by Stacy Finz
“She’s pretty good at this, isn’t she?” he said.
“Yep.” Nate nodded.
“I probably shouldn’t be here, but Sam talks so much about this place that I wanted to see her in action. You want me out of the way?”
“You’re fine,” Nate said. “There’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”
Out of left field, George said, “I want her to come home. She’s all I’ve got and she’s living clear on the other side of the country. I know she loves this job, and planning events, but she could do that at home. I could get her a job with any number of large hotel groups.”
Nate thought it was rather bad form for George to tell his daughter’s boss that he intended to steal her away. It also made Nate sick with worry that the old guy just might pull it off. What if Sam left and Nate never saw her again?
“I was wrong about Royce,” George continued, almost as if he needed to confess to someone that Sam’s ex-fiancé had been a prick. “But I’m right about this. In the long run she’ll be happier at home.” He gave Nate a pat on the arm. “You know, I think I will get myself something to eat.”
Nate watched George walk to the kitchen. More guests had started to trickle in. Andy went up and down the stairs, carting luggage to various rooms. Maddy showed a young woman, probably one of Landon’s siblings, something on a map. Emily poured wine for a group that had assembled in the dining room. Sam stood vigil at the door, greeting newcomers and directing the show.
Nate swept past a few recent Lowery arrivals and tugged Sam’s arm. “I need to talk to you.”
“Right now?” She gave him a look like This better be life or death. “Uh, sort of busy.”
“Sam,” Landon called. “These are my parents.”
Sam left Nate and glided across the room as if her high heels were roller skates. “So wonderful to meet you,” Nate heard her say and wanted to pull Landon Lowery by the back of his ridiculous hoodie and lock him in the bathroom.
“Hey.” He grabbed Brady, who’d just come out of the kitchen with more appetizers. “We’re having a meeting at three o’clock. I’m making a big announcement.”
“Today?” Brady asked, and gave him the same WTF look that Sam had just given him. Jesus Christ, you’d think the Lowery family reunion was the most important event ever held at the Lumber Baron. And so what if it was?
“Yeah. Today. After the guests settle in.”
“Okay,” Brady said. “Emily too?”
Technically, she wasn’t an employee, but what the hell. “Yes.”
He found Maddy in the parlor, cleaning up a spill.
“There’s a staff meeting at three o’clock. I’m making a big announcement.”
“In the middle of the Lowery event? Are you freaking kidding me?”
“No. It’s important.”
“It can’t wait until tomorrow morning when all the guests are still asleep?”
“What’s the big deal? By three”—he gestured toward the dining room where most of the arrivals were milling—“they’ll be largely handled.”
“Whatever,” Maddy said. “But Rhys is coming over so I can feed Emma.”
“That’s fine. He can hear the announcement too.”
“What is it?” When Nate wouldn’t answer, she said, “Oh for goodness’ sake, just tell me. I’m your partner, jerk.”
“Not on this.”
At three o’clock everyone gathered in the kitchen. Sam found it rather odd that Nate would hold a meeting on the first day of the Lowery reunion, especially since he’d been so obsessive-compulsive about the event in the first place. Even Clay, who’d come to pick up Emily, and Rhys were invited to stay.
Luckily, the guests were either out and about, touring the square, or resting in their rooms. Some had traveled from as far away as the Midwest and were exhausted after their long flights.
Brady had put out refreshments for the meeting. Andy stood in the corner, texting on his cell phone, like he couldn’t be bothered. Maddy was discreetly feeding Emma using one of those nursing covers. George perched on one of the bar stools like he’d been made an honorary staff member.
Nate came in and told everyone he was conferencing in the corporate office, including Lorna, Lisa, and Randall. Maddy looked over at Sam as if to say I have no idea what this announcement is about.
Clearly, whatever it was, it was very last-minute.
Nate fidgeted with the phone for a bit. It took a while before everyone from San Francisco joined the group, given that some of them hadn’t yet seen Nate’s email with the passcode to get on the call.
He cleared his throat and the room fell silent. “Thanks, everyone, for doing this on such short notice. There are a couple of things I wanted to talk about. For those of you who don’t already know, Maddy and I are currently in escrow on a property not far from the Lumber Baron. It’s an eighty-cabin resort called Gold Mountain that needs a complete redo and will become part of the Breyer Hotel family as soon as it’s a done deal. Maddy and I have a few ideas, but we’ll want to roll out a marketing plan as soon as possible.”
Maddy nodded in agreement and Emma gurgled, eliciting a few laughs.
“For those of you on the phone, that was my niece.” Nate propped one shoulder against the wall, very much at ease. “Any questions so far?”
“It’s Randall, and I have one. We planning to book events at Gold Mountain?”
“Good question, Randall. Absolutely. It’s a perfect setup for weekend weddings, family reunions, group ski trips, and anything else you can think of. The Lumber Baron is also doing a joint venture with a dude ranch up here that wants to attract corporations interested in team building, but doesn’t have the luxury lodging that we do. So it’ll be a reciprocal thing.
“In addition,” Nate continued, “Sam has worked out a deal with the owner of the dude ranch to lease his barn for events too large for the Lumber Baron to handle. Apparently there’s a good market for people who want to hold weddings and parties in a barn.”
There were a few titters on the other end of the line and Nate grinned. Clay shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t know what was so funny. Rhys wrestled Emma out of Maddy’s arms and tried to burp her. George just sat there expectantly.
“I also wanted to discuss the position that Tracy left open. After much consideration, I’ve decided to make Samantha Dunsbury my new VP of corporate events.”
The room erupted in applause while Sam gripped the countertop for support. Now she knew what the cliché “a deer caught in the headlights” felt like. The announcement caught her totally off guard. Nate, who stood across the room smiling at her, hadn’t said one word about the promotion. Not one word. In fact, he’d made it more than clear that he had no intention of giving her the VP position. What happened to her not having enough experience? Or not being with the company long enough? It seemed to her that Nate had made a split-second decision based on her ability to greet guests at the door.
Before she could dwell on it any more, Brady did one of those two-finger whistles and Sam could hear Lisa and Randall cheering over the phone.
Nate calmed everyone down and said, “As far as event planning at the Lumber Baron, there will be some restructuring, which I’ll get back to you on. But I think you all know how hard Sam works, how much she’s done for the Lumber Baron, and how much innovation she’ll bring to this company. And based on the warm welcome you’ve already given her, I take it that you agree.”
More applause.
Maddy wrapped her in a hug. “Congratulations, Sam. Oh my God, I never saw that one coming . . . uh, not that you don’t deserve it, but Nate just stole you from me. When are you moving to San Francisco?”
San Francisco? When Sam had asked for the position, she hadn’t even considered where she would live if she got it. She supposed a part of her had hoped that she could do the job from Nugget. Perhaps a tad unrealistic. “Uh, I don’t know yet. Nate and I haven’t talked about it.”
Understatement of the y
ear.
“Way to go.” Brady gave her a squeeze and winked. “You guys kiss and make up?”
“Well deserved,” Emily said, moving in closer to give Sam a hug. “But we’re sure going to miss you.”
Clay and Rhys both wished her congratulations and Andy clapped her on the back. “Take me with you,” he said. “Get me out of this hellhole.”
She scanned the room for Nate, but he’d already gone.
Her father came up alongside her. “Well, how about that?” he said, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
She couldn’t tell whether he was happy for her or pretending to be. “Thanks. We’ll talk about it later, okay, Daddy?”
On their way home that night Sam told George how the job announcement had come out of the blue. That in fact, when Sam had originally asked for the position, Nate had nixed it.
“Now you would know this better than I,” Sam said, “but isn’t it common practice to offer the job first, before announcing it like it’s a fait accompli? I mean, we haven’t talked about salary or whether I’ll be headquartered in San Francisco. His sudden change of heart—it’s weird, right?”
Her father gave a blasé shake of his head. “Perhaps something happened in the last twenty-four hours to change it.”
“Like my performance on the Lowery event?”
“Could be,” he said, but he sounded evasive. “You like this fellow, right?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Sam, it’s no good working for a person you don’t like or don’t respect.”
She sighed. “I like him.” Too much.
“You sure talk about him enough,” George said. “Nate this. Nate that. You never talked about Royce that way.”
She’d never once felt for Royce what she felt for Nate. “I don’t think Royce and I were ever meant to be, Daddy. What do I do about this job? I feel like Nate and I should have discussed the requirements of the position first.”
What she really worried about was working side by side with him every day, given that she was totally in love with the man and he no longer returned the sentiment, if he ever had. At least at the Lumber Baron she was on her own a good portion of the time. And when Maddy returned, Nate would go back to spending most of his time in San Francisco.
“I should’ve had an opportunity to sleep on it and make an informed decision,” she continued. “Don’t you think? Now, I just feel like it’s being foisted on me.” And again, the specter of her last name raised its head. Was that the real reason Nate had given her the position?
“Last time we talked on the phone, you said you wanted the job,” George said. “It was all you could talk about. Make up your mind, my girl. But it sure wouldn’t kill you to play hardball. Tell him that you’re thinking of returning to the East Coast to be with your dear old dad.”
She gazed over at him in the passenger seat. It was too dark in the car to make out his features. “You mean to negotiate a better salary? Benefits? That sort of thing?” God, she knew nothing about the business world. To her, the money didn’t mean much, but watching Nate at the meeting today, cool, confident. and in command, made her wonder what his game was. Was he trying to torture her? Make her want him even more than she already did?
“That . . . and anything else you want.” George said it kind of funny, and somehow she could sense him smiling.
The Lowery clan flooded the dining room the next morning for breakfast. Today they planned to take the gold-train tour, which would give Sam a few hours to breathe. Nate decided to show up at ten, which was two hours later than his usual time. For the life of her, she didn’t know what was going on with him.
Yesterday, after making his big announcement, he’d disappeared. Just vanished.
“We need to talk,” she told him as she hefted an egg soufflé to bring out to the dining room.
He put down his coffee mug, grabbed the soufflé from her and said, “No need. I saw your dad this morning. He told me you’ve decided to go back to Connecticut.”
What? Sam had no idea what her meddling father was up to. But he was certainly up to something. “I’d like to talk with you about it.”
“What’s the point?” He left with the dish and didn’t return for his coffee. Sam suspected that he’d locked himself in his office.
With a slew of chores still on her list to get the Lowerys off on their field trip, she didn’t have time to deal with Nate. But as soon as the guests were gone she planned to have a long, in-depth conversation with him.
As Sam set up rows of brown-bag lunches on a table in the lobby for team Lowery to take on their train ride, she tried her father on the phone. No answer at her house, but he finally picked up on his cell.
“Daddy, what did you tell Nate?”
“What? It’s a bad connection.”
It sounded perfectly fine to Sam. “What are you up to, George Dunsbury the Fourth?”
“Can’t hear you,” came his muffled voice. “I’ll try to call you when I get to a landline.” He clicked off, and Sam wondered where he could be where there wasn’t a landline.
She returned to Brady for the vegetarian lunches. On her way back to the lobby, she noticed that Nate’s office door was open and he was gone. Damn him. In the dining room, she cleared the dirty dishes and brought them back to the kitchen.
“Brady, did Nate say where he was going?”
Nope.” Brady went back to rolling his pie dough.
She returned calls in her office and organized her calendar. Before she knew it the Lowerys were back from their train ride. The entire group had a reservation for dinner at the Ponderosa. Sam just had to make sure that everyone knew where to go and what time to be there. A few of the guests wanted to go on a short bike ride before supper. Sam opened the shed and showed them where the bikes were stored and gave them directions to a nice flat trail along the Feather River. A few of the older guests wanted to relax in their rooms. Landon stopped by Sam’s office to tell her how pleased he was with the reunion so far.
For a nerdy guy, he could be fairly charming. After Landon left to join the bike ride, Sam popped her head in Nate’s office. He still wasn’t back. After dinnertime, she’d given up on him altogether. Perhaps he’d gone to San Francisco.
With the Lowerys handled for the evening, she started to pack up to go home. She hadn’t heard back from her dad and was starting to worry.
Then the Lumber Baron door opened and Nate came in.
“You okay?” Sam asked because he didn’t look quite right. All that cockiness he usually carried around with him seemed to have dissipated.
“I didn’t expect you to be here so late. I just came back to finish up some paperwork.”
“Okay,” she said, deciding that they could talk another day. He seemed tired and disjointed. Not at all like himself. “I’ll let you get to it then.”
He shoved his hands in his pocket and rocked back on his heels. “Good night.”
“See you.”
She was reaching for the door when he said, “Don’t go back to Connecticut, Sam.”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” She stepped out into the July evening. The sun hadn’t yet set and the Nugget sky burned a fiery red. Summer in the Sierra was the way the locals described their colorful twilight hours.
“I’m sorry I told Fifi Reinhardt who you are.” He’d followed her outside. “I never intended to trade on your name, but when I mentioned you, she obviously recognized Dunsbury and got excited. Never in a million years did I think there was anything wrong with it, but I’ll never do it again.”
“I know,” she said as she started for her car. “Thank you for apologizing. It means a lot.”
“I love you, Sam.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, her heart pounding like a herd of wild horses running through her chest.
“I love you so much I ache with it,” he said. “And if you leave . . . You can’t leave.”
“I thought you wanted to go back to just bei
ng my boss?”
“I was an idiot, Sam. I was just being defensive because I was afraid of getting hurt.” He came down the stairs and joined her in the parking lot. “I don’t want to be your boss anymore.”
“You don’t?” she asked, confused. Just yesterday he’d offered her a vice president position in his company.
“I want us to be partners. Before you say no, hear me out, okay? I think we’re perfect for each other. You soften my rough edges, mostly because you don’t take my crap. And I trust your judgment one hundred percent. You want to build a barn at the Lumber Baron or on Gold Mountain, we’ll build a barn. You want to fire Richard, we’ll fire Richard and bring in Brady. Whatever you want to do.”
“And my title will still be vice president?” Because this sounded like a much bigger job to Sam . . .
“Your title will be Mrs. Nathaniel Breyer and anything else you want tacked on to it.”
She stared at him, stunned. “What are you saying?” And then she held her breath.
“I’m saying”—he reached into his shirt pocket for a little velvet box and dropped to one knee on the hot, sticky pavement—“you’re everything I ever dreamed of and more, Samantha Dunsbury. Give me another chance and I’ll spend my life making you happy. Marry me?”
She exhaled and saw stars, maybe from holding her breath so long. But Nate Breyer had just proposed.
“Yes,” she whispered as he slipped the ring on her finger.
“I got it in Reno today. The best jewelry store I could find on short notice. If you don’t like it, I could exchange it for something else. But when your dad said you were leaving, I panicked. I can’t imagine this place without you . . . without you in my life.”
“You can’t?” She was dazzled by him. And she’d never seen a ring more beautiful, more sparkly or more perfect. She held it up to him. “I love it . . . not too big, not too small, just right. Because you know me, Nate. I love you . . . I love . . .” Oh God, she was rambling like a lunatic. But Nate, who had gotten to his feet, was too busy kissing her to notice.