So Inn Love Read Online Free Page A

never a bad idea,” Miss Crossley interrupted.
    Zoe didn’t look as if she knew that at all. She turned to Caroline and rolled her eyes. The two of them definitely acted as if they were too good to be bothered.
    “Now, you guys should know the rules. Day One, we stick together. That’s our philosophy. Teamwork. Day Two, you focus on your particular area of responsibility.”
    “Day Three, we run away,” Josh muttered,beside me. Since he was new, I wondered if he had an equally crappy room on the first floor, beneath us.
    “Day Three, we hit the beach, right?” another person added.
    “Only if your job is lifeguarding,” Miss Crossley said sternly.
    “No problem,” Hayden said.
    So that was why he’d been cleaning up the beach. It was his turf.
    It figured that he was a lifeguard, I thought. He had the body for it. He’d lifted me like I weighed nothing, plus he had broad shoulders, plus he had the kind of rock-hard abs people refer to as a six pack…
    Hey. I’m just reporting what I saw when he picked me up to toss me into the surf, okay? Strictly a journalistic effort.
    “Listen up!” Miss Crossley said, interrupting my happy memory. “Here is the most important area of the entire Inn. The entrance. What guests see here influences their entire stay with us.”
    “So in other words, no hanging out by theentrance, smoking?” Hayden joked.
    “No smoking anywhere on hotel grounds,” Miss Crossley said. “Unless of course a guest requests that you step outside and offers you a cigar—”
    “Then we have to smoke?” Claire interrupted.
    “No, I was only joking. Though you should make sure he or she has a light!” Miss Crossley smiled.
    “All right, Peach. Loosening up,” Hayden said.
    “Don’t count on it,” she replied sternly.
    “Lighting cigars for people? My sister didn’t mention the part about indentured servitude,” Claire said quietly to me as we all moved into the Inn.
    “I’m guessing there’s a lot she left out,” I whispered back.
    Once inside, I checked out the reception and lobby area—when I’d come through earlier, I’d been in such a rush that it had all been a blur. There were sofas, big, comfy dark-brown leather ones, wicker ones for those in wet swimsuits, tables with issues of current magazines, andbookshelves from which guests could borrow any book they wanted. The reception desk was made of a rich, dark wood. Behind it were mailboxes for the rooms. An old-fashioned silver bell sat on the desk, beside the fountain pen guests would use to sign the Inn’s register. It was like something out of an old movie.
    We used to come to the Inn’s restaurant for lunch when my grandparents rented a small cottage down the road. Only once a summer, though, because it was too pricey, according to my grandmother, who, to be fair, could cook up a lobster and clam dinner herself that was equally good, if not better.
    Still, I used to look at the teen servers and wish I could work here, especially a couple of years ago when I was desperate for a summer job. I always wanted to stay here, too, but my parents pointed out that not only was it too expensive, it would be silly considering my grandparents rented a cottage so close by.
    Now I was going to be working here, at the front desk. Life was so weird sometimes. I was grateful to whoever had dropped out of the staff to make room for me. “Claire, did I tellyou? This is where I’m going to be,” I started to tell her.
    “Actually, Elizabeth, I need to talk to you about that,” Miss Crossley interrupted me.
    Liza , I wanted to say, but didn’t. “You do?”
    “Yes. There have been some reassignments.”
    “There have?” I asked.
    “Yes. Even though you were hired to help in the guest reception area, we’ve decided to go with someone with more experience,” Miss Crossley explained. “Caroline pointed out that she has been here longer, and that it is a job she’s wanted all along. So we reassigned you, based on