Lantern Lake Winter Collection: Books 1-3

by Gretchen S. B.

  All Newt did was give him a happy doggy grin. After a moment Jared gave a heavy sigh for having to stay in town, something he hated even if it was just at his brother’s house and pulled his truck out of the parking lot, making his way through town to his brother’s house. He was grateful he had family he could stay with and he loved his family dearly but sometimes, most of the time, Jared preferred to be alone. It didn’t look like that would happen anytime soon.

  Chapter 5

  Claire stepped back out into the waiting room, which was magically still half full. She felt a dip in her chest when she scanned the space and didn’t see Jared. But she did see Roland occupying a seat near where Jared had been. As she walked toward him, he didn’t realize she was there until she was only a few feet away, as he was absorbed in a phone call that he for some reason made in the crowded room instead of stepping outside.

  She always appreciated Roland was as much a workaholic as she was but now, she had to wonder. He was on a phone call having a conversation that may or may not be privileged information where other people could hear, and he didn't seem to care. He didn't seem to care whether he was impolite either, as there were a couple people near him frowning at him, which let her know he'd been on the phone a while. Jared wouldn’t have done that. Sure Jared got absorbed in his work, but he stopped and still made sure she was okay. He would even feel sheepish if he got carried away with his work. Shaking her head, Claire cleared that line of thought. This had nothing to do with Jared and everything to do with maybe Roland just wasn't the guy for her. She'd been musing about it for some time now and this trip solidified it. Once she was standing in front of him, it was as if she’d appeared from nowhere because he looked at her a second, blinked, then told whoever was on the other end he had to go. Without waiting for a response, he hung up the phone and slid it into his pocket.

  As he stood up, he gave her a once over, frowning. "What's wrong with you?" It was an accusatory tone that had Claire feeling offended.

  It was as if he didn’t believe she was injured. She couldn't help the agitation in her voice when she answered, "A very mild concussion and my knee is heavily bruised. The doctor said I'm lucky with the knee that it's only bruised and will be sore for a while. I need to keep walking on it, not overdoing it, just walking on it so it doesn't tighten up on me."

  Roland lifted his eyebrows in a dismissive gesture before turning toward the door. "All right. Well, let's get to the car and head to the hotel. At least there you'll be able to relax in a comfortable setting." He walked in front of her.

  While he opened the door for her, Roland did not offer to help her in any way, and she was still holding her laptop bag and her overnight bag. He didn't offer to take either even though she was limping. And while Claire prided herself on being able to do everything herself, she couldn't help but be a little miffed.

  Once they were outside, she heard Roland curse. She looked up to see there was snow falling again and almost an inch of it on the roadways.

  "What is with this place and all this snow? It will take forever to get back to the hotel. At least there are several places within walking distance for food. We should leave first thing in the morning and get on the road, so we don’t get stranded here since it only seems to snow in the afternoon and evening." He dug his keys out of his pockets before dredging across the parking lot.

  Claire sighed heavily and decided she was going to find a different way to get back to Seattle. She was fairly certain there was no way she'd be able to go on that long car ride with Roland. What had she ever seen in him to begin with? Maybe it was that she never inconvenienced him before and never seen this side of him. Either way, once this trip was over, so were they.

  "I have to finish up with a call," Roland announced once they were back on the main road.

  They had been in relative silence, so it wasn't as if it was interrupting anything but at the same time Claire knew he was telling her he was going to get on the phone whether or not she minded.

  All the same she answered anyway, "Okay."

  A few seconds later, his Bluetooth was ringing. Claire couldn't help but yet again make the comparison. She'd always thought Roland was just a workaholic, much like herself, so she never faulted him for getting a little work done on some of the occasions they were together. But this was rude. She had been in a car accident, she didn't know how bad off her car was, and on top of that, she'd been stranded and hurt at a stranger's house and yet he was more than willing to take a call while within the first ten minutes they were together. Jared hadn’t done that. He had been a workaholic, much like her, but he hadn't been impolite about it. She mused at how he stopped to make dinner. She couldn't imagine Roland doing that. No, this was definitely the beginning of the end for her and Roland. She didn't have a lot of time to socialize and spending time with someone who would rather be working didn't make a whole lot of sense.

  Sighing, she pulled out her own phone, dialed her boss, and put it to her ear, being careful to cover her other ear with her palm to drown out Roland’s conversation on his Bluetooth.

  "Claire, you are supposed to be taking the weekend off," her boss stated curiously once he picked up the phone.

  "I got run off the road in the snow, because the snow is bad over here this week apparently, and I hit a tree. I haven't heard from the mechanic yet on how long it's going to take to fix my car, but I'm guessing it's going to be a minimum of a few days. I wanted to let you know I might be stranded out here but I’m trying to figure out how to get back."

  There was silence for a moment. Claire couldn't quite tell what her boss was thinking. "I'm sorry to hear that. About your car not about you not being in the office. As you know me, Mark, you, and our office manager are the only ones that come into the office every day. Take all the time you need. Keep me appraised on how things are going. If you need help or you need a ride back to Seattle, let me know and Mark and I'll help you take care of it. Even if it means coming out there and getting you ourselves. Are you okay?"

  He seemed to realize he didn't understand why he had not opened with that question.

  "I'm a little banged up. I have a low-level headache that I've had for days and my knee’s bruised; nothing that won’t heal over time."

  "Good. Accidents can be nasty things; I'm glad that you got away relatively unscathed. I'll reach out to you on Tuesday, since Monday you're not supposed to be working, if we have any questions about work just like I do everybody else. Take care of yourself and try to take at least one day of vacation. I've noticed you been logging work." Samuel, her boss was always one for work-life balance; her working on the weekend she was supposed to have off probably didn't please him in the least.

  "I'll talk to you later, Samuel." With that she hung up.

  Since Roland was still on his phone and it wasn't anything she needed to pay attention to, Claire slid her phone back into her purse and closed her eyes. Leaning into the comfortable seat, she dozed as Roland wound their way through the semi-traffic back to what was supposed to be their hotel.

  When the car finally stopped, Claire slowly opened her eyes as she had just about fallen asleep, more exhausted than she’d realized. The hotel was a large lodge style building that looked to be four or five stories tall. It wasn't huge, but it was bigger than a bed and breakfast. It had a big enough parking lot around it that it was a good three to five-minute walk to any other location. It was a cute little getaway and she could see why people would choose to be here, that is if they either knew how to drive in the snow or there was no snow at all.

  After he turned off the car and they stepped outside, Roland adjusted seamlessly from his car’s Bluetooth speaker back to his cell phone. She kept hold of her bags, once again frustrated she was carrying both and putting the extra weight on her knee. Roland walked ahead of her seemingly unaware. He opened the door for her and once they were inside, he waved, pulled the phone away from his mouth and pantomimed to it and then mouth that he would call her when he was done
. He didn't wait for her response, instead went down the hallway past the front desk to the left to where Claire could see a staircase.

  She was glad he wasn’t facing her because she couldn't hide the disgust on her face as she watched him go. She turned to the woman in her mid-to-late fifties, plump, with short brown hair, frowning from behind the front desk. She was frowning after Roland. Claire stepped up and gave the best smile she could muster as the older woman swung her gaze back to her.

  "What an obnoxious young man." Claire was so surprised. She wasn't sure she was supposed to hear that so she kind of sputtered. How was she supposed to respond to that?

  The older woman shook her head and smiled at Claire. "You must be Claire, then. I heard you got into a bit of an accident, I’m sorry for that. Where did your car end up?"

  "I was told to let them tow it to Sophie's." She figured the woman who lived here would know what that meant, while the cities weren't exactly small towns around the lake, she figured they were small enough that businesses would know each other.

  The older woman smiled and nodded approvingly. "Perfect, they’re the best in town. Sophie and her crew will definitely get you on the road the fastest, though they can be a little more expensive because of their speed and expertise. I bet you're exhausted after this whole ordeal. How about we get you up to your room." The older woman grabbed the key and came around the desk. When she saw Claire going for the bags, she swatted Claire's hands. "Don't you dare, honey. I know you were in an accident and any accident that has damage enough to a car that you can't drive it home is an accident where you probably got banged up. You can take the computer bag. I'll take your overnight bag. I don't want you lifting anything unnecessarily."

  Claire could tell she would like the older woman and she appreciated her help and thanked her as her host grabbed the bag and led the way toward the staircase.

  "Unfortunately, you and that gentlemen are not on the same floor; enough people came in this week that we’re kind of all over the place. He's on the third and you're on the second floor. I have to ask you though, are you checking out and riding home with him tomorrow or are you sticking it out for your car? I want to make sure we have a room, if not your room, available to you if you need to extend your stay."

  Claire had already been thinking about that exact thing and her mouth opened with an answer almost automatically as they slowly, made their way up the stairs. Stairs were harder on her knee than she expected. "I'm going to stay put unless they tell me my car is totaled. If they can fix it, I would rather drive it home than try to find a way back."

  The older woman didn't turn around until they reached the top of the stairs. Moving to the right she waited for Claire, giving her a gentle smile. "All right, I'll go ahead and keep your reservation for that room and extend you through the end of the week. We can negotiate it if it's shorter or longer than that. We have a room or two free so if we get more reservations it won’t be the end of the world. We might get hectic the week of New Year’s, but I can't imagine it'll take that much time to finish your car. If it does, we'll figure something out for you, we’re not going to leave you stranded."

  Claire instantly liked the older woman. She appreciated that the manager of the inn was so caring. As the woman moved to the end of the hall, she opened the door for Claire before stepping aside. Claire stopped and smiled at her before stepping through the threshold. "Thank you, you're being exceptionally nice, and I really appreciate it."

  The older woman waved her arm away in a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry about it. First off you are our guest and second you had a trying weekend. My name is Dottie, by the way, and I manage this place. I also live on the top floor so if you need anything let me know. The office numbers are in a pamphlet in the room so feel free to reach out. We serve breakfast from seven to nine. You come down anytime in there. Hopefully you're not afraid of dogs. We are a pet friendly establishment within reason, and one of our long-term guests has a German Shepherd who tends to come to breakfast with her before the two of them head to work." Once she finished, Dottie ushered Claire into the room before dropping her bag by the door giving her one last smile before shutting the door behind her and leaving the key on the small table near the back of the door.

  Now that she was alone, Claire felt exhaustion overtake her. She quickly pulled out her phone and told Roland she planned to skip dinner because she was simply exhausted and needed to sleep and she would see him in the morning. She debated telling him she was going to stay in town over text but figured it was better to have breakfast with him to do that. The last thing she wanted was to fall asleep and when he finished with his call for him to come over banging on the door and waking her up. Really, she just wanted to get that sleep in. Hoping he would actually leave her alone, Claire plugged in her phone, set the alarm for seven, and crashed on what turned out to be an oh-so-comfortable queen bed.

  ~~

  Unfortunately, the sleep didn't last as long as she would've liked. She had forgotten to put her phone on silent and when it began to ring it startled her. At first Claire was frustrated that Roland would call her. Then she realized it was probably either the mechanic or the tow truck. Rolling slightly, careful not to jar her knee, Claire pulled her phone out of the charging cord and grabbed it from where it lay on the small bedside table. Before putting it to her ear she noticed it was number she didn't recognize.

  "Hello, this is Claire.”

  “The 2015 Fiat? The one that hit a tree outside town?" She recognized the voice as Bud, the tow truck driver Jared had her call earlier today.

  "Yes, I am. Is this Bud?" She was fairly certain it was the same voice, but she wanted to be polite anyway in case she was getting the voices confused.

  This time when he spoke it was more jovial as if she could hear the smile through the phone. "It is, ma'am. I wanted to let you know I grabbed your car myself, we’re little overburdened with the snow. We got you in just under the wire and your car is now at Sophie's place. They’ll be closing up within the next hour or so, so Sophie wanted me to tell you that you will get a call sometime late tomorrow morning after they have a chance to look at the car. I'm guessing you're staying in town. Are you staying until the car’s fixed?"

  Confused by the question, Claire hesitated a moment before answering, "Yes. That's the plan anyway, if they can fix my car within a few days I'll stick around and drive it out of town. Otherwise I'll probably take a bus or something back to the west side. I'm staying at the Lantern Lake Inn until then."

  "Good, then I won't worry about trying to hunt you down for payment tonight. Go ahead and call me at this number tomorrow. Or ask Dottie for help getting into town and we can settle the bill tomorrow or the next day. Or if you want us to just send a bill to your home address that's fine too. I'm currently not in the office since you were my last tow of the night. Dottie has our office number so you can call there in the morning and someone will get down your information."

  Claire was a little surprised he wasn't demanding money, but she supposed smaller tighter knit communities were like that. Maybe they relied more on the honor system than they did in the big city. "Thank you, I appreciate that. I'll definitely call in the morning and get that settled."

  "Great, we'll talk to you then. Have a good night."

  "You too."

  Now Claire was fully awake and hungry. She hadn't eaten since breakfast and when she looked at the phone it was a little after five. Figuring she might as well get around to telling Roland she was staying in town, she texted him and asked if he wanted to grab dinner.

  Much to her surprise, within a minute he responded, saying he would love that and would meet her in the lobby in ten.

  Now that she’d decided she didn't want to drive back with Roland, she was nervous to spend time with him. All the signs were falling into place telling her to break it off with him. Or at least that is what it felt like to Claire. She was mentally dragging her feet on breaking up. This weekend solidified the idea that Roland
wasn't for her but that didn't mean breaking up with him would be easy. She had an inkling Roland was one to make a scene if not happy and she wasn't looking forward seeing that personality trait.

  She packed her long peacoat with her phone, her keys, and her wallet so she wouldn't have to take her purse and headed down to the lobby.

  By the time she got there, Roland was already there, even though she’d taken less than ten minutes. He smiled at her and it was a beautiful smile. Roland was an attractive man and he could be charming when he wanted to, but she supposed that was part of what made him so good at sales.

  "There's not a lot directly around us, especially with that knee of yours. There's a diner down the street that's not bad. I figure we can easily walk there and then we don't have to worry about a car being stranded somewhere."

  Knowing her own response wasn't required, Claire nodded and the two of them walked out of the hotel in silence. The silence continued even as Roland opened the door to a restaurant called Betsy's place which looked like a stereotypical rustic diner. When they walked inside there was a lot of vinyl and dark wood and the place was about half full with everything from single people at the bar to families in booths. It was a comfortable place where she felt welcome. There was even a sign that said to seat yourself. They slid to opposite sides in a small booth closer to the front of the restaurant. Within a few moments a waitress who couldn't have been more than twenty, smiled at them before taking their orders and leaving them alone again.

  "What time do you want to head out tomorrow?"

  The question set Claire back a second. She hadn't expected Roland to open with that. Especially since it meant an awkward dinner now laid ahead of them if he didn't like her response. Taking a deep breath, Claire straightened her spine and schooled herself, readying for whatever his response may be.

  "Actually, I'm going to stick around, since I can work remotely. I have let my boss know I won’t be in for a few days. I want to be here in case they can fix my car. I don't want to have to figure out how to drive back here, with all this snow to get my vehicle. Overall, it would be less of a hassle if I stay the few days and drive home with my car. If it turns out they can't fix it then I'll take a bus." She said it all in one breath so he couldn’t interrupt her and argue.