Page 70 of Escape to the Sun

Sherri nodded and closed her eyes. “I knew it would be. I knew it.” She didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t open her eyes for a few moments. Just long enough that Heather started to get a little worried. She waited and was just about to give her a little shake when Sherri’s eyes popped open again.

“I have cancer.”

She stated it so simply and without preamble that it took Heather a moment to process the words.

“Cancer?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to trouble you.”

“With your cancer?”

That may have been the craziest thing she’d ever heard. How on earth could she think she would be troubling Heather by being sick? It was ludicrous.

“Exactly. I’m not going to go through this again. I’ve been through it a million times with Ash, and I think he finally understands now.”

Would have been nice if he’d shared some of that information.

“What can I do to help?”

“Nothing.”

That answer was not going to fly. Heather shook her head. “Sherri, I want to help.”

“You are helping,” she said. “You’re taking care of Casa del Sol. That’s helping.”

“No.” Heather paced the room. “It’s not enough. I need to know what I can do. There must be something. Medicine, meals.” She scanned the room. “Heck, I can do your laundry and get you fresh blankets.”

“Heather.” Sherri waited until she’d stopped pacing. “Sit. Please.” She did as she was told and only then did Sherri start talking again. “I’m sick,” she said. “Very sick. I don’t know—”

“No.” Heather shook her head. “Don’t talk that way.”

“At my age, when you’ve been through the things I’ve been through, you’ve earned the right to talk however you want.”

Heather couldn’t help but smile at her stern tone. She did have a point. “Sorry.”

The older woman waved away her apology. “I didn’t ask to speak to you because I’m sick.”

No, of course not. Although it would have been nice if someone had given her the heads-up on Sherri’s condition. Someone like Ash. Why wouldn’t he tell the truth about Sherri? She should have known. What if Sherri had needed something and she was the only one around? What if Sherri had needed something during the storm? Hell, Heather hadn’t even known they had cell phones and were talking to each other. There was a lot Heather didn’t know, apparently, and if Sherri didn’t look so sick and frail, she’d be angry at her, too. As it was, Heather’s frustration was completely focused on Ash. They were definitely going to have words when she got back down there. For the moment, she focused on Sherri and whatever it was she needed to tell her.

“Did you want to talk to me about the business? I’ve been checking the reservations and responding to everyone,” she said. “But I think we can do it a little more efficiently by listing Casa del Sol on a few websites like Airbnb. Have you heard of that one? It’s amazing and so easy to use. Of course, we’d have to pay the site a percentage, but I think it will be worth it because of the exposure we’ll get there.” She got excited when she started talking about some of the ideas she had for Casa del Sol, and she started rattling off her other thoughts as well. “Right now we never seem to have full occupancy, and I’d like to try to change that going forward. We have rooms mostly for couples. And I think that’s great, especially for people on honeymoons or anniversary trips. But you have that big shed off to the far side, and there’s really nothing in it right now except some old boards.”

“It was going to be an artist studio.”

“Is that right?” Heather had never thought of that but now that Sherri mentioned it, a studio would be perfect, and it might even fit in with some of her expansion plans down the road. “I think that’s perfect,” she said. “But I bet we could find a better spot. Maybe even a little farther away from the bustle of the main buildings. Besides, I had a different idea for that building.”

Sherri tilted her head, looking more amused than anything else.

“What if we used that building as more of a group bunk room? Kind of a hostel style of accommodation? That way we could appeal to singles, and small groups of friends as well, and could increase the numbers.”

“I like it.”

Heather couldn’t help but beam at the approval. “I would need to help out Camila or maybe she could work a few more hours to help with cooking for a larger group. And of course, I’d need to sort out a more permanent solution for picking up guests from town.”

“What about Ash?”

What about Ash? The truth was that she’d love it if Ash would help her with guests indefinitely. She wasn’t going to pretend that it wouldn’t be a lot of fun to carry on the way they had, both of them working together to run the B&B. But she couldn’t ask that of him. Especially when she hadn’t even had a chance to tell him how she felt about him. And after she did have that chance? He’d told her he would never let himself have a relationship again and even if yesterday, she was determined to tell him that she refused to accept that, she couldn’t be sure how he would respond. She also couldn’t make assumptions about him. Maybe it was the night of sleep to think things over, maybe it was her mother being there, maybe it was finding out how sick Sherri was. Whatever it was, Heather was definitely second-guessing things.

Yesterday, she might have told Sherri all that in search of some sage advice, but things were different now. She didn’t need to burden the woman with her concerns and there was no way she was going to give her any cause for worry about her B&B. No way. As far as Sherri needed to know, Casa del Sol was in good hands with her, and Heather was perfectly capable of running it. All on her own if she needed to.

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