Back Home Again: A Small Town Romance (Yosemite Flats Book 1) Read online

  Alexandria chewed on her lip to keep from smiling at the child’s stern reproach. “How did she miss you with those sparkly pink shoes?”

  Sophia admired her own feet as she answered, “She was too busy smiling and stuff at Randy.”

  Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “Randy? Isn’t that the cashier at Slater’s?”

  “Mmmhmm. Mrs. Paulson“—she spit her babysitter’s name out like it tasted bad—“didn’t keep an eye on us at all. Jeffrey Temmel even stole a piece of candy, but she didn’t see it. I told him to put it back, but he wouldn’t, so I told him I’d stomp on his foot if he didn’t.”

  “Did he?” Alexandria asked, already knowing the answer.

  Sophia pulled her shoulders back and nodded pertly. “Of course!”

  “So Erin — Mrs. Paulson — didn’t supervise you at all?” Grayson pressed. “She just flirted with the cashier the whole time?”

  “Yup. I guess that’s why she didn’t see me go into the bathroom.” She spun to her dad, eyes wide with excitement. “I got the door open all by myself too!”

  “Good job, sweets. What happened next?”

  Sophia shrugged as if it was no big deal, but her face clouded over. “I came out and everyone was gone. I thought maybe they were playing a mean joke on me, but they never came back. Randy gave me a lollipop.” This time she leaned into Alexandria. “I think he was scared I was gonna cry. But I didn’t.”

  “You’re very brave, Sophia. I think I would have cried. What did you do instead?”

  “I walked here. It isn’t very far.”

  “Sophia, why didn’t you call me?” Panic and worry flared in his eyes again.

  Sophia ducked her head. It was the first time Alexandria had seen her express anything other than confidence. “I wanted to get the Snorlax.”

  Grayson and Alexandria exchanged a perplexed glance.

  “What?” Grayson asked his daughter.

  “It’s a Pokémon,” she mumbled. “It’s a hard one, and it wasn’t very far!”

  “Sophia, listen to me. If something like this every happens again—“

  Alexandria’s phone rang so she excused herself. She really shouldn’t be in the middle of a “teaching moment” anyway. That kind of thing was reserved for family and friends. A pang of…something, she wasn’t sure what, drew a frown at the thought, but she didn’t have time for introspection. Her boss was calling.

  “Mr. Maddox, what a nice surprise to hear from you.”

  It had to be about the promotion. It was the only thing he’d call about while she was on vacation. Excitement rippled through her and her heart raced. This was it. Her time had finally come.

  Why am I so nervous?

  She’d interviewed for the position of General Manager before, but hadn’t landed it. Of course, Human Resources wouldn’t tell her why, but her boss strongly implied it was her lack of an MBA in hospitality management. So she spent three sleep-deprived years taking online courses to get the three little letters that could propel her farther up the ladder, and hopefully, right through the glass ceiling.

  “Alexandria, I, um… I have some…news.”

  She really didn’t like the sound of that. Nope, not one little bit. Excitement turned sour in her stomach and bile rose in her throat. Clenching her teeth, she stayed silent, waiting for him to drop the bombshell, as if she didn’t know what it was by his awkward tone. But damned if she was going to make it easy on him.

  “We, um, went with someone else.”

  She gripped the phone so hard it was a wonder it didn’t crumble to dust. Her entire body shook with frustration and embarrassment and rage.

  “Who?” she seethed. It wasn’t really a question, but a demand.

  After a brief, awkward pause, he finally answered, “Jackson Marmont.”

  Jackson Marmont? Jackson Marmont! She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The earth tipped and threatened to slip out from under her feet. Jackson Marmont!

  “But Jackson is my subordinate, sir,” she finally managed, once she regained her balance. “He doesn’t have an MBA. He’s barely out of college!”

  “Listen, Luther. I know you thought the job was yours but…that kid is smart. We don’t want Marriott or Hilton poaching him. He’s going places and we want to make sure he stays on our team.”

  Alexandria’s vision filled with red — pulsing, vibrating, screaming blood red.

  With a calm she didn’t feel, she spoke. “Well guess what, Robert. I’m going places too. I quit.” Without a second thought, she threw her phone in the pond.

  Chapter Four

  “Oh God, Zoe, what did I do!”

  Alexandria dropped her forehead to the table and instantly regretted it as she quickly wiped off a mysterious sticky substance. She moaned and slouched back in her chair, staring at the flickering neon Budweiser sign on the wall, hoping she wasn’t sitting in some of whatever that goo was. She had enough stains on her expensive jeans as it was.

  “Girl, you told your boss right where he could shove it,” her lifelong friend said, patting her own heart and sniffing dramatically. “I’m so proud. Baby girl is all growed up!”

  Alexandria had met Zoe Branigan on their first day of third grade at Yosemite Flats Grade School. Zoe’s family had just moved to town from a San Francisco suburb, but instead of trying to melt into the woodwork as many new kids did, Zoe walked right up to her and said, “I like your butterfly hair clips. I’ll trade you a Vanilla Coke for one of them.” They’d been besties ever since.

  Even after Alexandria moved to Los Angeles for college, and Zoe had landed her dream job as a park ranger at Yosemite, they’d stayed in touch regularly. At first, they’d carved out as much time as possible during Alexandria’s visits home, jogging along backwoods trails or sharing a sundae at Slater’s. But after the drama at her dad’s funeral, Zoe had to come to her, which didn’t happen as often as they both would have liked. Regardless, sitting here now, it was as if no time had passed at all.

  “I’m serious, Zoe. Do you know Marina del Rey has some of the highest rents in California? My bank account certainly knows.”

  Zoe snorted and ran her fingers through her dark brown pixie cut. “So move. No big.”

  “No big? Do you know how hard I worked to be able to afford that place?”

  “Can you though?” Her shrewd squint brought a blush to Alexandria’s cheeks. “Really?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Suddenly, the little purple sword, which was jabbed through the lime wedge in Alexandria’s margarita, seemed very interesting. It was better than meeting her friend’s green eyes.

  “Come on, Lex. You and I both know your salary barely covers your expenses. I mean, look at that watch. How much did that set you back?”

  “I got it at a consignment shop,” she hedged, stroking the face of her beloved stainless Tag Heuer. It wasn’t a Rolex, but it sort of looked like one.

  “Spill.”

  When she summoned the courage to admit how much she’d paid for the second-hand watch, Zoe paled.

  “Used? Girl, that’s more than my rent!”

  “Listen, you don’t understand. I have to present a certain image for my clients.”

  “Oh, so a lowly park ranger couldn’t possibly know anything about nice clothes, could she?”

  Alexandria chugged the rest of her margarita to stall. This wasn’t going at all like she’d planned. All she’d wanted was to see her oldest friend and vent. She didn’t come here to have cold, hard truths thrown in her face.

  “Zoe, I didn’t mean that. I just meant—“

  “Lex, chill. I know what you meant,” Zoe said, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “I’m just trying to get it through that thick Luther skull of yours that you have options.”

  “Like what?” She didn’t see any options, except maybe living under a bridge. Her life was a wreck and her future demolished.

  “Ditch the MDR place, turn in the Benz, sell all those fancy clothes on eB
ay, move back here and take over the inn, for one. I could think of a thousand others, but that’s the one I’m hoping you’ll go with.”

  Alexandria gaped at the one person in the world who knew her the best. No one better understood her cold and distant relationship with her mom. In fact, when they were in high school, it was Zoe who’d suggested she go to school in LA, knowing how much she wanted to shake off this town’s dust. How could she possibly think she’d want to move back here?

  “I can’t move home,” she sputtered. “What about my career?”

  Zoe smirked. “What career?”

  She was right. That phone call with her now ex-boss had flushed it right down the crapper.

  “My friends, though…”

  Zoe grabbed Alexandria’s new phone off the table and scrolled through the contacts. For the first time, Alexandria cursed the convenience of backing up data to the cloud.

  “Oh, you mean Killer Shrimp? No, wait. You must mean Sweat City Fitness. Or is Via Dolce Salon your new best friend?”

  She was right. Alexandria’s friends mostly consisted of coworkers and business contacts. She had a few, but for how often they hung out, they probably wouldn’t even realize it if she did move.

  Besides, Los Angeles was crammed with transients. Almost no one who lived there was actually a native, it seemed. And when the city raked them over the coals, they moved on. One day your neighbor on the right was moving in, the next day the one on the left was moving out.

  “Oh my God…Cheesecake Factory!” Zoe cackled.

  Alexandria snatched the phone back with a snarl and stared into her empty glass. A draft of chilly spring air drew her gaze to the door, and she stopped breathing.

  Grayson stood in the doorway scanning the crowded On the Level Saloon. His broad shoulders filled out a skin-tight black t-shirt as if it was custom-made for him, and his jeans fit like a glove — a glove she’d like to be a finger on. She gnawed on her thumbnail as she drank him in like a stiff drink.

  When his gaze caught hers, he stopped short. Her brain told her to look away or else he’d know she was checking him out, but her body wouldn’t obey. He gave her a knowing smile and a hint of a nod, before joining a group of guys she recognized from the old days. They all patted him on the back and greeted him like he was their best friend.

  “Maybe there are other reasons too,” Zoe said, watching the way Grayson’s eyes kept flicking in their direction.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alexandria mumbled with a sniff, before grabbing Zoe’s bourbon and water and tossing it back. Her subsequent curse barely turned heads in the buzzing locals bar.

  “That’s the new resort guy, right? What’s his name? Graynad? Grumble? Crawdad?”

  “Grayson. Grayson Conrad.”

  “That’s it,” Zoe said with a knowing wink. “Damn, he’s fine.”

  “He also happens to be a really great father to an amazing little girl.” She hadn’t meant to sound so defensive, but she couldn’t help feeling protective of a man raising a daughter on his own.

  “Bummer. He’s married?”

  Alexandria shook her head at the empty highball glass, the high-tension booze easing the low-grade tension in her shoulders and flooding her with warmth. She raised her eyes to her friend. “Widower. His wife died when Sophia was a baby.”

  “Ouch, so she never really knew her mom. That’s tragic.”

  “Doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Alexandria grumbled. She caught the eye of a passing waitress, raised Zoe’s glass and held up to fingers.

  “I can’t believe you just said that, Lex! That little girl will spend the rest of her life wondering what her mom was like and how her life would have been different if she’d lived. Her mom won’t be there to help her with her homework, or to teach her the difference between tampons and pads, or to ground her when she sneaks out to meet up with a boy. No Mother’s Day brunches, no help planning her wedding, no free babysitting at Grammy’s. She will never get the chance to act like a spiteful teenager toward her mother, unlike some people I know who are much too old for that kind of crap.”

  Leave it to Zoe to lay her cards on the table. Some people were put off by her “tell it like it is” tendencies, but over the years, Alexandria had discovered that her friend was right more often than she was wrong. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was right this time too. Again.

  As strained as her relationship with her mother was, they loved each other. Her teenage years had been rougher than most, with far too many screaming matches, but they’d had her dad to smooth things over. Now that he was gone, they were both rudderless, neither knowing how to speak to the other.

  “You’re right,” she admitted with a grimace. “That was a thoughtless thing to say, and I didn’t really mean it. I’m just afraid our relationship is too broken to fix.”

  “Nonsense. It’s just a little bent is all. But you’re going to have to make the first move, Lex, and you better do it while you still can. You don’t want to put it off until it’s too late. You’ll regret it forever.”

  Her thoughts kept returning to poor little, motherless Sophia. At least Alexandria still had time to mend the rift, if she made the effort. The question was whether Charlotte would accept an olive branch, or turn it into a switch.

  “Mom’s just so…so…”

  “So much like you?” Zoe’s eyes sparkled with mischief. She was just plain lucky the waitress hadn’t brought their refilled drinks yet, or that kind of comment would have earned her a face full of brown liquor.

  As Alexandria glared at her best friend, the door swung open again and three gray-haired women jockeyed to be first inside, elbowing each other for the dubious honor. Grace Davidson gave Ada Mellett a hard shove, but Ruth Ward won the surreal contest by stomping on Grace’s Ugg-encased foot. It was almost like watching Sunday night football, only more brutal and starring the elderly. Once inside, they made a beeline for Alexandria and Zoe’s table.

  “Lex Luther, we heard you were in town!” Ada sang.

  “Lexy, what a sight you are!” exclaimed Grace.

  “Why, Alexandria dear, I see you dressed up for the occasion,” Ruth drawled as she gave the younger woman’s casual outfit the once-over. Ruth’s passive-aggressive Southern belle personality shone through brilliantly.

  The Bubbie Brigade had been the best of friends and the worst of enemies — usually at the same time — for as long as Alexandria had been alive. The gossipy and extremely competitive busybodies were a local fixture. They never failed to entertain.

  Unless they were all up in your business. Then they were a pain in the butt.

  “Nice to see you, ladies,” she said with a painful smile.

  “How’s your mother, dear?” sweet-hearted Grace asked, stroking Alexandria’s arm with concern. “All of our hearts broke when your father passed.”

  “She’s doing as well as can be expected. Thanks so much for your concern.”

  “We organized a schedule for people to see to her needs after…” Ada’s train of thought drifted away, probably because she’d caught sight of herself in one of the many beer-branded mirrors in the joint. She tucked an errant strand of snow-white hair back into her carefully quaffed hair-helmet and practiced a coquettish pout.

  Ruth glanced at Ada with annoyance, before turning back to Alexandria. “We couldn’t just stand by and leave her all alone.”

  “She wasn’t alone,” Zoe said defensively. “Her sons were there to help.”

  “Nothing takes the place of the love of a daughter though,” Ruth shot back, quick as lightning. The smile returned as her sharp gaze moved from Zoe and landed on Alexandria again. “But you’re back now, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. Alexandria opened her mouth to tell them it was only for a short time, when Zoe chimed in. “And she’s even thinking about taking over the management of Alpine Inn to help her mom out even more. Isn’t that great news?”

  Traitor! Alexandria tried to kick Zoe under the table
, but the wily minx had tucked her feet too far under her chair. Before the door hit the Bubbies on the way out, the entire town would be talking about how Lex Luther was moving back home.

  That wasn’t an option. She could just as easily work on her fragile mother-daughter relationship from the safety of Marina del Rey. She had to nip this rumor in the bud before it had a chance to bloom into a gigantic carnivorous plant that would gobble her up.

  “Actually—“

  “Actually, that’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”

  Ada stepped aside and smiled broadly up at Grayson, who was staring at Alexandria with an intensity that made a whole bunch of her bits warm and tingly. Maybe sticking around wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

  “Grayson! When can I introduce you to my granddaughter?” Grace Davidson was first in line, quickly followed by the other two Bubbies.

  “No, my granddaughter is so much better suited for you!“ Ruth pushed Grace aside, but Ada yanked both of them back so she could cozy up to him.

  “Forget my granddaughter, do you like older women?”

  He tried not to laugh outright. The Bubbie Brigade had been after him to meet their various and sundry granddaughters since he arrived in Yosemite Flats. This was the first time one of them had offered up herself though.

  “Ladies, I’m afraid I have my hands full with business, not to mention a precocious six-year-old who thinks she’s twenty.” The women looked crestfallen. “Which brings me to my visit tonight. I had to fire my daycare provider and I’m putting the word out to a few friends that I need to find someone who wants a full-time job babysitting. At least until Sophia starts first grade in the fall.”

  The scene with Erin Paulson had been unpleasant, but at least she’d had the grace to be ashamed by her actions. He would have been well within his rights to report her to the state, but she’d never had a lapse like that in the previoius months she’d been watching Sophia, and she’d promised not to let it happen again. She truly seemed to care for the kids, even if Sophia hadn’t particularly liked her for thinking she was a “normal” child. He decided to let it slide, but if he ever caught wind of something like that again, he’d have her license yanked before she could blink, and she knew it.