her stomach. Mom and Dad had finally given up on her? They’d hired someone outside the family to run their business?
Her grip tightened on the post as she willed herself to renew a smile. Hiring Rob had to be a temporary situation, right? Until she came back. Until they could get things worked out between them.
“Hey, Rob!” A familiar female voice rang out from across the parking lot where the minivan had pulled up moments ago. She caught sight of her sister Paulette Alston standing beside it. “Would you give me a hand, please?”
Still shaken by Rob’s revelation, Olivia stepped back inside the door to retrieve her flip-flops, then caught up with him at what must be her sister’s new mom-mobile. She hadn’t recognized it when it drove in. A slightly newer model than the last.
Paulette, not expecting to see her this morning, shot Olivia a sharp look as she approached. But Olivia shouldn’t have been so surprised to see her oldest sister this early in the day. When you have five kids aged six to sixteen, you have to stay on your toes. This morning Paulette, her senior by a decade, appeared older than her thirty-five years. Black-brown eyes, devoid of the characteristic Diaz sparkle, were shadowed below with dark circles. Tendrils of limp, shoulder-length black hair, haphazardly tied back, escaped to brush her cheeks.
Paulette slid open the side door to the van, gaze focusing on Rob. “What was the deputy doing here? More trouble?”
“Timberline this time.”
The hairs prickled along Olivia’s arms. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened?”
Her sister shook her head. “Twice now in the past week. Lucky Rob.”
Singing Rock’s manager fished around in his jacket pocket. As he produced a piece of paper, Olivia at last confirmed the left hand holding it out was ringless. Her heart took flight, but only momentarily. With the way her love life had been going lately, that omission didn’t mean much. But ever the optimist, Olivia pounced on the possibility.
“I jotted down a few things while the deputy and I inspected it.” Rob unfolded his notes. “They outdid themselves this time.”
Olivia stepped closer to get a better look at his neat, compact handwriting, her proximity bringing a fading bruise and healing scrape along the side of his cheekbone into view. Paulette’s stare darkened, as if to remind her that by her own choice she had no part in Singing Rock business. Her choice? Not hardly.
“I assume you’ve introduced yourself to our new manager, Liv?” Dark eyes flashed in obvious satisfaction. She’d never believed her little sister could handle the job and hadn’t been afraid to say so.
“Actually, we already know each other.” Olivia couldn’t help but gloat inwardly as she served up the unexpected spin and watched her sister’s smug smile dissolve.
“Oh, really?” Her eyes flitted from Olivia to Rob and back again, her mouth a grim line. “How’s that?”
“College,” Olivia and Rob said in unison.
Olivia could tell by the arch of Paulette’s brow and the look she again darted at Rob that the disclosure met with disapproval. Then again, not much involving Olivia won Paulette’s endorsement.
“Small world.” Rob’s words echoed her earlier comment, but without the enthusiasm Olivia couldn’t help but hope for.
Paulette managed a smile as she turned to Rob and motioned to the interior of her van. “I was in Phoenix over the weekend and picked up supplies at the wholesale warehouse. Would you mind carrying them in for me?”
“I’d be more than happy to.” Rob lifted out a box, then headed toward the lodge.
Olivia couldn’t help letting her eyes linger on his retreating form. But, not surprisingly, as soon as he was out of earshot Paulette turned to her, blocking the view. “Surprised to see you back, Liv.”
“Got in last night.” She glanced toward the house, not up to a lecture this morning. “Where are Mom and Dad?”
“They borrowed an RV and headed for Tahoe until October. Left a week ago. You just missed them.”
Olivia gasped. “You’re kidding. They left town for over a month and didn’t even tell me?”
Paulette raised a skeptical brow. “Mom specifically said she emailed you. I hardly think she’d make that up.”
“I never got it.” Her mind raced to confirm her denial. Things had been so crazy the past few weeks, what with her latest love life derailment and job upheaval. “She should have called me. At least left a message. I can’t believe they’d take off before the season’s over.”
“That’s something they can do now that they have a competent overseer of the property. And don’t you dare call them about the vandalism and ruin their time off.” Paulette glanced toward Rob, returning for another box. As if coming to a decision, she reached into the van, pulled out a couple of jumbo packages of paper towels and thrust them at Olivia. “I told Mom I’d pick up a few things for her, too. Take these to the house, will you? I’ll bring the rest in a few minutes when Rob and I are finished with our business.”
She could take a hint.
“Good to see you again, Rob.” Olivia flashed him a smile as she adjusted the armload of cushiony, tubed cylinders. “Looks as if we’ll be seeing quite a bit of each other in the coming days. It’ll give us a chance to revisit our NAU memories.”
Rob again stuffed his hands in the windbreaker’s pockets. Cleared his throat.
Was that a scowl?
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, Olivia.” His tone held a subtle edge that caught her by surprise. “But reminiscing isn’t high on my to-do list. With all there is to take care of around here, I have more than enough to keep me occupied in the here and now.”
Just what he didn’t need. A shadow from his past.
One with big, sparkling brown eyes looking at him like he walked on water. Or at least she had until he told her he was the new manager of Singing Rock—and squelched her overture to rekindle their college acquaintance.
What are you thinking, Lord, bringing me here?
A too-familiar tension gripping his shoulders, he broke eye contact with her and turned to grab another box. Hefting it into his arms, he strode toward the lodge, gravel crunching under his work boots.
His grip strengthened on the box as he negotiated the wide-planked porch stairs, and pulled open the mullioned door. He’d thought Canyon Springs was an answered prayer. A haven. A fresh start. But it now looked like what his grandma called “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
Crossing the expanse of the somewhat overstuffed main room, he passed by the staircase that led up to his quarters and carried the box into the storage room at the back of the building.
The tension in his shoulders crept down into his upper arms as he opened the box and shelved the containers, the shame he could never escape still washing through him as steadily as a tide since the moment he’d realized who Olivia was. This couldn’t be happening. Not when things were looking
