Authors: Cheryl Harper
Mike cleared his throat and looked over his shoulder. Laura figured he was probably hoping for a decorating emergency, something to get him out of Willodean’s clutches. When he turned back around he narrowed his eyes at Laura.
“No, ma’am, no boyfriend.”
Willodean hummed. She had to be annoyed that she didn’t have much more to go on than she started with but Laura wasn’t going to help her. Mike was straight, had been through an epic divorce, and together they had absolutely no spark. It was a kindness to Mike to keep that information out of Willodean’s hands as long as possible.
When one of his guys called his name, Mike waved over his shoulder. “Laura, what’s the deal? Should I be hunting down Masters?”
Laura shook her head. “Nope. It’s all good.”
Willodean patted Mike’s hand. “What you can do is leave me a card. I have a few projects in mind. I wouldn’t mind getting a little professional advice. Maybe I could call you, see what your schedule looks like?”
Mike looked a little worried as he reached into his pocket to pull out a card. He smiled as he handed it to her. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”
Willodean laughed and tapped the card. “Don’t you worry, you will!”
Over her head, Mike met Laura’s stare and raised an eyebrow. Laura just laughed and waved him on.
“Such a handsome young man. Tall, broad shoulders, big hands. And a man in a tool belt just screams . . . skill, am I right?” When Laura just sighed, Willodean frowned. “Okay, so it isn’t him. I’ll keep thinking.” She was quiet for a second. “Maybe Tony!” She tapped her chin. “No, you’ll be working together. That’s probably not a good idea.”
Laura folded the towel she’d been using to wipe down the spotless bar. “Willodean, if it’s all right, I think I will take Marcy up on her offer to handle the afternoon crowd. She and Carla have got the dinner shift tonight. I can catch up with Holly and get my head on straight. Thanks for the pep talk.”
Willodean nodded. “Good idea. Sunday nights are always so slow. But before you go, I wanted to see if you’d like to meet with me and Tony tomorrow afternoon. We can do it between lunch and dinner if that works for you. I’ve got a job offer for you.”
The pounding in her head lessened a bit. “Job offer?”
The sparkle in Willodean’s eyes was contagious. “You bet. The Rock’n’Rolla’s going to be expanding. Tony will need help. Now, he doesn’t know anything about it yet so don’t mention it to him. He won’t like the idea that I think there’s anything he can’t handle. I thought I’d talk to you both about my vision, get your feedback, see if you guys can work together to make it run.”
Laura twirled the towel. “No showgirl outfit?”
Willodean shrugged. “Well, if you like it, you can keep it. If not, you’ll wear the hotel staff uniform. If I were you, I’d go showgirl but I’m getting the impression you’ll go a different route.”
Laura rounded the bar. “Willodean, is it all right if I . . .” The words were smothered as Willodean threw her arms around Laura’s neck. She smiled as she returned the hug. Just as she had every other time Laura had gotten this close, Willodean smelled like clean laundry and new money. That might be what magic smelled like.
“Really, there’s no way to thank you for all you’ve done for me. And for Holly. I don’t know what brought me in that day, but you . . . you made a difference in my life. Thank you.”
Willodean leaned back and wiped one tear away. “Girl, I told you, I want it all. If I can help someone, I will. You were easy. Some cases are a lot harder.”
Laura cleared her throat. “I’m so glad you wanted it all. I’m so glad I met you. And I can’t wait to find out about this expansion. You won’t be sorry if you give me this chance.”
Willodean patted her shoulder. “Oh, honey, I know that. But one word of warning. Don’t expect to throw yourself into a new job to forget about this pain or the new plan to move on. I won’t let you forget.”
Laura had no doubt about that. She would take on this new hotel project, leaving Willodean plenty of time to make Laura her new personal project. But she didn’t care. She was ready to make a change.
Laura hugged Willodean again before she headed for Marcy.
“Are you out of here?” Marcy punched her single table’s order in before she turned to look at Laura. “You look like hell. Go get some rest.”
“I appreciate it, Marcy. You guys call me if the crowd gets out of hand.”
Marcy shook her head. “Not gonna do it. We’ll be fine.” Her lips tilted up. “I don’t know whether to be a catty, jealous bitch here or a sympathetic sister, so this may actually come off as both.”
Laura laughed tiredly and Marcy patted her on the shoulder. “I think this may be one of those situations where you shouldn’t cry because it’s over but smile because it happened, you know?” She sighed. “But I understand very well why you might cry because it’s over. He’s damn fine.”
There was nothing to say to that. It was all completely true.
Laura nodded. “You get it. Completely.” She smiled up at Marcy and turned to go. “Oh, and keep your hands off. If I hear you’ve tried to comfort him, I will have to climb a chair to slap you.” As she pushed through the door to go change into her regular clothes, she heard Marcy laugh. She was only half joking.
After a quick nap, a long shower, and a short but intense encounter with the pint of chocolate ice cream in the freezer, Laura felt stronger, more like her old self. She decided to make Holly’s favorite fried chicken in case she was hungry when she got home and the time flew by. She was whipping mashed potatoes when she heard the jingle of keys at the door.
“Mom, I’m home!” Holly bounced across the small space to wrap her arms around Laura and Laura sighed, squeezed her closer, and laughed. No matter how hard things got or how angsty Holly got, there was always this, the comfort of her arms around her neck.
“I swear you grew three inches this weekend!” Laura put her hand on Holly’s head and smoothed down the wild stray hairs. “You’re taller than I am!”
Holly rolled her eyes. “Mom, that’s not saying much, is it?” They both giggled. “Fried chicken!” Holly reached around Laura to grab a piece and ran around the counter to sit. Laura slid a plate in front of her and then poured her a soda.
“Tell me all about it. What did you see?”
As she watched her daughter enthuse about the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the mall, the mall, the mall, Laura felt the tension and sadness recede a bit. She was where she needed to be. And she’d done a damn fine job this far. She was going to finish strong.
“How were things here? You look different. Sad, maybe. Did you miss me?” Holly finished her chicken and climbed over the counter to snag another one. Laura thought about explaining to her that table manners meant she didn’t climb like a monkey on the furniture but she was too happy to have this Holly so she let it go.
“Things were pretty busy. The show went really well and we had good crowds. A bartender from Dallas won as Lady Gaga.” And that was all she was going to say about that.
“Did you get to spend any more time with KT? I met him in the lobby before Willodean dropped me off at Jenna’s house.” She waggled her eyebrows. “He’s cute. Seemed nice too. Maybe you should have fluttered your eyelashes at him.”
Laura felt a flush start in her cheeks. She’d fluttered for him. And he was so much more than cute or nice. She filled the sink with water to wash the few dishes she’d used. “Yeah, a little. And he’s great.”
“Cool. I’m going to get his autograph tomorrow.” Holly dropped her glass in the sink. “I took about a million pictures, Mom. I’m going to go dump my stuff and maybe we could look at them?”
Laura nodded. “Do you have homework to do before tomorrow?”
Holly frowned as she obviously tried to figure out a way to sidestep the truth without outright lying. She was a horrible liar, thank God.
Finally, she heaved a loud, dramatic sigh. “Oh, fine. I’ve been gone
all
weekend, but instead of spending time with me, you’re going to send me to my room for homework.”
Laura kissed her cheek. “Please do your homework. I want to see your pictures but I can wait until tomorrow night, okay? I don’t want you to get behind at school.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Holly and pouted. When Holly flounced off to her bedroom, Laura finished the dishes with a happy smile. Maybe everything else was out of control but she had a handle on the Mom thing.
L
AURA WIPED HER
hands on her tuxedo tails as she followed Tony down the short hall to Willodean’s office. She’d walked up to the front desk and said, “Willodean wanted to talk to me, but I’m not sure when.” Before she could finish the “Could you call her?” request, Tony had already picked up the phone, dialed, and said, “Ready?”
He was a man of few words and even fewer facial expressions. She never got the feeling that he was angry or frustrated. He just gave the impression of total control. She envied him a little.
The answer must have been yes, because he hung up and made the “c’mon” motion with his hand. He looked over at Wanda, the pretty new front desk clerk who smiled blindingly back at him, and then walked over to wait for Laura at the door. They were silent as she walked and Laura was very, very conscious of each
swish, swish
of the damn fishnet stockings.
Willodean was seated behind her desk when they entered. “Sit down and let’s have a chat.” Laura slid onto the plush green chair and smiled nervously at Willodean.
“Now, I wanted to talk to you both about the plans I’m making to expand the hotel. As you know, Graceland’s about to go through a refurbishment and the city has big plans to ramp up development around it and the airport. Most of the hotels will be sprucing up, but I feel we’re already very sprucy. What I want to do is grow, take this place to the next level.”
Laura really hoped that coming up with whatever the next level might look like wouldn’t be up to her. She already felt the Rock’n’Rolla was over the top. She had no idea where to go from there.
Willodean tilted her head and watched them. Laura looked at Tony. He sat ramrod straight and there was a slight furrow between his eyebrows but that was the only response he gave.
Laura cleared her throat. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m so glad you asked.” Willodean spread out a blueprint on her desk. “We’re going to start with some changes here in the hotel. I think international visitors and business travelers are what we’re missing so we’re going to need better in-house amenities. I want to build a small addition for conference rooms. What we’ve got now works for our fan club meetings, but we need something bigger to attract large groups. We can start that this fall, after Elvis week wraps up. Once that’s done, we’ll need to add a gift shop.” She tapped the blueprint. “That’s where the RCA room is right now. It should be enough space to get in some high-end souvenirs and travel basics.”
She clapped her hands. “But . . . what I’m really excited about is . . . a spa!” She did a little bounce and looked excitedly back and forth between them. Laura looked over at Tony. He’d titled his head to the side to study the drawing. Laura said, “That would help attract more families, people who might vacation here.”
Willodean pointed at her. “Exactly! We’re going to be full-service but family friendly too.”
Laura still had no idea how this affected her. Maybe they wanted a manager for the new conference area or the spa or . . .
Tony turned. “I’m in if you are.”
Laura licked her lips. “Well, I’m in. But I don’t even know what you want me to do.”
Tony shrugged. “I’d say assistant manager. You could take on Viva Las Vegas now and the staff scheduling, work days. I’d work with the crew over construction of the new areas, and then when everything’s built, we divide up jobs according to our experience and interests.”
Laura glanced at Willodean, who said, “Works for me if it works for you, hon.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. Laura had no idea what was happening on the inside, but outwardly, he didn’t appear threatened or happy to have help. Maybe there was no real reason to feel either. Laura had a feeling it would take more than a heavier workload and a construction project to ruffle his feathers. He’d be nice to work with.
Laura laughed. “When do I start?”
They both turned to look at Willodean. She said, “We have about four months until Elvis week but you need some time to learn the ropes, get comfortable running the desk. You can both start immediately as far as I’m concerned. Plenty to do.”
Tony held out his hand. Laura fit her hand in his and he pumped it once before he did the same with Willodean. “Looking forward to it, boss.” Then he turned and left the office.
Laura shook her head as if her brain needed to roll around a bit. Maybe it did.
Willodean smiled. “You’re happy, right? If not, Tony’s more flexible than he seems. We can work on changes if we need to.”
Laura laughed. “No way. He did say working days, right? Why would he do that? You and I both know he could handle the front desk, new construction, and probably an invasion of aliens set on taking over the hotel without breaking a sweat. He doesn’t need me as much as I need this job. Keeping the day shift would make more sense.”
Willodean sighed. “He prefers the night shift. Fewer people. But he’s damn good with problems and there are notorious day shift issues. He’d work both shifts every day if I’d let him. Terrible workaholic, that boy.” She tapped her forehead. “But I’m going to work on that, see if I can’t improve his life a little. To do that, he needs free time. So, I’m getting him an assistant. I love it when a plan comes together.” She looked like she was having the time of her life. Her wink made Laura laugh.
Willodean twisted the watch on her wrist and the emerald on her hand flashed in the sun. “What time do you have to be back at work? We can talk about your salary and benefits, work on your paperwork, and then I can work up an ad for a new waitress.”
Laura laughed. “I need to be back by five but if it’s okay, I’d like to go squeal and dance around the apartment with Holly for as long as I can before I need to get back to the bar.”