Free Vintage Valentine (Elmheart Series) by Mindy Hardwick

Vintage Valentine

    “Why is this the first time we’ve visited Grandma and Grandpa?” Ten-year-old Kaitlin carefully cut out a red construction paper heart. She added it to the pile of pink and red hearts on the card table. “They always visit us.”
    “Grandma and Grandpa like to visit us,” Hailey said. She swallowed hard and twirled the pearl ring she wore on her right ring finger. “It isn’t easy for me to get time off from work.” Hailey prayed her daughter couldn’t tell she was lying. The truth was Hailey’s boss begged her to take time off for years. It wasn’t until the non-profit failed to receive an important grant, and Hailey lost her job, that she was able to think about time off.  
    “I like it here,” Kaitlin said. “It’s interesting.”
    Hailey chuckled. The Elmheart Hotel her grandparents owned and operated was interesting. The hotel had been built in the late 1800’s. It was the last standing hotel on the shores of Lake Ontario—a remnant from a bygone era.
    As a child, Hailey loved listening to her grandmother talk about the glory days of the hotel. The Elmheart had been at the end of the Manitou trolley line. People took the trolley from Rochester to the beach to play baseball, swim, drink beer, and spend the night at the hotel. The hotel had large arches, stained glass windows, pine paneling on the walls of the seventeen bedrooms, and a hard maple floor in the dance hall. Grandfather inherited the hotel from his father. He married Grandma and the two settled down to raise their growing family along with their hotel business. As a child, Hailey could remember more than one Christmas unwrapping presents in the hotel’s glorious living room under a large tree decorated with festive ornaments, ribbons, lights and tinsel. The Elmheart Hotel had been her grandparents’ place of enchantment and celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary at the hotel would be perfect. 
      “Maybe we can live here!” Kaitlin looked up. Her bright blue eyes locked with Hailey’s. Hailey inhaled sharply. Kaitlin had her father’s eyes, and no matter how many times she looked at her daughter, Hailey never stopped feeling a small tightening in her stomach.
    “I don’t know,” she said, and pressed her lips together.  “I’m not sure where we will live.” At least that was the truth. After her aunt died, Hailey tried to hang on to her aunt’s home in Kansas City. But it’d become impossible and the house eventually fell into foreclosure. Things had gone from bad to worse since her aunt passed away. Kaitlin’s grades had slipped as she began having problems with some other girls in her class, and Hailey’s job as office manager had unexpectedly terminated. When Hailey received the white and gold envelope announcing her Grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary, Hailey knew they should attend. Her grandparents were not getting any younger. It was time she went home to the small western, town in New York. It was time to face up to the lingering ghosts of her past.
    Hailey looked up at the tall, arched ceiling and the pine paneling of the Elmheart Hotel’s living room. The last time she’d been inside her grandparents’ hotel was ten years ago. She was eighteen and three months pregnant. On a bright, August morning, Hailey stood in the large, sunlit, hallway. A small, denim duffel bag rested at her feet. She hugged her grandparents good-bye and walked out to a taxi which would take her to the train station. The train would take her to Kansas City where she would start a new life with her baby and aunt. Hailey’s parents were devastated to find her pregnant. Hailey’s dad declared all of his hopes and dreams were dashed, and refused to speak to her. Occasionally, she received a phone call from Mom, but if Dad walked into the room, Mom quickly hung up while promising to call again soon. Soon after Hailey moved to Kansas City, her parents took jobs working as research assistants in