“It might be random,” her father insisted.
“Damn it, Bernard. I’m not going to play this game anymore. Your daughter was almost kidnapped!”
“What is going on?” Kendall demanded. She glanced back to see Decker still on the phone, looking focused and not paying any attention to what was happening in the living room.
“It might be someone out to get the Coltons,” Bernard said. “They have a lot of enemies in this town.”
“I don’t think anyone would target me to get at Decker.” She supposed it was possible but it felt more random.
“Hadley Forestry is in financial trouble, Kendall,” her mother said. “Your near abduction might be some kind of warning.”
“It’s temporary trouble. Nothing you need to worry about,” her father interjected.
“What kind of financial trouble?” Kendall asked.
Is that why her father had pushed so hard for her to marry Decker? She began to get angry as she awaited an explanation.
“We’re nearly bankrupt,” Marion said.
Bernard let out a heavy breath and rubbed his eyes. “Marion, you worry too much.”
“Your father and I have refinanced the house and borrowed more than we can pay back right now. It won’t be long before we’re forcibly removed from the property and our business doors shut for good.” Her eyes moistened with the near onslaught of tears.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kendall asked, looking at her father.
He reluctantly met her eyes.
“Go on,” Marion said, sounding disgusted with him. “Tell her.”
“I thought I could find a way out,” he said.
“By getting me to marry Decker?” She glanced back at Decker and saw him still talking into this phone. What would he think of all this?
“It wasn’t my idea. Russ approached me about it.”
“And it never crossed your mind that my marrying Decker would solve your financial troubles?” Kendall asked.
“I can’t say it never crossed my mind,” he admitted. “I would have never asked you to do that to save our company, Kendall.”
She believed him, which softened the sting a little. “Is that why you asked me to come to work for you?” she asked.
“Yes. And you have helped some. It’s just not enough soon enough to make a difference,” her father said wearily. “I’m talking to some investors and planning on a reorganization that will include some layoffs, but I’m not sure if it will work out.”
“It won’t,” Marion said. “We’re going to lose everything.”
Her mother could be a bit of a drama queen at times. Kendall would help her father figure out a way to resolve the financial issues.
“What about my trust?” she asked.
“No. You are not giving us your trust money,” Marion retorted.
“It wouldn’t be enough anyway,” Bernard said.
That meant the company was tens of millions in the red, probably in the upper tens of millions.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” Kendall cried. “You should have told me as soon as Russ came to you with the idea of me and Decker marrying.”
“I feel terrible about that, Kendall. But I can’t lie. Your marriage to Decker will save us.”
He assumed she’d bail him out as soon as she did marry him. As Kendall thought that over, she realized she would. She could not stand back and watch her parents lose everything. But neither could she marry in deception like that.
Looking at Decker again, she saw he’d finished his call. Should she tell him?
“Don’t say anything yet, Kendall,” her father pleaded. “Please.”
He was worried that Decker wouldn’t want to marry her if he learned her family didn’t have the money he thought they did.
That riled her but she also wasn’t sure herself. Would Decker think less of her knowing she wasn’t worth what he and his father assumed?
“Everything all right?” Decker asked, looking at her and then her parents.
“They’re just worried about me,” Kendall said.
Decker nodded as Kendall saw the relief in her father’s eyes. She wasn’t going to tell anyone. Not yet.
“You don’t have to worry.” Decker put his arm around her. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“He did chase off my attacker,” Kendall said.
“Then you’ll be safer with him,” Marion murmured. “I don’t want you by yourself in your house.”
Kendall didn’t say the reason why her mother didn’t want her to be alone. Someone Hadley Forestry owed money to might be attempting to kidnap her for ransom.
“I’ve got to stop by The Lodge. Something’s come up I need to take care of,” Decker said. “Can you come with me?”
It was after five and she was getting hungry, having skipped lunch to pack.
“Yes, she can,” Bernard said.
Kendall sent him a warning look. Was he still pushing her to marry Decker?
“She can take as much time off as she needs. In fact, don’t plan on coming back to work until after the wedding.”
* * *
Kendall saw that Decker noticed her distraction. She was quiet and kept staring out the passenger window.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She turned to him with a small smile. “Yes. Just thinking about my parents. They’re so worried.”
“You’ll be fine. And so will they. Just call them every day.”
He seemed so certain. He also didn’t know someone might be after her to force her father to pay money owed? Money he didn’t have.
The snow had gotten heavier, the kind of storm with giant flakes. While beautiful, the roads were turning slick and visibility had decreased dramatically in just the last five minutes.
Decker turned onto the road leading to The Lodge. “We might have a tough time getting back to my house later,” he said.
“Oh, darn, then we’d have to stay in one of those nice rooms.” It felt good to lighten the mood—and get her mind off her parents’ deception.
“I have a suite at The Lodge. I stay there a lot,” he said.
They entered the posh lodge. This was the first Kendall had seen of the interior and it was far richer than she imagined. White marble floors and glittering chandeliers offset the touch of rugged with exposed wood beams and a giant rock fireplace. Two clerks stood behind the lighted golden front of the reception desk.
A man waited at the end, watching their approach. In a snug gray suit with a white shirt and a banded black-and-gray tie, he definitely liked fashion. His ankles were visible beneath the hem of the slacks and his short sandy-blond hair was neatly styled.
“Mr. Colton,” he said as they reached the desk.
“This is Seth Harris, my front desk manager,” Decker said to Kendall.
“Kendall Hadley.” She shook his hand.
“Kendall is going to be staying with me so you’ll likely see her around The Lodge on occasion.”
“Yes, I know who you are,” Seth said to her. “And congratulations.”
He referred to the wedding, of course. Fleetingly she wondered what he thought about that, whether he believed rumors.
Seth turned to Decker. “Molly Gilford should be here any moment.”
Just as he said that a woman of average height with a blond bob and a black business skirt and jacket appeared.
Decker must have spoken with Molly on the phone earlier and he’d come here to deal with some sort of issue.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Molly said. “The guest is insisting on talking with you.”
“No problem. What room is he in?”
“The Primrose Penthouse.”
“I’ve spoken with him as well,” Seth said. “I think he’s much calmer now.”
“What happened?”
“A famous news anchor frequently stays here and is always hard to please. Apparently his eggs were cooked too well and he isn’t happy with the slow response.”
“Oh, boo hoo.”
He grinned as they entered the elevator. “Seth is a smooth talker with the guests. He’s good at his job.”
“Handy.”
At the top floor they exited and walked to the door with Primrose printed on a gold plaque.
Decker knocked and a few seconds later a clean-cut fiftyish man with short gray hair and deceptively mild brown eyes answered.
“Decker Colton,” he said in way of introduction. “I’m sorry to hear your breakfast wasn’t what you ordered?”
“It took them an hour to bring me up the right order,” he said, annoyed.
“Tomorrow’s breakfast will be on us to make up for that.”
“It’s a little late for that. Today’s breakfast was ruined because of your staff’s incompetence.”
“I’ll speak to them immediately. It won’t happen again.”
“You should hire the right people. People who take pride in their jobs and who don’t make mistakes. I expect nothing less from a five-star resort like this.”
“I expect nothing less than that as well, sir. I can assure you I won’t let it go lightly.”
The man seemed to soften. He glanced at Kendall. “Is she the one who made the eggs?”
“No, this is my fiancée, Kendall Hadley.”
“Oh.” The man appeared to check himself. “My apologies, ma’am. I meant no disrespect.”
“None taken,” she replied, thinking this man could look on the brighter side of things much more often then he likely did. She recognized him from the morning news program she sometimes watched. Now that she knew his true nature, she wouldn’t ever watch it again.
Decker jotted down his cell number and handed it to the man. “Call me in the morning with your breakfast order and I’ll see to it personally that it’s done exactly right.”
The man nodded, clearly pacified that he’d gotten his way and forced everyone to kiss up. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Good day.” With that Decker walked with Kendall down the hall.
“How often do you have to do that?” she asked.
“Not often. Most people who come here are happy and enjoy the many amenities.”
“I would hate dealing with the sourpusses,” she said.
“I humor them. I know what kind of people they are. It doesn’t bother me.” He stopped her from going into the elevator. “Let’s go down here.”
She walked with him to a double door at the end of the hall. Using a card key, he unlocked the door and held it for her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, entering the room.
“This is my suite.”
He flipped on a light to reveal an elegant room. A lamp was on a console behind one couch, another couch on the other side of a coffee table. Beyond that floor-to-ceiling windows took up the entire opposite wall with a balcony on the other side, two doors on each end providing access. There was a table with four leather chairs before the windows, a nice place to gather for cocktails.
snow fall. Decker came to stand beside her.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” he asked huskily.
Was he referring to this spectacular room or the snow?
“Yes, everything.”
He wrapped his arms around her from behind, putting his head beside hers as they watched it snow.
Flutters of warmth tickled her abdomen.
“When we remodeled I hired a really good interior decorator,” he said.
Kendall heard the pride in his tone and eased away from him so she could face him. She knew he had humility but something about wealth and material things pleased him.
“What draws you to this?” She raised her palms to the interior of this splendid suite and then stretched a hand to the massive windows.
Need she say more?
At first he just looked at her with an impassive gaze she had begun to recognize. He was a cool cookie most of the time, but when business opportunities presented themselves, he was aggressive.
Several seconds passed. He took his time, looking through the windows at the snow and more.
At last he turned from the window. The light in his eyes changed, more revealing now, more emotional. She couldn’t tell what he felt, though.
“It’s not what you think,” he finally said.
What did he mean by that? “I don’t understand.”
He turned to the window, to the thick and windless fall of snow.
“The mountains,” he said. “The geology. When I was a kid, growing up, that’s what fascinated me.”
He spoke from the heart—again. Kendall struggled with falling further in love with him. No—further infatuated with him. She would not call it love. Her high school crush could not have that much of an impact on how she felt, could it?
“Before my father expanded, the lodge was natural. Historical.”
He sparked more curiosity. “You would have preferred it that way? Untouched?”
“No.” He faced her directly, with the slight shake of his head. “It was me who turned this resort into what it is today. My father had a vision. I made it a reality.”
What she’d say next would probably hurt him. “But it was his vision.”
As she anticipated, Decker turned away.
“Don’t you think I know that?” he shot back.
“Yes, of course, but you live his vision, not your own.” How did he feel about that?
“This resort is as much mine as his.” He glanced at her, clearly not happy with what she insinuated, that he followed in his father’s shadow.
He did have his own input into making The Lodge into a grand palace, but he had followed his father and was still following. Deep down she suspected he knew that all too well and likely wrestled with it often.
“I feel that way about my father,” she admitted. “Not exactly the same, but I came back here because he asked me to.”
She averted her head because now she knew why he had asked her to come back. He needed help saving his company.
Chapter 8
The snowstorm had picked up, now blowing and drifting. Decker had gotten two calls from his staff saying guests couldn’t make the drive to the lodge. He’d sent someone to go pick them up. Now she sat with him on the chairs around the cocktail table, finishing up a conversation about when they were kids. The only light came from the gas fireplace and the balcony lights that illuminated the heavily falling snow.
She told him about the time her parents had taken her to the annual Mountain Fair, held at the end of each summer. Local artists had booths and vendors offered food of all kinds. There was always live entertainment, as well. She remembered seeing him there with his family. In the eleventh grade, he’d had a girl with him, of course.
He felt a pang of regret because he didn’t remember seeing her there. He did remember the girl, though. She’d been the one he had broken up with after high school.
“I had such a crush on you back then,” Kendall confessed, still reminiscing. “All through my senior year.”
“Not anymore?” he teased.
She smiled and said nothing, just sipped some wine and put the glass on the table.
On impulse, Decker stood and held out his hand. He had some light jazz playing.
She gave him her hand and stood. He led her to the open space between the cocktail table and the seating area and drew her closer.
She put her hand on his shoulder, leaving her other in his hand as he moved her into a slow rhythm.
“Is that why y
ou’re going to marry me?” he asked. “Do you still have a crush on me?”
“Like I’ve told you before, I was curious.”
“Well, has the crush returned?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know.” The light in her smiling eyes arrested him for a few seconds.
“You might as well tell me. We’re going to be married in a little more than two weeks.”
“I could back out before then.”
Hearing her mischievous tone, he took heart that she intended to go through with this.
“Once word gets around you’re on board with the wedding, my dad will be happy.”
“Good, then maybe our parents will leave us alone,” she said, sliding her arms up to enfold his neck.
The action sent fire coiling inside him. She fit him so well. A tall woman, her head came to just below his, tipped up now with a dreamy look.
He didn’t attempt to stop his reaction. He just kissed her, soft at first, as their bodies continued to sway together in a slow dance.
She touched the side of his face, then gradually angled her head and urged him for more.
Already embracing her, he indulged the instinct to cup her rear with both hands and then feel her curves from her waist to her breasts. She moved her hand to his shoulder and drew back from the long, heated kiss.
He saw her eyes looking up at him, glazed over with passion. He felt the same. This thing between them had sprung from seemingly nothing, a spark that had no explanation except that perhaps it had lain dormant ever since high school. He had always thought she was pretty. He just had never had the chance to get to know her. Funny, how one dinner had changed all that.
Taking her hand, he led her to the bedroom, a spacious room with a king bed and more floor-to-ceiling windows. It also had access to the deck.
She began to undress so he took her lead and did the same, enjoying her fluid movements as she neatly draped her clothes on the chair beside the bed. She crawled under the covers and he joined her.
Not wanting to rush, he drew her into his arms and she snuggled up against him. He rested his head against hers and watched it snow with her for a while, the warmth of their attraction simmering, waiting to ignite into more. Snow pattered against the glass and blew in thick bands in the exterior light, but they were cozy in here.
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