Chapter 28
“Maybe we should have kept the presentation low-tech. I’m thinking posterboard and markers.
You know? Something more Junior High Science Fair Chic,” Jeremy murmured to Denise as they sat in the Middle Waters conference room watching Oliver struggle with the connections for the large screen TV setup.
Denise snorted before sending him a mildly reproachful glare.
She and Jeremy had worked late the night before creating a glitzy slide deck with details of Farrington Parks' offer to Oliver along with some preliminary plans for the theme park that would eventually be built over the Middle Waters site. The latter part probably wasn’t necessary, but Denise suspected Oliver cared too much about the local community not to have at least some curiosity about what the Farringtons planned to do with the land they were buying.
Oliver had sworn the conference room had the technology to support showing the slide deck, and Denise believed him, given how smoothly all the audio and visual equipment had worked during the FunDaze conference. Of course, Oliver hadn’t been directly involved with that.
Denise scooted to the edge of her seat, ready to offer Oliver assistance with the setup when there was a quick knock on the door.
“Come in, Maddox. Please!” Oliver called out, and Denise’s whole body tensed with anticipation.
For the last several days since she’d arrived, Denise had found herself looking for Maddox nearly every time she walked around the resort.
Worse than that, she took those walks more than was strictly necessary.
She’d meandered around the increasingly familiar buildings, including the enclosed swimming pool and the maintenance shed, and she’d explored nearly all the walking trails that branched out from the resort grounds.
But for a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, Maddox had proven to be frustratingly elusive around the property.
But now they entered the room, and Denise’s eyes were fixed on them. They headed directly to Oliver but didn’t so much as glance in Denise and Jeremy’s direction. “What’s up, boss?”
Oliver began explaining his challenges, and Maddox resolved the problem by deftly readjusting a connector and pushing a button or two before Oliver had even finished speaking.
He thanked them with a sheepish grin, and they sent him a fond wink. “It’s why you keep me around.”
When they turned to leave, their gaze fell on Denise. The way the warmth immediately drained from their brown eyes made Denise’s stomach feel like it was sinking down to her shoes. They gave a formal nod in her and Jeremy’s general direction and headed toward the door.
“Maddox!” Denise called after them before she could think better of it.
They halted their steps and shifted to face her again, with a furrowed brow.
Denise’s face heated with awareness beneath their full attention, but her skin also itched as she realized Oliver and Jeremy were watching her too. She tried to swallow over the sudden dryness in her throat. “T-thanks for your help.”
“Happy to be of service, Ms. Farrington.” Their tone was even and perfectly civil, yet hearing it along with her last name chilled her from the inside out.
When Denise couldn’t think of anything else to say, Maddox nodded again and left the room.
The conference room door closed with a thud, and Denise winced.
What was wrong with her? Clear roles. Professionalism.
This is what she’d asked for, wasn’t it?
The fact that it was turning out to be exactly the opposite of what she truly wanted was her own problem to work out. She needed to leave Maddox alone.
She clenched her fists and forced herself to refocus on the matter at hand.
She and Jeremy spent the next hour presenting the material they’d prepared and, when they were finished, Oliver thanked them but said nothing else for a moment.
His expression reminded Denise of some of the young kids who would visit her father’s parks and stare up at the fastest, highest coasters as if trying to work up the nerve to get in line and take the ride.
She couldn’t be sure if his nerves centered on selling his life’s work or what the future held in store for the property. Maybe both. But either way, his apprehension was practically palpable.
“Could I have some time to think about it?” Oliver finally asked in a frail voice.
He looked at Denise and Jeremy, then stared at the last slide in their presentation, which was a rough sketch of what the planned amusement park would look like, based on the parks already in existence.
Denise frowned at the slide and tried to see it through Oliver’s eyes.
Hmm, maybe sharing this part was too much.
In the back of her mind, Denise could imagine her dad wheedling, grandstanding, and doing whatever else he deemed necessary to bulldoze past Oliver’s misgivings and secure the sale as soon as possible. But her dad had agreed to let her handle this, and that meant she would do it her way.
“Of course you can,” she answered. “We dropped a lot of information on you today. I wouldn’t expect anything else.
If it’s okay with you, I’d like to stay on a few days.
I can work from here as easily as I can back home and, that way, I’ll be on hand to answer questions or discuss this further in person. ”
Oliver’s face relaxed for the first time since the presentation ended. He shook both of their hands warmly. “I appreciate it.”
After the meeting, Denise and Jeremy strolled through the crisp afternoon air back to the Cypress Lodge, where their rooms were. Denise gestured to the Sycamore Lodge behind them. “What do you think?”
Jeremy turned up his jacket collar as a sudden breeze hit and hummed thoughtfully. “He’s overwhelmed. Your average small resort owner doesn’t get a huge chunk of change dangled in front of his nose like this every day. But he’ll get used to the idea. You were smart to give him time.”
The affirmation brought a small smile to Denise’s lips. “Thanks. I’m willing to wait this out, but I know you and I didn’t discuss that beforehand, so I don’t expect you to hang around here with me if you’d rather head back. Provided you know you’re on speed dial in case things go amok.”
“I don’t think anything will go amok,” Jeremy said with a chuckle. “But, yeah. If you’re good with me going home, I’ll go Sunday.”
“You’re staying the weekend?” Denise sent him a surprised glance. “Won’t Derrick mind?”
Jeremy’s face reddened. “Well, that’s the thing…unless you need this to be a working weekend, I’d like to see if he’d want to come join me tomorrow and Saturday.”
Denise smiled. “That sounds like a great idea. I’m glad things are going well with the two of you.”
They paused outside the glass doors of the Cypress Lodge, and Jeremy took Denise’s hand. “I really don’t know how to thank you for helping us out like you did.”
“You don’t need to thank me, but even if you did, your help here would have been more than enough.” She squeezed his hand in return.
He smiled and leaned in a half-step closer. “You’re one classy lady, Denise Farrington.”
With that, he released her hand and held the door open for her.
Denise walked inside, and her breath caught as she spotted Maddox in the middle of the entry hall. They were facing the door as she entered, and she had the impression that they’d been watching her and Jeremy through the glass.
When Denise’s eyes met Maddox’s, they turned away and continued walking across the hall before disappearing through a staff-only door. Once again, she was struck with the absurd urge to call out and stop them, but this time she refrained.
“Ooh, there seems to be some drama between you and the IT expert,” Jeremy remarked, nearly making her jump. She’d forgotten he was still standing there.
“You know Maddox isn’t in IT,” Denise said, her eyes still fixed on the staff door. “They…well, they do a lot of things around here.” Her attention returned to Jeremy. “But there’s no drama.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Hmm. That absolutely means there is drama, but you’re right. It’s none of my business.”
Denise’s jaw slackened, but he didn’t give her a chance to respond before straightening his jacket with a grin and saying, “So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to my room. I have a phone call to make!”
A couple of hours after the meeting with Oliver, Denise knocked on Jeremy’s door to see if he wanted to grab dinner, but he was still on the phone with Derrick, so she went to the onsite restaurant by herself.
The Red Oak Restaurant had the same rustic, cozy décor as the rest of the resort with wood floors and ceiling beams plus a roaring fire.
There weren’t many guests there, so Denise chose a small table near the fireplace.
Since she’d ordered room service there once before, she already knew what she wanted without looking at the menu.
As she sat in the dining room waiting for her order, she tried to savor the tranquil atmosphere, but a growing restlessness plagued her.
Part of it was rooted in uncertainty about Oliver’s decision.
Like Jeremy, she was fairly confident the offer they’d made was too good for him to walk away from, but at the same time, she’d sensed an underlying unhappiness in Oliver when the presentation was over.
It had been there around his eyes. Was he upset about the future plans, or simply sad about losing the resort he’d poured so much of his time and energy into? She didn’t know him well enough to say.
Maddox does.
The thought sprang up seemingly out of nowhere, and now she couldn’t get rid of it.
There would be nothing wrong with having a chat with Maddox about all this, would there?
It fit squarely within the firm boundaries of business talk.
They could help her get a read on Oliver, and then maybe she’d know if she needed to tweak the offer.
They wouldn’t avoid her if the discussion could ultimately help Oliver, would they?
Inexplicably, the train of thought brightened her mood, and she smiled brightly at the young server who approached to refill her water glass. When she recognized the boy, her smile widened as she held her glass out to him. “Lenny?”
His usually pale face turned the color of a vine-ripened tomato. “Yes, ma’am. I was hoping you wouldn’t remember me.”
She chuckled. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal. Just an accident.”
He sent her a small smile and carefully refilled her glass. As he was turning to leave, she stopped him. “Say, Lenny. Do you know if Maddox is around?”
“Probably, ma’am. They’re always around, and—oh, wait!” He smacked his forehead with one hand, nearly fumbling the pitcher with the other. “I think they’re with Janelle tonight.”
Denise’s smile faltered. “Janelle?”
“Yeah, every Thursday night,” he said with a vigorous nod. “And I’ll bet they’ll be spending even more of their free time with her soon.”
“I see. So Janelle is important to Maddox?” she asked slowly. Her heart thudded a little too heavily for her to be sitting still.
The boy grinned. “For sure!”
He looked like he was about to say more, but another server appeared from the direction of the kitchen and beckoned for him. “Oh, I have to go. See you, Ms. Farrington. Thanks for being cool about…the spill last time, you know.”
She nodded absently and waved a weak hand in parting. Her mind was already swirling with the information Lenny had given her. Maddox spent a lot of time with someone named Janelle? Was she their girlfriend? Had Maddox had a girlfriend this entire time?!
Snatching up her water glass, she took a long gulp of water, but it did little to cool the sudden heat beneath her skin. Had Maddox cheated on their girlfriend with her?
God, no, please!
Denise’s pulse picked up even more.
Obviously, if that was what had happened, the blame was on Maddox for going to bed with Denise.
It still made her feel gross, though. After the hell Carl had put her through with his cheating, she could never dream she’d ever be the one inflicting that on someone else…
even unintentionally. Damn Maddox, if they’d put her in that position!
She clenched and unclenched her fists as her thoughts ran through Maddox’s current behavior.
She’d thought they’d been avoiding Denise because she'd hurt them by saying they should stick to their professional roles. But what if that wasn’t it at all?
What if they were hiding because of their own guilty feelings over betraying someone they cared about?
Even if this Janelle person wasn’t a monogamous partner, even if she and Maddox had some kind of open relationship, Denise would have liked to have known that ahead of time.
That night, she had bared so much of herself to Maddox.
To someone who could have been lying to her or, at least, omitting important information the whole time.
She thought she’d known them better than that.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she groaned at the absurdity of it…
the absurdity of herself. Had she really put that kind of confidence and trust in someone after a few days?
What was the matter with her? Hadn’t she learned long ago she was terrible at figuring out the right people to show all the messy parts of herself? It’s why she never did that anymore.
Except she had this time.
Something very near panic churned in her stomach. She needed answers, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted them.