Finding Reese (Tremont Lodge Series Book 1) (8 page)

“I need you to sign your life away. It’s a legal requirement, but I’m going to be really weird and ask you
not
to read anything.”

“So, sign away my life and don’t read any of the rules?”

“Pretty much,” says Finn. Well, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you only get one chance at living, so I might as well make it as fun as possible. Next, Finn tells me to close my eyes and gives me directions like,
Lift your right leg. Lift your left leg. Hold out your arms.
And asks me questions like,
Does it feel tight enough? Is anything pinching?
Then he ties a blindfold around my eyes. “Okay, Reese. You’re doing great. Are you scared?” I don’t like not being in control, and it’s unnerving to put your life into the care of a guy who’s virtually a stranger, but something inside stirs excitement and ignites a thrilling sensation that I’ve rarely experienced.

“No, I’m not scared.” I reach for him and grab hold of his arm. He tenses at my touch but moves my hand to his waist.

“Good. Hold on to my waist. We’re going to get into a golf cart.” I follow Finn out a different door than the one we’d entered. We both clank as we move, and I wonder what kind of contraption we are wearing, though the helmet tips me off to some sort of danger. The wind whips through my sweatshirt as we move at a good pace in the golf cart.

When we stop moving, I can feel Finn watching me, his silence speaking volumes, and the hairs on my arms stand up. “Do you trust me?” he asks. I should say
no
. For all I know, everything he
has
told me has been a lie, like Lawson said. But something inside me wants very much to trust him.

“Yes,” I say.

“Get out of the golf cart. When you feel me, take my hand. I want you to follow me. Go slowly, and don’t move anywhere I don’t tell you to go. Understand?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And when I tell you to, you’re going to climb a ladder. Just go slowly and you’ll be fine. Listen for my instructions.”

As I climb the ladder, I can feel my hands sweating as I tighten my grip to keep from falling. From below I hear Finn yelling up to me. “One more step up, Reese. Then stop. Don’t move until I get there.” Finn makes a lot of noise climbing the ladder as he is wearing the same equipment as me.

“Are we going rock climbing?” I ask. “Because I think I’d do that a heck of a lot better with my eyes open.”

Finn laughs. “No, we are not rock climbing. Would you like to do that someday?” My heartbeat quickens again at the thought of going on another adventure with Finn.

“Maybe,” I say. My body is jostled as Finn moves my equipment around.

“Reese, trust me, okay? I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I believe you,” I whisper.

“Okay. Take a step forward on my command. I’ll be with you soon, and then you can take off your blindfold.” I shake my head in understanding. The cold wind makes me shiver—that, or the fear that sits within. “Okay, go.” I step forward and flail for a second as I realize that there is no surface beneath my feet, and I am moving. No, I am flying. I reach my hands out and brush against the branches that stick out from the surrounding trees. The sounds of birds calling to one another amplify through the air. A light rain falling gently on my face makes me feel alive—alive like I’ve never been before, more alive than the most memorable night with a lover. I want to stay here forever. I want to be free. I want to be me. I don’t realize I am crying until I land with a thud, my feet once again finding familiar footing. Finn lands right behind me and is pulling off my blindfold and unchaining my cord from the zipline as fast as his fingers will allow.

“Oh, Reese, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt? Man, I am so sorry. I didn’t think it would hurt. I thought it would….” I blink open my eyes and put my arms around Finn’s neck and bury my head in his chest. He takes a deep breath, his body relaxing beneath my touch.

“It was amazing,” I say. He takes a step back and looks at me with wide eyes.

“But you’re crying.”

“I am?”

“Yes, yes you are.”

“Then I’m crying because that was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” I say. “Thank you.” I lean closer and kiss Finn on the lips. With his lips still on mine, he helps me step out of my safety harness and then removes his own. I have never wanted someone to touch me as I much as I want Finn to touch me right now. I don’t stop to think if it’s the right thing to do, if it’s the smart thing to do. I just want the sensation of being fully alive to last. Finn pulls me closer, his tongue parting my lips as if asking for permission. I answer with the full force of my mouth on his. We’re moving so fast it feels dangerous to lie down on the narrow platform, but that only makes this feel even more right. Finn lowers me to the ground and hovers over me, his breath falling on my neck as the breeze blows droplets of water from the leaves onto my body. He reaches under my sweatshirt and I shudder.

“Reese?”

“Don’t talk, Finn.” I reach for his neck and pull him closer.

“Reese,” he breathes into my neck. “I swear this isn’t what I had planned for tonight. I don’t want you to think….” And then the force of what we are about to do hits me. I push Finn away.

“You’re right. I’m…we…no, this isn’t a good idea.” Finn shakes his head like he agrees, which makes me feel embarrassed.

“Come on. Let’s get off this platform before someone gets hurt.” He holds out his hand and pulls me up.

I follow Finn up a narrow path surrounded by trees with branches that overhang in our way. We climb higher and higher, the sounds of the guests on the lodge lawn below mixing faintly with the music at the old restaurant that lies several hundred feet above. Then we come upon a clearing off the side of the path. A blanket lies open on the ground with a picnic basket aside it.

“Sorry,” says Finn. “It’s going to be a little wet. I didn’t count on it drizzling.”

“It’s fine,” I say. “It’s perfect, actually.” Finn directs me to sit while he opens a bottle of white wine and pours it into two plastic wine flutes.

“Cheers to new friendships,” he says, clinking his glass against mine.

“Cheers,” I say.
Friendships.
Yeah, how could I be so stupid? If I’m not going to be Finn’s summer fling, then all I can be is his friend, right? What did I expect?

Finn points out constellations in the night sky. It’s so clear here, an even better view than from the top of the mountain because there are no lights to compete with the stars. I lie down on my back and breathe in the crisp night, feeling like I am one with the sky, like I’d felt earlier ziplining through the trees with a blindfold on.

“Have you ever done that before?” I ask.

“What’s that, Reese?”

“Kidnapped a girl and taken her blindfold ziplining.” He laughs.

“No. I have never done that before, though my buddies and I have gone night ziplining after hours. It’s a different kind of rush.”

“So, your friends work in the recreation office?” I ask.

“My friend Jeremy is the recreation director at Tremont Lodge. He’s been here almost as long as me.”

“And how long is that?” I ask.

“I started working when I was seventeen.”

“So it’s true what Lawson said?” Finn tenses his face at the mention of Lawson’s name.

“I hate that bastard,” he says, pausing to pour another glass of wine for each of us. “I did drop out of high school when my mom died. Dad was always kind of absent throughout her illness, and when she died he checked out on life, at least on mine. But I’m not a loser. I took online courses until I got my GED. Then I attended community college in Traverse City until I got my associate degree last spring. And as far as his little jab about welfare, that’s a bunch of BS. I did receive social security payments for a year until I turned eighteen, but that’s what happens for kids whose parents die.

I roll over on my side so that I am facing Finn. “My parents are gone, too,” I say, barely an audible whisper as this is something I’ve never told a stranger. Even my friends back home don’t ask questions, though I’m sure there’s been plenty of speculation. He reaches for a strand of my hair and winds it around his fingers.

“What happened?” he asks.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s cool,” he says. “You don’t have to tell me. I’m usually pretty private about my mom, too.”

“No, Finn, you don’t understand.” I feel the tears stinging the backs of my eyelids as I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “I really don’t know what happened to my parents. That’s why I’m here.” But as soon as I’ve spoken the words aloud I have regrets. This isn’t how it was supposed to go this summer, but something about the vulnerability of Finn’s confession opens my heart a little, but an open heart only leads to the possibility of bad stuff getting in and ripping it apart.

“I don’t understand,” he says.

“I don’t, either.” I let Finn pull me closer, our bodies warming from the touch of the other. No words pass between us. They don’t have to, and it is the most beautiful conversation I have ever had.

I’m so happy the next morning at work that I don’t even mind having to clean a whole floor of rooms occupied by visiting little league baseball teams in the area for a big tournament in the Upper Peninsula. I’m sure I’ll meet my quota for picking up protective cups for the day. Blasting
Go Cubs Go
through my iPhone headphones seems fitting as I turn on the vacuum cleaner. When I’m tapped on the shoulder halfway into the song, I nearly fall to the floor in a tangle of cord and my long legs.

“You scared the crap out of me!” I yell at a little girl who is standing behind me next to the newly made bed. She is crying. I switch off the vacuum. “What’s the matter, honey?” I ask. Her lips tremble, and she struggles to speak.

“I can’t find my mommy.”

“Oh.” I feel like the air’s been sucked out of the room. I sit on the bed to keep from falling over, a flashback so intense hitting my mind like a high speed truck barreling into a wall.

“I want my mommy,” the little girl says, snapping me back to the present time.

“We’ll find your mommy, honey. I’m sure she’s close by.” Because mommy’s are always close by. They never abandon their babies. “What’s your name?” I ask.

“Amanda,” she says.

“Amanda, my name is Reese. I’m going to make a phone call to help you find your mommy.” She shakes her head like she understands and pulls the end of the quilt out from the freshly made bed and clutches it in her hands. Pulling out my phone to call Helen, it takes everything I have to stay calm in front of Amanda.

Within minutes, Helen is walking into the room followed by a young woman who is crying. “Oh, thank God. Thank God. I was so worried.” Amanda runs into her mother’s open arms and the two cry together, relief passing over both of their faces with no admonishment to the little girl for wandering away from her family.

I slip past the reunion and run down the hall to the employee’s storage room where I collapse to the floor in a pile of clean linens and towels. My breathing accelerates, and I feel like I could throw up. I scan the closet for a paper bag to breathe into but find nothing.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
A knock on the door defeats my labored attempts to calm down. When the knob is turned I throw my hand over my heart to try and will it to cooperate.

“Reese?” Oh, God no. Please, God, anyone but Lawson. I squeeze my eyes shut to blink him away, but he doesn’t budge. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Go away,” I say.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“GO AWAY, LAWSON!”

“I’m going to get Helen,” he says.

“NO!” I feel like God’s playing a cruel trick on me.

“Then go back to your room. Take the day off. We can’t have guests seeing you carry on like this.” I look up at Lawson. For a moment, a burst of human decency flashes across his face. “Go on. I’ll tell Helen you got sick. Hurry up before she sees you.” I stand up and take off my maid’s smock, wiping my face with the back of my hands.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
“I’ll call you later,” I hear him say as I walk past him and down the hall to the employee elevator.

By the time I am outside, my heart rate has steadied. The lawn is teeming with people. There seems to be a corn hole tournament is full swing as Rachel, one half of Rachel/Raquel, is writing numbers on a dry erase board and announcing the next competitors. Shouts and squeals of joy come from the pool area, and teens drive around the manmade pond on Segways without a care in the world. I sink into an Adirondack chair by the stage. No one is performing at this time of day. I close my eyes and try to process my morning. It wasn’t just a feeling of empathy I had for Amanda. I
was
Amanda. I
was
that little girl feeling abandoned by her mommy and feeling afraid. What I know is that there were happy times at Tremont Lodge with my family. The picture at the pool proves it, but there were dark times, too, and confusing times. Who was the woman with my father? And how will I know? How will I
ever
know?

“Taking a break?” asks Finn. He wipes his dirty hands on his shorts. Sweat drips down his face and washes the butterfly on his neck. He takes a red bandana out of his pocket and wipes his forehead. I even like the smell of his sweat, I realize, and I wonder if I shouldn’t have stopped him last night on the platform.
Who am I?
Nothing about me is recognizable anymore.

“Are you okay?” He sits across from me and leans closer.

“Yes…no…Finn, maybe we should talk.”

“Sure. I’ve got a lunch break in half an hour. Meet me at Jack’s. We can get burgers.”

When I get back to my room to change into clean shorts and a tank top, my phone dings.

Lawson:
We should talk.

Me:
I’m good now. Thanks.

Lawson:
Meet me in the library.

Me:
No. I have plans.

Lawson:
You shouldn’t have plans. You’re supposed to be working. Meet me in ten.

Me:
I can’t.
The nerve of this guy.

Lawson:
Then go back to work.

Lawson:
Or I’ll fire you and send you sorry ass back home. Not joking.

All I need is some sort of obligation to this guy looming over my head. Why couldn’t I pull myself together and just go back to work? I hate him so much, but what choice do I have?

Me:
Finn, change of plans. Can’t do lunch. Sorry.

Finn:
Seriously?

Me:
Yeah. Sorry. Maybe dinner?

Finn:
K. Meet me at Jack’s at 9:00. I have a show first.

Me:
Sounds good.

I slip on a baseball hat, pulling my ponytail through the back, and decide to go out the dormitory and around the front of the lodge so Finn doesn’t see me cross the lawn. Today there is a Girl Scout troop checking in to the lodge. I think the Girl Scouts and the little league boys could make for a wild night in the lodge, and I’m thankful I don’t work during the evening when all the trouble is likely to be happening.

Lawson is sprawled out on a couch in the library like he’s in his living room. “You’re lucky you made it with thirty seconds to spare. I was about to make a little call to my uncle.”

“I don’t care who you think you are,” I say. “Your intimidation tactics won’t work on me.”

“Well, you’re here, aren’t you? Instead of fraternizing with that loser guitar player?”

“Leave Finn out of this. What do you want?” He sits up and pats the couch next to him.

“Have a seat, sassy pants.” I lean against the fireplace mantle instead. “Suit yourself. I want you to tell me why you were crying like a fool in that supply closet.” I glare at Lawson and try to formulate in my mind how much I have to tell him to shut him the hell up.

“There was a little girl who came into a room I was cleaning, and she’d wandered away from her mother. It made me sad.”

“I don’t buy it,” he says, smirking.

“It’s true. Ask Helen. She found the mother.”

“No, I mean, I already know about the girl. It’s my business to know those things, to protect my uncle from lawsuits and such. But why did it affect you so strongly?”

“I suppose for someone without a heart, it’s hard to understand something called
empathy.
”

“Touché.” He clasps his fingers together and cracks his knuckles. “Why were you in the library again a few days ago?”

“
What?
”

“My uncle described you and said he saw you looking at books in the library.”

“Why on earth would he do that?” I feel like a victim being stalked.

“It’s my uncle’s business to know what’s going on at the lodge, and he didn’t figure you were a guest.”

“That makes no sense. I totally could have passed as a guest.”

“Ah-ha. Then it
was
you in the library.” I throw my hands up in the air.

“You got it. Arrest me now. I like to read. Or take pity on me.”

“I’m afraid, miss, that I cannot do that as it is, in fact,
not
your first offense.” I don’t mean to smile, but I can’t help it.

“That’s more like it. You’re a hell of a lot prettier when you smile.”

I sigh and sink into a chair next to the fireplace. If Lawson isn’t going to relent, maybe he can help me. “Lawson, when did your uncle become the owner of Tremont Lodge?”

“The lodge has been in my family since it was founded in the 20s.”

“I know that,” I say. “I mean, I read about that, but when did he become the owner?”

“Well, Grandpa Oakley died almost twenty years ago, so my uncle took over when that happened.”

“Why did he take over and not your father?” I ask.

“My dad is a dentist in Boston.”

“Hypothetically, if someone wanted to learn something about former guests or big news from a decade or so ago, are there records stored anywhere?”

“Well,
hypothetically
, there may be records of the former guests that have checked in since the lodge first opened.”

“Since the 1920s?” I am shocked and excited at the same time.

“It’s a standing tradition at Tremont Lodge to have guests sign a registry at the front desk. Now they use an electronic guestbook, kind of like when you sign your name at the cash register after you’ve used your credit card. Of course, this switch didn’t happen until about ten years ago. Before that everyone signed in using large, ornate guest books, like signing in at a funeral.”

“Oh. That analogy is disturbing.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Are those log books kept in here?” I ask.

“No way. They’re in my uncle’s penthouse suite on the top floor of the lodge. There’s a family history room where everything lodge-related is kept.”

“Hmm…” The wheels spin in my mind as Lawson fills in the blanks.

“Do you want to see this room?”

“Yes, I do.” It requires any amount of self-control I have to not sound desperate. Lawson smiles devilishly, and I wish I’d tried to break into the damn suite on my own rather than admit to him that I want to go with him, that I need him to take me.

“There will be a price,” he says. I bite my cheek and don’t answer. “I want a date first, a proper date where you do your hair and get dressed all pretty and use polite manners.”

“Why me, Lawson? You have every bimbo at this resort falling over herself to give you anything you want. I’ve seen your room. I know you’re living the perfect bachelor life.”

“Exactly. I have every bimbo. I’m not as shallow as you think I am, Reese, and one of these days I’m going to have to settle down with a real girl if I want to take over this lodge.”

“So I’m practice for future marriage material? Oh, that’s hot.” I roll my eyes and pretend to gag.

“Do you want to see that room or not?” He raises his eyebrows in a challenge. What choice do I have?

“Fine. I’ll go on a date, but you have to be a gentleman in return. No funny business, and I get to see that room—without your uncle knowing. Got it?”

He smiles. “Oh, don’t worry about that. He’d kill me if he knew I let anyone in that room.”

“Text me the details,” I say. “And you’d better hold up your end of the deal. In fact, I want to go to that room first.
Then
dinner.”

“I’ll agree to that only because I know you’re an honorable girl.” His devilish grin fills his face. I want to hate him so much again, but how can I when I might get some real answers this time about why my parents abandoned Blake and me?

“Meet me at the stage tonight at 7:00. We’ll watch a little of the entertainment together before we go upstairs and then have dinner.” Finn flashes through my mind. I already ditched him once today, and no way am I watching him watching me with Lawson.

“Tonight’s no good, Lawson. I have plans. Any night but tonight.”

“No. It has to be tonight. My uncle’s out of town until tomorrow morning on a business trip. If you want in that room it has to be tonight.” Great, just great.

“Fine. I’ll be there.” I walk out of the library, slam the door behind me, and wonder if I am making the biggest mistake of my life.