“Not quite.”
Everyone in the room stared at her.
Miller’s eyes flickered. “What do you mean?”
“There’s the little matter of the lawsuit.”
No one on the Crawford Notch side of the table moved. “What lawsuit?” Miller asked.
“Anthony Ricciardi. Ever heard of him? You should have, you pay him a hundred thousand dollars annually to compensate for the chronic back pain he suffers as a result of injuries sustained during a fall from your improperly maintained lift.” She raised a brow. “I understand his payments are due January first. Just exactly when did you plan to tell us?”
“There’s so much involved in a deal like this,” Miller blustered. “I thought legal disclosed it.”
“No, legal didn’t,” she said calmly. “The paperwork for transfer appears nowhere in your financial records. It was lucky for us that Ricciardi’s lawyer was around. Anthony himself seems to have gone on a sudden vacation.”
“Just what are you trying to imply?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m telling you that the price drops by two million, now.”
“Two million? That’s twenty more years of payments. He might not even live that long.”
“Either that or I want a legally binding note confirming that the Partners take complete responsibility for Mr. Ricciardi’s compensation in perpetuity.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Miller snapped.
“No, it’s not. It wouldn’t have been so high if you’d disclosed. Now that it’s come out, though, I have to wonder what else you’re hiding. We have to protect ourselves. Of course, we can call the deal off, if you like.”
One of the partners glared at Miller, who shook his head hastily. “No. Give me a day to consult with my team.”
“Fifteen minutes,” Hadley corrected. “If the deal’s going to go, we need to finish by close of business. You were the one who took the gamble, Miller. Deal with it.”
In the end, it didn’t take them fifteen minutes. In the end, Miller rolled over. The rest of the meeting was a blur of signings and wire transfers, legal checks and exchanges.
Finally, they finished. Hadley let out a long breath. It was done. The day before, she’d anticipated a huge celebration at this moment, the culmination of so many hopes and dreams. Instead, she felt faint satisfaction underlain by emptiness.
Outside, the winter sun shone thin and cold. They walked down the pavement toward where Robert’s car was parked; he had, predictably, insisted on driving. “You did a good job,” he said, hands jammed in his pockets.
Hadley stopped and stared at him. “Can you say that again?”
“Don’t get smart, young lady.” He continued walking, leaving her to chase after him.
“Is this because of what I said?” Hadley asked.
“You should know me better than that.”
She did. Robert did what he chose, no matter what others thought.
“I’ve always been proud of you. I would have thought you would know that,” he said in mild reproof, shaking out his keys. “One thing clear to me is that it’s long past time I promoted you. I’m making you an executive V.P. You can have Becheron back if you want—Ketchum’s made a hash of it.”
“I don’t want to run Becheron again.”
“All right, we’ll find a different project for you.” He unlocked the doors. “What do you want to do?” he asked when she got in the car.
“I want the hotel.” The words were out of her mouth before she knew she was going to say them, but she realized suddenly it was true. She didn’t want to go back into the corporate arena, fighting tooth and nail each day for companies she really didn’t give a damn about. What she wanted was to work on something she loved, to be part of something, to watch it grow.
Robert frowned. “Let me get this straight. You can choose any division of a Fortune 500 company and instead you want to run a three-hundred-room hotel in New Hampshire?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Good.” He started the car.
“I want to buy the hotel from you.”
“What?” He stared at her.
“The language of the will says the hotel has to remain in the family. You can sell it to me. It’s what I want. I’m not cut out for the shark tank. It makes me miserable. I didn’t really understand that until I came up here. I knew I was unhappy but I didn’t realize why. And if things…” She hesitated. “If things are going to be different for you and me, we need to make them different all the way.”
He shook his head, utterly at a loss. “But you can’t…I’m moving you into the command chain at Stone so that you can take over once I’m gone.”
“It’s no good for us, you know that,” she said gently. “If you want me on the board at some point, okay, but what I want for my life is right here.”
“Take some time, think about it.”
“I don’t need to. I’m sure.”
His jaw tightened and she held her breath. This was the first test. Were things going to be different for them or not? His response would hold the answer.
Finally, grudgingly, he nodded. “If that’s what you want.”
“It’s what I want.”
He stared moodily out the windshield while the car warmed up. Taking off the parking brake, he was moving to shift into drive when he stopped and turned to her. “You know what I’d really like to do?”
“What?”
“Go up on that cog railway. I’d like to see the valley.” He hesitated. “I understand it’s part of your hotel. Will you show me the way?”
She bit her lip. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chapter Nineteen
Gabe lifted the machete and chopped brush away from a maple tree. His back and shoulders ached. He’d long since stripped off his parka, despite the snow and near-freezing temperatures. His cheek throbbed a bit where a stray branch had caught him.
He welcomed the distraction.
Maybe Jacob had merely wanted extra labor clearing the sugar bush. Or maybe he’d known to get Gabe out of the house and at work the same way he’d known to offer a couple of fingers of bourbon the night before. It had helped Gabe to stop thinking and drift off for a few hours of sleep. It was his bad luck that he’d woken again before dawn. How was it that after only two nights of sleeping with Hadley, the bed could feel so damned empty?
Getting out into the crisp winter air had cleared his head. It was work that required focus because a man who stopped concentrating when he was swinging a machete was soon walking lame. So he bent and chopped, working until the sweat started trickling down his sides.
Nearby, Jacob kept going like an automaton. Gabe kept himself in shape through tae kwon do and swimming, but his conditioning was no match for this kind of labor. Still, it gave him something else to concentrate on besides Hadley and the inescapable fact that his life had gone to hell in a handbasket virtually overnight. What did it say that fourteen years after leaving the farm he was right back here, clearing brush?
If he concentrated on the loss of the job, the damage to his career, he could just about keep the ache at bay. It was like staring at a point on a piece of paper to avoid letting his peripheral vision register what was around him.
He attacked a tangle of blueberry bushes. Work his body hard, focus on what didn’t really matter, and maybe he could teach himself to stop feeling. Great theory, anyway, but it wasn’t working very well. Cursing, he swung the machete harder.
Behind him, Jacob said something.
Gabe’s movements slowed. “What?”
“I said, we don’t have to clear out the entire sugar bush in one morning,” Jacob said mildly. “We’ve been at it awhile. Let’s take a break.”
Gabe gave him a suspicious look. “You don’t need a break. I’ve never once in my entire life seen you need a break.”
“You also haven’t worked with me in fourteen years,” Jacob replied, setting his machete against a tree. “How
would you know?” He turned and headed down the hill toward his truck. After a moment, Gabe followed him.
The truck wasn’t heated, but after working for three hours, they didn’t need it. Gabe tipped back his bottle of water and drank for a long time. When he’d finished, Jacob nodded toward the lunch box. “Coffee in the thermos and a couple of biscuits.”
“I thought you went home to eat.”
Jacob shrugged and unwrapped a biscuit. “It’s a hassle to turn around and drive back and make food. When I’m working, I’d just as soon stay in the sugar bush.”
“I figured Ma cooked for you.”
Jacob shot him a look. “Don’t you think I’m a little old for that? I go to dinner at her house sometimes and she comes to mine, but we don’t live in each other’s pockets.”
“Sorry.” Chastened, Gabe bit into his biscuit and chewed. Egg, ham, cheese. “Hey, is this homemade? It’s pretty good.”
“You’re not the only one in the family who cooks, you know. I would have brought wine but I wasn’t sure what went with breakfast biscuits.”
“Funny.” Gabe took a drink of coffee and squinted out at the maples. “Hey, you know I’m grateful for everything, right?”
“Sure. You’re going to have to tell Ma you’re here pretty soon, though. If she finds out about it some other way it’s going to hurt her feelings.”
“I know.” But telling Molly would mean talking about it, and talking about it would mean facing it and… “I just didn’t want to deal with it for a little while, you know?”
Jacob finished his biscuit. “I figured. You’re going to have to sooner or later, though.”
“Yeah.” Sooner or later he was going to have to deal with all of it.
Jacob downed the last of his coffee and crumpled the cup, tossing it into a trash bag along with the biscuit wrapper. “You know, you work pretty well for a guy who spends most of his time pushing paper.”
“You ever need me for anything, like during the sap run, you know all it takes is picking up the phone.”
Jacob grinned. “Yeah.”
Hadley called the department heads’ meeting first thing in the morning. Wednesday. Just two days after her life had fallen apart. She tried to forget she was standing in Gabe’s spot, and looked out at a circle of hostile faces. Anger, dislike, frustration, trepidation—Hadley saw it all. What she didn’t see was a lick of support. She folded her hands together.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, things have been rather chaotic in the past few days. I know everyone must be concerned. I want to have an all-hands meeting later, but I wanted to speak to you as soon as possible.” Her fingers tightened. “The first thing you should know is that the hotel has changed hands. As of tomorrow morning, it will no longer belong to Stone Enterprises.”
“Who are the new owners?” Tina asked.
Hadley took a deep breath. “You’re looking at her.” She would have been amused at their expressions if she’d been able to find amusement in anything. At least taking on the hotel and ski area gave her something to concentrate on.
Something besides Gabe.
“I can tell you categorically that there will be no layoffs. I intend to keep benefits unchanged and continue investing as much of our profit as possible back into the hotel. I also plan to start an employee profit sharing plan.”
A little stir ran around the table.
“There’s a very simple reason for the profit sharing—it’s going to take everybody working hard to make the hotel succeed,” Hadley stated. And it would work, she thought. “I’ve just bought the Crawford Notch Ski Resort, as well. It’s going to provide a lot of benefits, but we’re carrying a note on the hotel, so we’ll need to run as leanly as possible.”
“What about Mr. Trask?” asked Alicia.
It was the crucial moment. Hadley needed to tackle it head on if she was going to keep any credibility with them. “As most of you know, Mr. Trask has left the hotel.”
“You could bring him back now if you wanted to, couldn’t you?” Tina inquired.
Hadley bit the inside of her lip. Would he come back if he knew Robert was gone? Perhaps. Would she want him to? Her heart, of course, would immediately accept him. But she’d finally stood up and said no to the carrot and the stick; she wasn’t going to revert to that pattern, even if she loved the man holding them.
A love built on conditions wasn’t a real love at all. Even if losing him felt like losing a part of herself.
“No, I’m sorry, Tina,” she said calmly. “Mr. Trask is pursuing other opportunities.”
“So everything went south,” J.J. said, handing Gabe a beer and sitting down on his couch. “I wondered what had happened.”
“It’s been a rough couple of days.”
J.J. studied him. “It shows. So what happens now?”
The sixty-four thousand dollar question. Part of him just wanted to hide out for a while, working in the sugar bush. And maybe if he chopped enough brush, he could stop waking up at night in a cold sweat from shadowy dreams that left him drained and sleepless.
Gabe made himself shrug. “Oh, get some résumés out, make some calls, see what I can shake loose.” He took a drink of beer. “Work for Jacob in the meantime. I’ve got some money.”
“Oh yeah? Like real money?” J.J. looked at him closely. “How many digits are we talking?”
Gabe gave him a startled glance. “I’ve put my share away since I’ve lived in Cortland House. I can stand to be unemployed for a few months, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“It’s not. I’ve been thinking, Stone may have turned down buying the ski area but we know the owners still want to unload it.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, that credit card endorsement deal paid me pretty well. I’ve got some money to invest. What about if we bought the place?” His voice was casual; his gaze wasn’t.
Gabe blinked. “What, like you and me? J.J., it’s six million bucks.”
“Yeah, so? If you’ve got a few hundred grand stashed away and I throw in a chunk, we can get a loan to make up the rest. Why not?” He sat up eagerly. “We could do this, Gabe. You could run it, I’d be the silent partner.”
“You’re never silent.”
“Look, it would give you a job and it would give me something for the future. I’m not gonna be racing forever. Another year or two and I’m out.”
It was a ridiculous idea. Unlike Hadley, they didn’t have million-dollar trust funds to tap at a whim. But much of the money would be secured by the property, and between the two of them they could come up with the rest.
It just might work.
“Let me give them a call tomorrow, see if we can set up another meeting. After getting this close they’re bound to bite.”
And he would finally have something to get excited about.
Hadley hurried through the lobby of the Hotel Mount Jefferson, checking her watch. Guests were already beginning to check in for the four-day New Year’s extravaganza. In contrast to the quiet of Christmas the weekend before, the hotel pulsed with excitement. The staff moved around laughing and joking, the tension of weeks gone in a flash. Already the suggestion box in her office held entries. Mentally, the staff was already invested in the project. She hoped it would be enough.
As for Hadley, she couldn’t quite muster up excitement, only a dull wish to put the year behind her and go on. Maybe with a fresh calendar she could start the process of forgetting Gabe.
And eventually, she’d get there.
Just as eventually she’d pay off the hotel. Robert had offered to give it to her, but she hadn’t wanted it on those terms. She’d wanted to do it herself, to work and make it happen, not to be indulged. Market value or nothing, because she knew she’d make a success of it.
Business she could deal with.
It was just her personal life that was in a shambles.
“The ski area’s been sold?” Gabe fought to keep the incredulity from his voice.
�
��Where’ve you been?” Miller demanded impatiently over the phone. “We did the closing on schedule. You could have told me Robert Stone was part of this whole thing,” he added.
Like being slapped in the face with a second wave while he was still gasping from the first. “He’s not.” Or wasn’t.
“Well, he showed up at the closing. Look, Trask, I don’t think I should talk to you about this anymore. There’s obviously something going on. If you want more information, get it from your company—if you’re still a part of it.”
With a click, Miller hung up.
They had bought the ski area, or Robert had bought the ski area, with Hadley. And what the hell did that mean? Had they kissed and made up once he was gone? Made a trade-off over his bones? And damned if part of him didn’t feel good for her that maybe something was going right, after all.
But he didn’t really have a clue what that might be.
And in a cold little place inside himself he began to wonder if he’d made a very big mistake.
Scooter’s was dressed up for New Year’s Eve. Then again, dressed up for Scooter’s merely meant a few balloons tied overhead. Gabe muscled through the crowd at the bar, carried his beers back to where J.J. sat and handed him one.
J.J. raised the bottle and paused. “Here’s to a new year.”
“It’s got to be better than this one.”
“This year wasn’t that bad.”
“Except for the entire last month,” Gabe said sourly.
“The entire last month?”
Slowly, Gabe shook his head. No, not the entire month. In fact, the month had held some of the best times he’d ever had. With Hadley.
He’d spent the past two days since his phone call to Miller thinking about her more than ever, worrying about what had happened. There were people at the hotel he could have called, he supposed, but it seemed kind of pathetic and more than a little sleazy to be hitting up someone who’d once worked for him for inside information.
But it was New Year’s Eve. Why not drop by Scooter’s? And if he wound up running into someone from the hotel and getting the update, shoot, that was just being friendly, right?
Under The Mistletoe (Holiday Hearts #2) Page 22