His Winter Rose and Apple Blossom Bride

by Lois Richer

“The brothers want her rib recipe. Badly.” Jason grinned when Ida smacked him on the arm. “Don’t pretend it isn’t true, Ida. Put them on your list to call. I’m not getting chewed out again by Hank for not repaving the road to Wingate Manor. He refuses to understand that we haven’t got the funds right now.”

  “That’s a good idea. I certainly don’t think I should call, since I’ve never actually met them,” Piper added.

  “Don’t think I don’t know you two are in cahoots.” Ida glared at them both then turned on her heel. “Fine. I’ll call them. You two—start phoning,” she ordered before stomping from the room.

  Jason grinned. “You heard the woman,” he said. “Let’s get busy. Wouldn’t hurt to pray while you’re at it.”

  “I’ve been praying since you first mentioned snow,” she told him dryly. For all the good my prayers do. God isn’t talking to me. And she knew why. Forgive me. She saw him glance at her lists.

  “Keep me posted,” he added before leaving.

  There it was again. Keep me posted. Let me know. I’d like an update. That constant reminder that he was always watching, always monitoring her every move irritated her.

  It felt as if he didn’t trust her. And that always brought to mind her father. Maybe Jason was more like Baron than she’d realized.

  She was going to have to talk to him about that. Later.

  Piper picked up the list Ida had laid on her desk, recognizing none of the names. She’d work from the top down and hope everybody was home. But not yet.

  She set the list aside and pulled out the envelope she’d found by the deck on the far side of the hot tub the morning after the chlorine incident. So far she hadn’t told anyone about this.

  She pulled out the contents and unfolded them. The paper was legal size, a photocopy of detailed plans that were so small she’d needed a magnifying glass to identify the markings. What she saw made her catch her breath.

  The plans bore the company stamp of Wainwright Inc. and were drawings of a hotel situated on the banks of Serenity Bay. A big, imposing edifice that would utterly block the view of anything in the immediate area.

  Had her father taken a detour before going to London? Stopped by Cathcart House?

  But that didn’t make sense. Baron wouldn’t bother to add chlorine to her hot tub, would he? He’d simply issue an edict and expect her to obey. If he bothered to speak to her at all.

  Piper folded the paper, returned it to the envelope and tucked it under her organizer.

  She was going to figure out what he was up to. That meant calling Tina again. And then she’d figure out how to stop her father from taking over her project.

  No way was Baron going to horn in on Serenity Bay and spoil it like he had the other parts of her life.

  Jason trusted her to find the best hotel developer. That’s what she intended to do.

  Wainwright Inc. wasn’t even on the list.

  Chapter Six

  “Order. Let’s come to order, please.”

  Jason rapped his gavel on a table, waiting for the voices to die down.

  “So essentially what we’re telling you is that unless we can come up with some way to look after the folks who’ll show up here for our Spring Fling, we’ll have to cancel the whole works. Wally’s RV site just can’t handle it all.”

  A grumbling murmur filtered through the room.

  “Why didn’t you think this through before you ran all those expensive ads?” someone hollered. More negative comments followed.

  Jason needed to do something before this got out of hand. But he wasn’t sure what. In a way they were right. They hadn’t planned this out enough. But who could have expected such a huge response? Or snow?

  After a moment Ida stood up.

  “Order, please.” Jason tapped his gavel again. “Let’s be civilized about this. We have a question from the floor.”

  The furor died down once the group realized Ida was standing.

  “Just how many people are we talking about?” she asked.

  Jason could have kissed her. Ida knew the answer, of course. They’d strategized the logistics of this thing for an hour before the meeting. Obviously she hoped that getting the problem on the table would garner some fresh ideas.

  “Piper, can you give us the facts and figures?”

  She rose gracefully, checked the sheet in front of her then began to explain the categories of housing needed.

  “At the moment we have over a hundred invitations on hold. If we’re going to decline these people we need to let them know right away so they can make alternative plans.”

  “Don’t know why we have to send away anyone who wants to see what this place has to offer,” someone from the crowd said.

  “Can you stand, please?” Jason asked, stretching to see the owner of that soft-spoken voice. “Ah, Henry Wingate. What are your thoughts on this?”

  “My thoughts are that I’ve worked my fanny off for too many years trying to get folks to come to this town to see what we have to offer. Now they’re on their way and we’re talking about turning them away?” He shook his gray head. “How dumb is that?”

  “Do you have a suggestion?” Piper asked.

  “My suggestion is we welcome anyone who wants to come to Serenity Bay, just like we’d welcome our own family. Carter, you built that guesthouse of yours three years ago. Anybody ever use it?”

  “Yeah, me.”

  The entire room burst into guffaws. Carter’s proclivity for snoring, and his wife’s objections, were well known all over the Bay.

  “Okay, but for this weekend you rent it out. Boris, that RV of yours had been sitting in your driveway empty ever since you came back from California. It’d take care of a family for a few days. You could charge ’em if you wanted.”

  “Yeah, and what if they wreck it?” Boris objected.

  “They want a place to sleep at night, not a party room. Keep it parked in your own yard, plug it in to your own power. You can keep your eye on it that way.” Henry’s quick response surprised Jason. So did the rash of responses that followed.

  “I’ve got a couple of spare rooms at my place. I could put some of these people up. Be kind of nice to have the house full again.”

  “The Masons left me the key for their place. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind renting it for a few days.”

  “I can put up some people.”

  Jason watched Ida scribbling down names with numbers beside them, trying to make a list. More than once she leaned over to speak to Piper, who was making her own notes.

  “Okay, if that’s what you want to do, we’ll have Ida coordinate things. Each of you come up here after the meeting and tell her how many you can take and how much you want to charge.”

  “I don’t want anything,” Boris blustered. “This town needs a boost. If having somebody stay in my RV brings them here, I’ll be glad to do it.”

  “He’s right. This is our town. We’ve always pitched in to help each other out. Having all these folks show up is going to bring us business. Isn’t that what we all want?”

  “Long as we can make room, we won’t turn anyone away.” Boris grinned at Henry. “What’s Wingate Manor gonna do to pitch in?”

  Henry gulped, then looked at Jason. “Whatever we can,” he said clearly.

  Here was their opportunity. Jason glanced at Piper and caught her nod.

  “We need campsites, Henry. With washrooms.” He held the other man’s gaze. “I understand Wingate Manor could help us out with that.”

  “I…guess.” Fast-talking Henry wasn’t quite so quick now.

  “Talk to Ida about specifics.” Jason scanned the room. “Anyone else have something to say?”

  More people chimed in, suggesting even more ways of enhancing the town to receive their visitors with open arms.

  Half an hour later they were done.

  “People, you are awesome,” Jason told them, meaning every word. “I can’t thank you enough for pitching in this way. We appreciate all of your
ideas and we’ll promise to do our best to get them going. Maybe not this weekend but before the summer’s out. Now we’re going to need volunteers to assist Ida. If you can help, in any way at all, I want you to come up here and sign the sheets Ida’s got laid out on the table. Everybody’s going to have to pull together if we’re going to carry this off.”

  He offered a few reminders, then adjourned the meeting. Two hours later the last of the townspeople had left. Piper was smiling, but she still couldn’t believe what she’d just experienced.

  “That was fantastic,” she whispered.

  “It was,” he agreed with a grin. “Don’t look so surprised. You prayed, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Didn’t you expect God to answer?” He could see by her face that she hadn’t expected what they’d seen. “Sometimes He goes above and beyond what we expect.”

  “Way above.” She held up her folder. “I’ve only done a rough count, but so far it looks like we’ve got fifty spaces more than we need. That’s quite incredible considering our position this afternoon.”

  “That’s God for you. Never a problem too big.” He saw something dark flash in her eyes, and wondered at it. “Is something wrong?”

  “No, it’s just—” She paused, said goodnight to Ida and waited until they were alone. “Can I speak to you about something?”

  “Sure.” He hooked a chair with his foot, pulled it close enough then sat down. “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing.” She bit her lip, blinking at him as if she expected him to yell at her. “No, that isn’t true.” She drew in a breath, then let it out. “Tell me, have I done something wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Have you?” He knew immediately that his teasing was misplaced. Piper was very serious. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind?”

  She studied him, her brown eyes dark, unyielding. Finally she spoke.

  “I feel like you’re constantly looking over my shoulder, checking up on me,” she told him baldly. “Every time I pursue an idea or have a meeting you ask me to speak to you about it.”

  “What’s wrong with that?” He bristled.

  “I feel like I’m back in high school! You don’t have to keep telling me to consult you, Jason. I have no intention of excluding you from any part of this project. But I need some space to do the job you hired me for.” Her face paled slightly as her fingers clutched the black folder she held. “It’s unnecessary for me to come running to you every time I speak to someone or attend a meeting and I don’t think you should expect that.”

  “You’re mad because I asked Ida to include me in your next meeting with Peter,” he guessed.

  “No! I’m not mad,” she grated. “I just don’t see the reason for your constant hovering. It’s starting to feel like you expect me to cheat the town, to go behind your back or deliberately evade the truth. I thought that by now you’d know that isn’t how I work.”

  “You haven’t really talked much about your ideas beyond Spring Fling,” he reminded, watching her closely.

  “No, I haven’t.” She wasn’t backing down.

  “Why?”

  Piper glared at him and huffed out a sigh.

  “Because they’re not ready. That’s not how I work. I’ve told you this before. I have to mull things over, get a feel for how I want things to work, toss around ideas that will lead to the goal, sound out people to see if they think something is plausible.”

  “What people?” he asked quietly.

  “Friends, former coworkers, people who are in the same business or who understand the process.”

  “Why not sound them out with me?”

  He could see the anger build. She set both feet firmly on the ground.

  “No offense, but this isn’t your area of expertise, Jason. You haven’t done this before so you have no experience to draw on. The people I talk to have seen what’s been done. They’ve even had some flops themselves and can help me hone my ideas so I don’t make the same mistakes.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?”

  “Excuse me?” She stared at him, eyes wide in surprise. “Dangerous? What are you talking about?”

  “What if some of these colleagues, some of these friends—what if they take your ideas and run with them?” He felt a little funny, saying it out loud like that. But Jason was determined that Serenity Bay was going to be the model, not the copycat.

  “Are you serious?” she asked, then jerked her head in a nod. “Yes, I can see that you are.” She sank down on one of the hard plywood chairs, studying him, her whole body an expression of dismay.

  “It’s a possibility. One I don’t want to deal with after we’ve invested a lot of time, effort and especially money into a promotional campaign for the Bay. I don’t want someone to make us look like the stepchild of a bigger, brighter plan.”

  “If that wasn’t funny, I’d be really angry,” she told him softly.

  “Go ahead, laugh at me. But the point is valid.”

  “No, Jason, it isn’t.” Her back straightened, and she set the folder down on the table, folding her hands in her lap.

  He tilted his head, waiting for an explanation.

  “This is what you don’t understand. First of all, if I had gotten as far as a full-scale campaign, you can rest assured that nobody outside of a select few, you included, would know the particulars. But it’s a bit too early for that.”

  He glanced at the notes he’d scrawled on a yellow tablet in his hands. “I thought that’s what we’ve been doing for the past several weeks.”

  “No. At the moment we’re trying to put on a few events, get a feel for what the area can handle, what goes over well, what doesn’t. We’re figuring out our market. All of that is going to impact our later decisions.”

  “And if someone copies us?”

  She shrugged. “So what? By then we’ll be on to something else. I’ve never been short on ideas, but if I were, I’m sure time and some deep thinking could generate new thoughts. Look how the problem with the tent sites and campers got solved tonight.”

  He nodded. “Yes, but—”

  “No buts,” she interrupted, stemming his words with a shake of her head. “I have to know that you trust me, that we’re in this together, or I’m out of here. I will not work under a microscope, constantly being checked. You’re going to have to believe that I’m looking out for the best interests of Serenity Bay. If you have a question, fine. I’ll answer whatever you need. But I’m wasting time, your time and mine, by constantly reporting every time I take a baby step.”

  “I didn’t mean to make you feel as though I don’t trust you,” he apologized honestly, wishing he’d been more careful to stem his questions. “I’m very sorry that my concerns came across as suspicions. It wasn’t my intent.”

  “I know.” She smiled. “I understand that this project has been your baby for a while and you’re overprotective. I get that. But you have to back off now and let me do my job so that you can get on with yours.”

  “I do want to be kept abreast of what’s happening,” he said and then realized he’d just repeated the words that had irked her in the first place. “From time to time.”

  His word adjustment was not lost on Piper, who smiled again. But her eyes held no mirth as she assessed him.

  “Of course. When I have something new or something concrete, I’ll let you know. I promise. My reputation is riding on the success of Serenity Bay, too, Jason. I’m not about to jeopardize that by trying to pull some kind of a fast one.”

  “No. That would be foolish,” he agreed. He rose, motioning toward the door. “I guess we’d better get out of here. It’s getting late.”

  “Yes. By the way, I’ll be going out of town tomorrow. I’ve got a meeting.” She picked up her folder, walking with him to the door.

  Jason couldn’t help wondering where she was going. Nobody had said a word to him, including Ida, who was usually bursting to talk about Piper. Seemed curious that she’d
plan an out-of-town meeting just two days before their big Spring Fling.

  As he watched her car’s taillights disappear into the dusk, a prickle of foreboding nudged him. He shoved it away and walked home. She was right—he was getting paranoid. Not everybody was like Trevor Johnson, pretending to be his pal while he secretly wooed his girlfriend and stole his accounts. Certainly Piper wasn’t like that.

  *

  “Good to meet you, Mr. Gordon.”

  “Please, call me Ted.” Ted Gordon motioned Piper toward a white leather sofa, and waited until she was seated.

  “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this meeting.”

  “I owe your former boss a couple of favors so it’s no problem.” He sat down across from her and leaned forward. “Besides, I’m a little curious about this new job of yours. You’ve got a lot of people talking. Nothing like what you’ve done before, is it?”

  “Not at all,” she agreed with a laugh. “Which is probably why I’m enjoying it so much. We’re aiming for the best of the best in Serenity Bay. That’s why I wanted to offer Gordon Developments a chance to work with us.”

  “We usually develop our own sites,” he reminded her, scratching his chin. “And we always want them to be year-round.”

  “I’m aware of that. We anticipate year-round activities as part of our plan.”

  “Really? So what do you have in mind for us?”

  She’d rehearsed this carefully on the drive into Toronto. Now Piper laid out her pitch, emphasizing each detail that made the proposal worthwhile for his company.

  “A golf course, huh?” He grinned at her. “You’ve got your conference market researched. Meeting rooms?”

  “Of course. There are at least three conventions I’d like to approach. All of them would need meeting rooms. Once a hotel is in place, the possibilities for bringing in guests are endless.” She let that statement dangle for a moment.

  “I notice you’ve also included a spa in the workup. Are you sure that would be viable in a place like Serenity Bay?”

  “Do you play winter sports, Ted? Ever pulled a muscle skiing? Spent the day ice fishing? Or snowmobiling? Doesn’t a massage sound good?”