by Liz Isaacson
“Yes,” Patsy said. “He’s pretty great too. Smart, articulate, strong.” She smiled and picked up a piece of paper. “He did great this morning with check-out, and I think he earned fifty bucks in tips.”
Bree’s eyebrows went up. On top of the seventy-five-thousand-dollar salary, the guy probably didn’t need the fifty bucks in cash. Or maybe he did. Bree had learned a long time ago that she didn’t know the intimate details of anyone’s life. Not really. She could never know what really went on behind closed doors, and she’d learned that at a very early age.
Patsy handed her the paper. “It’s Colton’s brother.”
Bree’s heart positively stopped, and her eyes dropped to the paper while her mind raced. Colton had four brothers; it could be any of them.
But Wesley Hammond sat at the top of the paper, and Bree’s fingers lost their capability to hold a single sheet of paper. It fluttered to the ground.
Then Patsy said, “Ah, here he is. Wes, come in. I have some VIP clients this afternoon, so Bree is going to be your trainer for check-in.” Patsy was smiling for all she was worth, and Bree knew why.
She knew a little bit about Wes Hammond, and he could charm the socks off of anyone. Patsy touched Bree’s arm, and that thawed her enough to turn around.
She came face-to-face with the man she’d given the job card to last week. The devilishly handsome cowboy sitting on the tailgate.
He still wore that delicious hat, his in a shade of charcoal instead of the white one Colton wore all the time. Those dark eyes drank her right up, and Bree could scarcely breathe. He wore a T-shirt with an outline of Wyoming on it, with a pair of jeans and cowboy boots. He was tall and tan and lean and luscious in every way.
“Bree,” he said, and oh, how wonderful it was to hear her name in that deep, rich-as-gold voice. “I’m Wes. Nice to meet you.” He put out his hand, and Bree simply stared at him, her heartbeat crashing like cymbals in her ears.
Chapter Three
Foolishness ran through Wes, as he continued to look at Bree, his hand stuck out in front of him. She simply gaped back at him, unmoving.
He cleared his throat and threw a look at Patsy. Pulling his hand back, he looked back at Bree. “Okay.” He didn’t know what else to say or do. “I’ll just see you at the desk.” He turned to go back to the check-in desk, wondering what in the world he was doing here.
He should just go home. Or better yet, continue with his plan to visit every state in the Union. He could do that; the weather was beautiful today. He wasn’t stuck in Coral Canyon the way Colton had been.
He could leave.
He should leave.
In fact, he should’ve left last week, before the Fourth of July. Before this insane job interview. Before he’d come face-to-face with the beautiful Bree Richards and been rejected—again.
“So stupid,” he muttered to himself. He was used to having a lot of eyes on him, but the ones boring into his back weren’t from people admiring the way his suit coat pulled across his shoulders or marveling at how he’d managed to secure a lucrative deal.
He turned to go out into the living room, as the check-in desk was really just a podium in the circle drive in front of the lodge.
“Oh,” someone said, and Wes balked as a warm body collided with his. The scent of chocolate rose into the air, and warmth seeped through Wes’s brand new T-shirt. “I’m so sorry.”
A woman stood there, an upturned plate of cookies in her hand. One still clung to his shirt, and it fell to the ground as the sticky chocolate released. “It’s my fault,” he said, bending at the same time as the woman.
He bumped into her again, this time knocking her a bit backward. Heat flared in his face, because he knew Bree could still see him. The woman laughed, but Wes really wanted to sink into the floor and disappear.
“Sorry,” he said, picking up the errant cookies. He didn’t know what to do with them, though, and their warmth and gooeyness told him they’d recently come out of the oven.
“It’s fine,” the woman said. “Who are you? I’m not sure we’ve met.”
“Wes,” he said.
“The butler,” someone behind him said, and Wes jerked his attention to Bree. “And apparently, he’s still learning to buttle.” She grinned at him and then the woman. “Hand me the cookies, Laney.”
Laney did as Bree said, and Wes pressed into the wall behind him, trying to get out of the way. He should’ve helped Laney to her feet, but Bree did it. He should’ve apologized again, but Laney just took the paper plate and continued down the hall to the office where Wes had “met” Bree. He should’ve ducked his head and used that ridiculous cowboy hat he’d had Colton help him buy to hide his face as he got the heck out of this lodge.
Instead, he stared at Bree, desperate for her to say something.
“Hey,” she said, her smile made of nerves.
“Hey.”
“You’re here.”
“Yes.” Wes’s brain seriously couldn’t come up with more than one word at a time, and he wondered where all his confidence had gone. Where the easiness that had always been between him and Bree had decided to hide.
“Why are you here?” she asked, gesturing to the expansive living room in front of him. “Doing this?”
His heart beat too fast, and his defenses went straight to the ceiling. “You may or may not remember that I don’t have a job anymore,” he said coolly. “This sounded like a decent gig, and Colton’s been trying to get me to Coral Canyon for months.” None of that was a lie, though Colton had stopped suggesting Wes move to Coral Canyon permanently about March.
Bree glanced over her shoulder, and Wes followed her gaze. No one stood in the hall watching them. She put her hand on his elbow and urged him to move into the living room. “You were the CEO, Wes. This is a butler position.”
“So what?” he asked.
“You lived in a high-rise penthouse.”
“And now I live out of my truck.” He narrowed his eyes at her. What was she trying to say? That he didn’t belong here? He already knew that. Maybe his heart had been hoping for something different. In his fantasies, Bree shrieked when she saw him, ran toward him, and he got to scoop her up into a big hug as they both laughed.
Then he’d set her on her feet and envelop her in his arms, lean down and….
He cleared his throat, wishing the insane and ridiculous imaginations would disappear too. Because the woman currently looking back at him didn’t have a shriek or a smile anywhere in sight.
She removed her hand from his elbow, and Wes kept walking toward the door. He didn’t have to explain anything to her. He really didn’t.
“Wes,” she said as his long legs put distance between them.
“What?” he barked over his shoulder. “It’s almost time for check-in.” He dang near ripped the front door off the hinges as he opened it and stepped outside. He loved how the sun heated the air in the summer, but the mountains helped it keep a cool note in the atmosphere. He loved the scent of pine trees, and the sweeping hillsides full of greenery. At night, he loved listening to the crickets sing songs to each other, and he hadn’t heard that in a while—until he’d arrived in Wyoming.
“Do you know how to do check-in?” she asked.
“No.” He arrived at the podium and looked down at the tablet there. “You’re supposed to show me.”
“It’s super easy,” she said, and she began detailing where he should tap and what he should do. She talked the way she always had, and her voice did the same thing to Wes now that it had six months ago. He could barely grasp what she was saying, because her voice mesmerized him.
“Did you get that?” she asked, and Wes blinked. No, he had not gotten that. But checking in seemed easy enough. Tap on the name. Give them the right key. Welcome them with a smile. Take their bags to the right room. Done. Easy.
“Yes,” he said.
With the explanations done, the two of them stood at the podium with nothing to do. The storm in Wes’
s soul urged him to simply quit and walk away. He didn’t need this job, and he couldn’t stand the idea of working here at the lodge with Bree so close and also so astronomically far away.
“Listen,” she finally said. “I need to apologize.”
Wes turned his attention toward her, the empty parking lot not all that interesting. “For what?”
Bree shifted her feet, an expression crossing her gorgeous features that Wes could only identify as regret. “For last winter. For breaking up with you—I mean, I’m not sure breaking up is the right term. For ending our conversations.” She drew in a long breath, looked out over the parking lot, and sighed out all the air. “I miss talking to you.”
“You do?”
Their eyes met again, and Wes couldn’t help the way his hopes lifted. He tried to tether them to the ground, but they kept rising and rising.
“Yeah,” she said, a small smile touching those lips. “I just….”
“You met someone else,” he said, his throat raw. The words he shouldn’t say surged against the back of his throat. But no way was he going to tell her he’d thought about her every day for the past six months. No way he could vocalize that he’d dreamed about seeing her here, or that he’d imagined kissing her.
No way, he told himself even as his eyes dropped to her mouth. His gaze rebounded quickly, because they weren’t anywhere near the kissing stage of their relationship, despite his imagination.
“Yeah.” Bree folded her arms. “And he was a real…loser, and I already know you’re not a loser.”
“How do you know that?” he asked. “A butler is a real step down from CEO, wouldn’t you say?”
Her smile fully formed on her face, and she shook her head, her dark locks swishing around her shoulders. “I know what you get paid, Mister. And it’s a step up from me.”
“How do you know what I get paid?”
“I put the listing on the job board.” She leaned closer to him, her eyes searching his. “I’m assuming you looked at the job board? I mean, I gave you that card.”
“Yes, well.” Wes looked away. “I was going to tell you who I was last week. I was.”
“Is that right?” She leaned one hip into the podium, giving her a great curvy shape that made Wes’s throat a little too dry. “Why didn’t you then?”
“Oh, you know,” he said, trying to find something in the landscape besides the lovely Bree to focus on. “I was struck dumb by your beauty.”
She burst out laughing, and Wes sure did like the sound of that. He hadn’t heard it for far too long, and he ducked his head as he smiled.
“You’re good,” she said. “I’ll give you that.” A car pulled into the parking lot and right up to the podium in the circle drive. “Let’s see how good you are with check-in. I mean, you already knocked the owner’s wife to the ground and left a mess of chocolate in the hallway.”
Horror moved through Wes, and he stared at Bree for a few seconds. Long enough that a man had to say, “Hey, so we’re here….” before Wes could pull his attention from her face. She was teasing him, if the smile lodged on those lips was any indication.
“Yes,” he said. “Welcome to Whiskey Mountain Lodge. Name please.” He spoke a little too loud. A little too animated. Beside him, Bree giggled under her breath as the man gave his name.
Wes tapped and checked them in, handed over their key, and started to get their bags out of the back of the rental car while the man, his wife, and his three kids entered the lodge. Buttling wasn’t all that hard, and when all thirteen rooms had their guests, Wes still felt like he had the energy to do more.
He’d never felt like that at HMC. That place had sucked him dry, demanding long hours and then isolation in a huge office. Wes didn’t mind the time alone so much as he did the feeling of not being able to stand long enough to make it home. And the thought of having to get up the next morning and do it all over again.
He hadn’t realized how exhausted and overwhelmed he’d been as the company’s CEO until he wasn’t in charge anymore.
“All right,” Bree said, picking up the tablet. “That podium goes up against the lodge, and I’ll let you use those pretty muscles to get it there.” She grinned at him. “And then, what do you think about telling me about all the places you’ve been while we eat dinner?”
Surprise darted through Wes. “Dinner?” he asked, easily picking up the podium and putting it where she’d said. “Us? Together?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t eat dinner,” she teased. “I already know you don’t eat breakfast. Or rather, that you only sip coffee for breakfast.”
So she honestly hadn’t forgotten their conversations. Wes found himself smiling too. “I eat dinner.”
“Great,” she said. “So we’ll go see what Sophia made, and we’ll sit with the guests.”
“Are we allowed to do that?”
“Sure,” Bree said as if she truly had the authority for him to eat at the lodge. Patsy hadn’t mentioned that, but he went inside with Bree anyway. This place had the feel of pure luxury, and Wes had liked it immediately upon stepping inside. The furniture was tastefully done, clean, and comfortable.
He bypassed the huge staircase that went up to the majority of the rooms here at the lodge, and followed Bree through the living room to the kitchen and dining room at the back of the house.
He’d have knocked down the walls separating the two spaces a long time ago, but he could admit the lodge had charm in both areas. Both were huge, easily accommodating two dozen people, so the extra walls certainly didn’t make the space appear smaller.
“Oh, this is bad,” Bree said, stalling in the entrance to the dining room.
“What?” Wes peered over her head, trying to find the source of badness.
“Sophia made meatloaf.” She turned her head toward Wes and lowered her voice. “It’s not super great. Abort. Abort.”
Wes chuckled and backed into the hallway. Bree followed him, took his hand, and said, “Hurry, before she sees us.” She darted down the hallway, stopping just before another doorway. She peered around the corner, her hand in his so magical.
His skin tingled, and a shot of sparks moved up his arm and into his shoulder. “Let’s go,” she hissed, and she ran past the doorway and turned right down another hallway. Wes followed, and he had the very real feeling that he’d follow this woman anywhere. He wasn’t sure how he’d fallen for her from just the sound of her voice, over the course of a couple of weeks of conversations.
But he had.
You started falling for her, he told himself. He hadn’t gone all the way. Yet.
She burst out the back door, the sunlight and cool air such welcome friends. Bree laughed as she released his hand, and Wes pushed down his cowboy hat and grinned too.
“That was close,” she said. “I need to make sure I check the menu before committing to entering the kitchen.” She threw him a flirty look as she started down the sidewalk, walking backward for a few steps. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” he asked, already hurrying to catch up to her. He told himself not to be so obvious, but he was sure he’d already shown her all of his cards. Following her to the employment office. Stalking the sidewalk outside until she left for the day. Sitting on the tailgate and talking to her. Taking this job at the very lodge where he knew she worked.
Yep, it all added up to desperate. He probably could’ve written his feelings for her in the sky and been less obvious. He reminded himself that he was forty-seven-years-old, not fourteen. Not even seventeen. He didn’t have to let his hormones rule his world.
“My place,” she said. “I make some great ham and egg sliders, and they’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”
Her place.
Wes’s night suddenly got a whole lot more interesting, but he managed to tame his voice into mild interest when he said, “All right, but my standards for sliders are pretty high, just to let you know.”
Chapter Four
Bree mixed together the
butter, mustard, and brown sugar, ready to be done cooking, though she’d only been in the kitchen for fifteen minutes. To be honest, she normally threw something in the slow cooker before she left for work and then opened a bag of rolls. Or she slid a frozen pizza into the oven and collapsed on the couch while it heated.
She slathered the melted mixture over the top of the sliders while Wes watched, seemingly intrigued. “Fifteen minutes,” she said, sliding the pan into the oven. She turned and met Wes’s eye, the man’s good looks sending adrenaline straight through her. “Tell me about your adventures around the US.”
He cocked his head slightly. “How did you know I was having an adventure around the US?”
“Colton,” she said.
Wes rolled his eyes, and Bree grinned at him. “So?” she asked, “Favorite state you’ve been to?”
“Oh, I can’t answer that,” he said seriously.
“Why not?” Bree sure did like the vibe between them. It was fun and flirty, just like their phone conversations had been.
“I haven’t been to all of them yet,” he said.
“Seriously?”
“How can I have a favorite if I haven’t experienced them all?”
“So you’re telling me that you can’t pick a favorite of anything unless you’ve experienced all of them previously.” She folded her arms. “So you have no favorite ice cream. Or no favorite color. Or no favorite hike.”
She knew he had a favorite hike, as he’d told her about the trail up into the mountains above Ivory Peaks, probably a couple of times.
The smile Wes put on his face made Bree’s muscles start to melt. She leaned into the counter behind her for extra support, reminding herself that this man was dangerous to her health. She might like talking to him, but they came from two different universes.
He was rich and refined, and she hadn’t finished college. Heck, she hadn’t even started college. Did a few vocational classes in floral arrangement count as college? No, no they did not.
