Hell, maybe he’d do some research of his own on the key and put Eva in her place. She wasn’t the only one who knew their way around a computer. He had skills too. It was about time he put them to use.
And maybe if he worked hard enough and late enough on the mystery of the key, he’d actually sleep through the damn night. Without the dreams. Without the nightmares. Without the memories that had his heart racing and his stomach twisting and feeling as if he had to crawl out of his own skin.
He could only hope.
Chapter Three
“A summons? Really? Why?” Eva asked as she strode into Rosie’s at the obscenely early hour of nine a.m..
She’d been awake and working already that morning. But being in PJs in bed with her laptop was very different than being dressed and in public.
The aroma of bacon and fresh brewed coffee and some sort of sweet cinnamon-scented baked goods helped. Seeing all of the Wilders and Wilder adjacent already seated in the family booth did not.
“How can you be last to arrive? You live here.” Ethan snorted.
She cocked her head to shoot him a glare she hoped conveyed the death threat in her mind and pulled her sweater closer around her, covering one of her favorite T-Shirts which was also perfect for this occasion.
Coffee before talkie. If she weren’t so cold from running from the apartment to the restaurant in December without a coat, she would have flashed the sentiment at Ethan and everyone else who dared converse with her at this ungodly hour.
Rosie, God bless her, slid a cup of coffee in front of Eva. “I’m making you a cappuccino but I figured this will hold you over for now.”
This was a woman who understood her.
“Thank you, Rosie. You might be the only civilized person here.” As she stirred in a generous amount of cream and a good long pour from the sugar dispenser, she let her gaze sweep the crowd. There were far too many of them for this hour. Especially since she’d been up working until past one last night.
Ethan let out a sniff. “Linc and I were in the barn at dawn.”
“Which is exactly why I didn’t choose farming as my vocation,” she countered.
“We did come to you, rather than making you drive to us,” Poppy the peacemaker pointed out. “We should get some credit for that.”
Eva raised a brow. “One, with Livvie laid up, you needed to come here because there’s no one to cook breakfast. And two, I’m sure she’s not at all happy about being excluded from this little gathering—“ Suddenly it hit her. The last minute meeting. The fact it was at Rosie’s and not the house so Olivia couldn’t be here because she was on bed rest.
She stifled a groan. This had to be about a surprise baby shower for Olivia. Eva hated everything about that thought. The planning. The smiling. The party games. The people…
But she’d do it. For Olivia.
Resigned, she sighed, downed a bracing swallow of scalding hot coffee that halfway emptied the mug and said, “Okay. Lay it on me. I’m ready. What is this about and what do you need me to do?”
The tinkling of the bell above the door behind her had Eva slumping lower over her mug. The burst of cold outside air would no doubt be accompanied by even more patrons she’d have to face this morning. Hopefully they didn’t rush over to pay homage to the members of the founding family of Bitter End.
“Hey, Dad,” Wyatt said, glancing over Eva’s head.
“Good morning, all. I’m glad to see you all could make it,” William Wilder said as he dragged a chair from an empty table and set it at the end of the booth, which was also next to Eva.
Eva really liked the patriarch of the family. He was a no nonsense, straight shooter. And it looked like he’d been summoned for whatever this meeting was about as well.
Rosie slipped a mug of coffee in front of him and set a cappuccino in front of Eva.
“Thanks,” William said at the same time Eva breathed out, “Bless you, Rosie.”
She pulled the other mug back toward her when Rosie moved to take it. It was still half full and this was definitely a two-coffee kind of morning.
“Ready to order?” Rosie asked with a smile.
“Give us a second?” Wyatt said.
Eva’s deep frown at that answer didn’t go unnoticed. Rosie leaned down. “I’ll bring a side of bacon for the table for you all to pick on.”
“Yes,” Eva said gratefully on a deep exhale. “Thank you.”
Rosie grinned. “Anything for my favorite tenant.”
“Your only tenant,” Eva mumbled, remembering Poppy was moving out of the apartment and into the Wilder mansion.
Maybe that was what this was about. It wouldn’t be a surprise if it took four men and a couple of pickup trucks to transport all of Poppy’s stuff.
“So between the baby coming and the mystery of the key this family has been too distracted to notice but it’s the first week of December and we’re late,” William began.
Eva frowned again. “Late for what? And you’re the one who called this meeting?”
“I am. And I was remiss in not calling it sooner. We should have handled this before Thanksgiving.”
“And what, exactly, is this?” Poppy asked, looking for clarification just like Eva.
“You don’t know either?” Eva shot her a glance. When Poppy shook her head, Eva felt moderately better.
“You girls don’t know this, given it’s your first December in Bitter End, but Christmas is big around these parts,” William began.
“I’m starting to figure that out,” Eva mumbled.
Rosie’s had been transformed into a kind of tacky winter wonderland on December first. Red and green sparkly garland outlined the windows and door, not to mention the edge of the counter and pastry case. And somehow Rosie had found a radio station that played carols twenty-four/seven for the month of December. One week in and Eva was already getting stabby at the sound of The Twelve Days of Christmas.
Outside, the two-man town maintenance crew had been employed, along with a bucket truck, to hang illuminated snowflakes on every pole along Main Street.
“Everything is on track for the holiday celebrations at the hotel. Most of the decorations are already installed. The live tree in the lobby will go up next week. And we’re booking horse-drawn carriage rides, which will switch over to sleigh rides the moment it snows enough. You don't have to worry. We're ready.” Poppy ticked off all the things she’d done for the Wilder Inn as event manager or whatever her title was. While Eva got ticked off that she might have been somehow dragged into a business meeting that had nothing to do with her.
William nodded. “That’s fine and good, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“He’s talking about the competition,” Linc finally said, breaking his silence.
“What competition?” Poppy asked, visibly perking up at the word.
“The annual Wilder family Christmas challenge,” Ethan supplied, looking happy to be informing her and Poppy of what sounded like something she was going to hate. A whole lot. Even if it did have her favorite word, challenge, in it.
Chapter Four