The housekeeping team hinted this meant that they deserved a raise, which led the other teams to complain about the rigors of their particular jobs.
Lucas got to hear it all.
This was the opposite of what he had hoped would happen when he hired a team-building expert, and at times even Mrs. Cisneros’s smile became decidedly weary. She knew she’d lost the group when they went back to discussing ways to get rid of a body and wanted to add that exercise as an impromptu team-building game.
Mrs. Cisneros declined the suggestion of a who-hid-the-body-best game, but long after she left—probably questioning her career choice—the inn’s employees were still deliberating the subject.
Riley didn’t come out of Lucas’s office for some time, and Lucas resisted the urge to stroll up to her and ask how the comedy routine about her love life was going. He could give her some more material.
But pushing her right now wouldn’t do any good.
Because of Riley’s past, she couldn’t trust a man who she thought would cheat on her. She would always fear that she’d taken the first step on her mother’s path.
It was frustrating, really, how easily parents could break their children’s lives without even meaning to.
He couldn’t change Riley. He’d have to let go of that hope.
After stewing about the situation, he sent her a text.After you’re done with your shift, I need to speak with you. Wait for me by the front desk.
CHAPTER 23
Riley read and reread the text from Lucas.
Yep, the Nutella was calling her again. If she was smart, she’d walk away from that jar.
And yet, how could she refuse a meeting with her boss? Good employees didn’t do that. He probably just wanted to see the new flyer she was designing.
And if kissing ended up being involved in that meeting, what would one more kiss matter when they’d already kissed twice during the team-building exercises?
Lucas definitely knew how to build a team.
Man, she had no willpower.
She would have to talk to Lucas about maintaining a professional relationship. If they were going to work together, they’d have to set boundaries. Kissing was out. Making her fall in love with him should also be out.
If it wasn’t already too late for that.
Riley was finally able to text Lucas back, and she even managed not to turn her reply into a joke because for sure, he’d psychoanalyze that response.
She just wroteOK. I’ll see you then.
And then every moment of the day dragged on.
Near the end of her shift, her fellow employees wanted her to critique their methods of disposing of a body. Since she hadn’t been part of that impromptu exercise, they decided she’d be an impartial judge.
She sat behind the front desk while Sara and Kathy awaited her final judgment so they could post the results in the break room.
Each team had written their idea on a slip of paper, and Riley read through them. “First off, I’m disqualifying the chefs’ suggestion because I don’t care how good they think their culinary skills are, serving a corpse as ‘mystery meat’ is gross. Also, this is why I don’t let them have free rein with the menu.”
Riley turned that suggestion face down on the desktop and read the next. “Housekeeping’s suggestion of dissolving him in cleaning chemicals is intriguing. I hope it’s not actually possible to do that, though, or we need to consider switching our brand of toilet bowl cleaner.”
She put that paper face down with the first. “Glen and Kathy’s suggestion of burying him in the flowerbed so he can literally push up daisies is a bad one because the police always check the landscaping first. I’m sorry, but you’re both going to prison.”
Kathy shook her head in disappointment. “I knew you’d choose the front desk team. That’s just nepotism.”
Riley picked up the last paper and read it out loud. “The front desk team would put the body in the lost and found because no one ever looks there.”
She added that paper to the rest. “I give the front desk team bonus points for cleverness, and they’re not wrong about the state of our lost and found. Seriously, I sometimes lie awake at night and wonder how all those people who lost their car keys at the inn ever made it home.” Riley steepled her hands together, giving Sara and Kathy her best teacher look. “But you’ve alloverlooked the easiest and most effective way to hide the body, so you all lose. The inn is doing renovations soon. We just dump the guy into the foundation of the new conference room. I say, if the method is good enough for the mafia, it’s good enough for us.”