So Inn Love by Catherine Clark Read Free Book Online Page A

to!”
    “It’s okay. Hey, how was sailing?”
    “There were like ten kids for one boat. I’m just hanging out in our room for a couple of minutes recovering before my afternoon session.” She paused. “In comparison to your job, not so bad, I guess. How was scrubbing toilets?”
    I laughed. “That went okay, but then Itrashed the vacuum cleaner.” My phone started to beep, as another call came in. “I’ll explain later—see you!”
    “Is this Liza McKenzie?” Miss Crossley asked when I answered. “Where are you?”
    “I’m on my lunch break.” I supposed you could call it that. “In fact, I was just talking to Hayden. He’s here on his break, too.” I figured dropping his name couldn’t hurt.
    “Where is here , Liza? I need to talk to you now.” Miss Crossley clearly was not impressed. “Could you meet me in my office in five minutes?”
    “I don’t think I can get there that fast. How about in fifteen?” I suggested, feeling very nervous. Had Mr. Knight gone to find her after he’d yelled at me? Was I going to be fired already?
    Remember what Josh said, I told myself. They’re not going to fire you. They won’t. They can’t. Not so close to the start of the season.
    Of course, I’d been hired off the waiting list. Which meant there was probably still a waiting list.
    “Ten minutes, Liza,” Miss Crossley said.
    I guessed that was her idea of compromising. “That’s great!” I said.
    How many times was I going to be phony and say that today? I was getting kind of unimpressed with myself.
    I tossed my cup into the trash, waved goodbye to Sally, and hurried outside. To my surprise, Hayden was standing there. He was closing his phone with a snap, and about to climb on a bicycle. He looked around as I came out the door.
    “Can I borrow that?” I asked, pointing to his bike. “Miss Crossley’s kind of breathing down my neck—or cell phone anyway—she wants me there in ten minutes and I don’t think I can run that fast.”
    “I have a better idea,” Hayden said. “Why don’t we both ride?”
    “How are we going to do that?”
    “Easy. I pedal, you sit on the handlebars.”
    “You sure that will work? I’m kind of tall,” I said.
    “Well, you could sit on the seat and I could stand and pedal,” Hayden suggested.
    I eyed the bike, which was a cruiser style with fat tires. “Where did you get this, anyway?” I asked.
    “Oh, there’s a shed out behind the Inn. It’s got tons of old stuff like this. They used to be for nice bike rentals but they’re really old.”
    “And anyone can use them?” I asked.
    “Sure. You just need a key to the shed.” He smiled and held up a small key. There was a semiarrogant tone that went with that, but I didn’t mind. He had a bike—I needed one. “Climb on,” he said.
    I walked around to the front of the bike. “I haven’t tried this since I was about six. I was a lot shorter then.”
    “And lighter, probably,” Hayden said, adjusting his stance a little as we prepared to set off.
    Was he trying to imply something? “Hey. If you want, I can pedal and you can ride.” I looked over my shoulder at him as I balanced myself on the handlebars.
    “I was kidding, okay? And you’re only offering that because you just realized that if we crash, you’ll go down first,” Hayden said.
    “I hadn’t even gotten to thinking about crashing yet.” As Hayden pushed off, I squealed and lifted my feet, and we started to wobble along the street. Fortunately there wasn’t much traffic, which was good because we were weaving all over the place until Hayden straightened out the bike.
    “You doing okay?” Hayden called up to me.
    “This is great—” I started to say, honestly this time.
    Then we hit a giant pothole.
    The bike tilted to the right, jolting me off the handlebars. I landed on my feet, just as Hayden hopped off the bike, grabbing me by the waist to steady me. I looked over my shoulder at him. “I’m okay,” I said.
    “Sorry. I