Would I regress, being back home? Go back to sweats and trainers? In my tailored suits and perilously high heels, I felt as though I slipped on a different persona.
In the so-called ‘city that never sleeps’ it had been crucial to be assertive, ambitious, and one step ahead of the game. It had taken me years to build up my client list and I worked so damn hard for it. Maybe the old adage was true: you can take the girl out of Evergreen but you can’t take Evergreen out of the girl, because here I was, home again.
I shielded my eyes from the rising sun. In the distance the mountain range was a riot of autumnal color, reds, ochres, dusty orange, and saffron yellow – the leaves on the hardwood trees clinging on for one more day.
“I hope I don’t mess things up, Micah. This is my last chance. So many things could go wrong,” I said seriously. I could lose everything. The place could remain silent, might never be filled with the tapping of high heel shoes, the popping of champagne corks and peals of laughter. I couldn’t go back to Manhattan, that door was firmly closed. “What if after all the work is done no one hires the place?”
“Hey…” he said, gently rubbing my arm. “That’s not the Clio I know. Where’s the girl who left town screeching about setting the world ablaze?” He gave me a playful shove. “Where’s she gone?”
Up until a few months ago I’d been brimming with confidence, sure of my place in the world. But then I’d messed up – being too honest with a bride, misunderstanding her nerves for something else entirely. It had shaken me up, and made me question myself and my ambitions. Maybe I’d just been lucky before, but that bride kicked my legs out from under me, and I hadn’t quite managed to get back up yet.
“She’s. Right. Here.” I rallied, pasting on a smile.
“Is that supposed to be a smile or a grimace?”
I flashed a sillier grin, regressing back to my teenage self and finding it refreshing. “God, it’s good to see you, Micah.” He was the one person I could be myself with. There was no point pretending because he knew the real me.
“Evergreen was never quite the same without you.”
During our teenage years we’d spent weekends dreaming of a life outside of here. I guess we always thought the grass was greener elsewhere, and for a small town girl, it was. It was so damn green it glowed, and I wished things had turned out differently. At least I had Cedarwood as a consolation prize.
Micah grinned. “Hey,” he checked his watch. “Where’s your mom? I thought she’d be here.”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. When I rang again she made some flimsy excuse. I honestly thought she’d be bursting to see the inside of the lodge after all these years. But I guess she’ll get here when she gets here.”
My first day back in Evergreen I had driven straight to Mom’s place to surprise her with the news about buying Cedarwood Lodge. It had been almost impossible to keep it secret but I’d wanted to tell her face to face and had guilelessly expected shrieks of joy. Instead she paled to a ghostly white, as if I had told her something shocking. We’d never been super close, but still, I’d expected a smile, a word of encouragement, a hug welcome home.
Up until last winter Mom had owned an inn in the center of Evergreen, so I’d also been hoping for a bit of guidance. In my heart of hearts I hoped buying the lodge to would bring us closer together, but I guessed hoping didn’t make it so.
Micah smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “She’s probably just tying things up so she can concentrate properly once she gets here.” He pulled me into one of his breath-stealing bear hugs to comfort me, because we both knew it was more than that.
“Yeah,” I said, pulling away. Mom was retired now, so it wasn’t as if she had anything keeping her away per se. Maybe she just needed to get used to the idea that her taking-the-world-by-storm daughter was back home… without actually having exactly taken the world by storm. Was she disappointed in me? It was hard to tell.
“First things first,” Micah said, dragging me back to reality. “Let’s check out your bedroom and see if I can make it a little more comfortable like you asked.”
Stepping into the warmth of the lodge, I snuck a glance over my shoulder to watch Micah’s reaction, and sure enough he was wide-eyed just like I’d been at seeing the place for the first time. Faded sunlight caught the crystals in the chandeliers and cast prisms of color around the room. I breathed in the scent of long forgotten memories before leading Micah up the spiral stairs to the suite that was to become my home for the foreseeable future.
I swung open the heavy oak door. The suite needed a little TLC, though the stone fireplace and view to the mountains made up for it.
“Right,” he said, surveying the scene. “This shouldn’t take too long, just needs a few nips and tucks and a lick of paint here and there.”
I smiled at Micah’s assurances that it wasn’t a big job, as I was eager to make the suite my own, and snuggle in bed with the mountains a stunning backdrop to my dreams. In the basement I’d found an antique bed with an elaborate bedhead which I repainted champagne white. Dragging it upstairs had been a feat, but one I managed with only a few scrapes and bruises. Once the room had a facelift with paint, some luxurious bedding, and new décor, it would feel more like me, more like home.
He opened the creaky bathroom door, exposing the old claw foot tub and a marble vanity – the perfect room to relax in with a book and a rose scented bubble bath after a long day.
“I can fix the broken tiles, and redo the grout.”
I nodded eagerly. While the lodge was ancient, the bathrooms were still functional, and would only need some modern accoutrements to get them up to code. Some proper exhaust fans, and new lighting, maybe heat lights for winter… my list kept on growing. “Great!”
I grabbed Micah’s arm, eager to show him the view from the landing at the top of the stairs and ask his advice on what to do with the space. The mountain range was visible from every window on the east side of the lodge and I wanted people to be able to soak it up in comfort. The reflection of the trees shimmied on the surface of the lake, and it was easy to lose an hour staring outside at such elemental beauty – it was spellbinding.
Our tour was interrupted by the rumble of engines roaring along the main road.
“Can you hear that?” I asked, dropping his arm, and dashing closer to the window to get a glimpse of them arriving.
“That, my friend, is the sound of progress. Time to get your overalls on, Clio!” He gave my high heels a pointed look and was rewarded with an eye roll. “Let’s meet them out front!”
We flew down the stairs and on to the porch to watch the procession arrive. Cars and trucks turned into the driveway in convoy. Some were loaded with supplies, others bare except for hard-hatted drivers with determined expressions.
Anticipation sizzled through me. It was really happening! This beautiful timeworn lodge was about to be transformed back into its glorious self.
My old life was behind me. Here – in the town I grew up, in the abandoned lodge I played by as a child – people would fall in love, they’d marry, they’d have families and then they’d return to Cedarwood and celebrate once more…
A few weeks later, ignoring a head throb from the ever present noise, I gave myself a silent pep talk. You can do this! All you have to do is paint them a charming picture of what will be. I buttoned up my navy blue blazer, straightened the seam of my crisp linen trousers and slipped on red heels, the ones Micah teased me relentlessly over.
With the buzz of a drill nearby, I picked