We jumped apart. If that was Miss Crossley, or anyone on the Inn staff . . . We were so in trouble. We’d already been caught once by her, dancing when we were supposed to be working. If she found us up here? Even her favorite employee, Hayden, would be history.
“You said no one was staying here!” I whispered to him. “What are we going to do?”
I had a brief mental image of the two of us scaling the side of the Inn, like in a heist movie.
“Don’t sweat it,” Hayden said. “Come on, let’s see who it is.”
“This feels really, really weird,” I said as we edged closer to the sliding glass door and peered into the honeymoon suite. Of all the rooms to spy on.
All of a sudden the door opened. Mr. Talbot Junior was standing there.
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Not even air, because I’d stopped breathing.
“Hello, Mr. Talbot. Sir,” Hayden said.
“Hayden, is that all you have to say? Hello?”
“It’s . . . a nice night?” I added.
Mr. Talbot looked at me and his mouth turned into an even deeper frown. “And what is your name again?”
“Liza,” I said. “Elizabeth McKenzie.” I wished that it was Mr. Talbot Senior, who might actually recognize my name and give me a break.
“Elizabeth McKenzie,” he repeated as if trying to memorize my name. “Well, Hayden and Elizabeth. What do you two think you’re doing up here?” he asked. “Other than getting to know each other better.” He coughed a few times. “Substantially better, I might add.”
Hayden looked over at me, and if he wasn’t turning red from embarrassment, then I certainly was.
“Still speechless? Well, imagine my surprise when I walked into the office to deposit some cash and receipts into the safe. There’s a surveillance system in the office, and there’s a camera trained on this deck when the room is vacant. Or have you forgotten?”
“I suppose, sir, that I did forget,” Hayden said. “My apologies.”
I should have known, too—I’d only just spent hours cleaning and organizing that office.
“So. What do you have to say for yourselves?” Mr. Talbot demanded.
That we’re about to lose our jobs? I thought. Good-bye, this has been a great place to work?
“Mr. Talbot, I’m really sorry. I just wanted to show the place to Liza. It’s my fault,” Hayden said. “I take full responsibility.”
“There are two people standing here, so in my opinion, you’re both responsible. It’s not as if you both don’t know the rules.” Mr. Talbot glared at me.
“I’m sorry. We definitely shouldn’t have been up here,” I said. “It’s just—it’s such a beautiful spot. We got carried away.”
“It is beautiful,” Mr. Talbot agreed. “And such a nice night.” He took a deep breath and stretched his arms over his head. He seemed to be loosening up a little bit. “I wish I’d been up here, instead of in the office. Then you’d never have been able to get away with this.”
I just stood there, smiling and feeling stupid. Had we gotten away with it? Or were we about to spend our last night at the Inn?
“I should have checked with you first, Mr. Talbot,” Hayden said. “I mean, if I’d thought it through, I would have done that. It was an impulse decision.”
“Hayden, I’ve learned over the years to trust you. And if you’ll trust me for a second, let me give you a piece of advice.” Mr. Talbot put his hands on the wall and leaned out over the deck. “And that is, never go with an impulsive decision. Never.”
Hayden laughed. “I can see where you’re right.”
“Who said . . . fools rush in—”
“Where angels fear to tread,” I said. “Alexander Pope.”
Mr. Talbot looked at me with newfound respect. “Very impressive.”
“My grandfather,” I said. “He’s always quoting that.” And now I knew why. All those years he drove me nuts by saying that, he was trying to warn me for situations like this.
“Look, I realize you probably need to report this to Miss Crossley,” Hayden said.
“Probably,” Mr. Talbot agreed. “That would be the way we’d usually handle it.”
“But if there’s any way we could . . . I don’t know. I know this is a lot to ask,” Hayden said, “but if we could keep this between us, I’d really appreciate it.”
Mr. Talbot didn’t say anything for a minute or two. He was staring up at the sky. “Look, isn’t that the Milky Way?”
“Actually, that is.” I started to point out different constellations to him. That astronomy minicourse we’d done in school was really coming in handy. Mr. Talbot seemed to have forgotten all about the fact we were only seeing all these stars and constellations because we were standing somewhere we shouldn’t be. “It’s so amazing here,” I commented. “You can see so much more here than back home.”
“Light pollution. It’s a problem,” Mr. Talbot agreed. “That’s why I love the Inn’s location. That’s why city people love to come here.”
“You should mention that in the brochure,” I said. “Talk about all the open sky and dark nights—”
“And romantic locations?” Mr. Talbot turned back to us. “Well. Hayden, I’ve been thinking about what you asked. It’s asking a lot.”
“I know that, sir—”
“But I’m inclined to agree with you. We don’t need to share this.” Mr. Talbot extended his palm and Hayden placed the key card into it. “Now, I should get back to the office, and you should get back to the dorm. And don’t make any more stops on the way.”
When we got back downstairs, Mr. Talbot headed for the office. Hayden and I looked at each other and I let out a big sigh.
“I think I’m going to go see if he, uh, needs any help,” Hayden said.
“Sounds good,” I said. For some reason I just wanted to get out of there.
We quickly went our separate ways without even saying anything else, like “good night,” or “it was nice kissing you.” I think we were both sort of in shock from everything that had just happened.
Then I ran back to the dorm and, of course, told Claire everything.
I mean, what are roommates for?
The next morning we were all eating breakfast when Miss Crossley walked into the Hull. Trailing her were all the employees from the restaurant upstairs, and everyone else currently on duty and in uniform.
“Are we having a meeting?” Brooke asked.
“I didn’t know we were having a meeting,” Caroline said.
Miss Crossley banged a knife against a glass to get everyone’s attention. Not that everyone hadn’t stopped talking when she walked in, because she looked so serious and because the wait staff didn’t often leave work to follow her around.
“I’ll make this quick, everyone. We’re letting someone go, and you need to hear it from me,” Miss Crossley said.