He dropped the bag that he was holding, coffee grounds spilling out across the clean kitchen floor like marbles suddenly released from their bag, and heedlessly raced up the stairs.
As he rushed headlong up the steps, he tried to imagine what could have caused Amanda to scream like her life was about to end. Each footfall brought a new and horrific scenario into his mind. Axe murderers fought for mental real estate with chainsaw psychos and silenced-pistol wielding assassins.
When Justin reached the bathroom door, he frantically took hold of the handle, turned it, and pushed – but the door would not give.
“Amanda,” he called urgently, “Unlock the door.”
“I can't,” she whimpered from within the bathroom, increasing Justin's terror tenfold.
Not knowing where the key to the bathroom lock was kept, Justin had to take matters into his own hands. With all his considerable might, he shoved his shoulder hard against the bathroom door again and again until it gave way. He burst into the room, crouched and ready for a fight, scanning furiously to assess the danger. He was so worked up by this point that he half expected to see one of the specters of his fevered imagination standing casually over by the sink, but no axe murderers or chainsaw wielding psychopaths lurked in the small bathroom.
No, the sole occupant of the room was Amanda Jacobs, who stood pressed up as closely as she was able into the furthest corner of the shower. She was looking down, terrified, across the shower floor toward the drain, but that part was momentarily lost on Justin.
He was struck dumb and temporarily paralyzed by the site of Amanda naked. And she was naked. Very naked. Gloriously and unabashedly naked, her body pink from the steam of the shower, and her skin glistening wet from the water.
Even through the rivulets of water which made their way down the glass shower door which separated the two of them, and distorted the image of Amanda's body slightly, there was absolutely no denying that the sight of Amanda Jacobs in the buff was spectacular, truly a wonder to behold.
When Justin's senses returned to him, he realized that he could actually use this situation to his advantage. With a crooked grin, he began to unbutton his shirt.
“Need a little help in there, huh?” he asked teasingly as he started to walk forward.
Without so much as looking up and acknowledging his playful advance, Amanda pointed a terrified finger towards the drain and squeaked, “Spider!”
Justin started to laugh as he walked the rest of the way towards her. “Girl, you don't know what that scream had me picturing as I ran up those stairs! And all of that was for a little old spider? You grew up here all your life. You should be ashamed to call yourself a mountain girl if all it takes is a little spider to make you scream like you're in a horror...HOLY SHIT!”
This last expletive burst from Justin's lips as he pulled back the glass shower door, stuck his head into the stall, and laid eyes on the biggest, hairiest, gnarliest spider he had ever seen.
It was almost the size of a baseball all told, in mottled shades of brown and black. It's golf ball size body hung heavily at the hub of eight thick, tentacle-like legs, which were covered in hundreds of tiny hairs, so that it almost looked as if the spider were covered in a coat of fur.
At the moment, it was being kept at bay by the steady stream of hot water sliding toward it, which it seemed to want to escape. However, every time it sensed movement at the other end of the enclosure, it would try to brave the stream to go and investigate. This had kept Amanda trapped in her corner, still, trembling, and too frightened to make a break for it.
Justin was breathing heavily, and not just from his close proximity to the nasty beast of a spider. No, he was now within arm's reach of a creature that could prove to be just as dangerous to him – Amanda in the nude. He needed to get control of himself so that he could show her the version of him which he wanted her to see, and what he so desperately wanted to be for her, as well – dependable, reliable, a strong shoulder to lean on. Even when she was naked!
Justin reached past her to lean his hand against the wet wall of the shower and then stepped carefully into the stall, giving not a thought to the fact that he was fully clothed and was now being completely soaked. He positioned himself in front of her, effectively shielding her from the spider's range. To get to Amanda, the ugly arachnid would have to go through Justin first!
“OK, Amanda,” Justin said soothingly, with far more calm in his voice than he would have thought himself capable of mustering, “I need you to slowly step out of the shower stall, keeping yourself behind me the whole time. No sudden movements. I don't know if this guy is a jumper, and I don't want to find out. Can you do that?”
He felt her head nod against his back shoulder, and her warm wet body start to inch past him. He felt her feather fingers against the side of his neck as she held onto his shoulders for support. He felt her heavy breasts pressed against his back as she slid across him to safety, and he felt her belly through his jeans, the skin firm and taut as it moved inexorably across his ass.
The only thing that stopped him from sprouting a huge, embarrassing erection right there was the sight of the squirming spider, continuing to try to make its wriggling way toward them. The disgusting sight of hairy, wormy, groping arachnoid legs in constant searching motion will tend to kill a good arousal buzz, even when the source of it is as potent as the sight and feel of the soft and supple naked flesh of Amanda Jacobs.
After he heard Amanda's feet patter across the tile floor of that bathroom and he could tell she was on the other side of the small space, Justin slowly extricated himself from the shower stall, never taking his eyes from the gigantic beast of a spider. He then firmly slid the glass door closed, trapping the spider inside.
“Eventually, we'll need a more permanent solution than that, but it's a start,” he said, turning to face Amanda. To his enormous disappointment, he saw that she had wrapped a towel around herself. He tugged at the edges of it as he stepped closer to her and whispered, “Now, honey, this thing was entirely unnecessary...”
Amanda backed up decisively and pointed at the shower, “Kill the spider, Casanova, and then we'll talk.”
Justin took a step closer to the shower and studied the monster through the glass door. “I feel like it makes sense to turn the water off, but I'm kind of reluctant to,” he admitted.
“Really? And you don't feel ashamed to call yourself a mountain boy? Shocking,” Amanda teased, her tone playful.
He looked chagrined. “OK, I can see now how that little bit of commentary could be considered somewhat embarrassing, considering current circumstances,” he admitted sheepishly.
Amanda handed him a can of Raid, which she had pulled from the cabinet under the sink. “Try this,” she said.
Justin looked dubious. “I don't think this is going to do much. He's a helluva lot bigger than an ant or a roach.”
“Well, use a helluva lot more of it,” Amanda suggested pragmatically, “and besides, it should at least stun him, slow him down so you can turn off the water and stomp him.”
Justin nodded, approving of the plan. He cracked open the sliding glass stall door only enough to fit the nozzle through, took aim, and blasted the horrid creature, who began to writhe. With his other hand, he shut off the stream of hot water.
As the spider’s movements slowed and he seemed to be weakening, Justin opened the shower door and took aim with his foot.
“Yes! Get him! Get him with your boot!” Amanda cheered him on.
Justin brought the heel of his thick hiking boot down squarely on the spider's body with a satisfying thud. He then raised his foot about an inch off of the floor of the tub and brought it down again hard, three or four times for good measure.
He stepped out of the shower, flipped open the toilet lid, and laid his boot sideways on the seat so that he and Amanda could both assure themselves that the dreaded creature was really and truly dead. Justin unrolled several sheets of toilet paper and scraped what remained of it
into the toilet, which Amanda then flushed, and they watched the pieces of their nemesis swept away in a satisfying swirl.
Justin put his foot back down on the ground, and turned his body to face Amanda, who was still standing quite close to him. She started to back away, but he snaked his arm around behind her waist before she could move an inch.
“So,” he breathed huskily, but with a sexy and playful grin, “I believe we were going to revisit the necessity of this towel...”
Amanda smiled and opened her mouth to parry back, but nothing came out. Her face and neck were flushed, and Justin could see that he must be getting to her. That meant it was time, not to retreat, but to push forward. He leaned in face in close to hers, so that their lips were mere millimeters from touching.
“Don't you think an act of heroism like this deserves a kiss?” he breathed.
Unfortunately, he was never to know what her answer to that question would have been, because Sam, iPod earbuds firmly in place, came bouncing into the bathroom at that moment, unaware that Amanda and Justin were standing just inside the doorway. Her momentum as she bumped into them caused all three to topple over, Justin barely able to catch both girls and break their falls.
As they lay on the floor a mere instant after having tumbled there, Karina's head popped into the bathroom doorway, looking down on them with consternation. “Hey!” she protested, “You guys are throwing a threesome and nobody thought to invite me?”
Chapter 12
Amanda and Justin sat in the main administrative office of Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures later that morning, staring at each other over the desk uncomfortably. Neither one of them was sure whether they should speak first or wait for the other, and when it came to that, neither one of them was actually sure what they should say.
Eventually, Amanda broke the silence. “Thanks for coming down, Justin,” she began haltingly, “I think it's good for the staff to return to a sense of normality as soon as possible. I think it's really what we all need, and I appreciate you being on board with that.”
Justin nodded. He was certainly on board with establishing a sense of normality, although he was nowhere near as confident it could be accomplished by something as mundane as simply coming to back to work on the day after Parker's memorial service.
“Absolutely, Amanda,” Justin said soothingly, “Whatever you need, I'm here.” He intended this assurance to be comforting, but instead of seeming calmed, this statement in fact seemed to agitate Amanda.
“It's not about what I need,” Amanda said sharply, “It's about what's best for the business. You know? OUR business? The one that we both run? Together?”
“Right,” Justin said, flustered, trying to backtrack, “I realize that, and I'm on board with that, 100%. But I just want you to know right up front that I fully respect the fact that this place was your father's baby, it's his legacy, and you're the one that's been here all along. So, you're calling the shots. I'm completely prepared to follow your lead in every decision. That's all I meant by 'whatever you need from me' – honestly.”
Justin swallowed hard. His plan of winning Amanda over and convincing her that he could be trusted to stick around and weather the storms was off to a brilliant start, he thought ruefully.
Amanda took a deep breath and nodded, seeming slightly mollified. “OK,” she said, “You're right, sorry to snap. I must just still be a bit on edge from yesterday.”
Not to mention, she added silently to herself, from the strain of keeping myself from falling back in love with you again, since I know that you might disappear at a moment's notice – that's also been slightly stressful. But of course, she would never say anything like that directly to Justin.
Amanda opened her day planner and laid it in between the two of them so that they could each read it from their own angle.
“We've got less than six weeks until Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures is slated to open for the winter season,” she began, “It's crucial that we open on time to maintain our healthy bottom line. Every single day that we delay opening, a day that we should be taking in revenue but don't, it's not just a revenue neutral day – we are paying the staff. So, every late day not only costs us in lost revenue, but in actual outgo.”
“A double whammy,” Justin said grimly.
“Precisely,” Amanda agreed.
“Well, we'd better figure out how to open on time, then,” Justin stated confidently, hopeful that Amanda noticed and appreciated his strong use of the term 'we.'
“I know six weeks sounds like a long time, especially to someone who isn't used to staying in one place very long, but in truth, when you look at all that needs to be done – it's barely enough time.”
Justin nodded. He made a conscious decision to ignore the barb about not staying in one place very long, and to ignore all future barbs that he was sure would come in the future – and deservedly so. After all, he was on a mission to win Amanda back. You couldn't do that sort of thing by taking the bait when the other person tried to pick a fight.
“OK,” he said, “Why don't we start out by making a list of all the things that need to be done, and approximating how much time each task is going to take in terms of man hours. Then we can figure out how to allocate the staff's time most effectively. Once we have that information, we can also make a master schedule that lays everything out over the six week period, so we'll know every step of the way if we're hitting the target or not.”
Amanda nodded gratefully, happy at the prospect of becoming engrossed in a quantifiable task, something that she could wrap her mind around. Something that had a definitive beginning and end.
“That sounds like a great plan,” she said, and pulled out the winter brochure from the year before, so that they could go through all of the activities offered by the resort and brainstorm every task that would need to be completed to make each offering winter-ready. She also unfolded a map of the property so that they could look at the tasks from a geographic point of view, examining every inch of the resort's property and listing all of the maintenance and repairs which would need to be accomplished over the next month and a half. Later, they would go over all of the necessary administrative tasks and make sure that they were well in hand, but right now, the priority remained opening on time for winter season.
As Amanda and Justin plotted and planned, heads bent over documents, talking back and forth, adding to lists, making suggestions, discussing, sussing out, coming to conclusions, and developing an ever increasingly companionable rhythm and rapport – Amanda actually forgot herself for a moment and let down her walls.
She was so involved in the task and so focused on the planning that she lost her focus on maintaining the unbreakable iron will that it took to keep Justin at arm's length, emotionally.
After an hour of plotting and planning, listing and scheduling, they finally had what seemed like a workable solution for getting the park ready in plenty of time to open on schedule in winter.
Honestly, Amanda hadn't been entirely sure that the timing would work out, so to have it in front of her in black and white – a document which, if followed, would ensure the timely opening and therefore future profitability of her father's – now her – enterprise...it felt like a lifeline. It felt symbolic, as well – the first big hurdle that Amanda needed to clear as the owner, and she now had a well-laid out path to successfully clearing it. It was a great feeling.
She looked up at Justin, her cheeks flushed with the thrill of accomplishment. “I think we really did it,” she said, a touch disbelieving.
Justin smiled back equally happily, “I agree, I think it's a strong, workable plan.”
Amanda said more seriously, “There's just one small wrinkle that we're going to need to address.”
Justin looked at her questioningly and said, “What's that?”
“Well,” Amanda said, “There's certainly no way that we can do all of this on our own. We need the staff, at least a majority of them, to continue working. But they've
been completely freaked out since my father's accident.
“Not to mention,” she added, elbowing him in the ribs, “It remains to be seen how they're going to react to the new boss man.”
“Well,” Justin said in a matter of fact tone, “I think we can take care of both of those things right now. Let's call a meeting.”
--- ~ ---
Amanda and Justin stood in front of the small group of five employees that Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures currently had on staff. They were a rag tag bunch, Amanda reflected, but they were the Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures family, and she wouldn't trade them for the world.
There was Bertha Hodge, a plump woman in her mid-sixties who did all of the cooking and cleaning up at the main lodge. Then there was Jane Gonzales, who handled administrative work in the office, as well as scheduling all reservations. Next, Meredith Beene, the part-time bookkeeper. Lastly, the “Bartollo Boys,” Mikey and Jack, a pair of brothers who – in the curious way that small towns sometimes operate – were still widely referred to as “boys” although they were in their mid-fifties, and no one really seemed to think it was odd. The Bartollos handled miscellaneous maintenance around the property.
Of course, as each season got underway and guests arrived, there would be contract workers brought on – a housekeeping staff, and expert guides in the various activities offered at the resort. But these five were the core, the only year round salaried employees. In short...the family.
“Hi, everybody,” Amanda began with a slight tremor in her voice. The tremor was coming from nervousness at public speaking, not from a lack of conviction about what she was about to say, but her audience would have no way of knowing that. She cleared her throat.
“So, I just, you know...um...wanted to, um, take this opportunity to let everybody know that, you know, um, everything is going strong...it's really, well...” she stopped and cleared her throat again. This public speaking thing was really difficult.
Sweet Reunion Page 9
