“Unlikely,” Carly answered, “since you mention her every five minutes or so.”
“Point taken.” She touched the sleeve of Carly’s crisp tailored shirt. “Do you want to stop by the bakery and grab coffee and something to eat? My treat, like a bonus for all your hard work.”
Carly threw her an uncertain glance. “I guess. You’re not obligated to do that, though. I volunteered for this job.”
“My pleasure,” Paige assured her, and it was. With Carly’s help, Paige had gotten further on her goal of reopening the inn than she had in months of working on her own. Carly was focused, driven and terrifyingly efficient.
They’d finalized the interface with several popular booking sites, and yesterday Paige had received her first official online reservation. It was a long way from the stack of business cards she’d had printed in the spring. Of course, those cards were what had brought Sienna to her doorstep months ago, so she wouldn’t totally discount her own makeshift efforts.
She wondered what her grandmother would think of all of this. Would Nana be proud and happy that the inn she’d loved so much was getting a second life? And that Paige was also getting a second chance?
They entered the Life is Sweet bakery, each ordering a coffee but nothing to eat. Paige was desperate for something sugary, but Carly declined a treat so Paige tried for some willpower, as well. Despite Carly’s perfect appearance and single-mindedness with regard to making the inn a success, she could also be funny and down-to-earth—at least when she let down her guard. Paige still couldn’t get her to talk much about her past beyond what she’d shared with regards to her last job.
All she knew was that Carly had been raised by wealthy parents who’d traveled quite a bit, leaving Carly to stay with relatives or friends for long periods of time. Carly tried to play off the trauma of that, but Paige could tell it had deeply affected her. There was a reason Carly had such a tough outer shell.
After coffee, they separated and Paige slowly walked down the familiar streets of Crimson, trying to imagine what would become of her life if she weren’t able to buy back the inn from Shep.
“Paige.”
Paige stopped in her tracks at the all-too-familiar voice. “Mom,” she whispered, turning around to find Susan Harper standing on the busy sidewalk. “You’re here.”
“I drove up this morning from Denver,” her mother said, coming forward to give Paige a hug.
“That’s great.” Paige breathed in the familiar scent of the French perfume her mom had worn for years. “Why didn’t you call first?”
Susan pulled away and then shrugged. “A friend of mine from Pilates class told me she and her husband had just booked a fall getaway to the mountains for when the leaves are changing. Imagine my surprise when she described the quaint inn in Crimson where they were planning to stay.” She lifted a brow. “You have a website.” The words sounded like an accusation.
“Yes,” Paige agreed, forcing a smile. “I have someone working with me now who has a background in marketing. She’s helping with—”
“Why?” her mother demanded. “I’ve sold the house, Paige. You were supposed to come home.” She lifted a hand to her throat, fingering the locket that hung around her neck. Paige and her father had picked out that piece of jewelry for her mother’s fortieth birthday over a decade earlier and as far as Paige knew, Susan had worn it every day since.
“Do you want to get coffee?” Paige pointed toward the bakery across the street, thinking how different the visit would be with her mother than it had been with Carly. “Or better yet we can go to the inn and I’ll show you around.”
Susan shook her head. “I’ve already been there.”
“What?” Paige threw up her hands. “When?”
“About an hour ago. You weren’t home.”
Paige tried to draw in a calming breath. “I had a meeting in town, but if I’d known you were coming—”
“Why are you doing this?” her mother asked again, her voice rising. “It’s too much, Paige.”
“Mom, I’m fine.” Paige took her mother’s arm and scooted them closer toward the window of the closest storefront, where they’d be out of the flow of pedestrian traffic. “Let’s sit down and talk.”
“I don’t want to talk.” Susan gripped Paige’s hand. “I want you to come home.”
“Crimson is my home.”
“You can’t handle it.”
Hurt sliced through Paige’s chest at her mother’s doubt. “I can,” she countered. “Did you go into The Bumblebee? Did you see how hard I’ve worked to restore it?”
Susan shook her head. “It was a silly lark when my mother bought the property, and that hasn’t changed now.”
“Nana loved that house.”
“That place killed her,” Susan muttered.
Paige felt her eyes widen. “What are you talking about, Mom?”
“She was an old woman, Paige. The age when normal people slow down. Instead, she spent her retirement years waiting on people, cooking meals and making beds for strangers. It was undignified and it wore her out.”
“You’re wrong,” Paige countered. “She loved the inn. I loved it. Those summers I spent there—”
“I sent you to help her so she wouldn’t have so much work to do on her own. For years, I begged her to sell the property, but your grandmother was stubborn.” Susan dropped Paige’s hand and shook her head. “Clearly, the trait runs in the family.”
“It was her passion. She loved The Bumblebee, and I do, too. I’m honoring her by reopening it. It was her legacy.”
Susan let out an exasperated breath. “You’re tilting at windmills, just like your grandmother. But it’s too much for you. You have a delicate constitution, Paige.”
“No, Mom.” Paige ran a hand through her hair, trying to ignore the curious glances they were getting from the people walking past. She hated having this confrontation on the sidewalk. Heck, she hated having it at all. “You knew this was my plan.”
“I thought you’d see that it wouldn’t work.” Her mother’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “I never would have agreed to let you take on the house if I’d known this would be the result. You told me you were going to clean up the place.”
“I did.”
“To sell it,” Susan argued. “Which I did.”
“I told you from the start—”
“I know what you said,” her mother interrupted. “But I know what you can handle.”
You don’t, Paige wanted to argue but couldn’t make her mouth form the words. The doubt in her mom’s eyes seemed to fuel her own until it threatened to consume her.
“With your history, you have to be careful. You can’t take on too much. We both know it’s why your grandmother didn’t leave the property to you outright. If you get worn down—”
“Mom.” Paige gripped her mom’s arms. “I’m not sick anymore.”
Susan’s gaze flicked away, her eyes filling with tears. “The day you were diagnosed,” she whispered, “was the worst of my life. I can’t stand the idea of the cancer returning.”
“It’s not going to,” Paige promised, even though she had no guarantee of that. “And if it does, I’ll get treatment. We beat it once. We could beat it again if it came to that.”
She lifted one hand to brush the tears from her mom’s cheeks.
Susan gave her a watery smile. “I worry about you.”
“I know, but I can’t live looking over my shoulder for cancer to catch me again. Fear has ruled my life for too long already. I want to break free from it.” She drew in a deep breath. “Finally.”
“Running your nana’s inn is the way to do that?”
Paige swallowed. In truth, it was difficult to know whether The Bumblebee was really the answer, or if it had simply been the opportunity that had presented itself when she was ready for one.
“I have a lot of good memories there,” she answered, “and I want to honor Nana’s memory. I hate thinking that she was alone in those last years and I didn’t know what was happening.”
“She didn’t want you to,” her mother said, hugging her again. “You have such a big heart, Paige. You always have.”
“Come to the inn for a tour,” Paige urged. “I want you to be a part of my life here.”
Susan kissed her cheek then pulled away, sniffing loudly. “I’m not quite ready for that. I came here to make sure you’re okay.”
“I am,” Paige assured her.
“It looks to me like you’re better than okay. You always were a determined little thing. It was like that with the chemo and radiation. Even the doctors and nurses commented on how you were so tiny but you had the heart of a lion. You never gave up.”
“I can’t give up.”
“I see that.” Her mom nodded. “I’m going to head back to Denver so I don’t hit rush hour traffic through town.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“Keep me updated on progress at the inn and whether you’re able to work things out with the new owner. I’d still rather have you in Denver, but this is your life. I guess you’re going to live it as you see fit.”
Paige nodded. It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement but still felt like support coming from her mother. “I’m going to make it work, Mom.”
“Your nana would be proud,” her mother said then turned and walked away, quickly blending into the crowd of people milling along the street on this beautiful late-summer day.
Paige wrapped her arms around herself. Part of her—the part dominated by fear—wanted to run after Susan, to tell her she’d give up everything and move back home to the safety of her childhood home. But she couldn’t go back there, even if she wanted to. She’d grown so much in this past year, and no matter what happened she knew she could stand on her own two feet.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder. “Are you okay, honey?”
She turned to find Katie Crawford studying her with sympathetic eyes. “That was your mom, right?” Katie still wore her apron from Life is Sweet, and Paige guessed the bakery owner had watched the exchange from the shop’s front window.
“Yeah. She drove up from Denver. We had a...talk.”
“How did it end?”
Paige gave a soft laugh. “Better than it started.”
“Good.” Katie made a face. “I have a bit of experience with challenging mom relationships and have found that a surefire balm to difficult conversations is brownies.” She squeezed Paige’s hand. “Want to come over to the bakery for a brownie?”
“That would be great,” Paige said, drawing in a shuddery breath. “Thank you.”
“That’s what friends are for,” Katie said simply and it was exactly what Paige needed to hear at the moment.
Crimson was her home. She had friends here, and the inn and now Shep and Rosie. Although it was suddenly hard to watch her mom walk away, Paige knew they’d be okay. Paige was going to be better than okay, and it meant the world to her.
* * *
“There’s a guy wanting to talk to you, boss.”
Shep paused in his work staining the far side of the deck behind the main lodge and glanced up at the worker who’d brought him the message. “Great. I’m right here.”
“He’s a suit,” the man said, derision lacing his tone. “He’s waiting in the trailer.”
A tendril of dread wove its way along Shep’s spine. It was rare to see someone in a suit in Crimson unless it was at a wedding. Nobody was getting married on the mountain today, so he couldn’t imagine who’d be here to see him dressed so formally.
He wiped his hands on a nearby rag, brushed off the front of his T-shirt and headed down the hill toward his office.
A familiar smile and shock of blond hair greeted him as he opened the door to the trailer.
“Vincent.”
“Nice place you’ve got here.” Vincent Delorca gave the office a dismissive once-over. “A departure from the last project we worked on together.”
The last time he’d seen Vincent, the young gun who had more ambition than common sense, had been a year ago in Las Vegas when they’d jockeyed for control of one of the biggest real estate deals Trinity had ever undertaken. Shep had won in the end, but Vincent was a worthy opponent.
“What’s with the suit?” Shep asked, moving toward the coffee station Paige had set up on a folding table at one end of the trailer. He actually quite liked the space, despite it being temporary. He had a great view of the mountain from the window behind the desk and Paige had insisted on bringing in a few pieces of furniture to make it feel less makeshift.
“Dress for the position you want,” Vincent said, flicking open the button of his jacket.
“So you want to be a corporate attorney?” Shep asked, stirring creamer into his coffee. He didn’t bother to offer a cup to Vincent. He’d never liked the guy—found him too slick and self-serving.
“I want to run Trinity,” Vincent answered without hesitation.
“My job,” Shep murmured.
“Is it?” Vincent ran an appraising glance from Shep’s sweat-stained T-shirt to the faded jeans he wore to his scuffed work boots. “You look less like a developer and more like a day laborer.”
“Hard work isn’t a bad thing,” Shep countered.
“The clean air around here is getting to you, my friend.”
“We aren’t friends,” Shep said through clenched teeth. He’d thought of Vincent as a friend at one time. He’d been the one to bring the other man to Trinity. But his time in Crimson had made him understand what it felt like to be surrounded by people who truly gave a damn about him. Vincent was just one more thing about his former life that felt fake.
“You wound me.” Vincent pressed a hand to his chest. “My mentor is turning me away.”
“Why are you here?”
The other man shrugged. “You had a little accident. The publicity from that is not good for business.”
“We’re in the middle of the Rocky Mountains here. There’s no publicity.”
“Are you sure?” Vincent asked conversationally. “The board met yesterday. They’re concerned that you’re in over your head with this one. Trinity’s sweet spot is high-end hotels, not ski mountains.”
“Crimson is a good investment, and the board had no problem with it six months ago.”
“Times change, especially when the company’s rainmaker is distracted.” He paused then added, “So distracted that he almost gets himself killed.”
“Then you’re here to check up on me?” Shep kept his voice calm even as anger surged through him. “You can go back and report that all is well. Renovations are on target for both timeline and budget.”
“Other than the ski lift,” Vincent added.
“I’m working on it.”
“And what about the property that you bought personally instead of through the company?” Vincent tapped a finger on his overdeveloped chin, making Shep want to slam his fist into it even more. “The plan was to demo that old house and get the secondary access to the main mountain ready for winter.”
Shep swallowed. Yes, that had been the plan but his deal with Paige had changed everything. There was no way to admit the truth to Vincent without giving the man more fuel for his campaign against Shep. This was what happened when he took his eye off the ball. Shep had confused contentment for complacency and now he had to shore up the loose ends so he wouldn’t lose control of everything he’d built. Control was too important to give it up now.
“The engineers and planners I’ve met with have doubts about the viability of access from that area,” he lied. The one thing he’d promised himself he’d never do in business based on his father’s history, and yet the deception had been easy onc
e he got started. “They say we’ll be better off putting money into augmenting construction of the existing access roads.”
“Interesting,” Vincent murmured. “And this has nothing to do with the internet ads touting the grand reopening of The Bumblebee Bed-and-Breakfast?” He flashed a smile. “Are you sure the business decisions you’re making are sound ones, Shep?”
“This is my project,” Shep said instead of answering the question directly. “Stay out of it.”
“I’ll be here for a couple of days per the board’s request,” Vincent shot back. “I have a report due to them on Friday. I’d advise you to stay out of my way, although I’ll be based in town. You can have your trailer. It suits you.”
He turned and walked out the door, the thin walls rattling as it slammed shut behind him.
Shep immediately put in calls to several members of Trinity’s board of directors, frustration mounting with each voice-mail message he received. He wasn’t going to be pushed out of his own company. Not with so much on the line for his future.
Chapter Thirteen
Shep stayed on the job site until after six that night, unwilling to be chased off by Vincent, who’d been poking around and asking questions of the crew all afternoon.
He’d texted both Janet and Paige that he was going to be late. The nanny’s response had been a thumbs-up emoji while Paige had sent a row of question marks, which he’d ignored. How could he explain how quickly everything had gone to hell when he didn’t understand it himself?
No one on the board had returned his calls, a bad sign. In the old days—the recent old days pre-Rosie—he would have booked a flight to California right away and forced the people he’d worked with for years to explain why he was suddenly being ghosted at the company he’d helped to found. But now his daughter was the priority, and he couldn’t just take off without her.
He wondered if Janet would consider traveling with him but knew that wasn’t a solution either. Rosie needed the stability of her routine. He’d already started looking at rental houses in the area, knowing he couldn’t stay at the inn once Paige reopened it.
Anything for His Baby Page 14