Up to Me (Shore Secrets) (11 page)

“It’s a date...or not,” Gray corrected himself.

“Exactly.” Ella hurried into the castle with a wave and a laugh. Gray sucked in a lungful of air perfumed with whatever the flowering trees were on the property. Might be cherry or apple. Not that he’d be around long enough to find out. But they’d sure looked pretty as he jogged underneath them yesterday. Way better than running on a treadmill in a tiny basement hotel gym.

The chair recently vacated by Ella scraped across stone as a tall, elderly man dropped his weight into it with a huff. “Mind if I join you?”

“I was just leaving.” Gray started to rise. This wasn’t a B & B. He had no intention of getting stuck making small talk with some retiree on vacation. His agenda was jam packed with a second big day of wandering down Main Street to see what dirt he could dig up on Mayhew Manor. Assess how the townspeople really felt about it—and how they might feel about something bigger and better. “You can have the table.”

“It isn’t the table I’m interested in getting to know.” He waved Gray back into his seat with a liver-spotted hand. Then extended it to Gray. “Sorry it took me this long to welcome you to the Manor, Mr. Locke.”

“How do you know my name?” The question came out a little harsher than Gray intended. But that was his knee-jerk animosity to what was probably just small town friendliness. He far preferred big-city anonymity. It made his job easier. It also didn’t give him a flashback to his hometown that always brought with it the special, gut-churning nausea of shame.

“Oh, I know everyone’s name.” A genial chuckle. “I’m Eugene Shalitsky, the general manager for this fine establishment.”

Gray crumpled up his mental agenda. Three-pointed it straight into the trash can. Far better to stay right here and dig a pickax into the gold mine of information Fate just sat at his table. “Nice to meet you. Quite a place you’ve got here.”

“Oh, it’s not mine. I think of myself as a caretaker for the owner. And also a caretaker
of
the owner. If you get my drift.”

He sure did. The closest thing Ella had left to a father figure had just watched Gray get up close and real personal with her. It felt weird, at best. “You saw us. Just now.”

“Indeed.”

Great. Was Grandpa here to kick his proverbial ass? “You’ve got a problem with it?”

“Indeed not.” The man flattened his palms on the fanciful scrollwork that made up the arms of the chair. “I’m grateful to you for putting some color back in Ella’s cheeks. She hasn’t looked at a man the way she looks at you in quite some time.”

Whoa. It felt even weirder for Eugene to thank him for putting the moves on her. Gray shifted in his chair. What was he supposed to say to that—
my pleasure
?

“She’s a special girl.” Lame. Stupid. Thinking on his feet, having an answer at the ready for anything was one of his biggest job requirements. He must be off his game because the topic was personal, not professional.

“Quite so. It’s been my distinct pleasure to work with first her parents, and then Ella.” Eugene put a hand to the side of his mouth and leaned forward, as if imparting a secret. Gray was all for secrets. Of the business variety. The personal kind, he didn’t want to get near. And he had the feeling Eugene wasn’t about to share with him the guest retention rate or per-room profit margin. Sure enough, Eugene dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “Although the past few years have comprised more work than I’d bargained for, I don’t mind telling you.”

Obviously. But shouldn’t he mind? Opening up like this about his boss to a complete stranger? One whose only apparent knowledge of Ella was how to make her moan over muffins? The weird factor jacked up about two hundred percent. Gray cleared his throat. “Sorry. I feel like I missed half the conversation. Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I want to thank you for dragging Ella out of her hole. We’ve all tried, and gotten her close to back to normal. Looks like you just might be the one who gets her across that finish line.”

Yeah. Or he might be the one responsible for Ruffano & McIntosh Holdings snaking the property out from under her. The one to shoulder the burden of taking away the only legacy left by her dead parents. Guilt swamped him again, suffocating him. He reached reflexively for the coffee he’d already drained. No help there. Damn. Getting out of here—and getting coffee—moved to the top of his priority list. The white-haired manager might be trying to build Gray a pedestal, but he had a hammer full of reality he wasn’t afraid to wield.

“Look, I appreciate the sentiment, but you don’t know me. At all.” Clearly this misplaced conviction was a symptom of that stupid, small-town trust Gray so detested. The kind of trust that led people to believe nothing bad could ever happen in their town. The kind of trust that kept doors unbolted and windows unlocked. Trust like that made it easy for monsters to get you. Didn’t Eugene worry about the wrong kind of guy latching on to the very pretty, sweet, and wealthy-on-paper Ella? Because he damn well should.

“I know she’s taken with you, Mr. Locke.”

Jesus. Gray slammed his lids closed so Eugene wouldn’t see him roll his eyes. Who knew the bleeding heart of a true romantic lay under the crisply ironed shirt with the hotel logo embroidered in burgundy across the pocket? “For all you know, I could be all kinds of trouble for Ella. I could break her heart.”

“Her heart’s already been shattered into a thousand pieces by the death of her parents. Amazingly, it got stronger when it knitted back together. She just hasn’t put it to the test yet.” He leaned forward again, his oddly amiable smile fixed in place as he patted Gray’s knee. “I’ve got a good sense about folks. It’s never steered me wrong.”

“Well, trust me, I don’t want to hurt Ella.” There. Absolute truth. No promises made, though.

“See? I knew it.” Beaming with satisfaction, Eugene eased back into the chair with a wince. “Damned hip. I climbed the stairs to the tower four times yesterday. That was three-and-a-half times too many for my bursitis.”

It was his turn to say something. Some bridge to steer the conversation back towards a topic that didn’t make Gray so uncomfortable. And Eugene’s bum hip could be the perfect segue. “You’re the manager. Can’t you delegate the stair climbing to someone, oh, thirty years younger? Gotta train the next generation to take over, right?” Gray added a hearty laugh to take the sting out of his words.

“When you’ve got a, shall we say, guest complication, there’s not always time to wait for the elevator. Between you and me, the couple who checked out of the tower room this morning were as complicated as a five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. I didn’t want to foist them off on anyone else.”

“You must have an assistant manager.” With the lightness of a whiffle ball, he tossed it out there. No need to show just how interested he truly was in the answer.

“Nope.”

Gray didn’t need to beat around the bush to hide his experience with hotels. Any corporation, no matter how big or small, required an organizational structure with subordinating levels. Law firms had partners and lawyers and paralegals. There were chefs and sous-chefs and line-cooks. Hospitals had attendings and residents and interns. That particular knowledge he’d gleaned over a weekend locked in an Omaha hotel room thanks to a blizzard that coincided with a
Grey’s Anatomy
marathon on the one channel that wasn’t wiped out by the storm. Not that he’d ever admit his newfound admiration for McSteamy’s luck with the ladies to anyone. Ever.

“An operation this size?” Gray tilted his head back and speared an arm out to indicate the breadth of the castle and its spotlessly manicured grounds. “Ella told me there are actually two hotels. How do you do it all without an assistant?”

Eugene dragged in a long, raspy sigh. “I can’t afford to let Ella think there’s a safety net of an assistant manager. So I do it all myself, and count the days until I don’t have to anymore.”

Now they were getting down to the good stuff. The sort of thing you couldn’t dig up on a business online. The dirt that had to be carefully finessed, in person. “What do you mean?”

Another sigh. Then he drummed the fingers of his right hand on the edge of the table, setting the silverware dancing and clinking. “I’ve got a fully trained assistant. Actually, when it comes right down to it, I’ve got a fully trained replacement. Ella Mayhew.”

The impression Ella gave Gray was that she’d run off to college and massage school without giving the castle and its operations a second thought. If it was true? If she was really primed to take over? It could complicate matters. The rough draft of the report he’d begun last night would need to be tossed. Everything reevaluated. Casually, Gray scratched the back of his neck. “I thought she was just a massage therapist.”

“Right
now
, she’s just a masseuse. But her parents raised her to run the place. They taught her everything about this hotel. She spent her summers apprenticing in every section of the hotel. Can she cook a four-course meal at the last minute for a hundred wedding guests? No. But does she know how to pull together the team to do it? Absolutely.” He ticked points off on his arthritis-swollen hands. “Sweet-talk the linen vendor into switching tablecloths at the last minute. Wrangle the wait staff who had the night off into coming back in for a shift. Call the florist for fresh centerpieces, including something special for the bridal suite. Juggle twenty other details that are all moving parts. It’d be second nature to Ella.”

It’d be second nature to Gray, too. But he’d keep that to himself. Instead, he’d just keep pushing open the conversational door and hope that Eugene kept barreling through it. “It’d be a lot of work.”

Eugene gave a dismissive wave. “Oh, there’d be some glitches while she settled in. But this hotel needs a Mayhew at the top spot. I just have to wait for her to realize it. So I hide my limp in front of her, try not to complain about my aches and pains. I’ve already put off retirement.”

Gray gave the manager a longer, assessing glance. Still spry enough. Lots of hair. Also lots of deep creases around the eyes and mouth. Forehead, too. One hand was plastered to the aching hip. Eugene hid it well, but he had to be on the wrong side of seventy. “Really? For how long?”

“Too long. Supposed to make the announcement the month her parents were killed. My first grandchild had just been born. Little Bella. What a cutie.” Gray hoped he wasn’t about to be on the receiving end of the wallet photo whip-out. The last thing he needed was a ten-minute ramble down memory lane. “No way I could leave Ella in the lurch. I put it off. She never even knew. And now she won’t hear of anyone taking my place. Every time I bring it up, she hugs me. Says she can’t imagine the place without me. So I stay.”

Gray gaped at him. The selflessness displayed by Eugene blew him away. Stay on an extra six months to hire and train a replacement? Sure. But to hang in there for three years? With no foreseeable change in sight? That level of loyalty to the Mayhews and to their Manor spoke volumes. And it added yet another layer of complication to his overall evaluation.

“That’s amazing. No matter the circumstances, most people wouldn’t postpone their retirement for years. It takes a special kind of man.”

Eugene shrugged off the praise. “Problem is, I can’t wait much longer. Bella’s got a brother now. I promised I’d help look after them when their mother goes back to work in two months.”

Sounded to Gray like Eugene was pink-slipping himself. And soon. “Does Ella know?”

The corners of his mouth turned down, creating even deeper jowls. “Not yet. I was waiting for something. The right moment. A sign, I guess. And then you showed up.”

Oh, that was a sign all right. A sign that big changes were around the corner. Just not the ones Eugene expected. “Look, I like Ella. It’s no secret that I hope to spend more time with her while I’m here. But I’m only here for two weeks.” He said it slowly and clearly, so there’d be no possible confusion. No mixed message from Gray. Not to Eugene, not to Ella, and sure as hell not to himself.

“She looks so happy with you.” Damn it. Eugene’s comment seemed to ignore Gray’s last sentence. The most important one. The one that flat out told him not to pin any hopes on a future for Ella and Gray. “It does my old heart good to see it.”

The guilt returned, strangling Gray with a mix of remorse and shame. More than a little self-loathing, too. For years he’d maintained a clear line between mixing his work assignments with women. Gray was smart enough to know it could get messy. There was only one reason he’d given in to the temptation that was Ella. They both knew, from the start, that their time together came with a rapidly approaching expiration date.

But now the situation was getting complicated. He didn’t like knowing that he held the power to shape her future with his report. Gray disliked even more hiding that awkward fact from her. And now other people were involved in this sticky mess. What if there were more people like Eugene, getting their hopes up over nothing? More friends or employees who saw Gray as the lifeline that could pull Ella up the last few feet out of her well of despair? When in actuality, he might end up kicking her straight back into it.

Getting involved with Ella was a huge mistake. A
Hindenburg
sized mistake. A
doping in the Tour de France and assuming you won’t get caught
sized mistake. One he certainly couldn’t backpedal from with Eugene sitting there grinning at him. Escape was the only answer. He shot out of his chair.

“Don’t think for a second that I’m going to help you break the news. Or try to convince her to give up the job she loves to take over the one she’s run from her whole life.”

“She’s told you a lot. That’s good.” Another knowing nod.

Gray didn’t know how he’d gotten painted as the savior in this scenario. “Eugene, I wish you luck. But for both our sakes, I’m planning to pretend we never had this conversation.”

With a double-thump of his hand on the table for goodbye, he hurried around the edge of the building. Didn’t want to waste a second opening the door and cutting through the building. That led to the potential of seeing Ella. Right at this second, he didn’t know what he might say to her.