Page 56 of Wishing for Christmas
The room went dark, and Clara gasped. Everything was ominously quiet. Brent and Clara looked at each other through the darkness, realizing the same thing: The power had gone out. Neither of them moved. The soft glow of the fire illuminated his face. His eyebrows were drawn together.
“Go on,” he said. “No more interruptions.”
Brent looked nervous, as if he knew the weight behind the admission she was about to make. But how could he? He couldn’t possibly be expecting anything like what she was about to say. Brent got up from his chair and came to sit beside her on the sofa. He took her hand in his and waited for her to continue.
He was right. She needed to get this over with. Perhaps the darkness would make it easier. She turned her head to look at him and realized she had nothing to fear. With him by her side, Clara couldn’t imagine feeling any safer than she did at that moment. It was now or never.
She tried again. “Brent, I know this sounds crazy, but I made a wish?—”
The table buzzed beside her.
She clenched her fists and shook them in the air. “What now?” She reached for her phone so she could shut it off completely. When she glanced at it, she saw a text from the Darlington front desk.
EMERGENCY! WE NEED YOU HERE NOW!
Clara sat up straight. She had never received a text like this from work before. This was serious. Her heart raced as she imagined all the possible problems that could be waiting for her.
She looked over at Brent with wide eyes and shook her head, not quite able to believe the unfortunate timing. “Brent, I can’t believe this, but I have to go to the Darlington.”
He said nothing at first, his brown eyes wide and unblinking. Eventually, he nodded in disappointed understanding.
Clara sat motionless for a moment beside him on the couch. The truth was, she didn’t want to go. She actuallywantedto have this conversation, as difficult as it may be. Twisted ankle aside, it would take every ounce of willpower she had to get up off the sofa and leave him. Still, she knew she needed to go to the hotel.
She reluctantly turned away from him, sadly realizing their perfect day was over whether she liked it or not. Clara threw the blanket off her lap and set down her drink. She looked at Brent and shook her head in apology. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say other than sorry. But she had already said that word too many times over the past few weeks. After a while, she felt as if her apologies were just as fake as the rest of her. She threw on her heavy coat and pushed through the pain of her twisted ankle to get her boots on.
Clara looked over at Brent through the darkness, the warm glow of the fire reflecting off his handsome face. She gave him a defeated shrug. He looked back at her with a weak attempt at a smile and an understanding nod of acknowledgment that she had to leave.
“Come on, I’ll take you over there,” he said.
She gave him one last look of longing, wishing she could stay there with him forever. Clara wished she didn’t have to leave, that she could take the time to finally tell him everything and work through the complicated situation she’d put them both through.
But what Clara was quickly realizing was that what she wished for was never as simple as it seemed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CLARA
“The snow has knocked out all the power!” Lucy was in a full panic when Clara arrived at the hotel. “Nobody has heat, the restaurant can’t cook,there aren’t enough flashlights . . .”
“Relax, Lucy. Calm down, and let’s figure this out.” Clara had just walked through the door and was trying to assess the situation. The usual dignified calm of the luxury hotel was missing, replaced with dark chaos. The eerie sound of silence from inside the Darlington was accompanied only by the loud whistle of the wind outside.
Clara stared at the hotel lobby, now completely dark, and immediately felt a shiver. She pulled her coat tighter and took a deep breath as she realized the uncomfortable truth: She was in charge.
She gathered her thoughts to form a plan as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. There was so much she still didn’t know about the hotel. She needed to think about what shedidknow. As much as she hated to admit it, when it came to this type of situation, it wasn’t much.
Surely the Darlington had dealt with a power outage before. How would Matthew have handled it?Come on, Clara, think.This was her responsibility now.
She looked out the window at the blizzard-like conditions she’d emerged from. She was grateful for the snow chains Brent had on his truck that allowed him to drop her off at the front door. There was no sign of the caramel-colored afternoon that usually loomed over Cranberry Pines at this time of day. Instead, the sky was a heavy black, punctuated only by the whirl of white wind. Clara imagined the inside of her brain looked much the same. She shook her head as she observed the weather. It was evident the power was not going to be restored any time soon.
As unforgiving as it was outside, things inside weren’t much better. Clara scanned the lobby to find guests huddled in front of the hotel’s only fireplace. As more people started piling in around it, she realized it wasn’t going to keep everyone warm enough for long. She closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath. She was in over her head. Why did she ever think she could be the general manager anyway?
Suddenly, the answer popped in her mind—generators. Clara may not have known much about the operations of the hotel, but shedidknow that the Darlington must have generators for a time like this—at least, she hoped so.
She looked at Lucy. “Call for maintenance. We need to get the backup generators working.”
Lucy shook her head. “They already tried that.”
“What?”
