13. Dane
THIRTEEN
Dane
The next morning, I stepped onto the elevator at the ground floor and swiped my keycard to head back to the seventh floor. I had a box of pastries and a couple of coffees balanced on top. I would’ve gone down to Main Street to grab breakfast from Silver Linings, because they had the best coffee in town. Way better than the mediocre stuff we were serving up downstairs in the lobby. I’d already made a mental note to ask where Piper sourced her beans.
But with Grace upstairs, I hadn’t wanted to take such a long detour. I also had a feeling that if I drove her into town, she might take off. She could leave whenever she wanted, technically, but I didn’t want to give her any excuse to cut our time short.
Especially after that asinine comment I had made last night. I worried she was already looking to make an exit.
Bringing up her childhood and what Ashford had said? Such a bad move. Not surprising she had been pissed about that. My point had seemed valid at the time, but I’d delivered it in exactly the wrong way. Hopefully these chocolate pastries would make up for it.
Also, I did have a thing about watching her eat. Whenever she bit into something delicious, she made this sexy little moan and closed her eyes like she wanted to savor the moment. That noise was turning into my guilty pleasure.
When I reached room 701, I did another balancing act to unlock the door and went inside.
“Dane?” she called out.
“It’s me. Brought breakfast.”
Her voice had come from the living room, so I headed there. Grace was curled up at one end of the couch, looking so cozy I wanted to snuggle in right beside her. She had her glasses on, her hair in a messy bun on top of her head, and a throw blanket draped over her legs.
“Comfy?” I asked.
“Very, actually. I’ve been admiring the view.” She swept a hand dramatically at the windows and the broad expanse of evergreens, along with swathes of red, orange, and gold from the changing leaves of the aspens. Once the season started, the hotel would offer the full ski-in/ski-out experience.
Grace lifted up her phone. “Also, I’ve been fielding questions about the break-in yesterday. Which is not as fun. Everyone in town seems to know.”
“Small-town rumor mill?”
“Exactly. I need caffeine to deal with all these busybodies.”
I set the food and drinks on the coffee table, then pulled sugar packets and creamer from my jeans pockets. Not fancy, but it would do for present purposes. “How do you take it?”
“One sugar, one cream.” She held out her hand, but I opened the lid of her coffee myself, doctoring it up and stirring it with a spoon I’d grabbed in my kitchen.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks. I could’ve done it myself.”
“Could have. But you didn’t have to.” I winked and picked up my own coffee cup. “While I was downstairs, I spoke to Tobin.”
“The manager, right?”
“You’ve got it.” The man worked long hours, and he’d been doing an excellent job. Another mental note. See about giving Tobin a raise. “I asked him to pull the security footage from the night of the grand-opening party and look for the three people you described. He said he would have it for us later this afternoon.”
“Good.” She fiddled with the lid to her coffee cup. “I also texted with Ashford. I told him about the break-in. And where I stayed the night. Well, it started as texting, and then he called all freaked out.”
“Ah.” I was surprised Ashford hadn’t written me, asking for an explanation. “Is he about to storm the ski mountain looking for you?”
“I don’t think so. I told him I’m fine and that you’re taking care of me.”
I smiled. “I hope I am.”
“I had my best night of sleep in ages in that cushy bed, and you keep feeding me. You’ll spoil me if you’re not careful.”
“You deserve to be spoiled.”
Grace’s cheeks turned pink. She sipped her coffee.
“If you’re not busy,” I said, “I was hoping you would join me for a tour of the resort this morning. I’d like your advice.”
“I thought you wanted me to be your guide to Silver Ridge.”
“I do. That includes providing a local’s perspective on the resort. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“I’d say you’re already doing that.” She took a bite of flaky croissant.
I expected Grace to put up more of a fight about the tour of the resort, because she fought me over just about everything. But she was being surprisingly compliant this morning.
So within an hour, we were tucked into a chairlift and riding toward the mid-mountain lodge, which was halfway to the highest point of the resort.
Grace sat with her spine rigid, eyes fixed uphill.
“Do you ski?” I asked. “Snowboard?”
“Never learned. These ski runs weren’t here when I was growing up, but even if there had been anything close by, we couldn’t have afforded it.”
“Do you want to learn?”
“It’s not high on my priorities. I kind of, um, don’t love heights.”
The wind chose that moment to pick up, causing the lift to rock slightly. Grace cursed and grabbed me with both hands, one fisting my long-sleeved shirt and the other on my thigh.
I put my arm around her, tucking her in closer. “The resort has offered ski school for kids in past years, but do you think families would be interested in a discounted program for locals?” I was partly trying to keep her mind off the drop below us, but I genuinely wanted to know. Skiing was an expensive sport, and I wanted the kids of Silver Ridge to be able to learn if they were interested.
“I think so.” Grace’s grip on my shirt eased. “You could host day camps in the summers, too.”
“I like that.”
She shifted so she could look up at me. “I also had some ideas for fundraisers the resort could host for the schools.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “Tell me.”
Grace shared her ideas as we walked around the mid-mountain lodge, then headed back toward the hotel, taking the hiking trail down the mountainside. It was a perfect day for it. Those aspens we’d seen from my window were now surrounding us with fall colors and picturesque showers of leaves every time the wind shifted.
But the best part was Grace herself. She kept talking, so all I had to do was listen. And admire her.
Damn, she was gorgeous.
She stopped to sip from her water bottle. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just thinking about how beautiful you are.”
She rolled her eyes.
“What?” I asked. “It’s the truth.” Ashford’s sister , I reminded myself. Off limits .
The rational parts of my brain knew those facts, but the rest of me wasn’t listening.
I officially had a thing for Grace O’Neal. It was a problem.
We resumed our hike. It was a gentle descent, following switchbacks that curved back and forth.
“You seem like you know your way around a ski mountain,” she said. “I assume your family had the money for ski vacations when you were a kid.”
“We did. Never had a choice about learning, but for different reasons than you might think. My mom was an Olympic Alpine skier. Medaled three times.”
Grace stopped short. “Really? That’s amazing.”
“My mom is pretty amazing. She took up mountaineering as a hobby. That’s how she met my dad. They were both at the Everest base camp in Nepal. Neither got to summit because the weather didn’t cooperate, but Mom claimed Dad’s heart.”
“That’s so sweet.”
I grunted. My father had been good to my mom. No matter how much he and I clashed, I could never forget about that. “Mom had me in her late twenties, and they adopted my brother Kip not long after. The origins of the Knightly Global empire,” I said wryly.
“But you didn’t always work for your father.”
I watched her from the corner of my eye. “Somebody’s been on my Wikipedia page.”
“Fine, I googled you! Ashford told me some things, but he’s not much of a gossip.”
“Something I’ve always liked about him.”
“It sounded like it was a big deal, though. When you joined your father’s company.”
“It was.” Dad made it a big deal. Press releases, articles in business magazines, appearances at high-profile events. The prodigal son returns . I’d hated every second of it. “I never wanted to work for my father. We’ve never gotten along. Kip was the ideal, and I was the disappointment.” In family photos growing up, Kip looked as perfect as a statue, while my hair had always been messy no matter how much Mom smoothed it down.
“You’re hardly a disappointment.”
“It’s all relative, I guess.”
When my father expected me to head to the Ivy League, I only made it through a semester and a half before I was in an Army recruiter’s office. Mom had been worried about me, yet she’d also cheered me on.
“When I left for basic training, my father disowned me. Didn’t speak to me for years.”
“ Seriously ? Even when you were deployed?”
“Yep.”
But the Army had been exactly what I needed. Maybe it was strange that I’d found freedom among so much rigid discipline. But I’d had a purpose. Something larger than me that resonated more than making money. And then, when I left the service, I took that drive into starting my own company. Because I certainly didn’t have any problem with making money, per se. But I had needed to do it on my own terms. For reasons that spoke to me.
With some friends I’d made during my brief stint in college, I started a health tracker app. Worked my butt off day and night to get us off the ground. When we got the offer from a massive media company to buy us out, it felt like I’d summited Everest myself.
Then our company went public. Once my shares had vested, I used the money to invest in other start-ups. I got really good at picking winners. It all snowballed from there. By my thirty-second birthday, I was a billionaire in my own right.
Then Mom got her diagnosis. And my entire world crashed back to the ground.
“My mother’s proud of what I accomplished on my own, but she always wanted me to join Knightly Global. Reconcile with my dad and Kip. I did it for her.”
“Is she happy that you’re working for the family business now?”
I rolled my tongue against my teeth. “I think so. Yes.” I almost told her about my mom’s condition, since it was no secret, but something held those words at bay. I had no idea what.
“But are you happy?”
I stopped and grinned at her. “Happy right now. I have excellent company.”
She pressed her lips together, her amber eyes assessing.
We continued along the trail. “My mom died when I was in middle school,” Grace said. “Our dad…none of us were close to him. We haven’t heard from him in a very long time.”
“Do you want to hear from him?”
“Dad? No . He’s not someone I want in my life. Even though it makes me really sad to say that.”
I nodded because I understood. “Grace, I need to apologize again for what I said last night. Ashford’s told me things about your family, but your thoughts and feelings are your own. I would never assume that Ashford speaks for you.”
“I know. I was pissed last night, but you were right. It can be hard for me to trust people. Especially men. There are several reasons for that, but my father is one.”
“Understandable.” Her admission made me want to hunt down and punish anyone who’d taken the shine from her eyes.
Grace crossed her arms. “But my brothers don’t make decisions for me. And they don’t know everything about me. Not even close.”
“If you let me get to know even a fraction of you, I’ll consider myself a very lucky man.”
“You’re flirting again.”
“ Am I?”
I felt gratified when she laughed. I was such a sucker for this woman.
“There’s plenty of things Ashford and I don’t agree on,” she said. “Like Grayden, our oldest brother. You know what happened with him, don’t you? You must. You were serving with Ashford when all of that went down.”
I nodded. I’d met Grayden a few times through Ashford. Then suddenly he’d been arrested, courtmartialed. Sentenced to prison time and dishonorably discharged. At the time, I’d offered to get outside legal help for his brother, but Ashford had refused.
“Ashford hates talking about him,” Grace said. “Callum claims to be indifferent. But sometimes, I think about finding Grayden. I miss him. I wish I knew he was okay.”
“I’ll find him for you, if that’s what you want.”
She froze there on the trail, eyes wide. “Are you serious?”
“Of course.”
“You say that like it’s simple.”
“It probably would be. I know investigators. It wouldn’t be too hard.” All it would take was money and time.
“Why? Why are you so…” She waved a hand at me.
“Why am I what?” I asked.
“You keep doing things for me. Being sweet and generous and making me like you.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Making me want to believe you’re for real.”
“You think that’s bad? Just imagine what you’re doing to me .”
Grace’s dark eyelashes fluttered, and it was nearly impossible to suppress the urge to close the distance between us, like we had on the chairlift. She’d been pressed up against me, holding tight to me like the last thing she wanted was to let me go.
I didn’t want to scare her, though. I wanted to comfort her. Defend her against anyone or anything that dared to make her feel unsafe. Hold her and protect her like something rare and precious.
I wasn’t usually a soft, cuddly guy. But Grace brought that out in me more than any other person I’d met. Maybe because I could sense the strength she held in reserve underneath. Between her femininity and her kindness and the glasses, other people might not see her bravery. But I did.
Courage was pushing yourself to try something new. It was facing down your fears. Speaking up. Helping others. I’d seen Grace do those things countless times already.
Still, I was surprised when she edged closer, placing her palm against my chest. My heart kicked in response, and my cock jumped, swelling up against my fly.
Her voice was thick when she spoke. “You make it very difficult to be good.”
“Being good is overrated,” I murmured.
“Tell me more about Kip.”
My face scrunched up, and I made a frustrated huff. “I thought we were having a moment. You bring up my brother now ?”
“Better than whatever was just going through your mind,” she said.
The woman did have a point. My mind had just been imagining how nice it would be to kiss her breathless, right here on the trail, then strip her and lay her down on a bed of leaves to have my way with her. Bad boy .
We started walking downhill again. “Imagine a guy who was born to send a filet mignon back to the private chef on a yacht. That’s my brother.”
Grace snickered.
“He’s getting hitched next week. His bride, Bristol Harcourt, is the daughter of my dad’s business partner. It’s more of a merger than a marriage. I’m not looking forward to it. I leave on Friday for a long weekend in Manhattan. I’d much rather stick around here.”
“A New York wedding sounds glamorous though.”
Behind Grace, a breeze made the aspen leaves quake. The air smelled fresh and pure. But she put all of that natural beauty to shame. I had no doubt Kip and Bristol’s wedding would be expensive and elaborate, but all the glamor I could need in the world was right here.
I had my impulsive moments. This was one of them.
“Come with me,” I said.
Her mouth pursed in a small frown. “Where?”
“To New York for the wedding. Be my plus-one. It’ll be a lot more fun if you’re with me. You’ve never been to the city, so I can show you around. You’re my guide to Silver Ridge, I’ll be your guide to NYC.”
“Would I be going as your friend? Or as your date?”
There was a right answer here. A good behavior answer.
But that didn’t sound very satisfying.
Whenever I analyzed a potential investment, I paid attention to the numbers, but my final decision was always by gut instinct. Everything inside me said that Grace was a good bet.
“I’ve been trying to be friends with you,” I said. “Turns out I’m not that great at it.”
Grace bit her lip. “I should probably say no.” But she had that glitter in her eyes. I’d seen it before, and I knew what it meant.
“You want to say yes. I can tell.”
Grace laughed and shook her head. “I will think about it.”
I reached for her hand, lacing our fingers. “And I’ll be thinking about all the ways I intend to spoil you when we get to New York.”