Page 145 of Indigo Ridge (The Edens 1)

After an hour-long Zoom interview, I’d fallen in love with the idea of working for Eloise and I hadn’t even seen the hotel premises. She’d smiled and laughed through our conversation. She’d asked about Drake and complimented my résumé.

I’d taken this job not because I aspired to clean rooms, but simply because she was the anti-Father. There was nothing cold, ruthless or cunning about Eloise. My father would hate her.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked.

“Absolutely. Knox just isn’t used to having people out here. But it will be fine. He’ll adjust.”

Was that why he’d built a home full of glass? Out here, he didn’t need the privacy of walls. The location gave him seclusion. And I was intruding.

We didn’t have a lease agreement. As soon as a vacancy in town came open, I doubted Knox would mind losing my rent check.

He came striding up the staircase, the thud from his boots reverberating through the loft. His frame filled the doorway as he walked inside carrying another three bags.

“I can get the rest,” I said as he set them on the floor. “And I’ll be quiet. You won’t even know we’re here.”

Drake chose that moment to let out a screech before nuzzling toward my breast.

Knox’s mouth pursed in a thin line before he retreated down the stairs.

“Can we help you get unpacked?” Winslow asked. “I’d much rather stay here than head back out on patrol and write speeding tickets.”

“No, that’s okay. I can handle it. There isn’t much.” Just my entire life in bags. “Thank you for rescuing me today.”

“Anytime.”

“Are we still on for an orientation tomorrow?” I asked Eloise.

“Sure. But if you want a day or two to settle in before work—”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’d like to jump right in.”

Dive headfirst into this new life. Drake was starting at his daycare tomorrow and though I hated leaving him for the day, that was the life of a single mother.

The daycare cost would swallow thirty-one percent of my income. Quincy had a low cost of living compared to larger Montana towns, and renting this loft at only three hundred dollars a month would allow me to build a cushion, but unpaid weekdays were not an option. Not yet.

Life would have been easier, financially, in New York. But it wouldn’t have been a life. It would have been a prison sentence.

“Okay.” Eloise clapped. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow. Come in whenever you’re ready.”

“Thank you.” I held out my hand once more because shaking her hand was important. It was one of the few lessons my father had taught me that I didn’t loathe.

“I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Me too.”

Winslow and Eloise waved as they walked out the door. Another whimper from Drake sent me flying into action, digging out a bottle from the diaper bag before we settled on the couch. While he chugged, I surveyed my new temporary home.

The white walls were pitched with the roofline and a thick wooden beam the color of the floors ran the length of the space. Three dormer windows had been cut into the side facing the house, giving me a view of Juniper Hill and the indigo mountains beyond. Alcoves and half walls created different compartments in the floorplan.

Across from the couch and behind a short partition was a bed covered in a patchwork quilt. The kitchen was on one side of the loft, next to the door, while the bathroom was at its opposite. The space was just large enough for a shower stall, sink and toilet.

“You’ll have to have baths in the sink,” I told Drake, taking the empty bottle from his mouth.

He stared up at me with his beautiful brown eyes.

“I love you.” I hadn’t told him that enough on this drive. We hadn’t had enough moments like this, just the two of us together. “What do you think about this?”

Drake blinked.