12. Ro
Chapter 12
Ro
“A mbrose.”
My father’s voice always set me on edge. I hadn’t exaggerated to Tessa—my father was usually angry or disappointed with me. When I was younger, I’d wanted to please and impress him. Honestly, I’d barely spent much time with him, and didn’t know him. Once I got to know him as a man, it hadn’t taken me long to realize I didn’t want to be anything like Niall Langston.
“I didn’t expect you to call again so soon.”
“You didn’t let me finish last night.” He made a sound. “I assume you’re busy jetting around playing hotelier.”
I felt a muscle tick beside my eye. “Why are you calling, Father? I said everything last night. I have work to do.”
“Then I’ll make this quick. I’m calling to invite you to my wedding.”
I closed my eyes and looked at the ceiling. I tried counting to ten. When I opened my eyes, Tessa was watching me with worry on that expressive face of hers.
“Father, you can see whoever you want, but surely since you barely finalized the last divorce, why get married again? There’s no need.”
“There’s every need. I love Trinity.”
I ground my teeth together. “How old is she?”
“Age is just a number, Ambrose.”
“How. Old?”
“She’s about to turn twenty. An adult.”
A teenager, and my father was in his sixties. My fingers gripped the phone. “She’s a teenager. Don’t do this. Don’t get married again.”
“It’s my life and my decision. You’ve taken all the other ones away from me.”
“Fine.” Tiredness washed over me. I needed to contact the lawyers and get a prenup arranged.
“Good. So save the date. The wedding will be mid-winter.”
“I won’t be able to make the wedding, Father.” He started making blustering sounds. “I need to go now.” And call someone to rescue me and Tessa. “Goodbye.” I ended the call and drew in some deep breaths.
A small touch on my arm had me lifting my head.
“I’m sorry. I always envied people who still had their parents, but something’s telling me not to in this case.”
“My father wanted to invite me to his wedding—his sixth—to a nineteen-year-old woman called Trinity.”
Tessa winced. “Isn’t he in his sixties?”
“Yes. But they’re in love .”
She pursed her lips. “Maybe it’s the real deal?”
I scoffed. “Just like the last five times. Love is a concept developed to excuse people for doing stupid things.”
“Wow, you’re a true romantic.”
“Have you ever been in love?” Suddenly I was very interested to hear her answer. My fingers curled around the edge of the crate.
“No. But I love lots of people in my life. Love is real.”
I wouldn’t know. “I’m talking about romantic love. It’s just an excuse to spend a lot of money on a wedding, then even more on a divorce.”
She waved a hand in front of her face.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to see through all the cynicism.”
I sighed. “Sorry, talking with my father always sets me on edge. Now, let’s call for some help.” I looked at my phone and cursed.
“What?” She pressed against me, and I tried not to focus on the fact that I could feel her soft breast against my arm. Or how soft and smooth the skin of her thighs had felt when I’d caught her when she’d tumbled.
She’s an employee . I repeated it a few times in my head to remind myself. My father had quite a few affairs with staff. I’d had to oversee several sexual harassment payouts.
“No signal. Trust my father to find the tiniest signal and drop his bombshell.” I felt the light throb that signaled a headache was on the way.
The power came back on.
The lights flickered to life, and I had a perfect view of the sympathy on Tessa’s dirt-streaked face.
The creak of a door echoed into the space. “Anyone down here?”
“Everett!” Tessa spun and headed for the stairs at a trot. “Thank God. I can’t believe the power went out. Again.”
I followed her. “I’m moving update wiring to the top of the list.”
The maintenance man stood in the doorway, tools in hand. There was a serious look on his face. “It wasn’t the wiring.”
“Really?” Tessa paused. “Don’t tell me a guest plugged in three hundred appliances in their room and was surprised they tripped the breaker?”
Everett shook his head. “I found the problem. Someone had tampered with a panel.”
Now I frowned.
“What?” A groove formed on Tessa’s brow.
“And, it looks like this lock’s been tampered with, too.” He pointed at the outside of the basement door.
I spotted the scratch marks on the card reader.
Tessa’s mouth dropped open.
Someone had trapped us in the basement on purpose.
“This is crazy,” Tessa said. “It must have been an accident.”
It didn’t look like an accident. No one at Windward had been particularly welcoming, and I figured this was another big fuck you to me.
It didn’t matter. I didn’t let anything or anyone get in the way of what I wanted. I straightened. “I’ll talk to Caden about this.”
Tessa didn’t look happy, but nodded. She straightened her dress. “I’m sure you need to get ready for your conference calls. Why don’t I organize for Chef Harvey to send a plate of food to your office, and I’ll…”—she looked down at her dirt-streaked dress and grimaced —“… tidy up. We can resume our tour this afternoon.”
“That’s fine.”
“Good. Thanks again for the rescue, Everett.”
I watched her hurry off with that brisk, efficient stride of hers.
“She loves this place.”
I glanced back at the maintenance manager. With his job and the flannel shirt, it would be easy to dismiss him, but I saw the intelligence.
And the protectiveness.
“I’m getting that.”
“You tear this place down, or rip out the heart of it, you’ll destroy her.”
With that, he strode off down the corridor.
I wasn’t here to make Tessa happy. I was here to make the Windward Mountain Resort worthy of being the Langston Windward. I looked at the dirt smeared on my shirt and shook my head.
So far, I wasn’t off to the best start.