After the Storm

by Amy Knupp

  “Are you sure you don’t want to have her to yourself?”

  “She likes you better than she likes me. Why don’t you come over around six-thirty. If I haven’t burned the condo down, we can plan to eat around seven.”

  “I’ll bring dessert.”

  For a second, the way he looked at her, she imagined an unspoken comment about another kind of dessert, just hanging there between them. Inwardly shaking herself from the idea, she smiled and walked away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  NADIA’S SHIRT—BLOUSE, T-shirt, whatever you wanted to call it—was going to be the death of Penn.

  From the front, it looked classy and modest, a light blue, short-sleeved, loose-fitting shirt that matched her eyes. No low-cut neckline, no cropped waistline. The back, though… It showed a lot of skin. Smooth, soft-looking skin. With just a strap of fabric at the top, the cutout swooped almost down to her waist and, most intriguing, made it obvious there was no way to wear a bra with it.

  He’d been fine during dinner because her back had been out of his sight. He could pretend it was just a T-shirt. Nadia and his mom occupied stools at the bar and Penn had been more comfortable standing at the end. Now, though, the women had insisted on doing the cleanup and forced him to get out of the way. Though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he was glad to sit. He was starting to get into this cooking thing, but all that standing was tough on his back.

  He’d argued halfheartedly for a couple of minutes, then parked his straight-back chair near the wall where he could still talk to them—and watch. He pulled one of the stools closer so he could prop his feet on the foot supports. The pose he struck—arms crossed, legs extended, posture not as straight as it should be—made him look cool and collected, he hoped.

  Inside, he was anything but.

  His fingers tingled with the urge to wrap his hands around Nadia’s tiny middle and feel the soft warmth of her flesh. And then he wanted to inch his hands upward and palm her bare breasts.

  “Are you sure you’ve never cooked Thai food before?” his mom asked as she rinsed the plates. “Your red curry with beef ranks right up there with my favorite Thai restaurant in Boulder.”

  “I’ve never cooked much of anything before the past month or so. Unless you count grilling.”

  “Grilling doesn’t count,” Nadia said. “Guys are born with the grill gene.”

  “That’s so true, isn’t it?” Nell handed the plates to Nadia to load in the dishwasher. “Men and fire.”

  “Some men more than others.” Nadia spun around to smile at him and caught him staring at her.

  “I have to tell you, Penn, I’ve had a fabulous trip but probably the best part of it was going to that fire with you. Hearing you talk about it, the ins and outs of how the firefighters were attacking it, what they were watching for, how they knew when to change tactics…” Nell stopped and looked at him. Shook her head slowly. “My mind is blown. As ridiculous as it sounds, I had no idea how much science was involved in putting out a fire.”

  “I took classes for two years before I could even get hired,” Penn said, thinking back to the days when he’d done construction work by day and studied at night. “And that was just the beginning.”

  “I can see that now.” His mom dried her hands on a towel as she came over to the other stool and sat on it. “I said I wanted to get to know you better while I was here. I didn’t know how I was going to do that when I said it, and it turns out that with all the sightseeing we did and all the talking… Watching and listening to you at that fire taught me so much more about you than anything else did.”

  Her frankness made him uneasy, especially with Nadia on the other side of the bar, her sexy back to them as she continued to clean up but her ears perfectly capable of hearing everything. “Glad you enjoyed it,” he said simply.

  His mom nodded and looked to the side, as if deep in thought. “I…” She cleared her throat. “Forgive me for getting into some family stuff here, Nadia.”

  Nadia turned around. “If you want privacy, I can go in the other room.”

  “No, not at all.” Nell smiled. “I’m not going to say anything bad except maybe about myself. Penn…”

  He lowered his feet and sat up a little straighter, curious.

  “It’s such a long time ago, but I think I owe you an apology.”

  “For?” He’d never seen this side of Nell Griffin before.

  “When you dropped out of college—”

  “Flunked,” he corrected. If they were going to be honest with each other, he could own that.

  “Whichever. I was so upset I wanted to strangle you. You were such a smart kid and to me it seemed like you’d thrown every opportunity I’d ever worked to give you right out the window.”

  In a sense, that had been his intention, though he might not have fully realized it at the time.

  “I knew you were smarter than that and I couldn’t fathom how you could ever make something of your life if you didn’t get a four-year degree. I see now how wrong I was.”

  Penn’s eyes widened at her admission.

  “Don’t give me that look.” She snapped the towel lightly at his legs. “I’ll admit I was being exactly what you accused me of back then—an intellectual snob.”

  He couldn’t help grinning a little, but as he looked at her, it was with a new appreciation. Eating crow didn’t come easy for anybody, but his mom was a harder case than most.

  “Some of the things you taught me the other night make my head spin, they’re so technical,” she continued. “And that doesn’t even begin to take into consideration the sheer bravery…” She broke off, emotion flooding onto her face and into her voice.

  “Okay, stop it, Mom,” he said, laughing. “No more mushy stuff when I have a girl over.”

  “Don’t mind me,” Nadia said with an amused look. “It’s fun to watch a firefighter-type squirm.”

  Penn studied his hands, ready to get this uncomfortable moment over with but needing to say one thing. “If we’re doing true confessions, I’m sorry I wasted your money at CU.”

  His mom shooed that off. “It wasn’t the money. You never did like school, did you?”

  “Wasn’t my favorite thing.”

  “And yet you worked your tail off to get good grades throughout high school.”

  Penn grinned again. “You didn’t give me much choice.”

  “I don’t regret pushing you, but we should have had a serious conversation before you went off to college.”

  It was his turn to shrug. “It is what it is. That’s all long over.”

  Nadia finished wiping the counter and placed the sponge near the faucet, then turned around to face Penn and his mom again.

  “I should really get going,” she said. “Dinner was amazing, Penn. Thank you.”

  “Don’t let Ms. Serious here scare you off,” he said, making a joke of it when he didn’t want her to leave. Though he really didn’t want to want her to stay.

  His mom raised her hands in surrender. “I’m done, I’m done. Please, don’t go because of me.”

  Nadia located her purse on the counter. “It’s your last night together. Now that you have all the serious stuff out of the way, you two need to enjoy it.”

  She came around the bar. “It was so good to get to know you this week, Nell. Have a safe trip home.”

  Nell stood and pulled Nadia into a hug. “I’ll do that. Thank you for your fantabulous hotel. It’s been perfect.” She drew back to look Nadia in the face as Penn sat there feeling like the odd man out. “Keep an eye on this guy, will you?”

  “I intend to.”

  The women shared a wily female grin and then Nadia threw a quick glance his way.

  “Thanks again, Penn. I have to admit you surprised me with your mad cooking skills.”

  He stood and followed her to the front door. With a perfect view of her back.

  “Thanks for coming over. Sorry you had to sit through that uncomfortable bit.”

 
; She turned to him and lowered her voice. “It was good for you two to talk about that. With or without me here.” Rising on her toes, she kissed him full on the mouth, teasing him with her taste, ending the contact almost before it’d started. “Now go have fun with her.”

  Mom fun wasn’t what he wanted right now, but he didn’t have much choice.

  When Nadia was inches from him, it was easy to bury his doubts. He made a promise to himself: soon.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  THOUGH SHE WAS DREADING it, Nadia closed the file on her computer at 4:55 p.m. the next day and headed to her mom’s office.

  They always met on Wednesdays at five o’clock to indulge in Chinese food while they discussed hotel business. Sometimes it was Nadia’s events and marketing stuff, sometimes her mom talked through general hotel issues, but it was always a set-in-stone date. Canceling would send the message that she was ticked—and she wasn’t. Not really. Mildly annoyed, maybe.

  “There you are,” her mom said as Nadia entered her spacious, gulf-view office. “I wondered if you’d show up.”

  So they were going to act as if nothing was stilted or tense, then. Okay.

  “And miss out on cashew chicken and pepper beef?” Nadia said, forcing nonchalance into her voice. “Don’t count on it.”

  The food was already on her mom’s desk, along with their usual soft drinks. Nadia took her seat across the desk from her mom, setting her notebook aside. Since these were informal meetings, she rarely took notes, but she came prepared, anyway.

  Joyce handed her a paper plate and they served up their food family-style, as usual. Nadia checked the delivery bag and reached in for the chopsticks. She unwrapped one set and dug into the chicken.

  “Starving,” she said, which was true, but stuffing food in her mouth also conveniently filled the unusual silence between them.

  “How are things?” Her mom’s question wouldn’t sound all that unusual to an outsider, but the fact was, they were normally in contact so often that they didn’t have to ask. They knew.

  “Good. Jamie Castigliego is my new hero.” She launched into a praise fest of her new events manager between bites.

  Next, she updated her mom on the impending conferences and the newest prospects for events and conferences.

  “I’m so glad you found Jamie,” Joyce said. “You’ve been doing too much for too long.”

  “He’s going to be worth every penny.” Nadia washed down her food with a long drink of soda. “So what’s new with you?”

  Her mom ran through the laundry list of issues she had to deal with on a regular basis. It’d always been their family’s way to discuss business at dinner, even when Nadia was a kid. Her mom and dad had made a point of the three of them sitting down to eat together as often as possible, and the hotel inevitably came up. They’d never tried to hide concerns or problems from Nadia, believing that one day she would have to face the same things if she took over.

  As they finished the last of the food, her mom leaned back in her chair and became strangely quiet. Disconcertingly so. Nadia frowned and asked, “What’s going on, Mom?”

  Joyce exhaled and tapped her fingernails on her desk. “I met with Ross Hennington this week. Of Hennington Lodges.”

  “Why?” Nadia sat up straight, concern taking hold in her gut.

  That her mother didn’t meet her gaze was telling. “It was just a discussion,” she said. “We talked about some possibilities if Hennington purchased Silver Sands.”

  “You what?” Nadia wished she hadn’t just wolfed down so much food. It was threatening to resurface.

  Her mom crossed her arms and looked to the side. “We’re barely keeping our heads above water, no matter how hard we work. It’s a different world than when your father and I got into the business and…I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if it’s time to take a step back. I was just exploring options. Options are good.”

  “Not if they include selling this!” Nadia spread her arms. “This is our lifeblood. Our family’s past and its future. Yeah, it’s hard, but really? You want to give up?”

  “I didn’t say that, Nadia—”

  “It sure as hell sounded like it to me.” She was on her feet now, her chair shoved backward. “What are you thinking, Mom?”

  Her mother finally looked her in the eye and Nadia saw doubt there. Fatigue.

  Yes, it was tiring to fight through this recession, the downturn in travel, the upswing in competition. But that was what they did. That’s what they lived to do.

  “Is this because of Dr. Morris?” Nadia asked.

  She expected her mom to deny it, regardless of whether it was true or not, but Joyce hesitated.

  “In part,” she said noncommittally. “You and I both seem to have other things on our minds lately. I care a lot about Gene. Sometimes I just want to be with him without feeling guilty about working a measly twelve-hour day.”

  Still stunned, Nadia fell back into her chair and stared at her mom.

  Who was this woman? What had happened to the heart and soul behind the hotel?

  “Think about it, Nadia. All the things we miss out on because we’re buried in here working our butts off and getting virtually nowhere. You’re young. You’re supposed to be thinking about starting a family.”

  “I’m twenty-seven, Mom. I have time.”

  “What about whomever you’ve been spending time with lately?”

  Nadia clamped her mouth closed, taken aback that her mom had even noticed. It wasn’t as if Nadia had been home enough that her mother could monitor her comings and goings. And she wasn’t spending a lot of time with Penn. She had nothing on Joyce and Gene.

  “Is that why you’re doing this?” Nadia asked. “Because I’ve taken a few hours off here and there?”

  “I’m not ‘doing this.’ I’m merely thinking about it. But yes, you’re part of the equation. I worry about you. Maybe it’s time we both learned to live more.”

  “I am living more. And I can still handle the job. Is my performance lacking? Have I dropped any balls?”

  “There was the executive meeting…”

  “That was because I’d been up all night. And it’s the only meeting I’ve missed. If you want to punish me for it, dock my pay or something.”

  “You’re being ridiculous.”

  “You’re being ridiculous.” Nadia stood again, rage boiling inside of her. “Does my opinion not matter in any of this? I was always under the impression it was a family business. I would have thought getting rid of it would be more of a democratic process.”

  “Nadia.” Her mom used her stern voice—Nadia hadn’t heard that tone for years. “I haven’t signed any agreements yet. Hennington knows I’m exploring options, plural. You need to think about this rationally. You need to calm down, honey.” She’d transitioned to her lecturing-a-child voice.

  Nadia was shaking, inside and out. She stared at her mother, confused. Astounded. In a matter of weeks, Joyce Hamlin had become someone Nadia didn’t even recognize.

  “I need to go.” Nadia didn’t bother to grab the blank pad of paper she’d brought in with her. She marched out of her mom’s office and straight to the nearest restroom, barely making it into a stall before her dinner came up.

  * * *

  FINANCIALLY SPEAKING, a vacant presidential suite was bad news for the hotel. For Nadia personally, though, it was relief.

  Ever since she was about twelve, the presidential suite had been her haven. Back then, she’d had help on the inside in the form of Lucas at the front desk. If the suite was unbooked when she asked, he’d slip her a key card and turn his back. The agreement was that she had to stay back from the edge of the balcony—the only way someone could have seen her—and return the suite to its original state. As she’d gone through the hotel’s housekeeping training and was careful not to mess the suite up, it was a small price to pay. Though her parents had never mentioned it to her, she suspected they’d known her secret.

  As a member of the exe
cutive team and the general manager’s daughter, she didn’t need to explain herself to use it. She could check its vacancy and let herself in without anyone knowing.

  That’s exactly what she’d done this evening after the bomb her mom had dropped.

  The gulf-facing side of the suite had floor-to-ceiling windows from one end to the other. The first thing Nadia did after letting herself in was to push the sheer curtains all the way to one end and open the sliding doors. The fresh sea air filtered in, and Nadia inhaled deeply, letting the salty, humid aroma fill her lungs and begin to calm her.

  Without turning on the lights, she sank into one of the lush white sofas, letting the darkness, the air and the sounds envelop her. She tried to blank her mind. The idea of selling the hotel to, well, anyone… It didn’t bear thinking about. Her mother insisted it was only a possibility, and Nadia was nowhere near done trying to talk sense into her if she continued to pursue it.

  So much was storming through her she couldn’t begin to sort it out. Nor did she have the energy to try. She just wanted to disappear for a while, to ignore reality. She kicked off her shoes and stretched out on her back, relishing the peace. Her eyes drifted shut and she didn’t fight it.

  She’d been blissfully floating on the edge of sleep for several minutes when her phone buzzed, rousing her. She attempted to ignore it but the thought struck her that it could be her mom. If it was, she swore she’d turn her phone off completely.

  Growling in frustration, she removed her phone from her pocket to find a text message from Penn.

  Are you working?

  The discord from the past hour slid away with those three words and she smiled as she typed her reply.

  Not. Even. Close. Where are you?

  Out walking. Call me Forrest Gump.

  Didn’t he run? she typed.

  Call me FG Wannabe.

  Are you close to hotel, FGWB?

  Might be. Who wants to know?

  Was he flirting with her?

  Her heart picked up as she responded. Just making conversation. ;)

  Happen to be walking on beach outside SS now.