What The Heart Knows (28 page)

Another
few long seconds of silence. “We're bleeding money.”

Emily's
feet landed on the floor and she was standing in a matter of seconds.
“What?”

“All
those withdrawals. Well the amounts were tripled what they have been
in previous months.”

“What?”
Emily asked again, moving out from behind the desk and pacing the
hall.

“Whatever
you did that you think you handled the situation, was wrong.”

Alec.
Through the fog of her depression, that was the first thing that came
to mind. Not the fact that a different employee was stealing money.
But the fact that she fired the wrong person.

She
was out the front door and walking down the yard, dropping the phone
on the grass. She needed to make things right. Apologize.

Alec
lived further out in town and without streetlights, she was walking
in the pitch dark of the night toward his place. She got to his home,
a house split into a duplex, looking at the red classic car in the
driveway and realizing she never even gave him a chance to explain
the car. Maybe it was gift. Maybe he had been working on it since he
was seventeen. There could be a rational explanation for its
appearance. She had just been too quick to judge.

She
pounded wildly on his door, making the neighbor's dog bark angrily.
It was a long time before she heard movement inside. Lights flicked
on and the door pulled open. Alec stood there, his hair loose around
his shoulders, naked from the waist up. “Emily?” he
asked, sounding half awake. “It's one in the morning.”

“I
know. I'm sorry,” Emily said, pushing past him and into his
house. Everything was sparse, the typical bachelor pad. Brown leather
couch in front of a huge flat screen and a coffee table that, no
doubt, he lounged with his feet up on. Then she saw movement out by
the door that led into the small kitchen. She jumped backward for a
second, banging into Alec's chest. “What the... is that...”

“It's
a mini horse,” Alec supplied, like it was as normal to have one
in your house as it was to have a cat or dog.

“In
the house?”

“Sometimes,”
he said, moving past her toward the animal in question, leading it
out toward the doors to the backyard. He pulled the door closed and
turned back to her. “Is everything alright with the horses?”

Emily
almost laughed. Not: what are you doing here? Or: get the hell out of
my house. No, he just wanted to know about the horses. It was so
incredibly like him that she had to fight the urge to run into his
arms and beg for forgiveness.

“They're
fine. I promise I've been taking good care of them. Alec... I was
wrong to fire you.”

“Yeah,
I know,” he said, leaning against the wall, crossing his arms
over his naked chest. “Why did you fire me?”

“I
thought you were stealing. Someone is sneaking money from the inn. I
just... I saw that car and I thought...”

“You.
Thought. Wrong,” he said through clenched teeth. She had never
really seen him angry before. And he was pissed. It was
disconcerting. And sexy. Good looking men shouldn't be allowed to get
angry when they were half naked.

“I
know. I know I did. I'm so sorry. I...” she looked around,
feeling her shoulders slumping. “I know I can't undo what I
did. And I... I understand if you never forgive me. But please,
please come back to the inn.”

“Of
course I'm coming back to the inn,” he said, shrugging a
shoulder, his anger slipping away too easily to be normal. “for
three more dollars an hour,” he added with a small smirk.

“Yes,
fine. Done. Thank you.”

Alec
nodded. “So who was really stealing?”

Emily
shrugged defeated shoulders. Here it went again. The distrust. The
sideways glances. “I don't know yet.”

Alec
was silent for a minute, watching her. “What the hell is that”
he said, gesturing to her mismatched bright green sweatpants and old,
ratty orange sweatshirts, her Uggs. “all about?”

Emily
snorted. “It's been a rough couple of weeks.” But it was
all over. Dane was right. She needed to get herself together. All it
had taken was one insinuation that the inn was in trouble to shake
her out of her funk. So she did care what happened to it. She didn't
want to lose it. Or work at the lodge. She needed to fix things. “But
it is all turning around now. I want you back as soon as possible. I
want you around for
Christmas.”

“I'll
be there tomorrow,” he said as if that was already his plan.

“Okay.
Great. Thanks, Alec. I'm so...”

“I
get it,” Alec said, walking her to the door. “Want me to
walk you back?”

She
laughed, looking at his naked chest. “Like that? Oh, the
scandal.”

Alec
smiled. “You've never shied away from a scandal before.”

“I'll
be fine,” she said, firmly. She needed the walk alone to clear
her head, shake out the cobwebs of not caring. “I'll see you in
the morning.”

It
was going to snow. There's a certain smell to the air before a good
storm. A smell that couldn't properly be described, but there,
hanging heavy in the air. Promising sleigh rides and snowball fights.
She walked slowly back toward the inn, her hands tucked into the
pockets of her sweatpants, bending slightly forward against the cold
wind.

Things
were going to change first thing in the morning. She was going to
pull Meggie and Devon aside and tell them what was really going on.
She was going to apologize to the staff. She was going to get to the
bottom of the theft. She was going to fire the correct person. And
then things were going to go back to normal.

But
first, she needed a good night of sleep. She grabbed the front desk
phone off the front lawn and put it on the rocker where it belonged,
walking down the hall that led to her room.

Then
she noticed out of the corner of her eye, that the light was on in
the office.

Twenty-Three

It
normally wouldn't be all that unusual for the light to be on. She was
constantly in and out of that room, checking things, making phone
calls, organizing. But thanks to her recent stint into laziness, she
hadn't been in the room in days. And the door was kept locked.

She
walked down the hall, feeling her heart beating a bit faster. She
pushed the door fully open, swinging silently. There inside the
office, completely out of place, was one of the maids.

Molly.
Molly had worked at the inn for as long as Emily could remember.
Molly had been the one to train her when she first started. She was
middle aged, plump around the center, with a very round face and
small, kind blue eyes. Her mousy blonde hair was always pulled back,
leaving her whispy bangs to frame her face.

It
couldn't be Molly.

There
had to be some kind of good reason she was in the office. Maybe she
was looking for Emily. Or a paycheck that had gone missing. Trying to
get a look at the cleaning order. Something.

“Molly?”
she asked, and Molly jumped, her head jerking up, her hand moving
automatically to her heart.

“Emily,”
she gasped. “you scared me.”

“Sorry,”
Emily said, rubbing her cold hands together. “Can I help you
with something?” she asked, moving to lean against the
doorjamb. “I know I have been really... checked out lately. And
even before that, I was out of town to see the baby. And dealing with
the guy from EM Corp. I've been a mess. But I promise that is all
turning around now. So you can start coming to me with things again.”

“That's
great,” Molly said, sending her a happy smile. “I was
really starting to worry about you. You seemed so sad.”

“No,
not sad,” she lied. “just... overwhelmed by this whole
corporate overtaking thing. But we've worked out the whole power
struggle thing,” Yeah. No. Not at all. “so everything is
good again. Oh, and Alec will be back tomorrow.”

“Alec?”
Molly asked, looking surprised and something else that Emily couldn't
place. “Well... that's news.”

“Yeah.
I fired him for something he didn't do. So I fixed that situation
tonight,” she said, stepping into the room.

“Good,”
Molly said, moving toward the side of the desk. “But you're...
sure he didn't do it?”

Emily's
brows drew together. “Yeah. I mean even if I wasn't sure before
I went over there, I was sure once I spoke to him. Listened to him.
He was innocent. I overreacted.”

“You're
sure?” Molly asked. “I mean... I've been hesitating
telling you this because I didn't think it was anything. And he loves
them horses so much...”

“Tell
me what?” Emily asked, ignoring the sudden cold sensation she
was feeling. She was overly tired. And she had just taken a stroll
outside in the middle of the winter without a jacket.

“I've
been... seeing him.”

“Alec?”

“Yeah,”
Molly said, nodding insistently.

“Where?
When?”

“At
night. Ever since you fired him. I keep seeing him. Going into the
barn, sometimes. I figured he couldn't stay away. Had to make sure
you're taking good care of his babies. But... I've seen him inside
the inn too. Actually,” she said, looking wide-eyed.
“tonight... that's why I was in here. I swear. I was coming by
your room to check on you and... and I saw him coming out of the
office.”

Emily
tilted her head to the side, watching the woman. “When? When
was this?”

“Oh,
just maybe... half an hour ago. So I came in here to make sure
nothing was missing or anything like that.”

There
was the cold sensation again, stronger, making the hair on her arms
stand up on end. Because that wasn't possible.

“Are
you sure it was Alec? You didn't just... see someone in shadow?”

“It
was Alec,” Molly said, confidently. “I saw him as plainly
as I am seeing you.”

“Molly...
I literally just got back from Alec's house.”

Emily
moved further back into the room, stepping behind the desk to find
the computer screen on. She glanced at what was open. Two windows in
the explorer: one for the insurance company and one for a bank
account. Barely paying attention to Molly, she clicked between the
two.

And
there was her proof. Once and for all, there it was.

Because
there was an unaccounted for extra six hundred dollars taken out of
the employee health benefits. And a deposit to an account in Molly's
name for six hundred dollars.

She
looked up from the computer to find Molly standing there. But this
wasn't the Molly she knew. The happy, easy-going maternal figure she
had spoken to every day for years. This Molly had her face twisted up
in an ugly way with her chin lifted and a sneer playing at her lips.

“Molly...”
Emily said, disbelievingly.

Molly
snorted. “For all that fuss Marion made about you. Going on and
on and on about how you were the best. How you had so much potential.
How you paid attention to every detail. Well, you sure missed a big
one.”

“So
this was to... spite Marion?”

“I
was here a long time before you little girl,” Molly seethed. “I
should have been the one to move up in the company. I should be in
charge.”

“And
you try to prove that by stealing?”

Molly
rolled her eyes. “I started stealing around the time she put
you in charge.”

Emily
nodded. “So it was to spite me.” She thought about all
the extra hours she had put in when she was a teenager. Hell, every
day since the day she showed up. Always going above and beyond.
Pitching in and helping anyone. How she had earned her position.
Meanwhile Molly left at three on the dot everyday. It didn't matter
if the sheets weren't done washing or the floors weren't swept, she
was out the door. “Did you ever think that maybe I got the
promotion because I earned it?”

“You
got the promotion 'cause Marion thought of you as a daughter,”
Molly spat back.

“Alright,
whatever,” Emily said, her anger turning from hot to cold
quickly. She just wanted this over with. She needed things to calm
down. She needed things back to how they used to be. “Look,
I'll give you a chance to avoid jail time. I wont call the sheriff in
if you leave quietly right now. Your employment is obviously
terminated. I don't want to see you within a hundred feet of this inn
ever again.”