by Nikki Bloom
“I was hoping to get your number. I’ll be here for a few months, and I thought that we could have some fun together.” Surprise at his forwardness pushed a laugh from my tight chest, but Carter simply stared at me with seriousness swirling in his dark eyes. “I realize it might be difficult with your kids involved, but I’m not actually that busy, yet.”
“They’re my siblings.” Tearing my eyes off Carter, I gazed out at the parking lot and twiddled my thumbs in my lap. Mikey and Sophia were like puppies at the leg of Evan as he shook off the rust of the years. He was a very good skateboarder, and Michael watched him intently even though my little brother didn’t have a board anymore. “I probably should relax, to be honest, but...”
“I noticed.” Leaning back, Carter crossed his knees and braced himself on powerful arms as embarrassment stained my cheeks. I’m not handling this as well as I think if some stranger can see how fucking stressed I am. “I’m not gonna pressure you, Madeline, but if you ever need a few minutes, I’m usually available.”
A few minutes... how many men admitted to just a few minutes? I chuffed softly, shaking my head as I blinked back the perpetual sting behind my eyes. Watching Michael and Sophia, I couldn’t help but think back on that time when they got their skateboards. Michael received one for his birthday, and the race was on for Sophia to best him. They were super competitive with each other, and back then, my parents could afford things like that easily.
“I’ll have to see. My schedule at work is always loaded, and I have stuff to do... there’s not enough hours in the day.” Just thinking of everything I had to pack in today and working tomorrow... bringing Michael and Sophia to school, going to the grocery store... a headache sprung behind my eyes, and I shook my head again. “I don’t know if I have a few minutes. It’s a lot of work.”
“I remember what that felt like. My dad’s side of the family is oil rich, and my dad watched it wreak havoc on his family, so he told me to get a job when I was 15. Evan and I worked as bellhops at this fancy hotel, and my dream to be an architect sort of moved into interior design.” Humming softly in acknowledgment, I raked my hand through my hair as Carter smiled out of the corner of my eye. “We worked hotels until we were 18, and my dad backed us up. Evan and I had been friends since we were, like, four years old, so my dad put him through college. He loaned us to open our first hotel, and the rest is history. I remember all those late nights and the stress.”
“Yeah. I know I’m lucky to work at The House. Benny’s a bit of an ass, but he’s an alright guy to work under. Everything sorta fell apart when...” Trailing off, I propped my elbows on my knees to sigh. “It doesn’t matter why. The point is that I just don’t have the time or energy anymore. Things are okay. Not great, but not terrible.”
“Is it normal for you to go two shifts without eating?” Shaking my head, I shrugged a little as Friday night flashed behind my eyelids when I blinked. Benny apologized, promised to make it up to me with a slow shift, which was really all he could be expected to do. I had to work, though. Taking a shift off wasn’t an option. “My dad paid for mine and Evan’s tuitions, but nothing else. I remember there was a couple months when all we could afford to eat was beans and vegetables.”
“So, you’re, like, the creative aspect, and Evan does the business stuff? What about that woman? She slammed at the bar after you left.” Steve had been pissed because she didn’t tip him despite racking up a $200 tab, which wasn’t easy given what she was drinking. The cheap stuff. I had to split my tip from her with him, which wasn’t a huge deal because she didn’t tip me a lot, either. Surprise painted Carter’s expression, and I frowned slightly. “You didn’t know that?”
“I did not, no. I didn’t meet Irene until we landed in Providence. You know, if you’re open to it, I’d be more than willing to hire you as a consultant, Madeline.” My breath hitched at that, and Carter held up a hand before I could open my mouth to protest. Did I not just say I had no time as it was? “Before you automatically decline, let me explain. Normally, we’d hire a local logistics surveyor to map the demographic, but this is a tourist town, so you don’t have a stable demographic. You wouldn’t have to change anything about your day, just fill out a few surveys at the end of the week. It’d actually work out well because you work at such a popular place. I’m sure you see every kind of tourist.”
“O-oh... that doesn’t sound too bad. Have you never erected a tourist trap before?” Carter shook his head with a little laugh, and I pursed my lips thinly as my mind churned over the proposal. “I mean... I don’t think it’s really gonna be that easy, but I’ll think about it. I guess any extra cash is helpful. Michael’s birthday is coming up, and then Sophia’s is less than a month later...”
“Great. If nothing else, it gives me another excuse to ask for your number.” I couldn’t help but smile at that, and Carter whipped out his cell phone to shoot me a curious glance. “You mind?”
Rattling off my phone number, I felt lighter than I had in a long while, and Carter’s eyes blazed with satisfaction when they met mine. My phone chimed in my pocket when he sent me a text, but I didn’t bother looking at it.
“It’s not easy, travelling all the time, but I can’t imagine it’s any easier feeling trapped and still.” Nodding mutely, goosebumps swept up my arm when Carter caressed the back of my hand. “Everyone needs to decompress.”
“You’re really laying it on thick, aren’t you? Are you gonna tell me you’ll fund a sexcation to Hawaii or something?” Carter threw his head back and laughed heartily, and flames licked up my neck. My heart stuttered a little, and I almost wished he’d say ‘yes’ because...who says ‘no’ to a free vacation? And all I had to do was screw around with him? He was hot, had a nice laugh... I could do that without feeling like a gold digger.
“I wasn’t going to, but if you’re open to it...” Biting my inner cheek at that, I reached over to push Carter, and he smirked under bright brown eyes. “Like I said— no pressure. I’ll be here for a few months, at least. I have plenty of time to build the tension. Plus, it seems like Evan gets along with your siblings well enough. He’d back me up and keep them busy.”
“Oh, my God—stop.” Rocking side to side in mortification and how hard Carter was playing, I covered my face when he chuckled again. “I’m not gonna leave them alone or with a stranger just to be irresponsible for 40 seconds.”
“I’ll have you know I’m a solid 45 seconds, thank you very much.” I tried so hard not to laugh that I spit a little, and my cheeks threatened to melt right off my face. “Impressive, huh? I know. Better than your last boyfriend?”
“You’re so dumb. But...yeah, probably. He broke up with me because I ‘wasn’t fun anymore’...” Scrunching up my nose in disgust, I shook my head viciously as all humor left Carter’s face. “He was a bit of a dick, anyway, and we weren’t super serious, but that was a low blow, even for him. I chewed him out on his front lawn, and that was that, I guess.”
“He didn’t like the sudden responsibility of your siblings or something?” Nodding dully, I blustered a sigh through my lips as my gaze settled on my brother and sister. “At least he got humiliated for being an asshole?”
“Yeah. Everything happened so fast... I didn’t blame him for breaking up with me or anything, but to say it was because I wasn’t fun anymore instead of being a man and saying he just didn’t want to deal with my emotional bullshit... even that, I would’ve accepted. I wasn’t in a good place. I was losing my parents’ house, I had just started taking doubles at work constantly, and I was trying to maintain Michael and Sophia. So, yeah, of course Kevin didn’t want to be around that shit when our relationship revolved around partying and casual encounters.” My phone alarm started blaring in my pocket, and I pulled out the device to frown at the time. “We gotta go. But I’ll text you when I have a moment or two.”
“I look forward to it.” Hopping down off the concrete block, I called to my siblings even though I was hyper-aware of Carter checking ou
t my ass. Maybe he was right, and I needed some time to decompress. Actually, he’s definitely right... I just don’t have the luxury of time.
8
Carter
Irritation slithered through my veins, and I leaned against the counter as Evan scowled at the tiles underfoot. The tension in the air was palpable, increasing with every second that ticked by. We had a meeting with a realtor in less than half an hour, but Irene was still ‘getting ready’ after waking up late. That sensation of having to drag her out of bed was still sour on my tongue, and I ate my egg sandwich with angry chews.
I owned a multi-billion-dollar hospitality company, and yet, here I was, waiting for Irene to chug down a few bottles of Pedialyte. This was college-grade bullshit, and we were all in our mid-thirties.
“This is day number four she’s struggled.” Mumbling to myself, I checked my watch again, but not even a minute had passed when it felt like longer. “You go ahead, Evan. I’ll fire her and send her packing.”
“Yeah. I’ll handle it.” Evan left the kitchen with an angry set of his shoulders, his head ducked, and I took another bite of my sandwich. He beat himself up over Irene, but it was a lesson learned as far as I was concerned.
Never hiring outside help again. We’d hired Julie because ‘tourist trap hotels’ weren’t something we’d ever done before, and they were managed differently than standard hotels. Irene was referred to Evan from another person who did do these types of hotels.
But Irene was a power player, and that ultimately meant she needed a way to deal with the stress. I didn’t care about the alcoholism so much as the fact that we’d only been here for four fucking days. Not even a whole week since landing in Rhode Island, she couldn’t control herself. At the very least, I expected her not to fuck up this early in the game; there should be a period of time where Irene was cautious to be on her best behavior.
“I’m here—I’m ready.” She came flying down the stairs, pulling her hair up into a ponytail only to pause when she saw me. Irene cleaned up perfectly, but I didn’t let that get in the way as she pulled her purse over her shoulder. “Where’s Evan?”
“He left for the meeting with the realtor. You and I need to talk, Irene.” I didn’t know if she was being oblivious on purpose or not, and Irene nodded cautiously. Curiosity sparkled in her eyes, and I cocked my head back absently. “You’re fired. Obviously, you have a problem, and there are already glaring red flags. It’s only taken you four days to prove you can’t manage this project due to your issue with alcohol, and we’re still in preliminary setup. I don’t want to waste time by giving you a chance where you can actually damage the project.”
“W-what? But—” Holding up a hand to stop her from making some excuse, I flicked my wrist dismissively. Irene went red in the face, stiffening, her grip on her purse strap tightening. “Fine. There are plenty of other projects I can find.”
“Then you should explore those avenues, but I’ll be sure to tell Jackie Marelli exactly why you were fired.” Thankfully, Irene didn’t make a huge scene before heading back upstairs, and I shoved the last of my sandwich into my mouth. That went okay. It’s a bit of a loss, but it’d be worse if she screwed us over later on. The learning curve Evan and I would endure was better than dealing with the fallout of Irene’s alcoholism.
We’d been planning this chain for over a year, and I wasn’t going to let her fuck it up.
Washing my hands quickly, I fished my phone out of my pocket to shoot Evan a text. My thumb hovered over Madeline’s name, and I rolled my lips between my teeth as I tapped her contact.
‘Hope your morning is going better than mine’
Madeline’s reply came within seconds, and pleasure twitched my lip up as I ducked my nose into my phone screen.
‘I’m about to drop off the kids at school’
“It shouldn’t take too long for Irene to flee in shame.” Today was important simply because the realtor was going to walk Evan through the property. I wanted to be there, but it wasn’t devastating that I couldn’t be. “I wish I could visualize it, though.”
Disappointment clung to my ribs and lilted my tone, and I texted a simple ‘be safe’ to Madeline before Evan’s text box popped up on the top of my phone screen. He’d beat himself up over this for a few weeks before it blew over. At the very least, this bud was nipped, and we’d learned our lesson about outside help.
Irene came stomping down the stairs, and I glanced up through narrowed eyes as she huffed and puffed on her way out of the rental house. She didn’t look at me, just turned up her nose and slammed the door behind her. For a moment, I could only muse on what mental hoops she had to jump through to think she had any right to be upset. After drinking to the point that it affected her brand-spankin’-new job, did she think I’d give her a pass or something? Time to get herself together?
We’d only met a few days before, but she’d had weeks to pull herself together and prepare for this position.
“I’m glad she chose to use her own rental car, at least. I don’t wanna hang around waiting for a taxi to pick her up.” Mumbling to myself, I headed for the front door and slid my phone back in my pocket in favor of my keys. Evan and I shared a rental car, and she was ramming her suitcase into the back seat with a sharp shove.
Sauntering down the walkway, I ignored her glare as I passed. The weather was wonderful, and I ran my hand through my hair as I walked down the sidewalk. Irene aside, everything was on schedule, and I was hoping that Madeline would help me out. In more ways than one.
Evan was right. I wanted Madeline bad, even though offering her a little side hustle and screwing around with her on the downlow wasn’t going to end well.
“Maybe I should ask her manager if he wants to make a deal so she doesn’t feel like I’m trying to butter her up.” My own mumble dried my mouth because that was exactly what I was doing. “Still, she did say I was going hard... at least, if I do it this way, I can kill two birds with one stone. We’re not gonna get too far otherwise. Plus, it’d give me an in if I approach the owners.”
Warm, salty air of the early morning swept in from the ocean, and I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes. I couldn’t get over this smell, this fresh air, and my shoulders slumped when I sighed. This little town was quaint and beautiful, even overrun by tourists. There were a few bad, tasteless people, of course, but supposedly many people came back year after year.
“Hey!” My head snapped up at that, and Madeline waved at me from across the street. Her older model minivan shimmered dark blue under the bright, cloudless sky, and my brows rose quizzically. “You need a ride downtown?”
“Sure.” She gestured me around, and I glanced across the street before rounding the front of her minivan. Hopping into the passenger seat, I twisted to buckle only to catch sight of both her siblings the back, facing away from each other, glaring and looking unhappy. “I’m sensing some tension here.”
“Don’t mind them. They spent all morning arguing.” I turned back around as Madeline cast me a curious look. “Were you gonna walk all the way downtown?”
“It’s a beautiful day, and Evan has the car. I appreciate the ride, Madeline.” She ducked her head in a nod as the car rolled forward, and I hung my elbow out the window as I spoke. “What are your plans for the morning?”
“I don’t have anything major to do. I work 12:30 to 11 today and Wednesday, and 3 to 11 Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Compared to last week, it’s slow.” She flashed a smile, and my lips tilted up as Madeline raked her hand through her red hair. “What about you?”
“Evan is meeting with a realtor. Irene didn’t wake up on time, so he went without me while I hung around to fire her. It went well. She couldn’t defend herself and didn’t try.” Madeline came to a stop at a traffic light to lean on the wheel and stare at me fully. Her freckles were so prominent, and I rubbed my fingertips together to stop from reaching for her. “I was thinking of heading to the House on the Pier to talk to your manager. After our conversation y
esterday, I realized that you might not be able to have a large enough pool size to be accurate.”
“Aw, I thought I was special...” Her flirty reply widened my smile, and Madeline glanced back at her siblings before checking the street. Every time I saw her, I wanted to see her again. I was lucky she’d chosen this route to take her siblings to school, and maybe she’d use it again. Hopefully.
9
Madeline
“This one, yeah.” Flicking on my blinker, I pulled into the driveway of Carter’s rental house to put my car in park and jerk the emergency brake. Sinking into my seat, I flopped my head to the side as Carter stared out the windshield under furrowed brows. “What time do you have to take off?”
“Um, probably 11-ish would be good. It’s 8:30, now, so we’ve got some time.” When I picked Carter up, I didn’t think I’d end up back at his place, and I glanced at the clock. There was no denying what was going to happen if I got out of the car, though, and excitement tightened my chest. “So...”
“You’ll have two hours to nap, then.” Smirking at that, I turned off my car and pulled the keys out of the ignition as Carter unbuckled. “Never say ‘no’ to a good nap.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I’m kinda excited to nap on a bed. I sleep on a pull-out couch right now. My apartment only has two bedrooms, so I’m stuck in the living room.”
“You sacrifice a lot for your sister and brother. Does it bother you being their pseudo-parent when you’re just...25? 26?”
“I’m 24, actually.” Open curiosity played on Carter’s face, and I popped open my car door to hop out. Buying myself a moment or two to think, I frowned under furrowed brows. Guilt tightened my chest, but Carter didn’t push for an answer as we walked up to the front door.
“I hate them—my parents, not my siblings.” My whisper echoed in the Cape Cod style home, as Carter glanced at me over his shoulder. “It’s not like I had a plan, anyway, but I wanted to try college and stuff with my best friend. But I don’t wanna drag you down with my problems. Complaining isn’t gonna solve them.”