He straightened in his seat as he saw the sign for the resort. He drove under an iron archway and down a long, winding, one-lane, barely-paved road that felt like it was taking him back in time.
The years in between visits peeled away. He remembered being in a mini-van with his mom and a couple of his brothers when they'd come to the resort for that last summer vacation.
They'd been such a big family they'd had to take two cars to the camp. He'd been with his mom, Gabe, Knox, and Finn, while his dad had taken James, Max and Hunter with him. He'd been happy to go with his mom. She liked to sing along to songs on the radio, and he'd liked the sound of her voice. She wasn't a particularly good singer, but she sang with enthusiasm, and it always made him happy.
His gut tightened as the memory flew through his head. It was strange the things that he remembered about her, random moments in time. Some were so fleeting they were difficult to hang on to. He wondered if eventually they'd all just disappear. He hoped not, but the further he got from age seven, the harder it was to remember the details.
Glancing out the window, he saw horses grazing in the meadows, a dozen or so weathered cabins set along the river, a boat dock for fishing trips and river rafting, an archery range in a wide meadow, and the barbecue and picnic area under the tall, towering ponderosa pines and white fir trees. More memories ran through his head.
That last vacation had been filled with firsts for him: the first time he'd ridden a horse, the first time he'd gone rafting, the first time he'd climbed a rock wall. It was that experience that had started his love affair with the outdoors, with towering mountains and rushing rapids, with the excitement and adrenaline rush that came from challenging himself.
Funny—he hadn't realized his passion had started here. Actually, he hadn’t really thought about it, but now it seemed so clear.
Eventually, the road came to an end, turning into a parking lot next to the lodge.
He took the nearest spot, then got out and looked around.
The three-story manor house with a huge wraparound porch was the centerpiece of the resort. As he recalled, the lodge had nine or ten bedrooms; the rest of the visitors stayed in the cabins along the river. Inside the lodge was a living room, a dining room, a library, and a game room. He remembered hours spent playing Ping-Pong and pinball with his brothers while his parents had drunk wine and talked to other adults in the living room.
Glancing to the right of the lodge, he saw the paved path leading to the pool area. Brightly colored umbrellas hung over patio tables that curved in a circle around the pool and the hot tub. He could hear a couple of kids yelling Marco Polo to each other, and he smiled to himself, thinking some things never changed.
Across from the house was the stable area with a big barn and two rings for horseback riding lessons. A couple stood by the smaller ring, watching their young daughter take a lesson. The white-haired man giving instructions looked familiar. Maybe it was the same guy who'd put him on a horse when he was seven.
Shaking his head at all the memories, Luke walked out of the parking lot, heading toward the house. He was about ten feet away when a woman came through the front door and down the steps. She wore skinny white jeans and a yellow tank top. A pile of wavy blonde hair fell around her shoulders.
His heart came to a crashing halt. His breath froze in his chest. The pretty blonde took him back to another time. He wasn't seven years old in this new memory; he was twenty and madly in love with his college girlfriend, a woman he hadn't seen in almost a decade, a woman with whom he'd had the worst breakup of his life—Lizzie Parker.
Lizzie stopped abruptly, her eyes widening in recognition as her gaze ran down his body. And not for the first time, he wished he didn't have a killer headache, a bad hangover, and a serious case of jet lag, because seeing Lizzie again had put him into a serious head-spin. If the car were a little closer, he might have leaned against it or jumped inside and headed back the way he'd come.
"Luke," she said, putting a hand to her heart. "Is it really you?"
He nodded, not quite able to get any words out.
She took a tentative step forward, then stopped.
He did the same. They were closer, but there was still distance between them. Finally, he found his voice. "What are you doing here, Lizzie?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, more surprise in her voice. "You don't know?"
"Know what?"
"I'm the manager."
"What?" It didn't make sense that she was the manager. Lizzie was a concert pianist, not a hotel manager.
"Your dad gave me the job six months ago."
"My dad gave you the job," he echoed in confusion. "I don't understand."
"He didn't tell you?" She answered her own question. "Of course he didn't tell you. He probably didn't know where to find you. Well, if you have a problem with it, you should take it up with him."
"Take it up with him?" he repeated, feeling like a dimwit. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?"
"Just call him. I know you don't get along that well. He told me he never sees you, and that he feels badly about it. I know he wasn't the perfect dad, but if you tried to reach out a little, he would probably meet you halfway—"
He cut her off with a shake of his head, unable to hear one more word about his father. "He's dead, Lizzie. My dad is dead." His words drained the blood from her face.
She swayed a little, and he had to fight back a very old instinct to rush to her, to protect her, to save her. But that wasn't his job anymore; it hadn't been for a very long time.
"That's impossible," she said slowly. "I talked to him a week ago. He sounded a little tired, but he didn't say anything was wrong. What happened? Was it an accident?"
"No. He apparently died of cancer several days ago."
"I had no idea," she murmured.
"No one did. Dad didn't tell anyone in the family that he had been diagnosed a month earlier. No one knew he was sick. No one knew he died. He was staying at his house in the Bahamas. He was secluded, surrounded only by people he paid to take care of him."
"I can't believe it," she murmured, her gaze softening as it came back to rest on his. "I'm sorry, Luke."
He didn't want her sympathy. He didn't want his father to be dead. He didn't want this resort, but somehow he'd ended up with all three.
They stared at each other for at least a minute. "I still don't understand what you're doing here," he said finally. "You're a musician. Now you're running a lodge?"
"Sometimes life doesn't turn out the way you think." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.
The move brought his gaze to her beautiful breasts. It had been a long time, but he could still remember kissing every inch of her body. He could still hear her urgent pleas in his ear: don't stop, Luke, don't ever stop.
He sucked in a breath, looking back into her face, but that didn't help. She was even prettier than he remembered with her blue eyes the color of a morning sky, her skin reddened by the sun, her lips sweet and full. She'd filled out a bit since he'd last seen her; she was still slender, but not teenage-thin. And her eyes held a few more shadows. He'd put some of them there, but he wondered where the others had come from.
"Are you here by yourself?" Lizzie asked.
"Do you see anyone else?"
She shrugged. "Are you staying? You didn't make a reservation."
"Do you have a room?" he countered.
"One of the smaller cabins is available, but the lodge is sold out through Labor Day weekend."
"I'll take whatever you have."
"For one night?"
"Not sure."
"Okay," she said, her tone cautious and careful. "Do you need help with your bags?"
"I can get my own bags."
"Then I'll see you inside."
"Great." He blew out a breath as she returned to the house. He'd come here with one big question: Why had his dad left him the resort?
Now, he had more questions: Why was Lizzie here? Why had
his father hired her without telling him? And why on earth had he decided to spend the night?
Unfortunately, he didn't have any answers…
* * *
Lizzie walked across the lobby to the tall reception desk and stepped behind it, putting a hand on the counter to steady herself. She couldn't believe Luke was here. She also couldn't believe Colin Brannigan was dead. If anyone had told her an hour ago that either of those things would be true, she wouldn't have believed them.
The two Brannigan men had impacted her life in huge and very different ways.
Luke had broken her heart when she was twenty.
Six months ago, Colin had been her savior—an unexpected white knight who had appeared during the worst moment of her life.
Now, Colin was gone and Luke was here. Both events seemed incredible.
The front door opened and Luke walked in, a backpack over his shoulders, a duffel bag in his hand. She wished he'd gotten fat or gone bald, instead of looking hunky and hot in faded jeans and a T-shirt that clung to his chest and ripped abs. He'd always been in great shape, and that hadn't changed.
But he looked a little worse for wear today: his dark-brown eyes were bloodshot, his beard was on the scruffy side, and there was an air of weariness about him. She had a feeling his dad's death had affected him more than he would admit. The two of them had had a very complicated relationship.
Clearing her throat, she threw back her shoulders and got down to business. She didn’t know why Luke was here. It had to have something to do with his dad's death. Surely he wouldn't stay long, probably no more than a night. Then things would go back to normal, although in recent months she'd discovered that normal was a constantly changing state.
Now that Colin was dead, there could be big changes coming to the resort. The best-case scenario was that she would continue to manage the resort, and deal with Colin's lawyers as she'd been doing the past six months. But somehow Luke's appearance didn't bode well for a best-case scenario.
Turning to her computer, she put in a reservation for the only available cabin, wishing she had something better to give Luke, but she didn't.
She grabbed a key from under the desk and pushed it across the counter. "You'll be in Cabin Eleven. If you go back down the road, it's the last cabin on the right. You can park in front. It has a nice view of the river."
He took the key. "Thanks."
"Are you planning to go to Yosemite? Are you scouting the area for one of your films?"
"No."
She was a little surprised at how reticent he was. He'd always been a man of strong opinions, of action, a man who knew what he wanted and went after it with single-minded purpose. He seemed bemused and confused today, probably because of his father's death. She could understand that feeling. But she needed some answers. "What are you doing here, Luke?"
"My father left me this resort, Liz."
She swallowed hard at that piece of information. "Really? Just you?"
"Yeah. Just me. I only found out about it last night. I needed to get out of LA to clear my head, so I figured I'd come up here and see what was what. I sure didn't expect to find you here, Lizzie." He paused. "You said my dad gave you the job. How did that happen?"
"Your cousin Laurel. She and I have kept in touch over the years. We played for the same orchestra for a few months. Anyway, she told her mom that I needed a job and a place to live, and Claire talked to your father, and I ended up here."
He frowned as he gazed back at her. "That sounds like a very short version of a much longer story."
He was right, but she didn't really want to get into a longer explanation. "It's all that matters. I've been managing the place for the last six months, and bookings are up. I've done a good job, and I can keep doing a good job." She infused as much confidence into her statement as she could, but the idea of Luke being her boss was a little hard to stomach. How on earth could that work?
"I doubt I'll keep the property," he said. "I don't know anything about running a resort, and I'm not particularly interested in being an owner. I'll probably put everything up for sale."
Her heart sank at that piece of information. "You might want to think about that. The resort could bring in some good income." As soon as she finished speaking, she realized how stupid she'd just sounded. "But then you probably don't need cash. Your dad must have left you a lot more than this resort."
"Not exactly," he said cryptically.
"Well, you should still think about things. You may not know anything about running a resort, but I do. You could be a silent owner, much the way your father was. You could just let things run, not worry about the details."
He tapped his key against the counter, his brown-eyed gaze narrowing on her. "I don't get it, Liz. I don't understand why you're here, why you're running this lodge. It's the last job I'd expect to find you in."
Before she could explain, her reason for being here came sauntering into the lobby wearing a pair of white denim shorts that barely covered her ass and a skimpy top. Her brown hair was tinged with purple and pink, and she had a phone in her hand and headphones in her ears.
She'd been trying to get Kaitlyn downstairs for the past two hours. Of course, she would have to make her appearance now.
Kaitlyn stopped and gave Liz a bored look, although that look changed when her gaze moved to Luke.
She straightened a little, then pulled the headphones out of her ears and said, "Why are you blowing up my phone with a million texts?"
"Because I could use your help," she replied. "You're supposed to be helping Shari make cookies for the children's workshop at two."
"Why can't she do it herself? You pay her to cook."
"And I'll pay you, too, if you actually work."
Kaitlyn looked down at her phone and then started texting.
Lizzie sighed, knowing that the texting wasn't just to keep up with her friends, it was to annoy her.
"Kaitlyn," she said sharply. "Shari is waiting."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Kaitlyn looked at Luke. "Are you staying here?"
"I am," Luke replied.
"Do you need help with your bags?" she asked.
"No, he doesn't," she answered for Luke, seeing Kaitlyn's very inappropriate thirteen-year-old flirtatious smile. "This is Luke Brannigan. His father owns the resort."
"Actually, I own it now," Luke said.
Liz ignored that. "This is my niece, Kaitlyn Allen."
"So you're Aunt Lizzie's boss now?" Kaitlyn asked with interest. "Because I have a few complaints."
Luke smiled. "I have a feeling your aunt has some complaints, too."
Kaitlyn shrugged, stuck her headphones back in her ears and sauntered toward the kitchen.
"I can't believe Kaitlyn is a teenager," Luke murmured. "Last time I saw her, she was three. Are your sister and brother-in-law here, too?"
"No." Her stomach twisted with pain. "They're not here." She took a breath for strength. "They were killed in a car crash while they were vacationing in Hawaii six months ago. As you might remember, my mom has a lot of issues that make it impossible for her to take Kaitlyn in, so it was up to me to do it."
Sympathy entered his eyes. "Damn. I'm sorry, Lizzie."
"So that's why I needed a new job and a place to live. Your father was a lifesaver. I don't know what I would have done without his help."
"I had no idea." He ran a hand through his hair. "That's rough. Kelly was great, and Brian was a good guy, too."
"It's been really hard, but we're doing okay."
"Are you? Kaitlyn seems like a handful."
"She's having a difficult time," she conceded. "I can't blame her. Her entire world was shattered. I'm just hoping that being here in the mountains will be good for her. She would have rather stayed in LA, but it wasn't a good environment for her in her present angry and rebellious mood." She took a breath. "I am a little worried about what's going to happen now that you're here." A gleam sparked in his eyes, and she realized her choice of words
had taken him down the wrong path. "Not personally—professionally," she said quickly. "I don't want to lose my job. I hope you'll give me a chance to show you that the resort could be a good investment for you."
"I'm not really about investments, Lizzie."
"There are other benefits. Look where you are—Yosemite Valley—one of the most beautiful places on earth. And it has all your favorite things: rock climbing, rafting, camping…you might want to keep it. You might want to stay here sometimes when you're not on the road."
"That's almost never."
"Then it won't really be a burden for you. Things can keep going just the way they have been the past six months. I can work through your dad's lawyers. I can send you reports in email. You don't have to come here, live here, or even talk to me." Her pitch sounded a little desperate, but she didn't have time to come up with a better argument. She had the sense that Luke wasn't going to stay here long enough to see how much more potential the resort had. And maybe he wouldn't want to help her because of their past.
Luke cleared his throat. "I need to think."
She was a little surprised by his response. The Luke she knew acted first and thought about it later. Maybe he'd changed—hopefully in a good way. "Okay. You should think. And you should spend some time here, get to know the place. We start serving lunch in ten minutes if you're hungry."
"I am hungry," he said, as if happy he could make that one decision. "I'm going to stash my things, and then I'll be back."
"Great," she said, forcing a smile.
As soon as he left, her smile faded. She'd really thought the worst was over for a while. She'd been wrong about that.
Well, she wasn't going down without a fight, because this wasn't just about her future; it was also about Kaitlyn's.
She just wished Colin had left the resort to one of his other sons. She could have dealt far more easily with Knox or Gabe or any of Luke's other brothers. But it had to be Luke. And knowing Colin, she had a feeling that was not at all a coincidence.
Luke (7 Brides for 7 Brothers Book 1) Page 3