Finding Reese (Tremont Lodge Series Book 1) Read online

  “Wait. You went on a date with Lawson because of a deal?”

  “Yep.”

  “Whoa. I can only imagine how desperate you must have been to choose that route.”

  “You have no idea,” I say, kicking a loose rock out the front door.

  “Get me a bottled water at the tiki hut and I’ll join you for a walk when I have the basket ready,” she says.

  “Sounds great.”

  Chapter 13:

  A package is waiting for me on my bed when I get back to my room after my hike with Bree up a mountain trail. Tinley is jumping up and down waiting for me to open it.

  “Seriously, Tinley, it’s probably just some cookies from my grandparents.” She gives me that You’ve got to be kidding me look, but she’s right. First of all, the only mail I’ve gotten all summer from my grandparents was one lousy postcard from their weekend trip to Door County, Wisconsin. They bought fudge and antiqued in downtown shops. Enough said. They never were much for small talk, and the closing ended with Your Grandparents, no mention of love anywhere in the note. My brother and I are simply obligations which were dumped on them in the prime of their life. I can’t say that I blame them, but a little emotion would have been nice while I was growing up. I know that Blake gets the sentiment from me, but having an obnoxiously gooey sister can’t substitute for parental love.

  “Reese, open it. I’m dying to know what’s inside…and who it’s from. I bet it’s from Finn.” I tear off the blue paper, the color of a robin’s egg, and pull back the tissue paper to reveal a handwritten note.

  Dear Reese,

  Wear this tonight.

  The note isn’t signed, but I can’t help smiling thinking that Finn ordered something from the gift shop and had it delivered to my room before I got back here. How romantic.

  “Who’s it from?” Tinley rips the note from my hand. “Ooh, a secret admirer.”

  “It’s got to be from Finn. We have a date later.”

  “Thank the Lord you came to your senses. Let’s see if he has good taste.” I pull a red strapless dress from the box. It has a sweetheart neckline and an open back with a thin red strap that doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

  “I can’t wear this,” I say.

  “Hell, yes, you can. Do you know how hot it is when a guy shops for you, let alone what he’s telling you by picking out this dress.”

  “Exactly. That is not the message I am trying to give, Tinley. I mean, I like Finn, but I don’t sleep with strangers.”

  “You are such a prude, Reese.”

  “I am not a prude. I’m smart, and I make no apologies for wanting the guy to be committed first.”

  “I think you should be committed,” Tinley says, rolling her eyes. “Now put on that dress. I’ve got the perfect stilettos you can wear with it.”

  “Tinley, we’re going to Jack’s—for burgers. I can’t wear this dress and those shoes while eating a hamburger.

  “You will never see those people eating at Jack’s ever again. Why do you care what anyone but Finn thinks?”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “Of course I am. Now try that thing on.” I take the dress into the bathroom and slip out of my tank top and shorts and into the dress. It fits perfectly, though snug is an understatement in describing the style of the dress. My breasts pop out over the top of the sweetheart neckline, and the bottom of the dress makes an hourglass turn around my butt. I think I look like the pictures of those starlets on that fashion show on E! where the hosts must guess if it’s a star or a streetwalker pictured. It’s time to get Tinley’s assessment, though I don’t think she’s the best judge of taste.

  “OMG, you look amazing! Stunning! He’s going to lose it when he sees you. Hell, all of the guys at Jack’s are going to lose it. You could probably command a whole army to fall at your feet just by putting that dress on. Damn girl. Twirl around for me.” I oblige Tinley but have real doubts.

  “I feel like a slut.”

  “Well, I imagine Finn wishes you would, but if he knows you at all, he knows this is as close as he’s going to get to seeing your body.”

  “Seriously, Tinley, you need a hobby or something to occupy that busy brain of yours.”

  “I have a hobby—men.” She giggles and answers her phone. “Hey, Murphy. You won’t believe what Reese just got from Finn.” I slip back into the bathroom and put my shorts and tank top back on for my meeting with Helen. When I come back into the bedroom, Tinley is chewing on the end of a pencil and staring at her phone.

  “What’s the matter with you?” I ask.

  “Nothing,” she says.

  “Bull. What did Murphy say to you?”

  “Nothing, relax. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “Tinley!”

  “Hey, I have to go. Murphy and I are having dinner at the bar by the pool before we go out. Have fun tonight. She doesn’t even assess herself in the mirror again before running out of the room. Something’s up, and I wonder if I’m going to have to pay the price for her secrecy.

  I walk around the front of the lodge where I find Helen waiting in her car, as directed. “Get in, dear. Hurry, hurry,” she says. I open the front door and sit down. Helen is driving a mini-van. I wonder if she has small children. I never thought to ask.

  “Why are we hiding?” I ask as we drive away from the lodge toward Tremont City.

  “We’re not supposed to fraternize with the college help,” she says. “Mr. Oakley’s rules.

  “Ted or Lawson?” I ask.

  “Well, it comes down from Lawson, so it’s hard to tell.”

  “Helen, he’s not much older than me. Why do you take all that crap from him?”

  “He’s the boss, Reese, and I have a family to take care of.” How lucky Helen’s children are to have a mother that cares.

  “Still, he’s an ass.”

  “Easy for you to say. You’re here for the summer. I’m here for life.”

  “You say it like it’s a sentence.”

  “No, no. I love Tremont Lodge. It’s part of my family.” I watch the lodge in the side mirror as it gets smaller and smaller. Leaving the lodge is like leaving a college campus. It’s nice for a break. After crossing a river and entering the town limits of Tremont City, Helen turns down a couple of side streets, away from the tourist populated downtown area, and parks on the street in front of a tiny café with a sign above the front door that says Carla’s.

  “She’s a friend of mine,” Helen says, pointing to the sign. “She keeps my secrets.”

  “Those are the best kinds of friends,” I say.

  We order drinks—me, an iced tea and Helen, a diet Coke. Over a bowl of popcorn Helen begins to tell my story, the one I can no longer tell myself. I put my hand over my heart to steady it. Breathe in. Breathe out. This is what I’ve been waiting for. This is what I’ve wanted my whole life.

  “I was working that morning. It was a day like any other day.” I nod my head for Helen to continue. “Your room had the Please make up room sign on the door, but every time I knocked I heard commotion on the other side, so I assumed that the room was occupied. To say that I was distracted was an understatement. Everyone was on edge at the lodge.” She pauses to take a breath. “The day before—it was summer then—a woman had fallen off the chair lift going up to the restaurant, the one you all use now for your parties and such.”

  “Did she die?” I ask, recalling my conversation with Finn about that very thing.

  “Oh, yes, it was tragic. She fell thirty or forty feet. There was nothing anybody could do. Mr. Oakley was so distraught, and poor little Lawson. He didn’t understand.”

  “What does that have to do with Lawson?”

  “The woman that died was his mother.”

  “Oh, no. That’s awful. Was his father with her?”

  “No, no. Lawson never knew his father.”

  “You mean he’s not a dentist in Boston?” I ask, recalling Lawson’s account.

  “He
avens no. Rumor is that he died of a drug overdose in prison.”

  “So Mr. Oakley took in his nephew and sister-in-law?” Helen wrinkles her brow and shakes her head before taking a sip of her diet Coke.

  “Reese, Lawson is not really Mr. Oakley’s nephew. Mr. Oakley is an only child. Lawson’s mom was Mr. Oakley’s girlfriend.”

  “The picture….” I say.

  “What picture?”

  “Oh, nothing,” I say, recounting the picture of the pretty woman on Mr. Oakley’s desk in his suite. No wonder Lawson reacted so strongly to my touching it.

  “Does anyone else know that Lawson is not really an Oakley?” I ask.

  “Oh, heavens no. When Lawson was old enough to have influence under Mr. Oakley’s guidance, he made sure to fire anyone that was still working here at the time of the accident.”

  “Then how did you get to keep your job?”

  “Because of you,” she says quietly.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It was the end of my shift, and I still hadn’t made up your room, so the last time I knocked, I kept up until the door opened. A little girl—you, turned the knob and opened the door, but the safety latch was attached from inside. You were wide-eyed and terrified. I could tell you’d been crying.” Breathe in. Breathe out. The room is starting to spin. I take a drink of my iced tea. “You kept saying, The baby’s hungry. I can’t feed him. The baby’s hungry. I could hear a baby crying in the background. I told you that I’d feed the baby and taught you how to undo the latch by standing on the desk chair, which you had to drag across the floor.” She pauses again and this time grabs both of my hands in hers. “Reese, what I am about to tell you I have kept secret since that day. Because of my role in the cover up, Mr. Oakley trusted me and promised me a job for life, even promoted me to floor supervisor. I am not proud of my role in that day, but I am happy I was the one who found you and your little brother.”

  “Tell me, Helen.”

  She takes a deep breath. “When I went into the room, I found Blake in the empty bathtub, buckled into his car seat carrier. He was crying hysterically, and you handed me his bottle. I can see it clear as day. You knew exactly what that baby needed, but he was too little yet to hold his own bottle. I unbuckled him and put that bottle right into his mouth. He quieted right down. Where’s your mommy? I asked you. You told me she was sleeping in the big bed and pointed to the bedroom. I told you to stay in the bathroom. You sat on the cold floor and clutched a teddy bear or giraffe or something. I remember it was brown.”

  “Kanga,” I whisper. “I had a brown stuffed kangaroo named Kanga.” A lump is growing in my throat as Helen continues. I force another sip of tea and play with an ice cube in my mouth to help me not lose focus.

  “Anyway, you did exactly as I asked. I carried the baby….”

  “Blake,” I say.

  “Yes, I carried Blake into the bedroom, and that’s when I saw…oh, Reese, I can’t…you don’t remember…are you sure…it’s time I stop protecting this secret?” I shake my head for her to continue.

  “Tell me, Helen. It’s my sole purpose in coming to Tremont Lodge this summer. I’ve wanted to come back. I need to know.”

  “Reese.” Helen squeezes my hands tightly and closes her own eyes before speaking. “Reese, your mother was dead, lying face down in a pool of her own blood.” I can no longer listen to my mental cues to relax. I can no longer hear my own heartbeat. I am no longer alive. I am floating. I am…

  When I come to, there is a young woman crouched beside me. I feel a cool washcloth on my forehead. “Can you hear me?” the woman asks.

  “Y..yes,” I say. “I’m sorry.”

  “No apologies needed. You just scared your friend.” She points toward Helen. “I’m a paramedic. Lucky for you I was only a table away.” She smiles. “Have you ever passed out before?’ she asks.

  “Yes.”

  “I think you’re going to be fine, but I think you should walk into urgent care tomorrow morning and get checked out, just to be sure—routine bloodwork and a general check-up, okay?”

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem.” Helen and the woman help me back into my chair.

  “Oh, Reese. I am so sorry. I should never have told you. I should have been fired, too. I never should have agreed to stay quiet. What a fool.”

  “Helen, please, stop. Tell me what you mean about having to keep quiet. I don’t understand. Where was my father?”

  “I think you’d better speak with Mr. Oakley now, Reese. I’ve said too much already. Just please do me a favor.”

  “Yes, anything, Helen.”

  “Don’t tell him I told you. Tell him you remembered everything on your own. I know you don’t owe me anything, so if you can’t I understand.”

  “Stop, Helen. I’ll say anything you want me to, but why can’t you tell me more?” She shakes her head sadly, tears starting to fall.

  “Some things are better coming from the source himself.”

  I don’t talk on the drive back to the lodge. Helen drops me off at the entrance, and I walk up the winding road to the lodge. The clock tower on the front of Tremont Lodge dings 8:30. I have half an hour until my date with Finn. All I want to do right now is curl up in bed with my pillow and sleep. The revelations of the night at the lodge when I was a little girl ping around my head like it’s a human pinball machine. My mother didn’t abandon me. I was loved. She died. Oh my God, how did she die? Why did she die? But if I don’t go through with this date, then Finn will never give me another chance, and part of me needs to see Finn. Being with Finn is safe, and I need to feel safe right now.

  I wave at Bree as I walk across the lodge lawn back to the dormitory. My legs drag with the sensation of anchors weighing them down, and a light haze hangs in the air. Even the squeals of the children as they listen to Finn sing are muted against the background of my mind. But seeing Finn with his guitar strapped against his chest lightens the load, and I know that spending time with him tonight is the anecdote that I need.

  Tinley has laid out the red dress on my bed along with her black stilettos. If I don’t break an ankle tonight it will be a miracle. I brush out my hair and pull it up to a loose knot on my neck. The humidity isn’t doing me any favors, but I suppose Finn won’t be thinking about my hair when he sees me in this dress. I step into the dress, careful not to break the zipper as everything sits perfectly in its place. I’ve never felt as self-conscious in my life as I do right now, staring back at my reflection in the mirror. But if Finn wanted me to wear this dress tonight, then I will. He’s been nothing but sweet. I check the time, grab my purse, and hobble my way toward Jack’s. Thank goodness there are railings on the stairs.

  When I walk in the door to Jack’s I feel the stares immediately. What I would give to have a paper sack over my head right now. To say that I’m overdressed for a burger bar is an understatement, but then I see Finn sitting in a back booth and my heart skips a beat. I wave.

  He stands up when I get to the table, no small feat on my part. “Hey, Reese. You, uh, you look very…” My face feels flush. He doesn’t like it? It’s not how he imagined I’d look? I sit down to get out of the line of vision of the patrons on the bar stools.

  “Dammit, Finn, if you don’t like the way I look, then why did you buy this stupid dress? I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in my life.”

  “Buy your dress?” he asks. “I didn’t buy that dress. Why would I buy you a dress?”

  Breathe in. Breathe out. “What?” He shakes his head. “But I got a note in the box. You said to wear this tonight.” I point to the dress.

  “Do you have another date after dinner?” Finn is clenching his knuckles into the table and breathing fast. His dimples close, and his butterfly tenses.

  “No. No! I do not have another date. I promise, Finn. This night is all about you, all about us. Ohhhh…I hate him so much!”

  “Lawson?”

  I shake my head yes. “It has to be. Who else wo
uld be so bold?”

  “Well, maybe you don’t have plans for tonight, but he sure seems to.” Finn swigs his beer and slams it on the table a little too hard.

  “I don’t have plans with anyone tonight it seems. Finn, if you don’t believe me, then that’s your loss. I’m going back to my room to change.” I unbuckle my shoes and walk out of the restaurant with my shoes in hand while a chorus of catcalls follows me.

  I see Tinley and Murphy swimming in the pool when I get to the base of the stairs. Fueled by anger, I throw Tinley’s expensive stilettos in the pool, hoping they puncture her raft. “You knew!” I yell. “You knew!”

  “Reese, I’m sorry. I didn’t know for sure. I just knew after I talked to Murphy that no one had ordered a delivery from the gift shop. Plus, if you had thought about it, you’d have realized that something that high-end had to come from one of the stores outside the lodge gift shop. It could have still come from Finn.”

  “You knew damn well that it most likely didn’t, and you let me believe. What are friends for if not to be honest with them? I hate you!” Then I storm upstairs to my room where I knock over my lava lamp, sending water and broken glass all over the floor at the end of my bed. I drop to the floor and cry. I cry for questions unanswered. I cry for questions answered. I cry for the little girl who saw so much horror that she’s buried it all so deep she can’t remember anything. And I cry for the girl who can’t catch a break, no matter how hard she tries to do what’s right. A light knock on the door startles me out of my pity party. I wipe at my make-up with the back of my hand, black mascara transferring to my hand.

  “Go away, Tinley,” I say.

  “It’s not Tinley.” Finn.

  “Go away, Finn.”

  “You can’t get away from me that easily.” He keeps knocking, and I know he’s not going to leave. I open the door. Finn is standing in the hallway with a dozen pink roses in his hand. He holds them out for me.

  “Finn, what are you doing?” I ask.