Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
A s Lucas walked to his car, Carson rang his phone. With barely a greeting, he asked, “Did you already go to the inn?”
“I’m just leaving now.” Lucas got into his Honda and sat down. “Mr. Ross wasn’t there, so I talked to Riley for a few minutes.”
“How’d that go? Did she take the olive branch from your hand and club you with it?”
An apt metaphor. “I told her it was time to put the past behind us and be friends. She said she would try to get along with me for Olivia’s sake.”
“That’s progress.”
“Yes.” Lucas should’ve felt happy about any sort of progress with Riley. And part of him did. Another part wanted, what? More? Some understanding on her part? That was never going to happen.
And okay, granted, he’d lied to her about meeting Winter. He shouldn’t have done that, but he knew Riley’s opinion of his ex and had been trying to spare her unneeded jealousy. If Winter hadn’t sworn him to secrecy about her situation, Lucas could’ve explained things to Riley, and she would’ve understood. Even without that explanation, though, Riley should’ve trusted him. The months they’d spent together should’ve meant something to her.
Instead, she’d followed him to Winter’s house, assumed he was cheating, and cut him out of her life with the finality of a surgeon removing an unwanted tumor. He deserved better than that.
“Good,” Carson said. “I’ll contact Mr. Ross about buying the place.”
Lucas shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know. Just because Riley said she’d try to get along with me doesn’t mean she’d be okay with me as a boss. Maybe you should find someone else to be the manager.”
Lucas was fine with his job as a police officer. He was good at it. But ever since he’d been shot at two months ago, his mother—who lived in town and heard news with lightning speed—was frantic to have him find a different job.
All in all, Lark Springs was a safe place, a small town with only 15,000 residents. The incident had happened when Lucas pulled over a drug dealer who’d come from Bozeman. Things went south as soon as Lucas walked up to the man’s window. If he hadn’t been wearing his vest, he would’ve taken a bullet in the chest. Probably died. Instead, Lucas shot the guy and was put on administrative leave for a week while the department investigated the death.
Lucas tried to explain to his mother that the investigation was standard practice, and he’d been exonerated in the end, but she’d considered it as adding insult to injury.
Carson had come up with a solution he thought was a win-win. Buy an investment property in Lark Springs and hire Lucas to manage it. His brother would pay Lucas more than his police salary, and Lucas wanted to help out his brother. Still, Lucas had a hard time envisioning himself having a long-term career as a hotel manager, worrying about whether rooms were properly vacuumed or the guests had paid their bills.
“If Riley doesn’t want you for a boss,” Carson said, “she could always find a new job. But it won’t come to that. She’ll love having you as the manager because she can wrap you around her finger. I mean, who could be a better boss than an ex who’s still carrying a torch?”
Not true. “I’m not still carrying a torch.”
“Really? Who have you dated lately?”
No one. But that wasn’t because he still had hopes for Riley. Lucas just hadn’t found anyone he was interested in. There weren’t many candidates in Lark Springs. That number got smaller when you could run a background check…which he did on a regular basis.
Carson took Lucas’s pause as proof he was right. “I bet whenever Riley wants a day off, all she’ll have to do is flutter her eyelashes, and you’ll give it to her.”
“Or I’ll tell her to find someone to cover for her.”
“Well, at any rate,” Carson said, “I’m sure the two of you will be fine working together. I’ll let you know Mr. Ross’s response once my real estate agent finalizes the offer.”
Maybe Mr. Ross wouldn’t agree to Carson’s price and all of this would be a moot point. “Okay,” Lucas said. “By the way, Riley says you should call her before you buy an engagement ring. She knows what kind Olivia likes.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Carson said. “I’ll do that before the talks with Mr. Ross, just in case Riley does hate having you as a manager and is mad at me for hiring you.”
“Your confidence is a fickle thing.”
“Text me Riley’s number when we hang up.”
Lucas would have liked to say that he didn’t have it anymore just so he could prove that he wasn’t carrying a torch. But he still had it. As a police officer, it paid to have people’s contact info.
There were absolutely no torches anywhere.
“Sure,” Lucas answered. He said his goodbyes, forwarded Riley’s number, and cast one last look at the inn.
The four-story building was painted a warm, buttery yellow that popped against the riot of red and orange leaves from the nearby aspens. The place looked like something straight out of either a Hallmark Christmas movie, or when the weather was stormy, an Alfred Hitchcock murder mystery.
The first three stories were lined with narrow, paned windows, all framed in white. The top floor was different, smaller, like someone had set a cozy little house on the roof and decided to call it a day. That was where Mr. Ross lived.
Lucas had always pictured the manager’s apartment filled with knick-knacks, mismatched furniture, and the sort of mysterious energy that made cats jump at invisible things. If Carson bought the place, it would be Lucas’s new home.
He turned away from the building and started his car, suddenly wondering if Riley was looking out one of the windows, curious as to why his car was still in the parking lot. How would she act in a few weeks if he walked back through those doors as the new manager?
Perhaps it didn’t matter. Lucas’s job wasn’t to change how Riley thought of him. It would be to run the place well. That was all. Riley could either get on board or quit. Or, worst possible scenario, she’d be so horrible to him that he’d have to fire her.
Lucas sighed and drove away from the inn. He really didn’t want to fire her. It was bad enough that she thought of him as the cheating boyfriend. He didn’t want to be the cheating boyfriend who made her lose her job too.