Chapter Four
Maddox
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”Natalie, can I have a word with you before I leave?” I asked her on Friday morning.
She nodded. ”Sure. Want us to go to your office?”
”Yes. Give me an update on the next events.”
Natalie immediately started rattling everything off before we”d even entered the office. She was very good at her job. I was lucky that she needed one way back when she met Jake. She”d been trying to get her event planning business off the ground, and Gran was her first client. Natalie organized her ninetieth birthday party. I offered her a job because she couldn”t get clients fast enough, and we”d been a team ever since. She was practically my right hand, and I was going to promote her, considering the hotel would eventually demand more of my time, leaving her to take care of the office here.
”Okay,” I said as we both sat down. ”Do you need me at any of these events?”
Since we focused on creating office spaces, we routinely held all sort of events—it was part of our marketing campaign. We always handed out invitations to existing customers, and they were welcome to bring over other business partners.
”It would be helpful. You know, most people attend these things because they can”t resist your charm and want to check you out.”
I knew she was only half joking, and I smirked. ”I”ll do my best to attend. I think I”ll be able to make it tonight too.”
”I saw on your calendar that you”ve got a meeting out of the office today.”
”I”m meeting Samuel in Essex. And I’m taking Gran too.” Natalie pressed her lips together, and I narrowed my eyes. ”What”s that? You look like you want to tell me something.”
”Yes. I feel like it”s my moral duty. Not just because you’re my boss and brother-in-law but because I like you. I have to give you some tips about Jeannie.”
”Tips? She”s my grandmother.”
”Ah, yes. But you see, you”ve never been on the receiving end of her matchmaking efforts.”
I jerked my head back. ”That is not what”s happening here. Gran”s coming because she wants to see the property and meet Cami and... Fuck,” I groaned. ”That’s exactly what”s happening, isn’t it?”
Natalie laughed. ”It”s good that you caught on. Now that we”re on the same page, you”re going to be more open to my tips.”
”How did you know she was trying to matchmake you and Jake?” I asked.
”She wasn”t at all subtle about it. She kept finding excuses for us to spend time together and kind of sang his praises to me. Honestly, he needed it, because I wasn”t sold on him when I first met him.”
”I wouldn”t mind if she sang my praises to Cami. That might certainly butter her up for the sale.”
Natalie winced. ”Listen, Maddox. Unless you want Jeannie to actually go forward with her matchmaking efforts, do not encourage that. She”ll take it as a sign that she”s on the right path.” She looked me in the eye. ”Is she?”
”What do you mean?” I asked.
”I don”t know. Why did you flirt with Cami in the first place? You never mix your personal and professional lives.”
I cleared my throat. ”No, I don’t.” I couldn’t deny that Cami was an extremely attractive woman, and she was tough too. I wouldn’t have minded hooking up with her. My priorities were all screwed up. ”I fucked it all up, damn it!”
Natalie sighed. ”Yes. I’m just surprised that you tried to negotiate that way.”
”That’s not why I did it.”
”So you were attracted to Cami, and that’s why you flirted? Not to get the deal?”
My nostrils flared. I wasn”t a liar.
She put a hand over her mouth. ”Um, well, just so you know, Jeannie will pick up on it. No matter what you do or try, she will.”
”Natalie, I appreciate what you”re trying to do. But I know my grandmother.”
She shook her head vehemently. ”Every single one of your brothers thought they had everything under control... until they didn”t. I mean, it worked out well for them. But if you remember anything, remember this: don”t let Jeannie be alone with Cami.”
“Of course I won’t.”
”Second, don”t let her ”accidentally” set up another meeting with Cami for you.”
I was a grown-ass man. Of course that wasn”t going to happen. ”And third?”
”Let me think.”
”You don”t have a third one?”
”Oh no, I have about fifteen, but I”m thinking about which to pick so you actually remember it. If I just list all of them, you”ll be overwhelmed.” Her eyebrows rose. ”Oh yeah, I know. Look, she”s got two strategies. One, she does everything without telling you her intention, like she did with me and Jake.”
”You said before that she wasn”t subtle.”
”No, she wasn”t. But she also didn”t try to tell me what she was planning.”
”Right,” I said, not really following.
”But then with Cade and even with Colton, she was very in-your-face. She actually told them she was playing matchmaker.”
”All right.”
”Also, don”t let her say that out loud. If she does, things might get awkward between you and Cami.”
I burst out laughing. ”Natalie, they cannot get more awkward than they already are.”
”Believe me, things can always get more awkward.”
I looked at her intently. ”You want to add a fourth point, huh?”
”How can you tell?” she asked, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
”You”re fidgeting. And you”re never nervous.”
”Well, it”s not exactly a warning. Just... follow your instincts.”
”I always follow my instincts.”
”I mean, if there was a spark between you and Cami, don”t ignore it.” She grimaced. ”Sorry. Forget I said that.”
Except I couldn”t.
I cleared my throat. ”Listen, I know you’re employed here, but you”re family. You can always say whatever goes through your mind. I”ve never had a sister, and I think it”s refreshing to have a woman”s perspective. An honest one.”
”You can always count on me to be honest.” She got up. ”Anyway, I”ve got to hurry because I do have to put a few fires out before tonight. Um, good luck, then. I”m giving you both thumbs up. I can”t wait to hear how it goes.”
”Natalie, really. Don”t worry about me. I have a lot of experience with Gran. I can absolutely handle her.”
”Ah,” she said on a sigh. ”Famous last words, Maddox, I”m telling you.”
***
I was picking up Gran from home, and she was already waiting for me in front of the house. I immediately jumped out of the car, opening the door for her. My SUV was a high step up, so she needed some assistance getting in.
”How long have you been out here?” I asked.
”Oh, not that long. Your granddad had some friends over, and I didn”t want to be in their way.”
I laughed. ”You”ve got a million rooms. You weren”t in his way, for sure.”
She smiled devilishly as I closed the door and then got in the car.
Once I started the engine, she said, ”Well, whenever he has friends over, he likes to pretend he doesn”t have any food or alcohol restrictions. And I can”t help but nag if I”m at home. That’s why I got out—so that he can have some fun.”
”Since when are you so cavalier with his restrictions?”
She cleared her throat. ”After I myself saw what it’s like to have someone hovering over you, I decided to relax a bit.”
I started laughing. She”d gotten a taste of her own medicine. Both their health scares had been quite a while ago. The doctor”s orders for my granddad had been clear. He shouldn”t under any circumstances return to the office again, and there was no need for him to do that. We had all branches of Whitley Industries under control. And they were thriving.
”It”s so good that it”s only a short ride,” Gran said.
”Forty minutes. Not bad,” I said, especially since I planned to travel there a few times a week.
“I’m so glad you and Gabe are doing this together. I”d always hoped to see my grandsons from both sides of the family build something together.”
I stiffened at her words. Usually she didn”t differentiate between our half brothers and us. Most of the time you wouldn”t even know we didn”t all grow up together.
She looked at me and smiled. ”It”ll bring you closer.”
”It”s a great opportunity. In time, maybe we’ll open even more new branches.”
My brothers and I were careful when it came to expansion. Dad had a huge ego and had opened new companies within Whitley Industries purely to make himself look good. He nearly ran them all into the ground because he hadn”t paid attention to profits. We were doing things differently.
”So, tell me more about Cami. What exactly do you know about her?”
”Nothing,” I said truthfully.
Gran turned to me. ”Oh, that can”t be right. How do you go into a negotiation without preparing beforehand?”
”I thought I was going to deal mostly with her father.”
”Then tell me about her father.”
”Why?”
”Because that’s going to tell me a lot about her too. Sometimes people resist change for the wrong reasons. That might be the case here.”
”The guy has run the business for nearly forty years. He’s looking to take it easy. Gabe and I are offering him a lot of money, which will make for a fantastic retirement.”
”And the daughter works with him?”
”Exactly.” Why is she making me repeat everything? We”d already discussed all this at Sunday dinner.
”And what exactly would she do if her father sells the business?”
I shrugged. ”Probably find another job. She”s a college graduate. She”s got management skills under her belt. I”m sure she”s going to have no problem finding other employment.”
”In Essex?” Gran asked suspiciously.
I was starting to see what she was getting at. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye before focusing back on the road.
”We don”t know that she wants to stay in Essex.”
”I”ll find out. You just give me enough time alone with her. I need about an hour.”
”Gran, you said you want to help. You can’t interrogate her for an hour.” I’d figured she’d want fifteen minutes or something.
”Oh, don”t be silly. I’m very good at what I do.”
Alarm bells rang in my mind. What did Natalie warn me about? Fuck, I should have paid better attention. She might have been onto something.
”Gran! Gabe and I are in the middle of negotiations.”
”Which are going nowhere,” she continued.
I cleared my throat. ”We hit a temporary roadblock.”
”Yes, and I”m going to help unblock it.”
I grabbed a bottle of water I had in the car door and took a swig. ”What makes you think you”re going to succeed when Gabe and I failed?”
”The way I see it, you two are already on Cami”s shit list.” I blinked. I rarely heard Gran swear. ”But she can”t flip off a lovely old lady like me, can she?”
”Damn,” I said, stunned. ”Makes me think how big Whitley Industries would be if you’d worked together with Granddad.”
”He asked me repeatedly to join him, but I liked performing so much. It was my life. Sometimes I wonder if things would have been different if I hadn”t been an actress.”
”What do you mean?”
She frowned. ”I was gone a lot in the evenings for performances. Your father was alone with your granddad, who, as you know, isn”t a man of many words. Maybe he missed parental guidance.”
I was stunned by what she”d just shared. Did Gran feel guilty about not having been around for Dad? Or was she offering a possible reason for why he did what he did?
I fundamentally disagreed. Dad was simply an asshole.
”Please don”t blame yourself.”
”Oh, it”s a parent”s prerogative to always question if you did your best.”
”I know you did,” I assured her.
”Now, let”s talk about Cami again,” she said.
I absolutely didn”t want to talk about Cami again, but I also didn”t want to talk about Dad. Out of the two, Cami was the better option.
”What does her mom do for a living?” Gran asked.
I blinked. ”I have no idea. Come to think of it, they never even mentioned her.”
”Let”s see what I can find out.”
“All right, how about we change the subject?” I suggested.
For the rest of the drive, we spoke about Ben. Gran was ecstatic that she had a great-grandchild. Two years ago, when she”d started her matchmaking efforts, she proudly claimed that she”d done so because she wanted great-grandchildren. Once Ben came into our lives, I naively thought she’d give up her matchmaking project. She”d proved me wrong.
We arrived in Essex a while later. I drove down Main Street, and Gran kept looking around.
“This place is lovely. But how come you decided on Essex?”
I took in a deep breath. I was walking a fine line. The reason we”d ended up buying this property was because our father had wanted it. We’d snapped it right from under his nose.
”This property popped up,” I said, avoiding a flat-out lie. ”Gabe initially wanted to build something near Stockbridge.”
“He told you about Stockbridge?” Gran asked.
“That they used to spend the summers with their mother there? Yes.”
Meanwhile, Dad was a no-show in Boston in the summer, instead flying to Maine more often than usual. He spent time with us, took us fishing or camping. To my knowledge, he’d never done that with our half brothers.
After I met them and our grandparents, I realized Dad was a different person around them. Mom suspected that he was more relaxed in Maine. Here in Boston, Whitley Industries always weighed on his shoulders. But stress didn”t excuse him being an asshole. I’d never understand how we bought his story that our grandparents cut him off financially; he was at the forefront of the company, after all. But he’d always made it sound as if he was treated poorly, like Granddad controlled all the money. Back then, social media wasn’t what it was today, so it was impossible to find out any information. There hadn’t been any article ever mentioning that he was married and had a family. I knew because I’d scoured the internet for months on end after the scandal broke.
”Oh, and look, there’s an inn here.”
”Yeah, there are several,” I said.
She turned abruptly to face me. ”And you think you’ll have enough customers for your hotel?”
”The numbers support it,” I said, sliding into business mode. ”Besides, the distillery will be a big attraction too. We did our homework, Gran. It should do well.”
That was how this idea started. Gabe wanted to build another distillery, one where he could also show each step of the brewing process to large groups of tourists. Then the idea snowballed into creating an immersive experience, hence the hotel.
”You boys know best. I”m very proud of you.”
”Thank you,” I said.
We were building everything on the outskirts of Essex, expanding the small town’s footprint. I drove through the narrow road leading to the adventure park, the property we were trying to buy. It widened into a parking lot that was packed full of cars.
”They”re all here for the park? That means it’s doing well.”
”It’s decent. But the place isn”t terribly profitable.”
”Hmm. For some, it”s not all about the money.”
”I swear to God, if I hear that one more time—”
”But it”s true!”
”Come on, let”s go.”
I helped Gran out of the car, and she turned in a circle, admiring the area.
”This isn’t just an adventure park. It’s a forest,” she remarked.
”It is.”
We headed straight into the building where the reception area was. There were two guys behind the counter, and I zeroed in on the elderly one.
”Samuel?” I confirmed.
”Yes. You must be Maddox,” he said, looking at me, then at Gran, stunned. ”It’s good to see you.”
He seemed genuine, making me wonder what Cami had shared with him.
”Hi, I”m Jeannie Whitley,” Gran introduced herself.
”My grandmother,” I explained.
We walked up to the front desk, and Samuel shook Gran”s hand.
”Were we expecting you, Jeannie?” he asked, brow slightly furrowed.
I shook my head. ”No. Gran just wanted to take a look at the park.”
”I see. Maddox, I’m really sorry I didn’t make it to our dinner. I heard you two didn’t make any progress.” The corners of his mouth twitched. Was he amused?
”No, it wasn’t a very productive meeting. But maybe you and I can change that today.”
Samuel grimaced. ”Maddox, I’m sorry to do this, but I completely forgot you were coming today. My accountant is in the back. He says we need to go through some receipts right away.”
I studied him carefully. His shoulders slumped, and his eyes were apologetic. He wasn’t just brushing me off.
”No problem. We’ll catch up another time. I’m going to be in Essex regularly.”
”Great,” he said, turning to look at Gran, who was inspecting the wall behind the reception desk. It was covered with pictures of various groups of people, and Cami appeared in most of them.
”I see your daughter really likes these trees, right?” she asked.
Samuel pointed at a photo farther up the wall. Cami was standing in front of a huge tree, arms spread out at her sides, probably to prove that the tree was so much bigger than her.
”She does. That”s her favorite. It’s the oldest one—120 years.”
”Will you look at that? Something that’s older than me.” Gran laughed. ”Could I see it?”
Samuel smiled from ear to ear. ”Sure. You know what? I’ll have Cami show you. She”s at Station 11, and that”s not very far from the tree of interest. Let’s walk over there. ”
”Oh, nonsense,” Gran said. ”I can go and introduce myself to Cami. Maddox, you don’t have to come either. I’ll be fine.”
Slowly, I was starting to realize that Natalie wasn”t exaggerating anything. I made a split-second decision not to leave the two of them alone after all. ”That’s fine. I’ll come with you,” I said.
Gran narrowed her eyes, and I was betting that she was thinking about how to best get rid of me. She was in for a surprise. I trusted her, I truly did, but she could be a bit of a loose cannon. The last thing we needed was for things between us and Cami to become even worse. I had to patch things up, and I couldn’t afford letting Gran scare her away.
”All right, I’ve messaged Cami,” Samuel said, putting his phone down. ”She’s waiting for you.” He pointed at a plate on the reception desk. ”Would you like some banana bread? She baked it fresh this morning.”
”I’d love some!” Gran immediately grabbed a slice. I did the same. Banana bread was one of my favorites, and this one was the best I’d tasted in a long time.
”Wow, wow, wow. This is delicious,” she exclaimed.
This time, I narrowed my eyes. She’d shifted into what I liked to call her ”actress persona.” Gran was always exuberant and a bit over the top anyway, but sometimes she liked to lean into theatrics.
”Tell her that. It’ll make her happy.” He winked at me. ”Maybe it’ll help with negotiations.”
I would have paid good money to know what Cami told him about our meeting.
”All right, let”s go,” I said.
Once outside, we walked in silence on the narrow path leading to the stations.
”I think he”s married,” Gran said out of the blue.
”Who, Samuel?”
”Yes. He’s wearing a wedding ring.”
”I didn”t notice that,” I said.
”I know. That’s why I came here. I notice details.”
I had a feeling it was also because she simply wanted to get out of the house. My brothers and I took her out to lunch or dinner once a week, but this was different. She had a sense of purpose today. She”d once confided in me that except when she was watching Ben, she didn”t feel like she had a purpose anymore.
We passed two stations with zip lines and three obstacle courses.
Station 11 offered tree climbing. I took a moment to admire Cami once I spotted her. She was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt with a cardigan, and she looked hot—not that she hadn”t at dinner. She was speaking to the three customers who’d just gotten down from the tree. They were taking off their helmets and harnesses, and I had to admit, the course looked fun.
Seconds later, she looked over her shoulder and noticed us. She smiled, but it was tight, and I knew it was for Gran. If it were just me, she”d probably hurl something in my direction. She came up to us with quick steps.
”Maddox,” she said tightly. ”And Jeannie Whitley. My father told me.”
”Yes. This space is amazing. It”s almost like being in a forest.”
”Dad and I always intended for it to remain as natural as possible.”
Not that I was paranoid, but I was certain that comment was just for me.
”So, where is that hundred-year-old tree?” Gran asked.
Cami looked at me, narrowing her eyes, before focusing on Gran again. ”This way. Follow me.”
Gran turned to me. ”Maddox, darling, I know trees aren”t your thing. Why don”t Cami and I go there on our own? We won”t be long.”
Nice try.I should have known she wouldn’t give up.
”I’m coming with you,” I said, and Cami sucked in a breath.
Don”t look at her mouth, Maddox. Don”t look at her mouth.
Of course I looked at her mouth. Her lips were so damn full.
Fuck! I can”t fixate on her.
She turned around, leading us through the trees at a very slow pace. A few seconds later, I realized it was for Gran”s benefit, and that earned her points in my book.
”So tell me, Cami, how long have you and your father run this place?”
”Dad”s worked here since he was very young. I only started working here after college.”
”And what does your mother do?”
I realized this was a mistake before Gran even finished the sentence.
Cami flinched. Actually flinched. Her shoulders went up to her ears for a split second, but then she played it off as if she was trying to roll her shoulders. ”My mom passed away before I graduated from college.”
The force of her words hit me straight in the chest. Fuck, her father was still wearing his wedding ring so many years later.
”Oh, I”m very sorry. That was very inconsiderate of me!” Gran sounded horrified.
I shot her a warning look. That was the risk of prying. Sometimes you stumbled over old wounds and learned they still had scabs on them.
But I was starting to put two and two together. She”d started working here shortly after losing her mother. Was it because she wanted to or out of necessity? To help her father?
Regardless of the reason, Gran was right. This was definitely not about the money.