Lydia was relieved by Ally’s impression of her new bedroom. “It’s CUTE!” she said in glee. “Like a fort!”

Lydia had given the room a little extra glow with a string of Christmas lights she’d borrowed from the holiday supplies, and found a mosquito netting to drape the little spare cot in. Every spare pillow she could find went in to make the bed more homey, and she’d draped it with one of the fancier cottage quilts; they had plenty of extra bedding, at least. Her own hanging clothing had been mostly put in boxes under the cot, the few garments she knew she’d need were pushed to the back.

“Oooo, can I wear the dresses?” Ally asked.

Lydia hesitated. She didn’t want to say no, but… “Only when I’m here, dear. Some of them are tricky to get on and some are a little fragile.”

“They are PRINCESS dresses!” Ally said, not dismayed by Lydia’s decree. She pulled her little suitcase over and began dumping her clothes—scruffy jeans and t-shirts, mostly—willy nilly into the drawers that Lydia pointed out as hers. “Are you an actress?”

“I run the spa,” Lydia explained. “And I teach dance classes.”

“I was supposed to take ballet,” Ally said wistfully. “Can I take your class?”

“Yes,” Lydia said, then regretfully, “No. No one is supposed to know you are here, of course! But I can give you a special class.”

Ally gave an ear-splitting squeal of delight and threw her short arms around Lydia’s hips. “I’m so EXCITED!” she said.

Lydia shushed her, and Ally clamped a hand over her mouth. “THORRY!” she said, not at all quietly from between her fingers.

“I have to go work in the spa soon,” Lydia said. “I’m afraid I don’t have much here for kids, but we’ve tried to find some things for you that would be fun.” She opened up a drawer and shared the few treasures that the staff had scrounged together: Travis has brought a carpenter’s pencil and a notebook, Tex had supplied a pack of cards. Bastian had supplied a little bag of shells. Even Graham had brought by a wholly unexpected stuffed kitten which looked quite well-loved.

“It’s okay,” Ally said softly, but she said it bravely. She lifted up the notebook and pencil, and sat down on the little bed. “Can I draw in this whole thing?”

Lydia failed her attempt to resist patting Ally on the top of her curly head. “The whole thing,” she assured her.

“Senora!” There was an anxious whisper from the doorway, and Lydia turned to find one of her assistants, Anna, wringing her hands. “It’s Senora Scarlet!”

“She must have heard about the ants! I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Lydia promised Ally in a whisper, and she pulled the closet curtain closed and rushed after Anna.

Sure enough, Scarlet was scowling at the product shelf.

“We’ve got the ants all cleaned up,” Lydia said with a broad smile that she hoped didn’t look too guilty.

A single lost ant, smaller than a fingernail, attempted to make a liar out of her by crawling up a bottle of massage oil.

Scarlet picked it up and let it flee around her finger in little ant terror. “Hmm,” she said, before she flicked it onto the ground out of the open door. “I was actually here to talk about which products you were running low on that were most critical. We’re going to have to airmail them over, so I want to make sure that we’re only ordering what we need for now.”

“Oh, ah, of course.” Lydia felt her cheeks heat. “Well, we’re nearly entirely out of the hair conditioning spray, and there are three key colors of foundation the Mr. Shifter competition ran us out of. We don’t have to restock all of the colors of polish right away, but we do need the clear coat rather desperately.”

Scarlet took careful notes as Lydia showed her each of the nearly empty bottles and cosmetic trays.

“We’ve got another week or two worth of most of the massage oils, we can do without as many choices as usual, and we’ve got the most important unscented oil in case someone has allergies.” Lydia hoped she wasn’t talking too quickly or nervously, and made herself take a deep breath and try to center. “Most everything else will last a few weeks, so we don’t have a lot of buffer, but it should get us through.”

“What did the ants get into?” Scarlet asked, giving Lydia a hard look.

Lydia knew that she was doing a terrible job of looking innocent, and wished desperately that she had a fraction of Wrench’s poker face now. At least she had a story to fall back on.

She sighed. “Someone left the honey facial treatment open. We had some sugar ants this morning, but I got them all cleaned up before the rush started.” They were standing far enough away from the guests being pampered that the sound of the dryer was enough to keep her careful words from carrying.

“Hmm,” Scarlet said, looking over the shelf.

“They do love the sweet things, you know. Just can’t resist it.” Lydia had to stop herself from babbling further.

“Speaking of things you can’t resist…” Scarlet trailed off, giving Lydia a skeptical sideways look.

She knew, Lydia realized. She didn’t know how, but Scarlet knew about Ally.

“I know what goes on in my resort,” Scarlet reminded her mildly, confirming her guess.

“We couldn’t do anything else,” Lydia said defensively.

Scarlet’s smile was unexpected, if a little exasperated. “You don’t generally get a lot of choice in the matter,” she said with amusement.

Lydia blinked at her in confusion. “I don’t mean to put you out,” she said apologetically. “And it’s only temporary.”

Scarlet’s smile cooled. “Temporary? Are the two of you planning to leave Shifting Sands, then? Or are you thinking of a honeymoon?” She looked as confused as Lydia felt.

“Honeymoon?” Lydia squeaked.

Scarlet raised an eyebrow at her. “With Wrench?”

Lydia stared, trying to put the pieces together. “Wrench,” she repeated.

“Your mate,” Scarlet reminded her.

She didn’t know about Ally, Lydia realized in a rush. She’d found out that Wrench and Lydia were mates, which, to Lydia’s astonishment, was so natural and perfect as to be unremarkable in her own head now.

She put a hand over her eyes and laughed weakly in relief. “It’s been a crazy week,” she admitted to Scarlet.

“I’m so happy for you,” Scarlet said warmly.

“We haven’t made long-term plans,” Lydia said faintly, remembering Wrench’s reluctant proposal.

Scarlet put a hand on her arm. “Are you happy?”

Lydia blinked at her in surprise. “So happy,” she blurted without thinking. “It’s been…” what word had Tex used? “Complicated.” The word failed to capture the nuance. “But I’m... really happy.” She laughed, and felt a little shocky. “Really happy,” she repeated, with emphasis.

And she was.

Wrench made her feel complete in ways that Lydia had never even known she was missing.

He hadn’t come with the romance that Lydia had expected, but she couldn’t imagine her life without him any longer. And the life she imagined for them together filled her with joy and contentment.

Scarlet gave her a swift, warm hug, a strangely familiar gesture for the resort owner.

“I’m glad,” she said simply.

“I’m sorry if it’s been any disruption,” Lydia said contritely, thinking of her several late classes.

Scarlet waved her off. “No one has complained. I’ll get this product ordered, and if you need time off, please give me some warning.”

“Of course,” Lydia agreed. “You’ll know my plans as soon as I do.”

As Scarlet left, Lydia heaved a sigh of relief.

A burly blonde man replaced her in the doorway. “I am here for a massage, yes?” Lydia recognized him as the Swedish hockey player, now tanned to a new shade of bronze.

“This way,” she said courteously.