She wasn’t one of those high maintenance women, but there were things she enjoyed when she was on vacation. Kollette had a feeling this place didn’t meet any of her requirements.
Pulling out her cell phone to call her father, she was met with the same thing she’d encountered for the last hour. No signal. How was she supposed to report her findings back to the office if she couldn’t reach anyone? Kollette tossed her phone on the passenger’s seat and leaned back, closing her eyes. This has to be a bad dream. It’s got to be.
She practically leaped out of her skin as a deep voice beside her Jeep asked, “Miss, are you going to sit in your Jeep all day or do you want to come inside and warm up?”
Kollette had been so focused on the log cabin in front of her that she hadn’t noticed anyone approaching. She rolled down her window enough to ask, “Is this the Potters place?” Deep inside hoping it wasn’t.
“Yes ma’am. I’m Roy Potter. I take it you’re looking for lodging?”
She hated admitting that she was. “I believe you have a reservation for me. Kollette Sommers.”
“If you’re asking if I have a room, the answer is yes. I don’t keep track of names,” Roy said. “Why don’t you pull your Jeep up yonder and I’ll carry in your bags.” Roy pointed to a spot near the cabin.
It was large and rustic looking, much like Roy himself. She rolled her window up and did as he asked. When she got out, a cool gust of wind whipped around her and she pulled her sweater snug. “You’re right. It is nippy here.”
“Yes ma’am. Smells like we might get some snow too,” he said as he grabbed her suitcases from the back.
Smells like snow? What the heck does that mean?
“I’m sure the weatherman will give you an update on tonight’s news,” she stated as she followed him inside.
“He wouldn’t tell me anything my old bones don’t know already,” Roy stated. “Now you tell me, you want the room on the left or the right?”
This was the oddest way to be checked in. She stood at the entry and asked, “What’s the difference?”
“Ones on the left, the other is on the right.”
Kollette turned and faced him thinking this was a joke. What was even funnier than his response was the expression on his face as though she was the odd one. Biting back her laughter she said, “The one on the right please.”
Roy walked over and opened the door placing her bags just inside. “My wife should be back soon to finish cooking. I’ll let her know we have a guest.”
“I’m sorry. Weren’t you expecting me?” she asked.
He shrugged. “We never know when folks are going to show up or not. But the door is always open and people are always welcome.”
Before Roy left she added, “Don’t you want my credit card or something?”
“For what?”
“To pay for the room,” she said.
“If you like your stay, you pay what you want. We don’t ask for money and we don’t take no credit either. Ain’t got no use for it up here.”
It kind of made sense since there didn’t seem to be any cell signal. “Oh sorry. One last thing before you go. Is there a WIFI password that I can use so I can get online?”
“Online? You mean like a computer?” Roy asked. She nodded and he said, “Nope. Ain’t got that either. No phone. No television. We have electricity because of a few solar panels, but that goes out if it snows too many days in a row.” Roy raised his nose in the air and said, “Yup. We sure are getting snow tonight. I best go get some more wood for the fire. Gonna be a cold one.”
Roy didn’t linger. He apparently wasn’t much for small talk. Hopefully his wife was. Usually she found it better to listen. It was going to be hard to get information if she had to ask all the questions. She looked around her room and saw a bed covered in what looked like a handmade patch quilt, a small nightstand and a bureau. That was all. This was worse than she’d thought. Maybe I should’ve asked for the room on the left.
Kollette picked up her cell phone and looked at it closely while walking around her room. It was no surprise of the results but she wasn’t about to give up. She was here to do a job, and no internet was definitely going to hinder her doing it properly so she decided to put her phone away. Her father had expected this to take a week or more. She felt like she could walk around the property and get enough of a feeling to do her reporting. But if she returned that quickly, it wouldn’t look like she took her assignment seriously. And that was the last thing she needed.
Kollette plopped down on the bed, which was actually very comfortable. She probably should unpack, but she was sure there’d be plenty of time for that later. Even now lying there, she was surrounded by silence. She reached in her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone and put on some music. Ah, that’s better.
She was tired from the long drive but it was the stress she put on herself which really had wiped her out. To her father, this assignment was about expanding the hotel chain. She had wanted to question him as to why. The business wasn’t hurting. If anything, they were one of the fortunate ones who many times had no vacancies. But her father didn’t seem content with that, and here she was in West Virginia, in the middle of nowhere, in the cold month of February. If he had been looking to expand where it got cold, why not someplace like Aspen? Their guests wouldn’t be so…shocked that way. Who was going to go from Miami, Hawaii or Dubai, to the woods without internet?
Of course that could all be changed. They could build a cell tower and of course better roads, because half of them were dirt roads for the last few miles. This place was high enough on the side of a mountain that if they cleared some trees, maybe there was a great view.
She snickered at how she was already devising a way to change everything about this place and she hadn’t even explored it yet. With there being nothing to do here, she wouldn’t have to worry about any distractions from doing her job either.
Kollette reached down and grabbed the corner of the quilt and pulled it up to cover her slightly. This place was far from ideal, but it didn’t have to be. For her, this assignment was about proving to everyone she hadn’t received the promotion to hotel manager due to her blood line, but on her own merit. Kollette was going to stay until she found the hidden gem in this place and devised a plan to capitalize on it.
I’m going to show them just what I’m capable of.
But first, she was going to take a nap. She was exhausted and she was sure she wouldn’t miss much by closing her eyes for an hour or two.
Her mind had been going a mile a minute, but somehow she must’ve fallen asleep, because when she opened her eyes, the room was dark. She fumbled around on the bed searching for her phone. At least she could use it to light her way. It had to be somewhere on the bed, but she couldn’t feel it anywhere. She had an idea where the door was, but not totally sure. What kind of place doesn’t have any lights? Do they want their guests to break their necks?
Even though it was a brief meeting with Roy, he didn’t seem to be mean or uncaring. Actually it was the opposite. She felt welcomed, which was more than she could say about some five star resorts she’d been to. But Roy needed to make a few changes here if he wanted this place to stay in business, never mind be successful. But how he ran his place shouldn’t be her concern. If her father decided to buy it, they’d make whatever changes were required.