Operation Valentine (Hazel Oaks Resort Book 1)

by Kelsey McKnight

  Hudson leaned back in his seat, the mug cradled between his hands. “So, Marvin, is Mina okay? She left pretty suddenly.”

  “I don’t know, kid,” he said with a sigh. He was staring into the fire, not looking particularly distressed, just very tired. “I mean, I thought things were going okay. I was trying to take an interest like you suggested but it’s just not that simple. Before we came here, we were talking with divorce attorneys.”

  Hudson knew from the beginning that things with Mina and Marvin were serious but hearing the word divorce straight from the horse’s mouth gave the entire situation more gravity. He’d spent all of this time focusing on himself and what helping the Kents would do for him. He’d never considered that he could be doing a lot more harm than good. It was easy for him to sit there and tell Marvin things were going to be fine, but these were real people, real people he couldn’t just make do what he wanted, or what he thought was right. He could build them the perfect vacation, and it might still not mean anything in the end. Hudson wanted to call Mr. Sutton up right then and bail.

  “I still don’t get why she went upstairs, and you guys didn’t go get a drink at the cafe.”

  Marvin rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. “I told her I didn’t feel like getting hot chocolate. I thought after spending the whole morning and afternoon together, it would be okay for us to have some time apart, so I planned on going to the library.”

  “You told her you didn’t want to spend time with her so you could read books?” Hudson wanted to shake him, or at least take away his library privileges for the remainder of his stay. He got that reading was fun and relaxing to a lot of people, but there was more on the line than him not reading the latest spy novel.

  “When you say it out loud like that, it was pretty foolish of me. I really thought she would prefer it. She said she was tired.”

  “You don’t need to get defensive, just try to see it the way she does. You went on this really cool walk together, she thought you guys would cozy up with some hot chocolate, maybe take a little nap before dinner, relax and enjoy each other’s company, and you say you would rather read a book.”

  Marvin took a long drink of his cider. “I forgot how hard it was to date. Being married was easy, we were too busy to have to really work at it sometimes, you know what I mean?”

  “Let’s go back to when you first got together. What did you guys do when you were dating? Before you had your daughter and the real jobs?”

  “Well, Mina loves to dance.”

  Hudson grinned. “Perfect, then I’ll talk to Nat about your orchestra tickets. She and I had already discussed an outing that would incorporate music in a nearby town. First you’d go to a winery, then—”

  Marvin placed a hand on his forearm. “Son, have you ever been to the orchestra?”

  “Not a big one. Why, what’s wrong?”

  “It’s a show. You’re in your seat. Sure, she’d love to listen to the music, but it’s not a get up and dance kind of thing. Besides, Mina loves to salsa.”

  Hudson tried to flip through all the amenities and lessons the lodge provided. Dance and music was an indoor thing, firmly in Nat’s domain, so Hudson had never given it much thought. But this whole experience was about thinking outside the box, so he was sure they could figure something out.

  “I bet Nat knows someone who could give you two a salsa lesson.”

  Marvin laughed lowly and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I can’t tell you the last time I really got moving like that.”

  “Come on, I saw you on the outing today, you can handle some steps and dips. I’ll go see Nat when we get inside and set something up.”

  “Speaking of Miss Natalie, when did the two of you start dating?”

  Heat crept up Hudson’s neck and settled in his cheeks. He choked down a bit more cider to give him a moment to collect himself. “No, uh, we’re not dating. She definitely does not see me like that. We’re totally just work…associates.”

  “She doesn’t see you like that, eh? I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t be taking love advice from you when you’re that clueless in your own life.” And with that, Mr. Kent stood up. “I’m gonna go see a man about some more cider.”

  Hudson watched him go, stuck on his words. Maybe she just liked him in the fresh air because, in the office, she physically groaned when he came by. They’d never actually work, and he was already starting to get itchy about moving. That tended to happen once he was somewhere for more than a year. The towns and cities would feel too small, the faces around him too familiar.

  He’d thought it might not happen at Hazel Oaks, since he was outdoors so much, breathing in the mountain air, but there it was, his urge to flee. No, not flee. Flee meant he was running from something. Hudson wasn’t running. He was just moving on. Yeah, it was beginning to feel like it was time to move on.

  *

  Nat

  Tea on a tray, Nat headed up to Dr. Kent’s room to make the delivery herself. She knocked on the door twice before Dr. Kent came to open it. She had red eyes and her mascara was smeared. Nat’s heart fell to her stomach and as soon as the door was opened wide, Nat stepped in and put the tray on the coffee table.

  “Dr. Kent, what’s wrong?” She plucked a few tissues from the box beside the couch and handed them to her.

  “Call me Mina, please.” She dabbed at her eyes, but new tears kept falling, bringing more and more mascara with them.

  “Come sit down,” Nat said, leading her to the couch. She settled her on one side and sat on the other, bringing the box of tissues and placing them on the cushion between them. She wanted to pat Mina on the back or to do something to help her, but she didn’t know what would be appropriate. Instead, she waited.

  She waited through the tears and the sniffles until Mina finally took a ragged breath and then turned to face her. “Natalie, I know what you and Hudson are doing. I know why we’re at this resort for Valentine’s. I even see my husband trying some. But this…this is all fake, and as soon as we have a moment where there isn’t an audience, it all falls apart. He wanted to read his book instead of sit outside and drink hot chocolate. When we go home, you and Hudson won’t be there to make sure Marvin and I have fun or ensure he’s attentive. Today…today was beautiful and I haven’t spent that much time holding Marvin’s hand in years but, it’s all orchestrated. Hudson even told Marvin to take my hand in the first place. We’re grown adults who are supposed to be in love. This isn’t the way it should be.”

  Nat’s heart rate began to race. Of course everything was planned. Surely they knew not every guest got the sort of treatment they did, or that things were just a little too done. But she hadn’t thought that would hurt anything. Nat had just assumed they would appreciate the lengths to which one of their oldest friends, and even their own daughter, would go to see them happy together. The last thing she thought she would find in the room were tears.

  “Isn’t all love orchestrated somehow?” Nat asked. “We plan dates, get done up, celebrate things like anniversaries and Valentine’s Day. Sure, Hudson told him to hold your hand but then Marvin didn’t let go. Sometimes we all need a little help.”

  “No, it’s more than that. I just…what happens when he and I are at home and the fantasy that this place creates disappears? The marriage can’t be fixed in a day. I can’t look at a man who has become more of a stranger than a partner and say, let’s be together again.”

  Nat despised the sentiment in her words. She sounded so defeated, like she didn’t have the slightest bit of fight left in her. But she couldn’t let her give up so easily. “Why not? Why can’t you? You’re right, we won’t be here when you get home, but the two of you will. And when you fell in love with him, wasn’t it fast? They say when you know, you know. How did you know?”

  Mina dabbed at her eyes again, the faintest of smiles spreading across her tear-stained face.

  “When I brought him home to meet my family the f
irst time and my father took me aside to say he wasn’t worth it, I knew he was. I didn’t care that I might get cut off, I only wanted him.”

  “Getting cut off seems pretty intense.”

  “It was. I told you he used to work at that little cafe near my college, right? While he worked hard for every penny he ever made from the time he was thirteen, I was born with a silver spoon. My father hoped that when I went off to school, I’d bring home some blue-blooded business major or at least someone else going into the medical field. He never thought I’d come home with somebody like Marvin.” Her eyes glazed over again, and the ghost of the smile disappeared. “That passion and need to be with him just isn’t there anymore. I don’t know how to get it back.”

  Nat sat for a few moments, choosing her words. Having things laid out in such an open and raw way really made her appreciate both the power she had in the situation and the powerlessness she felt. She had no idea how difficult it would be to change the lives of two people she didn’t know a thing about. She knew their food preferences and the amenities Mina liked at the spa, things she learned about all of her guests, but in reality, she had no idea how to fix things, because when it came down to it, only the Kents had that power.

  “I think it’s time for you to rebuild that passion,” Nat began. “If we can just get a spark, we can nurture it here, and you can continue to build it when you’re home. If you’re always searching for more ways to be closer, you’ll never lose that passion again.”

  “My worry is that we’ll never find it.”

  “I understand that, but I guess if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t be so much afraid you’ll never find it. I’d be more concerned what you’re going to think six months from now, a year from now, ten years from now. Are you going to wish you’d at least tried this one last time?”

  Mina took a deep breath. She wasn’t crying, but she didn’t exactly look happy. “I guess I have a lot to think about. Thank you, Natalie, and please, will you keep this conversation to yourself? I don’t want Marvin or Hudson to know all of this.”

  “Of course. That is one thing you don’t need to worry about. Please let me know if I can do anything else.”

  Nat went back down to the lobby feeling as though someone had deflated her balloon. She’d been selfish. She’d been worried she get fired if she couldn’t get the Kents back together. And here was this very real woman in very real pain. Pain that Nat wasn’t sure she could fix. Or really that she should fix. What did she actually know about love? She’d never experienced it herself. Not that real, all-consuming, explode if they’re not there sort of love reserved for movies and novels. Mina and Marvin had that once. What was that saying? It was better to have loved and lost than never experienced it at all? She couldn’t remember it exactly but she understood the notion. Mina wasn’t the only one who had some thinking to do.

  With these thoughts swirling in her mind, she didn’t see Hudson until he was right on top of her in the hallway that led to her office, nearly knocking into him.

  “Whoa there,” he said, grabbing her arms. “You alright?”

  Nat steadied herself physically, grateful she had her sneakers on and not her heels. But even though she was no longer a bodily risk to anyone around her, she still couldn’t look Hudson in the eye. She didn’t know how. How could she explain all of this to him? “Hey, I’m in my 30s and I don’t think I’ve ever really found love and now I’m trying to help a couple in their 60s find love, despite the fact that I should probably be learning from them. I’m clearly out of my element and you were right to think I need help but, honestly, I don’t think there is enough help for me, and I’d just really like to go run ten miles. Maybe physical exhaustion would stop my mind.” Oh yeah, now that was attractive. So instead of unloading all of that onto him, Nat decided to keep it simple.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I talked to Mina, and I’m so sad for them.”

  “I know!” he said forcefully. “Man, I just want them to get back together. I know Marvin wants to, but he isn’t sure how to win her back and he keeps sabotaging himself.”

  “Mina is worried once they leave here, things will go back to where they were: strangers roaming the same house. She thinks this bubble of the resort is going to pop.”

  Hudson took a step back, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging. “Alright, well we gotta get out of here. There’s nothing more we can do tonight.”

  “Yeah, I’m gonna head home. Maybe go for a run.”

  “A run? We just did that hike.”

  “Yes, it’s just exercise is how I think. It slows my mind down.”

  “Then let’s go exercise.”

  Nat raised her eyebrows at him, folding her arms in front of her. “If you’re about to tell me you want me to run some sort of crazy obstacle course, I’m going to have to pass. I’ve seen that on TV and I don’t have time to recover from some crazy fall in the hospital.”

  “Hey,” he said, hands up in front of his chest. “I’m just suggesting we do something like Topgolf. You know, get our aggression out by smashing the balls as far as they’ll go. We can even get a little competition going to keep things fun.”

  “I’ve never swung a golf club in my life.”

  “Well then this will be fun. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Hudson

  Hudson sat in his Jeep, waiting for Nat in the driveway that looped around the front of the resort. She had to go get her purse and turn in the schedules for the next day. He’d told her to meet him out front so he could drive. She could have easily followed him in her car, but he couldn’t stop his conversation with Marvin from swirling around in his mind every time he so much as looked at her. He needed to try and really figure out what was going on between them, or if anything at all was going on between them.

  Grateful for the few moments alone to process, Hudson leaned his head against the steering wheel. He and Nat were going out. Well, maybe not going out but they were leaving the resort, they didn’t have guests with them, it wasn’t an assignment, and he did intend on paying. It was probably the closest thing he’d get to a date with her. Maybe. He thought about what Marvin had said again, how she seemed to like him.

  That was certainly not the vibe Hudson got when he was around Nat. She rolled her eyes at him so much he almost wasn’t sure what eye color she had. Alright, that was dramatic. She had hazel eyes. Bright hazel eyes that matched her strawberry hair perfectly. Eyes that, on their hike, had beamed up at him. Eyes that, looking back at him a few minutes ago, had broken his heart. She wasn’t just worried about work; she genuinely cared about these people. The customer service robot had feelings. Seeing that crack in her armor, Hudson wanted nothing more than to fix it. He couldn’t imagine her going home alone and just running mile after mile. Maybe it was his primal fixing instincts, maybe he was becoming a softie, or maybe it was because Nat was always taking care of others and, for whatever reason, Hudson needed to see her smile tonight. And he wanted to be the cause. But yeah, definitely no feelings.

  The main lobby doors opened, just as Hudson looked up. Nat was speaking to one of the valets, the teen who worked nights and weekends as he saved up for his first semester at college. They were tucked away from the wind beside one of the stacked stone pillars that held up the porte-cochère. Normally a brilliant white, contrasting with the dark wood of the exterior, everything seemed to glow orange and red between the stones and the dusting of snow that hadn’t melted, despite the sun of the day.

  Hudson remembered the first time he’d come to Hazel Oaks. It had been in the heat of summer when everything around the lodge was green with life. When you were outside, it was hard to distinguish between the chattering of the guests and the singing of the cicadas. He’d taken in the large windows and the specific scent of fresh water that only came beside a lake the size of Lake George. He’d fallen in love with it at once, even though he’d already been telling himself he’d only be there for a year or two, tops. Maybe he had more in
common with Marvin than he thought.

  He was still staring when Nat turned and saw his car. She gave him a small wave and then said something to the valet before jogging toward him. He hopped out to open the door for her.

  “Thanks,” she said softly before climbing into the Jeep.

  Hudson closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. As he pulled out of the circle and drove through the path of trees to get to the main road, he and Nat sat in uncomfortable silence. He wasn’t the “hold your hand and listen to your feelings” type of guy. Probably because he didn’t have many long-term relationships. He much preferred to keep things light. It was one of the reasons he’d suggested Topgolf. He needed to take control of the situation.

  “So, you’ve never swung a golf club?” he asked as he followed the familiar roads to the more metropolitan area.

  “No, it just never came up.”

  “Well, I happen to have an excellent golf swing, so I’ll either be of great help or you’ll be dutifully impressed. Possibly both.”

  “Oh yeah?” Nat asked, finally smiling. Well, maybe smirking was a better description. “Is that why you suggested this? You wanted to impress me?”

  “What guy doesn’t want to impress a pretty girl?” He turned to look at her and gave her a full-toothed cheeky grin.

  “Nice line, does that work with all your dates?”

  His stomach did a flip. Did she think it was a date? “Usually.”

  Nat laughed. “Why did I think this was going to be a good idea?”

  “Because I’m charming, mildly entertaining, and honestly, you needed a break. This whole thing with the Kents was getting a little heavy. At least, I know it was for me.”

  “It was for me too. I guess for the first time I realized I could truly ruin a marriage. I’m starting to wish I’d never agreed to this. It’s too much pressure.”