Page 66 of Once Upon a Fall

This whole thing has become much bigger than I thought it would be.

After the animal removal company left, Wendell stopped by, and we ended up talking for a bit. Before I headed back to the inn, he handed me a business card for his nephew, who happens to be a real estate agent.

I called him on the drive back, and now I have an appointment with him on Friday. I’m pretty sure the first thing he’s going to tell me is that I need to remove the raccoons.

It’s frustrating to be held hostage by a gang of wild animals.

Rosie will have some jokes when I tell her. Which is why I take the steps two at a time up to the Snow White room.

But when I get there, she’s sitting in the center of the mostly finished floor, the lights turned out, her face in her hands.

“Rosie?” I ask, walking over to her and squatting down.

“Oh, hey,” she says, wiping her face with her hands. “You’re back. How did it go? Did they remove the raccoons?”

“No, they’re still there. It’s going to be harder than I thought.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “What will you do?”

I study her for a second. Her eyes are red, and she won’t quite look at me.

“Rosie, what’s wrong?”

She waves my words away. “Nothing,” she says. “I’m fine. It’ll be fine.”

“Rosie.”

A tear moves down her cheek. “Really, I promise. I just had a tiny breakdown. Totally normal under the circumstances.” She attempts a laugh and then hiccups.

I sit on the floor beside her, our shoulders touching.

I’d reach out and pull her into my arms, but I’ve never seen Rosie cry. I don’t know what she needs from me right now.

“I did the math while you were gone,” she says.

“What do you mean?”

“This was an impossible task, trying to get this inn ready. I only have twelve days until all my rooms are full, and two of them aren’t even done yet, not to mention I have a festival I stupidly said I would run.” She lets out a sob. “Who does that? Who says yes to something that big when they’re already drowning?”

She leans into me, and I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close.

“Someone who gets asked a lot,” I say, holding her against my chest, her head tucked beneath my chin.

“No, it’s because I tell everyone yes too much.”

I chuckle. I can’t help it. “Because you’re much too helpful.”

That’s the thing about Rosie. I’m sure there’s something deep down, some deep-seated reason for why she does the things she does, but she also genuinely wants to do right by people. Her kindness is real.

“Look where it’s gotten me. I’m sitting here crying in a half-finished inn, drowning in festival details I’ve barely started, with no idea how I’m supposed to pull any of it off. And then there’s the balloon payment coming up that I don’t think I’ll be able to cover, which no one knows about except Dominic and Emma, and if my dad finds out, he’ll worry himself sick. Then they’ll all descend on this place and try to save me, and I’ll have to tell them I don’t need saving even though I’m literally sitting on the floor crying, so that argument probably won’t be very convincing, and—” She stops.

“Wait. What balloon payment?”

She lets out a breath. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

Moving her head from under my chin, she looks at me. “I took out a loan to do the remodeling, and it wasn’t a very good one, and now I have a big chunk of it due in November. I need every booking to cover it. And if I don’t, I’ll probably lose the inn.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”