CHAPTER SEVEN

 

 

May 13, 2015

1:30 P.M.

McCall, Idaho

 

With only one stop for lunch, they had reached the small resort town of McCall in the early afternoon and checked into Shore Lodge, right on the edge of Payette Lake. Fleet had made them reservations there for the night because he had said it was too far to drive into Trish’s home in one push.

After the smooth, but winding drive from Boise up through the mountains, Julia was glad they had decided to do that.

The road was only two lanes wide and barely that in some places. She was tired from lack of sleep last night and didn’t want to take a chance of having to drive any road in this area after dark. Neither her nor Lott’s eyesight was good enough for that kind of strain at their age. And she could tell the drive had tired Lott out some as well.

Shore Lodge didn’t look like much from the highway, but it stretched three stories tall along the white beach, with long docks and ski boats tied up in neat rows in the blue water. The May afternoon air had a bite to it and some of the mountains around McCall still had snow on them, which worried her as they got their bags out of the car and headed up the concrete steps and through the massive log front doors.

Inside the high ceilings and huge polished old logs just stunned her. She had seen fake interiors like this one, but never something genuine and really made out of logs so large she could barely imagine the size of the trees they came from.

A middle-aged clerk was at the long wooden front desk that looked out over the calm blue waters of the lake. He told them the lodge had been built over a hundred years before out of massive pine trees and except for a short period as condo units, had been a hotel the entire time.

Julia was flat impressed. The furnishings in the lobby were warm and cozy patterned cloth, the bases also made out of logs, and there was a wonderful smell of fresh steak in the air coming from a restaurant nearby. A crackling log fire in the massive stone fireplace to one side of the huge lobby looked wonderful and welcoming.

Julia felt instantly at home.

The hallway to their rooms was narrow and like walking down through history, with old black and white photos on the walls of the last hundred years of the area.

Life in these mountains had clearly been rugged. Far more than Julia could imagine.

Their rooms were side-by-side on the second floor and as comfortable as the main lobby. The beds were even featherbeds, which she couldn’t believe.

What hotel had featherbeds anymore?

Lott stored his bag and came over into Julia’s room as she moved out onto her room’s deck that overlooked the bright blue waters of the natural lake.

The air smelled so fresh and cool, it seemed almost fake.

Pine-covered mountains towered into the sky around her far higher than she had imagined possible. She had lived in Reno for years and had been used to the mountains going up to Tahoe, but these mountains dwarfed those by factors.

The crisp air smelled of summer pine. Around the lake she could see hundreds of homes built into the trees, each had a dock sticking out into the dark blue water.

Just standing there staring at the natural beauty seemed to drain the tensions from the worry about Trish and the long drive. Here, Las Vegas seemed like a distant dream. She had a hunch this was the dream and the city was reality.

Lott stood beside her, leaning on the wooden railing and looking out over the lake as he took a deep breath of the cool mountain air. “Doesn’t get much better, does it?”

She looked up at him. “It doesn’t.”

His dark eyes looked at her and they held that gaze for a moment. She almost reached up and pulled his head down to kiss him, then decided now was not the time. Not with her worrying about Trish and them both being so tired.

“I’m going to take a two-hour nap with the this patio door open and that wonderful air flowing in here,” she said, “then take a shower and meet you for an early dinner in three hours in that restaurant off the lobby. How does that sound to you?”

“Perfect,” he said. “He glanced at his watch. “Two p.m. local time now. See you at five in the restaurant.”

With that he turned and headed out of the room, pulling the large, wood hallway door closed behind him with a solid thump.

That could have gone another way very easily. She knew that. But there would be time.

And clearly Lott understood that as well. One of the many things she was growing to love about him.

He understood her.