Four
Reid
It was late Friday afternoon when it happened.
After making it through the first of many long weeks I had ahead of me to fulfill my end of the deal I’d made with my dad, all I wanted to do was breathe a sigh of relief and relax for the evening before I had to get up early tomorrow morning and make the trip back to Pittsburgh, so I could check on things at home.
I was just about to figure out what I wanted to do for dinner when a loud thud came from somewhere near the front door. Halting my movements in the kitchen, I listened for any indication of what had caused the noise.
As it turned out—and perhaps against my better judgment—I’d moved into one of the cabins at the retreat. Granted, there was nothing I wanted more than to have no affiliation with this place, but staying with my parents was not an option.
Not because they didn’t have the space. They did.
But even though I adored my mother, I couldn’t live with her and my father for six months.
My dad and I had barely been able to manage a handful of hours with each other.
Living together for an extended period would have been even more detrimental to whatever scrap of a relationship we had at this point.
And given that my stay here in Ohio was only temporary, it didn’t make sense to put money into finding a place to rent.
As part of the deal that I’d made with my father, he’d offered up, free of charge, one of the cabins that came equipped with all the amenities I’d need to have a reasonably comfortable stay until my time here was up.
So, no matter how much I despised this place as a whole, it was the best option I had available to me.
I could have my own space, not need to worry about sinking any additional money into this project, and make the effort to go to my parents’ place to visit with my mom regularly throughout her recovery.
Concerned about the possibility of some wildlife having walked up onto the porch, I abandoned my task of figuring out dinner and moved toward the front door. On the way there, I tried to recall where I’d seen the bear spray earlier in the week when I first moved in.
But all thoughts of bears vanished when I glanced out the window and took in precisely what caused the ruckus outside. My jaw clenched as I sighed through my nose.
Natalia Barton.
What was the deal with this woman? Why was she here?
Despite doing everything in my power to get her to keep her distance, she refused. I’d suspected that following our initial meeting on Monday and the impromptu visit she’d made to my temporary office on Tuesday, Natalia would get the hint.
I wasn’t interested in making friends. I didn’t care to form any connections.
All I wanted to do was get through these next six months, acquire these several hundred acres, and finally turn this piece of land into something worthwhile.
But no matter how hard I tried to push her away or make things awkward or uncomfortable, Natalia wouldn’t be deterred.
I’d been a dick to her, and somehow, the woman still found a way to put a smile on her face and do her job well.
Or, I assumed she was doing it well.
The reality was that I couldn’t begin to keep up with Natalia.
Every time I saw her, she was constantly on the go.
Always getting something done and always chatting people up.
Even after I’d all but kicked her out of the office on Tuesday, when I called her back to let her know the paperwork she’d brought over had been signed, Natalia didn’t fire any curse words back at me like she could have. Like she probably should have.
If this were any other situation, if anyone I worked with back in Pittsburgh was being treated by any member of the staff the way I was treating Natalia, they wouldn’t have had a job for very long.
Technically, she hadn’t done anything wrong but work here. That and talk too much about how great this place was or how wonderful my father was. I cringed every time she opened her mouth and spoke about any of it.
I wondered if this was part of some masterful plan my father had come up with. It wasn’t unreasonable to think that he would try any means to get his way. And how better to do it than to get someone like Natalia in on it.
She was beautiful—there was no use in denying that.
She had long, light brown hair with golden highlights, deep brown eyes that sparkled every time she spoke—which was all the time— and a body that commanded attention.
God, I could still recall the way she lowered herself into that chair on the opposite side of the desk and crossed one bare leg over the other.
And that was the other thing. The way she dressed.
Although this was a wellness retreat situated in the middle of the wilderness, Natalia didn’t stop herself from dressing professionally.
I expected casual attire from most of the staff.
Plenty kept it that way. But she was the opposite.
I didn’t need to keep having that vision of her lowering herself into that chair and crossing her legs in front of me.
I didn’t need to recall the sight of her walking away from that chair and toward the door to leave the office.
No.
No, I needed her to keep her distance as much as humanly possible. Because if I’d met her at home, I might have been inclined to ask her out on a date.
Now, she was here, sitting on the edge of the porch with her back to me. All I wanted was a quiet night to relax, and it seemed I couldn’t even get that.
Feeling the frustration bubble up inside me, I swiftly unlocked the door and flung it open. “What are you doing here?”
Natalia spun around with a gasp. Her eyes landed on me and widened in shock. “Reid.”
It took three or four seconds for me to gather that something was wrong. Natalia’s eyes were filled with unshed tears, and she was clutching her arm against her chest. “What happened to you?”
She rubbed her forearm. “I didn’t know you were staying here.”
My focus shifted from her arm to her face and back again. “Are you hurt?”
Natalia swallowed roughly. “It’s… It’s nothing.” She pulled back the sleeve of her sweater. “I was walking up the steps when I tripped, fell, and landed on my arm.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
And it didn’t. The bright red blood pooling along the cut in the middle of her forearm was enough of an indication that was true. But combining that with the raised red lump that already had hints of bruising showing proved my point.
Without waiting for her to confirm or deny anything, I stepped back into the house and went in search of some supplies. When I returned a moment later, I noted that Natalia hadn’t moved from where I’d left her.
Sitting down beside her, I curled my fingers around Natalia’s wrist and dabbed at the blood on her arm. “I… I didn’t know you were staying here. I didn’t think anyone was even in this cabin.”
I kept my focus on tending to her arm, applying enough pressure to the wound to staunch the flow of blood but not so much that it should have caused pain on the spot that was already swelling and bruising. “Well, the stay is only temporary. Six months, to be precise.”
“Right,” she murmured. “And then you’ll be heading back to Pennsylvania.”
“That’s the plan.”
As I dabbed at the cut with a cleansing wipe, Natalia hissed. “Ouch, that stings.”
“Sorry,” I muttered. “So, can I ask what you’re doing here, if you didn’t think I was here?”
For the first time since I met her, Natalia wasn’t quick to respond. In fact, she didn’t speak at all. And the silence was strange enough that I finally looked up at her. Her pretty pink lips were pursed. “Are you accusing me of something?”
I hadn’t been, but now I wondered if I should have been. I applied a bandage to the cut and answered, “I don’t know. Why are you here?”
With the cut bandaged up, Natalia tugged her arm back and settled it in her lap. I reached for the ice pack, tossed it on the ground, and massaged the pack to activate it. As soon as it turned cool, I reached for her arm again and placed the ice pack on it.
“This is excessive first aid, don’t you think?”
“I’m in charge of this place, and I’m not sure it’s wise to have employees injuring themselves on the property.”
She huffed. “You say that like you think I’m some evil woman who’d sue for my own clumsiness. I guess I got it all wrong.”
My brows pulled together in confusion. “Got what wrong?”
Natalia’s eyes roamed over my face, something lingering in those big brown eyes I couldn’t read.
She finally looked me dead in the eye and said, “It’s no surprise this first week with you has been interesting.
” She lifted the ice pack up and shook it between us.
“This right here made me think you actually have a heart.”
I snorted. Maybe my tactics had been more effective than I’d initially believed. “Just a heart of stone. I’m surprised my father didn’t warn you.”
She tipped her head to the side and studied me. “He never said anything of the sort. Only ever good things.”
That right there was enough for me to know this was all part of some plan he’d concocted. “What are you doing here, Natalia?”
“And he remembers my name,” she declared with a smile on her face. Heart of stone or no, I couldn’t get the look that just barely graced her expression when I’d called her Natalie at the beginning of the week out of my head. “I’m here because I’m helping Danielle.”
“Danielle?”
Natalia dipped her chin, the corners of her mouth tipping up. “The program manager.”
“Why is that amusing to you?”
A laugh escaped. “Because while I understand this is only a short-term thing for you, it wouldn’t kill you to remember the names of the people who work with you. You met Danielle earlier this week.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
“You did. She was outside the lodge on Wednesday morning finishing up the display of that massive cornucopia.”
Right.
I remembered that.
Ignoring Natalia’s need to point out my lack of interest in maintaining the bare minimum of decency between myself and the people who worked here, I said, “I don’t see Danielle here. So, how exactly are you helping her?”
Lifting her uninjured arm, Natalia pointed to a cabin on the opposite side of the lake. “She’s over there. I told her I’d help with the fall and Thanksgiving decorations around the cabins until it gets too dark, so we decided to split up and cover more ground.”
That’s when I noticed what I’d missed when Natalia had turned those stunned, tear-filled eyes in my direction. A container filled with an assortment of what I could only assume were decorations.
“You decorate the individual cabins?”
Her face lit up, the smile transforming her. Any trace of pain from the fall she’d taken was gone. “I told you things get fun around here at this time of year.”
Confusion washed over me. “This isn’t part of your job description, despite the numerous titles you hold.”
“No, it’s not.”
My brows shot up, silently questioning her.
Natalia’s eyes sparkled with the joy she clearly felt.
“I love it. There’s a lot I enjoy about working here.
I could spend hours telling you about the things that bring me such happiness being here, but I won’t bore you with that.
The bottom line is that I love the transformation that takes place around here when we decorate, and I simply enjoy being part of the process, so I do what I can to help.
If I’m honest, I beg Danielle to let me share in the fun by saving some of it for me to help her with, just so I can take some small part in it.
And truthfully, this is nothing compared to how I feel about decorating after Thanksgiving in preparation for Christmas. ”
Was this woman ever upset?
Beyond the physical pain she felt from falling, it was like she was one big ball of happiness and positivity.
I did not need this. No doubt it was going to be enough of a problem for me to walk outside and see all these cabins decorated.
The last thing I needed was Natalia—of all people—to be the woman responsible for outfitting the place I was staying with whatever holiday décor she deemed necessary or appropriate.
“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but this will have to be one less cabin for you to decorate this year.”
She squinted at me. “What?”
“I don’t want decorations.”
“Why not? Nobody’s asking you to put them up.”
I gestured to her arm and noted, “You’ve already hurt yourself just trying to climb the stairs. I’ve got things I need to do tonight, so I can’t be out here supervising and making sure you don’t break your neck when you try to hang a wreath or something.”
Natalia pursed her lips and breathed heavily as she struggled to regain control over her emotions.
Then she shot up to her feet, threw the ice pack at me, it landing on the porch beside me, and declared, “Fine. You can stay here and be miserable in your stupid cabin that everyone is going to notice because it’ll be the only one not decorated.
You don’t want your cabin to look festive, Reid, I won’t do it. But you will not steal my joy.”
She bent down, picked up the container that was bigger than her, and marched off in the direction of the next cabin.
I watched her go, feeling the weight of her words settle inside me. Then I got up and went inside, telling myself it didn’t matter what she did. I had a relaxing evening planned for myself, and I didn’t need this distraction.
But as I sat and ate my dinner, I glanced out the window a handful of times in the direction of where she was busy being joyful. Eventually, it got dark, and I assumed she and Danielle had called it quits for the night.
And when I walked outside the next morning to leave for Pennsylvania for a night, I growled in frustration at the autumn leaf wreath she’d affixed to my door.