was about me. With one big exception, I didn’t generally experience people who truly hated me. I didn’t expect I’d be everyone’s cup of tea, but Reid went out of his way to be callous toward me.
“But he came to your aid when you were injured,” she argued. “If he hated you, he wouldn’t have even opened the door.”
“Unless he thought I was going to file a lawsuit,” I countered. After letting out a big breath, I said, “I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t be here.”
My friend and I sat in silence for a few minutes, my thoughts running wild with the potential job loss I was facing. After some time, Danielle said, “I don’t think you have anything to be concerned about, especially when he’s only here temporarily. But if you truly believe that Reid has the power to fire you, and you think he’d actually do it, I suggest you make it impossible for that to happen.”
“And how would you suggest I do that?”
A grin spread across her face. “Make it so Barrett would step in if his son ever made such a foolish decision. That man adores you. Sylvia does, too.”
“I feel the same about them. And I get the distinct feeling Reid knows that.”
“So… like I said, make it impossible for Reid to make such a grave error in judgment. And torment him a little along the way.”
My brows shot up. “Torment him?”
Danielle’s head tilted to the side. “If he’s as grumpy as you say, I suggest you continue to be the very opposite. Prove tohim that he’s not going to steal your joy and do things like you did last night with the wreath. Bathe him in your happiness and carefree attitude. It’d probably drive him crazy.”
Bathe him in my happiness…
It wasn’t a bad idea.
Because what could he do then? If he decided to fire me, he’d have to offer an explanation of why. I’d demand an answer—I suspected his father might do the same. Would Reid simply say that I was too pleasant, and he couldn’t handle it?
Oh, this was going to be fun.
And Danielle’s suggestion about making it so Barrett would step in if Reid did something stupid was a great one. I’d never pretend to be anyone that I wasn’t—and I truly adored Barrett and Sylvia—so it wouldn’t be difficult. But more than that, I owed them both tremendously for what they’d done for me. Reid didn’t have the slightest clue what this place meant to me. It truly was a haven.
“You’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for, you know that?”
Danielle beamed at me. “I know. I’m freezing my ass off here, just so I can watch you throw rocks into the water.”
I rolled my eyes. She was just bitter because I’d repeatedly tried to teach her how to skip stones, but she never quite got the hang of it.
“For what it’s worth, Danielle, you deserve to have what you want. If Stephen isn’t prepared to give you that before expecting you to just move in with him, I say you stick to your guns and wait to move in.”
Her expression turned solemn. “What if he isn’t ready for marriage?”
