“At first we thought we’d fill this place with a dozen children. But as the years passed, we knew that wasn’t meant to be. But then one day a stranger stopped in, lost. Roy offered him a place to stay that night. That was the beginning.”
“So that is when you decided to open your home up and invite people to stay here?” she asked.
Mabel said, “Our home has always been open.”
Kollette obviously wasn’t going to get any facts from either Roy or Mabel that could be useful to report back. She needed real data, like how long they were in business, the number of guests they get each year, never mind how lucrative of a business it was. She still had no idea how much this stay was going to cost her. Whatever it was, she’d pay it. This was a business trip after all.
Part of her wanted to just come clean and tell Mabel why she was really there. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. They made her feel so welcome. It didn’t have the lodge or hotel feel. It was more like visiting with family, like staying with grandparents. Proof of that was how they weren’t shy about putting their guests to work. No place else would the guest be cutting and hauling wood, or making their own meals and doing dishes. Yet all this really just added to the experience even more.
She was going to need to base her reporting off something other than facts. If she stopped trying so hard and just took in all that Potters Peak had to offer, maybe that would be enough for her father to make his decision. It was worth a shot, because she had a feeling, that was all she was going to get.
“Mabel, I changed my mind,” she said.
“About what dear?”
“I think I’d like to learn how to make that pie crust after all.”
Mabel smiled and said, “I knew you’d come around.”
Somehow she believed Mabel did. Those two might live all the way out in the woods, but they had a very good sense of how to…manipulate people into doing things. If Kollette wasn’t careful, the only one sharing information was going to be Kollette, and that would put an end to this trip very quickly.
“Okay, where do I start,” she asked.
They spent the next few hours not just making pie, but also homemade biscuits and chili beans spiced just right. She couldn’t remember ever spending so much time in a kitchen before. But on a cold snowy day, it was perfect. Now all she could hope for was that her assistance hadn’t ruined the taste.
“We haven’t seen or heard from Roy or Ethan. They can’t still be outside cutting wood are they?” she asked.
Mabel shook her head. “They know better than to come and disturb me when I’m cooking.”
“You mean they don’t offer to help?” Kollette asked, kind of surprised.
Mabel huffed. “If you mean helping themselves to samples, they are both good at that. See that wooden spoon over yonder?” She pointed to one hanging on the wall. Kollette nodded. “I’ve had to chase them out a time or two with it. They come in and before I know it, I forgot what I was doing and dinner didn’t taste right. Of course, I made sure they ate every last bite. We don’t waste over here.”
“Ethan told me. He also said you’re an amazing cook. I have to agree. Your chicken stew last night was something you wish you could order at one of our…local restaurants.” She almost had said hotels. Kollette was going to need to be more careful not to slip. Mabel might look like she wasn’t paying attention, but she didn’t miss a trick.
“Where are you from?”
“Miami.”
Mabel rolled her eyes. “Too much noise that you can’t even hear yourself even think down there.”
“You’ve been?”
“Roy and I have done some travelling. We are always happy to come back to the mountain. We’ve never found another place that we could call home.”
So you’d never sell it.Kollette didn’t need Mabel to say the words. Her love for this place was as evident as her love for Roy. They were all tied together. There wasn’t anything to report back to her father except this wasn’t the place to expand. Potters Peak should and needed to stay as it was. Roy and Mabel’s home.
She had prepared to stay at least a week. It was funny how when things are perfect someplace, you know right away. It just wasn’t the answer she thought she’d be leaving with. Then again, Kollette wouldn’t want it any other way.
But this meant she really was free to head back to Miami. What point would there be in staying any longer? Although she could use a vacation, she also had plenty to do back at her own hotel. It was a cut throat environment, and even though she felt her job was secure, that didn’t mean her direct reports weren’t gunning for her job. After dinner, she’d let them know she would be leaving in the morning. But tonight, she just wanted to enjoy their company.
“There is something special here and I’m really glad I came.”
Mabel patted her on the hand and said, “We are too. Now why don’t we tell those boys they can come and eat before they get as ornery as a hungry grizzly bear after a long winter?”
Guess she was about to find out if she was help or just a distraction in the kitchen too. Cooking wasn’t something she’d done much of. She hated to admit it, but growing up her father always had a cook in the house. That and a maid, and let’s not forget the nanny to watch over her. Her father was a loving man, but he was all business. That resulted in his marriage to her mother ending in divorce. Thankfully, her father would rather part with money than part with Kollette. From what she heard, her mother took a hefty settlement and was never bothered with either of them again. Kollette’s stepmother was different. She wanted to be involved in Kollette’s life. They were close, and she taught Kollette things that she couldn’t learn from her father. Unfortunately, cooking wasn’t one of them. She was even worse at it than Kollette was.
Kollette couldn’t help but wonder what her life would’ve been like if she had someone like Mabel in it when she was growing up. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t be a hotel manager right now and she really couldn’t picture herself being anything else.