Of Mountains and Men: A Why Choose Romance

Chapter 1

"Mom!" I hear Charley's shrill toddler voice yell from his bedroom upstairs.

"I'm coming!" I yell back. I take the creaky loose steps two at a time, and dash down the hallway, two doors down on the left, his door is already open. Charley is sitting on the floor, instead of his toddler bed, crying about... I scan the room. Ah, his favorite stuffed animal, Beary is just out of his reach. I let out a chuckle snatching the bear off the floor and scooping Charley up.

"Good morning, my handsome little man." I kiss his chubby little cheek.

Charley glares at Beary before giving him a hug, "Morn." He says to me.

"Are you hungry? I made breakfast before we have to head to work."

Tears now gone, he smiles and nods. I give him a little squeeze taking him down the stairs. My eyes try to find every flaw about the house as I go through it. I simply don't have the money to repair my family's homestead. There's peeling paint, water stains, creaky floorboards, stained carpet and every piece of trim needs to be replaced. I will not let myself get weighed down.

"I have a good job," I tell myself. "Soon I'll have enough money to fix the roof first."

"Roof." Charley agrees, I grin setting him in his highchair at the old worn oak table. He digs into his eggs, and country style potatoes. I'm glad he has such a good appetite. I eat my portion while drinking my bitter black tea.

When Charley and I are finished, I clear the dishes, clean him up and let him go play with his mega blocks while I clean up the kitchen.

"Alright, time to get dressed and head off to work."

"Play?" He asks me.

"You'll get to play at work." I promise him. I'm so incredibly lucky to have found a job working at the Paleriver Resort Daycare. The biggest bonus is Charley is allowed to be there with me.

I quickly change Charley into a long sleeve shirt and pair of overalls. Then let him play while I put on my uniform. It's simple grey, with blue edging, very boring and completely conservative which is something I like. I'm not really into wearing flashy clothes.

"Time to go to work Charley." I scoop him up, wrestle his coat on him, plus a cute blue hat I made him. Bundle up myself, and we're out the door to my parents' old ford bronco I've managed to keep running. I pat the old girl's hood.

"We'll make it another day Rhonda, right?" I coo to her. Starting the engine and putting Charley in his car seat. I check for my badge and id. We do this routine five days a week, I like my routines and patterns to stay on track. "Good to go!"

The trip to work is a bit of a ways away, but isn't everything when you live up on the base of the mountain in Montana? We drive into the town of Paleriver, then up along the lake till we make the turnoff for the Paleriver Mountain Resort. There is only three feet of snow today, not much considering the first week of January we usually have five to six feet already.

I drive up the slow curving drive, two miles off the highway the Resort comes into view. It's enormous, more than five thousand rooms, all natural wood with a bit of green here and there for color. It's stunning and takes my breath away every time I make this drive.

The employee car parking lot is on the side entrance where guests aren't allowed. The guests get to park in a heated parking garage, and we get a snow-covered parking lot. I quickly shut off the engine, grab my stuff and unbuckle Charley.

"Ready for a day of fun?" I ask him.

"Yes!" We both let out a giggle as I scan my badge to get in the door.

"Good morning, Charlotte, good morning, Charley." Stan, one of our security guards calls from his booth.

"Good morning! Have a nice weekend?" I ask him with a big smile.

"Always. Have a nice day, see you at lunch."

Charley and I wave as we head to the daycare center. Which is broken up into two sections. Eight and under, which is where I work. Then nine through twelve. I love working with the younger kids.

"Charlotte! Charley! Good morning!" Lindy says cheerfully. "How was the drive in?"

"Oh, it was just fine." I grin at her, taking off all of our extra layers and setting Charley in the playpen, so I can clock in. "How's our schedule for today?"

"Pretty easy the next two days, unless we get some drop ins. We just have a couple of toddlers. Starting Wednesday a big group of businessmen and their families are coming for two weeks. Some sort of team building thing. I think we'll be getting ten kids in our section."

I smile, "That will at least be some excitement huh?"

She rolls her eyes, "Always looking at the glass half full. Alright, let's give everything a good wipe down before we open."