Page 29 of Once Upon a Fall

“Most? Where else have you lived?” he asks.

“College in Burlington, so not far. But after that, I moved to Boston for work.”

“What did you do in Boston?”

“Nannying,” I say simply, even though my brain kind of wants to go off on one of my tangents.

I worked for a family I thought I was part of, but turns out they didn’t love me the way I loved them, and then my boyfriend who they introduced me to and who I also thought loved me, broke up with me two days later. Then I moved back here because I had no other options, had a bit of a life crisis, and now, I own an inn.

The truth is, coming home felt like failing. But it also felt like exhaling. In Boston, I was always some polished version of myself—the perfect nanny, the girlfriend in the right dress. Here, I just get to be Rosie. Overalls and all.

“Where do you live?” I ask, moving it back to him.

“Mostly hotels, lately,” Dean says.

I pinch my brow. “Hotels?”

“I travel a lot for work.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a business consultant.”

“And what do you consult?”

He stares at me for a minute, as if he’s deciding how he wants to answer that.

“Basically, I figure out what companies are doing wrong so they can fix it and make more money.”

“Oh,” I say, thinking of all the things I’ve done wrong since Dean arrived, but also wondering how I can make more money. “Can you fix me?”

More staring.

“You probably wouldn’t know where to begin,” I say, letting out a self-deprecating laugh.

He shrugs. “I have some ideas.”

“Don’t use super glue?”

“That’s on the list.”

“Don’t forget towels?”

An image of him on my stairs, wrapped in that shower curtain, runs through my brain. Honestly, if I had videoed it, it would have gone viral. I’d also be watching it on repeat.

“That’s definitely a start,” he says.

I swallow. “Maybe I don’t want to know.”

“Since I’m a paying guest here, and you didn’t hire me, it’s probably not my place.”

“Should I make an anonymous comment box for your complaints and/or praise?”

“Considering I’m the only one here, it would be obvious who left them.”

I point at the ceiling. “That’s true.”

“Before I forget, someone dropped off a box of pie tins for you. I left them behind the check-in desk.”