“It’s considered espionage, economic espionage. They think I’m selling trade secrets to a foreign government.” He stared at his hands. “It’s a serious charge. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran.”

Well. This wasn’t something she could’ve come up with in her wildest dreams. “How long has it been?”

Marty looked up for a moment, thinking. “About six weeks.”

“You missed Christmas?” she asked, heart sinking.

Marty laughed. “Yeah, I missed Christmas. My parents thought I went skiing with friends.”

Claire sat back and studied him.

“Thank you again for this. It really was delicious.” He took the last bite of food before taking his plate to the sink. “You know, I don’t expect you to believe me.”

Claire stood up, too. “I do believe you, and I want to help you.”

His bright green eyes shined at her. “I – well, I can’t tell you how much that means to me, Claire.”

She beamed. She might not be cut out for an exciting life, and she might not know anything about hotel revenue management, but Claire had many years of experience as a mom.

Not that she was Marty’s mom, of course. He had a mom – two, actually. It wasn’t her role to fill, but right now, he needed someone.

Her own girls were off, living their lives, and it’d been some time since Claire felt like anyone really needed her. They were still family, after all.

“Good,” she said. “We’ll figure this out together.”

Chapter Eleven

The anger Chip had felt toward Claire was now redirected where it belonged – at himself. He laid in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling and simmering in his thoughts. Self-loathing was nothing new to him, though it had been some time since he’d felt this angry at himself.

After moving to Orcas, he’d managed to make the right choices – most of the time. His history, however, held an unfortunate period where he was often full of anger and regret. It was an awful, perpetual state and Chip lived like that, muddled and confused, for many years.

He’d managed to snap out of it this time, though, and his dip into that old darkness was brief.

Chip now realized how silly it was for him to project the hotel’s failings onto Claire. She’d only just gotten there. He was the one who’d been working there for years. It was his problem that he could never get Steve to listen, or that Steve never agreed to make the improvements the hotel needed.

Also, it’d been a tough few years for the hotel industry. As lovely as it was, even The Grand Madrona couldn’t escape reality.