Coming Home To Crimson. Michelle Major

But I just got the sign up today.” She pointed behind her to a hand-painted piece of cardboard that read The Bumblebee B&B. It leaned against the edge of the porch rail. “Not quite up,” Paige admitted. “But you still found me.” She scrunched her winged brows, emerald green eyes zeroing in on Sienna. “How did you find me anyway?”

      “The business cards you left at the grocery.”

      “I remember now.” Paige nodded. “I picked them up from the post office on my way to buy food for dinner. I told Rodney—he’s the manager at the Shop & Go—not to put them out until next week.”

      “Apparently he did anyway.”

      Paige squeezed Sienna’s arms like they were best friends. “Lucky for both of us.”

      “Are you sure?” Sienna inclined her head toward the plumbing truck in the driveway, then pointed to the various pieces of furniture sitting in the front yard. “It looks like you might need a bit more time to get ready.”

      Paige gave her a brilliant smile. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

      Terrifying, Sienna thought to herself.

      “Then why the plumber?”

      “A leak in the first-floor bathroom,” Paige said, spacing her first finger and thumb a tiny width apart as she held them up to her eye. “But your bedroom is upstairs.”

      “That’s good.”

      “Only now,” Paige said, wrinkling her nose, “I’ll be sharing it because mine is downstairs.”

      “Not so good.” Although Sienna had a brother right here in Crimson, most of her life she’d been an only child. Her mother liked to tell her she wasn’t good at sharing, and Sienna had no reason not to believe it because she’d never had to.

      “It will only be for a day or two.” Paige flashed a bright smile that only wavered slightly. “Maybe.”

      “I don’t mind finding a normal—I mean regular—hotel in town.”

      “Good luck with that. The rodeo’s at the county fairgrounds this weekend. Everything’s booked from here to Grand Junction. Unless you want to stay in Aspen.”

      Sienna shook her head. “I don’t.”

      “Huh. No offense, but you look like the Aspen type. Other than the mustard stain on your blouse.”

      “Why would I take offense to that?” Sienna picked at the dried mustard on the front of her shirt.

      “Did you get a hot dog at the Shop & Go?” Paige asked instead of answering the question. “They’re yummy.”

      “It was tasty,” Sienna admitted. The hot dog had been the best thing she’d eaten in ages. Normally she stuck to a high protein, low-carb, all organic and very little fun diet. The hot dog had been another small act in the process of reclaiming her life. Or claiming it for the first time, since it had never truly felt like hers.

      “Do you have luggage?”

      “Yes, but not here.” Sienna had left her suitcase with the hotel’s bellman in Aspen this morning. She supposed it was still there and figured she’d have to drive back over at some point to retrieve it. But she wasn’t ready for another potential confrontation with Kevin. “I picked up toiletries at the grocery store.”

      “I can lend you some clothes.”

      “That would be interesting.” Paige was at least four inches shorter than Sienna and curvy like some throwback pinup girl from the forties. “Since you’re new at this whole innkeeper thing, I should tell you that in normal circumstances you wouldn’t offer your clothes to a paying guest.”

      “Not to assume too much,” Paige said, inclining her head, “but do you think these are normal circumstances for either of us?”

      Sienna blew out a breath. “No.”

      “Please stay,” Paige said, then gave a nervous laugh. “That sounded desperate. I don’t mean it like that.” She laughed again. “Except I sort of do. This was my grandma’s house.” She gestured to the ramshackle but still charming lodge with faded rough-sawed logs notched together and deep green shutters bordering the windows on the front. “My mom inherited it when Grammy died last year, and I convinced her to let me get it up and running again.”

      “I’m sorry for your loss,” Sienna said automatically.

      “Thank you,” Paige whispered. “It’s beautiful out here...but also quiet.”

      Sienna nodded, looking around the cul-de-sac. There were a few houses at the top of the street, where she’d turned onto Ivy Lane, but The Bumblebee’s property was clearly the largest and most private.

      “Grammy had five acres,” Paige said, as if reading her thoughts. “It borders the old ski resort in back. We even have a view of the main chairlift. It hasn’t operated for years, although some developer bought the property recently. My grandma fought like crazy with the old owner about selling this place and making it part of the resort. I’m hoping the new owner will be more friendly and that The Bumblebee will be in the right place to cater to skiers or families vacationing in Crimson.”

      “Smart move,” Sienna murmured.

      Paige beamed at her. “Thank you for saying that. My family thinks I’m crazy. I’m not exactly following the path they expected me to take.”

      There was something in the woman’s gaze—a combination of hope and fear with a healthy dose of uncertainty and pride mixed in—that Sienna imagined she might see in her own eyes when she looked in the mirror.

      “I’ll stay,” she said. If Sienna was going to forge her own way in life, she had to start taking some risks in order to figure out what she wanted that life to be. Somewhere between Kevin’s butt and the ride in Cole’s Jeep, she’d decided the time had come to take charge of her life on her own terms.

      And Colorado, far away from her mother, seemed like a better place to spread her wings than in Chicago, tethered by the constraints of her regular life. Maybe she’d actually forge a relationship with her dad and brother instead of the awkward face-offs she imagined. The thought made panic spike in her belly, and she pressed a hand to her stomach. One step at a time.

      Whether a risk or an adventure, coming to Crimson as the inaugural guest at The Bumblebee B&B seemed like the right move on her new journey. It would be interesting to see where it took her.

      * * *

      “One more refill.”

      Sienna grabbed the red plastic cup from Paige’s hand and filled it to the brim.

      “Too much.” Paige grimaced, shaking her head. “You could put a Russian under the table with the amount of vodka in that.”

      “It’s mainly lemonade,” Sienna argued, then hiccuped. “I swear.”

      Paige rolled her eyes but took a sip. “It’s good.”

      “Told you so.” Sienna took a long drink from her cup. “An added bonus is that it makes this place look a lot better.”

      “True,” Paige agreed and both women turned from the long butcher-block island in the kitchen to survey the house.

      The kitchen opened onto a cozy family room in which all the furniture was shoved up against one wall. Half the wood floor had been ripped up after the plumber found a slow leak that had caused damage to the foundation. The Bumblebee’s minor plumbing project now looked like it would stretch out at least a week, if not longer.

      Paige had immediately started hyperventilating when she’d been given the news this afternoon. Sienna had shoved the novice innkeeper into a chair, found a paper bag for her to breathe into, then gotten a contractor recommendation from the plumber.

      “You’re the guest,” Paige had said,