Love Reimagined (Kings Grove Book 2)
Page 20
My office usually needed some tidying up, so I forced myself to get to work doing that until the guy showed up. The bell over the door rang after a few minutes and I stepped into my doorway, confused to find a tall woman with dark wavy hair stepping into the lobby.
“Hello?” She called in a voice low and resonant with just a touch of sandpaper in it. “Hey, are you Chance?”
I stepped fully into the lobby feeling a little bit off balance. I’d been expecting a man, a guy named Mike Kennedy. This woman was clearly lost, but as she stood there with dark eyes holding my gaze and a little flush on her cheeks, I found myself wanting to keep her here for a minute.
“Guilty,” I said, smiling wide. “Can I help you with something?”
The woman gave me an evaluative look and shifted her weight. She wore dark jeans and boots with a low heel, and a wrap tank that was professional, but also revealed a figure that was both fit and curvy. Her arms were toned and defined, and for a second I thought I might like to ask her about her workout regime.
“We had a meeting this morning?” She sounded the tiniest bit annoyed.
Confusion made my smile slip a touch. “I did have a meeting this morning,” I agreed. “With a guy named Mike.”
“With a girl named Mike, actually.” She sighed and reached out to shake my hand, and I got the sense she’d had this conversation many times. “Michaela Kennedy,” she said.
I took her hand, impressed by her firm grip and soft skin. Her eyes never left mine, and something in my chest warmed uncomfortably. “Okay, well.” I was strangely off guard, and stepped back for a minute to compose myself. “Sorry, I just…”
“You thought you were going to be doing business with a man. I get it.” She pulled her phone from her bag and checked the screen quickly before shoving it back in. “Look, Mr. Palmer, it was a long drive getting up here, and I’m pretty sure we’re barking up the wrong tree anyway, which is what I told my boss. You must be pretty damned charming though, because he insisted I come up here to see the place. So can we just get this done? I need to get back down to the valley before three.”
“Sure,” I said, regaining my composure. Her terse attitude struck a chord inside me—she was going to be a challenge. I liked a challenge. No, actually, I loved a challenge, and there’d never been a woman in the history of women that I couldn’t charm. I grinned at her, realizing my day had just improved considerably. Spending it with Michaela would be immeasurably more pleasant than trying to sell some guy named Mike on Kings Grove. “Would you like to start with the numbers or the tour?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You can drop the charm act,” she said. “Let’s go look at the property that’s here now and I’m pretty sure we won’t need to go much further than that. You can email the numbers to me if I think I’ll need them.”
Challenge accepted.
“Let’s go,” I said, waving toward the door. I followed her back out into the parking lot, suddenly much more invested in convincing her of the merits of this deal than I’d been before. As we walked toward the sidewalk that would take us through the center of Kings Grove, I realized I was interested in a deal with Michaela’s company, but it was more than that. For the first time in a long time, I was interested in the woman representing it. I was interested in her.
Love Redefined Chapter 2
Michaela
Just a quick drive up the hill, he’d said. In and out, he’d said. A couple hours at most.
My boss, Lou, clearly had no idea where exactly Kings Grove was located. And while it wasn’t too far for people to drive for a romantic weekend away, should we decide to build a McLaren resort here, it was much farther than I should have driven today. Finn was at school, so really, everything should be fine, but I didn’t like being more than a half hour away, just in case.
Lou had also not prepared me completely for meeting Chance Palmer.
Seems like a nice guy, he’d told me.
And maybe he was. I shouldn’t blame Lou for not mentioning Chance’s magnetic smile, or the impression he made walking into a space with those broad shoulders, expressive almost-gray eyes and ridiculously perfect hair. I couldn’t blame Lou for not sitting me down to say, “Now Michaela, you’ll have to be on your guard with this one. He’s devastatingly handsome, and you know you’ve had trouble with ridiculously handsome men before. Keep your guard up, kid.”
No, just because Lou was a father figure did not make him my father. And it wasn’t his job to look out for me or try to save me from my own horrible choices when it came to men.
Plus, the last horrible choice I’d made gave me Finn, so I couldn’t be too sorry. Still, I was a bit worried what that last horrible choice might be up to. His parole officer had called last week to let me know he was getting out. He’d said last Friday, and I’d braced myself all weekend for him to show up, to pound on my door, to call incessantly. Moving and changing my phone number weren’t successful deterrents for a guy like Todd. It was only a matter of time.
Which was why I couldn’t let this meeting drag out any longer than necessary.
No matter how nice Chance Palmer’s butt looked in the khaki slacks he was wearing as he walked slightly ahead of me back toward the big parking lot that stood in what appeared to be the center of Kings Grove.
“This is the main hub of town,” Chance said, his smooth low voice rolling on the clear warm summer air. He stopped on the sidewalk just past what appeared to be a diner, and we gazed out at a sprawling green meadow that sat beyond it.
“I can see the brochure now,” I said. “Come to Kings Grove. We have a big parking lot.”
Chance didn’t seem hurt by my jab at all, in fact he laughed merrily. “I can see why they don’t put you in marketing,” he said.
I bristled at the way every nerve in my body seemed to want to respond to this man, and consciously fought against it. I could tell he was used to women responding this way to him, too, which made want to resist the urge to grin up at him even more.
“If you could just show me the existing property…” I said again, doing my best not to enjoy the fresh clean smell of the air, which was tinged with pine and something earthy and verdant lingering just beneath. I didn’t want to let my eyes wander the far horizon where smudges of mountain ridges pressed against the cerulean blue sky. Seriously, when was a sky ever this blue?
Don’t get me wrong—I was taking it all in. That was my job. I was just trying to keep a professional distance from both the location, and the guy trying to melt my clothes off with his sexy smile as he sold me on the place.
“Right up here,” he said, waving a muscled arm at a two-story structure standing ahead of us, at the far end of the parking lot and across a small road. The Inn was nestled back away from the center of town, pressed up to the meadow on one side with massive trees soaring overhead at its back. I couldn’t help craning my neck to follow the huge dark red trunks upward as they towered above us, making the structure look small despite its significant size.
“Wow,” I said, without meaning to speak aloud. “I’ve read about those, but I’ve never seen one. That’s one of the Sequoia trees, right?”
Chance grinned again and followed my gaze until we were both standing, craning our heads upward to see the tops of the trees behind the inn. “A couple of them, yeah,” he said, his voice lowering and taking on an almost reverent edge. “Those are part of the original Kings Grove of Giant Sequoias. A part of the grove was felled back in the early 1900s, and that’s where the center of town stands now. The original grove continues across the highway there, and the biggest part of it is about a half mile away.” He pointed back across the parking lot we’d come from, and I imagined what it might have looked like once, with dozens or maybe hundreds of these giant trees pressing together toward the sky. They were almost too big to be believed. “Finn would love this,” I breathed.
“Haven’t met a human yet who wasn’t a little bit humbled by the size and age of these trees. They’re magic.”
I squinted at him, and it occurred to me what a strange place this was, where a man like Chance Palmer would be waxing poetic about big trees. He was right though, there was something magic in their size, their constancy. I felt a strange rush of sadness for the ones that had been cut down in this place. Still, I wasn’t here to lose my head over trees, and I cleared my throat, forcing myself back to the business at hand.
“Okay,” I said, narrowing my gaze at the Inn and pulling out my notebook from inside my bag. “Owned by the Piper family for fifty years. Indoor plumbing and a major renovation in the seventies, another renovation in the nineties. Average rate of occupancy just under sixty percent. All that correct?”
“Someone’s done her homework,” Chance said, nodding. “But the occupancy rate isn’t a good indicator of the popularity of Kings Grove. The issue is that during the summer months—now, for instance—the place is usually sold out. But in the winter, not many folks come around. We don’t have access to a downhill ski resort up here, and the Pipers weren’t interested in developing the place to cater to the other kinds of winter sports that might attract people.”
I followed Chance up the main steps of the Inn, which had a sprawling front porch looking out onto the meadow and offering a view through the village center and to the trees beyond. There were Adirondack chairs in groups and rocking chairs set up around the big space—most of which were occupied by folks who seemed to be just enjoying the view and the mild weather.
We stepped through the front doors into the lobby to find a soaring ceiling and a space decorated in what I could only call eighties log cabin. Huge unfinished pine beams dominated the space, and the walls were covered with quilts that had a southwestern flavor, deer antlers, and framed prints of the big trees. The pine gave the whole place a yellow cast when combined with the sunlight pouring in through the high windows, and while the decor was not to my taste, there was something appealing about the result. A huge stone fireplace sat against the far wall, and the reception desk stood off to one side.
“Hello,” said a woman with dark hair pulled up into a bun and wire-rimmed glasses over small bright eyes.
“Annette Piper, meet Michaela Grayson from McLaren Resorts.”
I shook hands with the woman. “Hello,” I said. “You’ve done a fabulous job with the place. Very rustic and comfortable.”
“How’s Joe?” Chance asked her.
The woman’s face slackened and her eyes dropped, but she regained herself quickly. “Doing a little better Chance, thanks.” Annette looked at me. “Please make yourselves at home,” she said. “The corner suite upstairs is unoccupied if you’d like to take a look, and Chance knows his way around.”
“Thanks,” Chance said. “Please give Joe my best.”
She nodded and handed Chance a key card.
We toured the big property, mostly seeing more of the same. The room, while comfortable, didn’t scream luxury resort, and the property’s kitchen was too small to service the hotel at the size it was now. There was a lot of work to be done here. That said, the potential for establishing a winter sports destination was something I knew McLaren would be interested in. I had more research to do.
It was nearly lunchtime when we finished walking the full extent of the Inn, investigating every storage closet and landscaping shed, and covering the current personnel load. We walked back out to the expansive front porch and paused at the railing, looking out at the meadow.
“What do you think, Michaela?” Chance was looking at me expectantly, turned toward me with one hand resting on the railing.
I’d love to say I’d settled into his commanding presence during our time together, but I’d be lying. I was painfully aware of him. Of his broad strong chest, of the way his pulse beat in his throat just above the collar of his polo shirt, of the way his tanned skin covered muscled and sinewed forearms that looked capable and imposing. I’d become aware of the scent of him, too—a mix of something clean and spicy, almost as heady as the scent of the mountain air I’d been breathing all morning. It was all a bit overwhelming, and I had to struggle to remind myself I was not actually on vacation with a muscled tour guide at my beck and call. It was a nice fantasy, though.
“I think I need to get back down to the valley and attend to some other matters.” I stuffed my notebook back into my bag and tried to pretend I was eager to leave this place.
“Lunch first?” he suggested.
“I really should go,” I said, though I didn’t feel committed to my statement, and Chance could clearly see it.
“I’ll treat you to the finest diner food this side of the highway,” he said, taking my elbow and guiding me up to the front door of a long low building with the words Kings Grove Diner hanging on the sign over our heads. “We can talk about next steps.”
I sighed. I was hungry. It wouldn’t hurt to eat quickly before driving back down to get Finn. “Just a quick bite,” I said. “And I really can’t tell you much until I’ve spoken with my boss.”
“Right,” Chance said, ushering me into the charming restaurant.
For a diner, it was very nice. It had all the booths and the long counter you’d expect, but the space felt modern and clean, and wasn’t trying to cling to any kind of 1950s diner culture or be too cute. We were greeted by a woman with messy gray hair piled on her head at the podium, and she literally rolled her eyes at my escort.
“Palmer,” she said, sounding as if she’d had more than enough of him, despite us having just walked through the door. Then her eyes fell on me, and I prepared to be greeted similarly, but her face lightened and she smiled. “Oh, hello,” she said, her voice lighter and friendly now. “Welcome to the Kings Grove Diner.”
“Hello,” I said.
“Sorry.” She leaned her head in conspiratorially. “That one’s in here every day, and I swear his coffee and bear claw habit is going to bankrupt me, especially because my waitresses seem partial to his irritating grin.”
The grin in question was aimed at this woman now, and she rolled her eyes. “Take a seat wherever you like,” she said.
“That’s Adele,” Chance told me as he led me to a far booth in front of the window. “And this is the best seat in the house.”
I settled myself and gazed out the window. Though the view was actually mostly parking lot, it was made significantly more urbane by the imposing forms of the Giant Sequoias standing near the buildings across the way, and the bright blue sky that seemed to reach down and spread itself around everything.
Love Redefined Pre-Order Info
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Afterword
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Also by Delancey Stewart
The KINGS GROVE Series:
Love Rebuilt
Love Reimagined
Coming in 2018:
Love Redefined
Love Reclaimed
The LOVE IN THE VINES Series:
Vintage
Redemption Red
Beyond Redemption
A Holiday Delay
THE GIRLFRIENDS OF GOTHAM Series:
Men and Ma
rtinis
Highballs in the Hamptons
Cosmos and Commitment
STANDALONES:
Without Words
Mr. Big
The PROHIBITED! Duet:
Prohibited!
The Glittering Life of Evie Mckenzie