One More Taste

by Melissa Cutler

  Healy strummed his hand over his copy of the report. “I think I speak for all of us when I say that this is a headache we’re not interested in. I say we shut it down, sell the land, and recoup our investment, profits be damned. We’ve done that before when deals went sour.”

  The grumbling around the room affirmed Healy’s opinion.

  Knox kept his cool, outwardly, but his pulse was beating out of control. In his zeal to stick it to Ty, he hadn’t seen this possibility coming. But if he couldn’t convince them to wait out the problems with the resort instead of writing it off as a loss, there wouldn’t be any restaurant in need of a brilliant, passionate head chef. There would be nowhere for Granny June and the Briscoe family to live. Sure, eventually, Knox still planned to sell the resort off, but not until it was a success. Not until he’d had time to ease the Briscoe family into the idea.

  But if the investors sided against Knox, then they’d all be out on the streets before Christmas.

  “I see your point, but I’d like you to consider mine. I’ve given this a lot of thought.” More than any of you will ever know. “Here’s my plan. Vote me in as the new CEO. Ty will retire quietly, immediately. After we have the value of the business reassessed to reflect these new hydrological and geological issues, Ty will sell me his shares at that new, lower price. He’ll walk away a rich enough man, with his reputation intact, and I’ll be the majority stakeholder in Briscoe Ranch. I’ll shoulder the costs of repairing the damage, and then our plan to expand the resort will be back on track.

  “I’ll take care of everything. All the risk will be on me. All you have to do is hang tight. We’ve done that before, too, when deals went sour. In this case, your headache goes away, and the original plan, with the original profit projections, still stands. May I remind you that we have potential buyers already lined up, but they’re no more ready to buy today than we are to sell at a loss. We’ve done this before, gentlemen. We know how to turn a sinking business into profit. The only difference now is that this business is quite literally sinking.”

  The joke earned him a few halfhearted chuckles around the room. Other than Healy and Yamaguchi, most of the investors and lawyers seemed to warm to Knox’s plan.

  Ty braced his hands on the table and made a show of standing, his speech face in full force. “This business has been in my family for generations. There is so much more at stake than a bunch of millionaires adding to their bank accounts. This is my family’s ancestral home. My grandparents and my father are buried on the property. My wife and I, my daughters, and my mother all live there. Our blood has been soaked into the very ground on which the resort stands. Don’t do this.”

  It was unbearable, hearing this once great man, the ruler of a kingdom, beg for mercy. Knox hoped his dad really was watching on High, because this was it. Justice achieved. Knox couldn’t stomach any more. The thirst for revenge had completely left him.

  He stood in a show of solidarity with Ty. “If the investors will give me a chance, then the property will stay in the family, at least for a few more years until I can make it even greater than it ever was in its prime. As for the chapel and the family burial plot, I’ll bequeath that land to you and your daughters as a gift. That’s always been my plan, so you don’t have to worry about the graves of your—our—family being desecrated.”

  Ty was composed.

  Healy frowned, but Sandomir nodded. “I’m going to trust you on this, Knox. Like I’ve done so many times in the past, and you’ve always come through. Besides, our investment in Briscoe Ranch is already a sunk cost, so what’s the harm in a few more years? Especially if you’ll take the burden of the extra expenses on yourself.”

  “Thank you, Boris,” Knox said.

  “I’m with Sandomir,” Richard Gorman said. To Ty, he added, “Retire. Enjoy your family. The business will be in good hands with Knox.”

  The skin of Ty’s face tightened like he was holding back a grimace. “And if I decline your offer to retire?”

  Knox clapped him on the back. “Then you can still be a part of this company in some capacity. I’m sure we’ll find a suitable role for you.” As long as it didn’t involve any decision making or managing. Maybe he could be chaplain. HR was just telling Knox that they were in the market for a new one.

  Ty shifted to square a look directly at Knox. “You can’t do this to me.”

  You did this to yourself, Knox considered saying. But he was over the urge to turn the screws any harder. “It won’t be so bad.”

  Ty huffed at that. “Then I guess you leave me with no choice. I accept. I’ll sell you my shares. And I’ll retire. On one condition.” He swallowed hard. From his pocket, he pulled a handkerchief that he used to wipe his brow. “Nothing we discussed here today leaves this room. And I’ll be the one to break the news to my family.”

  “Of course,” Knox said. Disquiet tugged at his conscience. Not guilt or regret. Just … this didn’t feel as satisfying as he’d thought it would. Especially given the euphoria he’d initially felt at pulling the rug out from under Ty with that structural engineering report. Healy took control of the meeting again. “We’ve got to take an official vote about making Knox CEO and staying the course, and the lawyers have to draw some contracts up. For the record, I don’t like this, but I’ll cede to the wishes of the room.”

  “Excellent. Make me CEO and you won’t regret it. I promise you that. In the meantime, I hope you received my email this morning about coming to the resort for a dinner party next weekend to celebrate.”

  “There’s not much to celebrate,” Healy grumbled.

  “A show of force, then. Once you see the resort firsthand, you’ll see what I mean about it being a special place, worth all the effort we’re putting into it. I’ll have more details for you on my plans, so you can rest assured that I’ve got everything under control.”

  Ty gave a huff of protest that Knox ignored. He thrust out his hand for Ty to shake. “Uncle Ty, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

  Ty glared at Knox’s outstretched hand. “What happened with Clint and Linda and me, it was the darkest time in our family. I have regrets. A lot of them. But bringing you to Briscoe Ranch wasn’t one of them until now.”

  And Linda? “What did my mom have to do with the rift?”

  Ty sniffed, then side-eyed the rest of the conference attendees. “Doesn’t matter anymore. Any of it. You’re the keeper of the Briscoe legacy now and that’s what counts. You do right by our family name and I won’t have to kill you.” Hard to tell how serious that threat was. Knox certainly wouldn’t put it past him.

  Ty turned away from the table, thumping Knox hard on the shoulder as he walked toward the door. “Don’t hold the plane for me. I’ll find my own way back to Dulcet.”

  * * *

  If Haylie minded that Knox was more quiet than usual on the flight home, she didn’t mention it. She prattled on about all the things she and Shayla had in common and what they’d talked about. Certainly, Knox had noticed after the meeting ended how cozy Haylie and Shayla had looked sitting side by side at Shayla’s desk, discussing some reality TV show called Celebrity Matchmaker. Two peas in a pod.

  He’d even gotten a text from Shayla after he and Haylie had departed for the airport.

  OMG, how could you have kept H from me all this time? She and I were separated at birth.

  Now that he thought about it, they really did have a lot in common. They were both into fashion and celebrity gossip, they both talked a mile a minute and had a generally cheery outlook—and they looked strikingly similar with those strong Briscoe genes in their blood.

  It was amazing, all this family that Knox and Shayla—and Wade, if he ever deigned to visit—never really knew about all these years, but that lived only a couple of hours away. Knox was eternally grateful that the board had voted to give Knox a chance to turn the resort around. He didn’t want to contemplate how devastating it would have been had Knox had to tell the family to pack their bags bec
ause they were losing everything.

  It was after dark when the Cab’d driver dropped him off in front of his home. Emily’s car in his driveway caught his eye. The sight brought a smile to his lips, despite the draining day he’d had. He hadn’t told her the purpose of the day’s meeting, wanting to wait until he had concrete news to share with her, but he loved the idea of coming home to her, of holding her and kissing her and letting the rest of the world fall away.

  When he didn’t find her in the house, he started his usual search around the property and found her in the first place he looked. Sitting cross-legged on the dock of the lake, under the floodlights mounted to the roof of the boathouse.

  “Picnic for one?”

  She smiled up at him as he kissed the crown of her head. “No. This is my version of fishing.”

  Knox took another look inside the bowl, then at the bag of chips on the dock next to her, and laughed out loud. “You’re actually chumming with Frito pie, like you said you would.”

  “You bet I am. And check this out.”

  She lobbed a spoonful of chili into the water, then tossed a handful of Fritos in after it.

  Knox snagged a chip from the bag and popped it into his mouth. “Nice touch. I suppose if you’re going to entice fish with Frito Pie, you’ve got to give them the whole experience.”

  “Just wait. You’ll see.”

  Knox lowered to the deck next to her.

  The water rippled, and then out of the dark depths, a huge gray carp appeared, swirling just beneath the surface.

  Knox looked into its ancient eyes as it opened its mouth and gobbled up a chip. And there it was, the scar on its dorsal fin. “Hello, Phantom.”

  “It’s him, isn’t it? Hey, buddy,” Emily said. “You like Fritos?”

  As if in response, Phantom sucked another chip into its mouth.

  “If you could find a gaffe in the boat house, we could be eating him for dinner,” Emily said. “But I don’t know. That kind of makes me sad. He looks like a survivor.”

  So much had changed for Knox since his first day at Briscoe Ranch when Phantom had become his cold-blooded nemesis. Ty had been his nemesis, too. No longer. Knox had purged himself of the need for competition. He no longer had anything to prove, except to himself. And to Emily, if she’d have him.

  He reached into the chip bag and pulled out a handful, then sprinkled them into the water. “I agree. He does seem like a survivor. Plus, this guy and I have history. I’m officially taking him off the menu.”

  He felt Emily’s eyes on him, searching. Then her fingers stroked his temple and his hair. “Something’s different with you. Something’s wrong. Is it us? Is it because of what happened at my apartment?”

  He tore his attention from Phantom to regard her. Her hand still stroked his hair, so he turned his head and kissed her wrist. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s great, actually. Including what happened in your apartment. That was a very good thing.”

  “You flew to Dallas today for a meeting. You and Ty.”

  “And Haylie. She came, too. She and my sister hit it off.”

  “It’s not hard to hit it off with your sister,” Emily said.

  “That’s a good point. So, about the meeting today. Don’t share this with anyone yet, including Carina, but you’re looking at the new CEO of Briscoe Ranch.”

  Emily’s hand fell. “What?”

  For a breathless, wild moment, Knox was seized with fear that Emily wouldn’t support his move because of her loyalty to Ty. But whether she did or not, the act was done, and all he could do now was be honest with her. “The equity firm voted me in today because Ty has decided to retire. And he’ll do so in style, I might add. With a pension that will ensure that he and his wife will never want for anything, especially given the extra revenue he’s going to get by selling me his shares.”

  Emily blinked fast, processing. “I don’t understand. I mean, I’m happy for you. That’s … wow. But I had no idea Ty was thinking of retiring. I guess that makes sense. I knew there was a good reason he brought you in that didn’t have anything to do with the resort’s debt.”

  He nodded to the bench that sat against the wall of the boathouse. “Come sit with me and I’ll start at the beginning.”

  They bid goodnight to Phantom, then grabbed the bag of Fritos and walked to the bench. Once they were settled, Knox did what he’d been waiting to do all day. He gathered her in his arms and kissed her slow and deep, until she softened into him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “I could see you and me necking on this bench all the time,” he said in a gruff voice once the kiss ended.

  A shadow passed over her features and was gone before he had a chance to study it. Maybe she was just concerned about Ty. “I like that idea,” she said. “I never expected this, with you. I never saw it coming.”

  “Ditto. But I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  There was that shadow again. Could there be a chance she wasn’t feeling their connection as deeply as he was? Maybe she needed time to catch her breath. Then again, maybe after she heard the story of how he came to be CEO and controlling shareholder of Briscoe Ranch within a month of signing on as part-owner, she might not want anything to do with him. It wasn’t a matter of testing her loyalty to either Ty or him, but whether she could accept Knox, warts and all, including the thirst for justice that had plagued him for so long.

  He sat back, took her hand, and then told her everything—about his father’s predictions that Ty would run the family business into the ground and his dying wish that Knox would seek justice against Ty, about how hard Knox had worked to position himself as the person Ty would turn to when he ran out of revenue, as his father had predicted. He told her about the structural and land problems plaguing the resort and about Ty’s lies and the overvaluation of the business. And then he told her about the meeting today, sparing no details.

  It felt foreign, laying it all out for her like that, but he needed Emily to know. What good would it be to try to win her over if there were secrets between them?

  For the most part, she listened quietly and attentively, asking clarifying questions every so often and expressing bewilderment that the resort was sliding toward the lake.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the moonlight-kissed water ripple in the breeze.

  “You still plan to sell.”

  “Eventually. At this point, anyway. It was the best deal I could strike for now, given that my investors were ready to shut the resort down and take the loss. At least this way, we have a few years to figure out what to do next. That’s enough time for your restaurant to establish itself. You’ve worked too hard for this. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and make Briscoe Ranch thrive, including your restaurant. We can set it up so that you’re leasing the space as a separate company, that way, if the next resort owners decide to go in a different direction, you’ll still own your brand. You can relocate or expand as you want.”

  “Hmm,” she said, her eyes still on the lake.

  “What does that mean?”

  She shrugged. “Or maybe you won’t sell the resort at all. Maybe you’ll make it so wildly profitable that you’ll buy out the investors’ shares, too.”

  His heart squeezed. She wanted him to stay. “Let’s celebrate my new job title. Unless you already made dinner. I wouldn’t want to stomp on your plans for the night.”

  She clapped her hands on her knees. “I had no plans. I wasn’t sure when you’d get home tonight. What did you have in mind?”

  “It’s the last Wednesday of the month.”

  Emily groaned. “You want to go to Movie Night at the resort? That’s how you want to celebrate all this? I don’t even like Miracle on 34th Street. That girl is too precocious. It gets on my nerves.”

  He grinned; she seemed so nettled at the idea. Just as he had been when Granny June had announced that they’d be attending. It was tempting to give in to Emily’s protests so he could spend the night alone with he
r, but he was trying not to rush things with her, to show her through his actions how committed he was to her and to Briscoe Ranch. He leapt to his feet and brought Emily up with him. “We can’t let Granny June or her Facebook friends down. And I want the employees to know I’m committed to them and to the resort, quell any buyout or layoff rumors that might be floating around.”

  She melted into his side with a groan. “Ugh, you have too many good points. You’re going to make me go to Movie Night.”

  By the time they arrived via Emily’s car to Movie Night at the resort’s open-air amphitheater, the movie had already begun, and the place was packed. Families and couples lounged on blankets and in lawn chairs amid the scents of fried chicken and chips and colas. Children ran around with friends, laughing and playing, and only about half the people there seemed to notice a movie was playing at all. Knox squeezed Emily’s hand. “See? Not so bad.”

  Emily sighed through a smile. “You’re right. And I see Carina and Decker about halfway up on the left, sitting next to Granny June and Haylie.”

  Looking over the faces in the crowd, Knox saw other faces he recognized. The hairdresser whom he’d seen styling Eloise Briscoe’s hair chatting with a group of women, several of the employees from human resources, and even the maintenance worker who’d once helped him push his dad’s truck to the shoulder of the road just outside the resort’s property line. The air crackled with happiness and togetherness. Love. He looked at the woman by his side as Haylie’s words the day of his first tour of the resort came back to him. This place really was magic when it came to finding love. Thank goodness Knox had convinced the investors not to sell. It would have broken his heart.

  Briscoe Ranch really was one big family—a family Knox was now an inextricable part of. The keeper of the family legacy, Ty had called him.

  But until tonight, he hadn’t realized what an honor that was. It was a job he wouldn’t take lightly. He was going to take all that private, hidden rot under the building’s foundation—all the rot from the past and the wounds of the generation that had come before his—and he was going to restore the integrity of its foundation. He was going to make Briscoe Ranch thrive again. He’d never been so proud to be a part of something.