The Key to Paradise by Dillane Kay

Author:Dillane, Kay [Dillane, Kay]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2015-05-07T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Landon

I had a newfound respect for her as I sat at the kitchen table with overflowing stacks of paperwork threatening to spill over onto the linoleum floor. Each form came with different instructions: “Use black pen, use blue pen, fill out in triplicate, do not staple!”

I wanted nothing more than to drop my head onto the table and fall asleep. It had been three weeks since our impromptu snorkeling trip. Three weeks since my last day off and every day had been spent working my fingers to the bone.

We had comforted ourselves in the beginning. The constant refrain of “It’s actually very small as far as hotels go,” and “It’s in wonderful shape for being closed so long,” could be heard the whole first week. After that reality set in.

I had been working as a Jack-of-all-trades handyman for years, ever since I came back from college and found out how badly we needed the money. But even with my experience, I wasn’t prepared for just how much work went into getting a resort up and running. There were constant issues with outdated plumbing, shoddy electrical, and a whole assortment of animals living in every corner of the resort. And those were the emergencies. They didn’t include scrubbing through fifty years of grime, installing new bathrooms, painting every square inch, new doors, new moldings, new locks. Even as we put in twelve hours a day ticking off boxes the list of things to do just seemed to grow.

All of our nerves were frayed. We were running on fumes. Verna and Ellen had started passing their flasks back and forth with increased frequency while Lois and Lily muttered mutinously. Last week Liv had snapped on the phone with a supplier when he tried to tell her it would take three weeks to have the new interior doors delivered. Words came out of her mouth that would make a marine blush.

On top of everything else, I was coming home every night to these stacks of forms required to form and operate a tour company. When I had first had the idea I thought the hardest part was going to be getting Olivia on board. I knew tours with an ecological focus didn’t exactly mesh with her idea of a glamorous resort. Surprisingly, she had jumped at the idea and now I had to step up to the plate and follow through.

I knew Liv had gone through all of this when she opened the resort and I had no idea how she did it. The tiny black print all seemed to swim together. The instructions completely contradicted themselves over and over and I would swear that whenever I took my eyes off of them the forms were reproducing. Still, this was important—crucial even—and I was going to have to handle it.

I still had my reservations about opening up the resort but from the moment I saw that determined gleam in her eyes I knew fighting was about as useful as trying to hold back the tide.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.