Page 4 of What it Takes
Chapter Two
Ben waved to Rosie Davis—no, it was Miller now, he reminded himself—but as she turned to keep walking, he couldn’t stop his gaze from returning to the woman with her. She was close to his own age, with long light brown hair that had been highlighted either naturally by the sun or very professionally from a bottle.
Probably by the sun, he thought, noticing how tan her long legs were and the color across the apples of her cheeks. She’d been spending a lot of time outside. As he watched, Rosie pointed at each of the lodge’s outbuildings, as if explaining what each was. It seemed like an odd thing for a camper to be interested in.
“Who’s that?” he finally asked Josh. “The woman with Rosie, I mean.”
“Her name’s Laney. She’s going to be helping out for a while.”
“It’s quite the expansion you guys have done here. The campground. Cabins. A pool. Now an employee who’s not family.” The lodge had been in the family for several generations, and it was Josh’s dad who’d turned it into a snowmobile lodge. They’d managed to get by for many years on the seasonal business, but when the economy tanked, they’d found a way to go year-round by hooking the town into the nearby ATV trails.
Josh nodded. “It’s crazy how much business the trails have brought to town. We’ve had at least a half a dozen new businesses in the last couple of years. And since we expanded and added the campground, it’s harder to keep up. I mean, technically there are four of us, but Katie has the barbershop and she’s having a baby in three months. Rosie’s been taking care of this lodge my whole life and Andy helps with the campground, but she’s almost seventy and he’s at least that. I don’t want them working that hard.”
“You can’t do it alone.”
Josh shook his head. “Not and keep up with the club business. Since I’m the president and Andy’s the trail administrator, that takes up a good chunk of our time. It makes sense to have somebody who can help out in a general sense and focus on just the guests.”
“Is she from around here?”
“No, but she was willing to live on-site in a camper until after the long Labor Day weekend, accepted the salary we offered and Rosie liked her.”
Ben suspected it was the last qualification that had sealed the deal. Rosie had been hired by Frank and Sarah Kowalski back when he was a kid and he couldn’t remember when Sarah had died, but he’d been young. Rosie had not only been taking care of the lodge for Josh’s whole life, but she’d been like a mother to him and his brothers and sister, too. Accepting help wouldn’t come easy to Rosie, so her actually liking whoever they hired was vital.
“You ran a background check, right?” he asked, because there had to be a reason why a woman his age would take on a job probably better suited to a college kid looking to earn a paycheck while saving money on rent over the summer.
Josh snorted. “The chief of police is Andy’s son and my brother-in-law. What do you think?”
“I’m going to buy a whiteboard to start keeping track of that stuff.” Ben shook his head. Josh was married to Andy’s stepdaughter, Katie. And Andy’s son, Drew, was married to Josh’s sister, Liz. The bottom line, though, was that anybody looking to work at the Northern Star would be thoroughly vetted.
“I’m going to leave the wheeler right on the trailer,” Josh said. “He brought it up in the bed of his pickup, but in its current condition, he’d be better off borrowing the trailer from me.”
But they had to unhook the trailer from Josh’s truck, and it was an old one. That meant lifting the hitch off the ball by hand and setting the tongue on a heavy-duty jack stand Josh grabbed from the barn. Because nothing was ever easy, it slipped—a rough edge cutting the palm of his hand—and he let loose a few choice swear words.
“We probably own twenty pairs of leather work gloves between us,” Josh said, brushing rusty paint flakes off his hands.
Ben frowned at the cut, carefully brushing a few paint flakes away from it. “I’ve got at least three in my truck right now.”
“Me, too.” Josh laughed. “I appreciate the help.”
“No problem. I figure if I pop over and make myself useful enough, eventually Rosie will bake me up some of that banana bread I love. There are some things a man never forgets and Rosie’s cooking is one of them. Your wife inherit that gene from her mom?”
“No. Cooking is not one of Katie’s stronger skills.” After taking a deep breath, Josh looked toward the break in the tree line that marked the beginning of the camping area. “I guess I’ll go see what’s happening with this guy and let him know his machine’s back. For all I know, he decided to head to the hospital.”
“I doubt it.” Ben looked at his hands. “I’m going to go in and wash up, since I want to run a little soap over this. I’ll catch you later.”
He was halfway to the house when he realized he was on an intercept course with Laney, who must have been done walking with Rosie. He could have hesitated or veered off toward his truck, but he’d meet the woman at some point. It might as well be now.
Ben saw the moment she saw him—the hesitation in her step—but then she smiled and kept walking until their paths converged. “Hi, I’m Laney Caswell.”
“Ben Rivers.” He started to hold out his hand, and then stopped, twisting his wrist to show her his palm. “I’d shake your hand, but that trailer back there got the better of me.”
Frowning, she leaned closer to look at it. “That cut needs to be cleaned.”
“Yeah, I’ll get to it.”
“I know exactly what that means when a man says it. You’ll probably spit on it and wipe it on your jeans when I’m not looking.”
“Or slap a little PVC glue on it,” he teased, unable to help himself.
