Chapter 3 #2
“I met Walker, Connor, Milo, and Slater during those summer vacations, and we always kept in touch. They all had it so much easier than I did, but they never made me feel like an outsider. When Walker came up with the idea of getting a bunch of friends to invest in the resort, I wanted in. It was a no-brainer to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any money.
All the other guys did. Lots of it. But me?
I wasn’t exactly living paycheck to paycheck, but I certainly didn’t have the capital the rest of them did.
So, I made a deal with them. I was going to invest by putting in the time, the labor.
At first, I didn’t think they were interested, so I begged.
Not much, but I most certainly begged. And now… here I am.”
“Wow.”
“So I get it, Maisie. I get it. And I’m not asking what your story is. If you want to tell me, I promise I’ll listen and keep it to myself. But I’m not going to pressure you about it. If you’re telling me your situation is desperate, then I believe you.”
For a moment, she just stared at him warily.
Again.
He got the feeling that Maisie Quinn did not trust easily. But then again, neither did he.
“How about we make dinner and try to sit and relax? As I’m sure you saw, there’s a big table with chairs that are definitely more comfortable than these stools out in the lobby area.
That’s been our work hub. And after we eat, I’ll run down to the storage room and hopefully find stuff so we can bunk down somewhere comfortably. ”
“And…the interview?” she asked quietly.
“After I come back up with supplies and dry off, I promise to listen to your entire presentation. Deal?”
“Deal.”
It was oddly intimate to cook dinner in the massive resort kitchen with Axel. Neither of them excelled in cooking, but they managed to make a couple of steaks, some french fries, and some canned corn.
Not the healthiest meal, but it was actually very good.
Or maybe she’d been existing on fast food for the last week and this was the first proper meal she’d had in a while.
After dinner, they cleaned up together before Axel made himself another makeshift poncho out of the extra-large trash bags. This time he put it over the robe. It didn’t seem like a good idea, but he didn’t want to put his damp clothes back on.
But he did wear his work boots—because, you know, traction—and the overall look was hysterical.
She kept that observation to herself.
As soon as he stepped out the door, Maisie got to work setting up her presentation on the table in the lobby where they had eaten dinner. It was the perfect setup and gave her plenty of room to spread out her displays.
She was so nervous that her hands were shaking, but she did everything she could to put her own mind at ease. After all, she knew she had put together a strong submission that deserved to be considered.
“Hell, it deserves to be picked,” she murmured as she plugged in her laptop.
When everything was situated, she realized that Axel had been gone for a while—much longer than he had the first time he’d gone down to the supply room.
“Okay. Don’t panic. He’s fine. He’s just doing a more thorough search of all the supplies down there.”
Except…another ten minutes passed and he wasn’t back.
And then another.
Now she was definitely panicking.
The first thing she did was run to the back door and open it to see if she could see him anywhere. The wind was fierce and it was blowing rain right into her face. It was too dark to make out anything, and she feared he had gotten hurt while attempting to get down the stairs.
And she was afraid of meeting the same fate if she tried to go down and find out.
“I can’t just leave him out there if he’s hurt!” she reasoned frantically. “But I’m also not going to be of much help if I go out there and get hurt too!”
Ugh…this was a horrendous decision to make, but the bottom line was that she had to go after him.
Closing the door, she ran back out to where her clothes were hanging by the fire.
They were mostly dry. Not that it mattered because they were about to get wet all over again.
Her shoes weren’t very practical, but they were better than nothing.
Quickly changing right out in the open, she pulled everything on haphazardly, slid her feet into her shoes, and went to the kitchen to make herself a poncho.
It wasn’t as easy as it looked, but she eventually got herself situated and, with a fortifying breath, she made her way out the door.
She kept a death grip on the railing as she slowly went down the steps.
It was dark, and she knew it was smarter to take her time.
At the bottom, she called Axel’s name but didn’t hear a response.
That’s when it hit her that she had no idea where the supply room was.
It took a minute to get her bearings, and when she did, she decided to go around behind the stairs because the other direction would take her back to the front of the lodge.
The ground was muddy, and her shoes were sinking and sticking to it. She mentally cursed because they were Jimmy Choos and they had cost her a fortune. After this, they were going to be worthless.
So not the time to be worrying about that…
Feeling her way around she came to the side of the building and saw a faint light. It had to be the supply room, so that’s where she went. When she stepped inside, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Axel?”
“Maisie?” he replied, but his voice sounded far away and weak.
Not a good sign.
“Where are you?”
“Far back left corner. Just…be careful. The power’s not on down here. I found a flashlight.” As if to prove it, he moved the beam of light around so she could find him.
When she did, she wasn’t prepared for what she saw.
Axel was on the ground with a mountain of stuff wrapped in plastic on top of him.
“Oh my goodness! What happened?” She quickly moved to kneel beside him and began pushing the packages off of him.
“The shelf collapsed. I didn’t let a bunch of pillows, blankets, and towels take me out. Just so you know.”
She laughed softly.
“It just knocked the wind out of me. I would have been up on my feet in a minute.”
“Of course you would,” she said. When she found his hand, she gripped it and helped him sit up. “Did you hit your head? Do you feel dizzy? Anything hurt?”
“Just my pride,” he murmured as he steadied himself. “Thanks.”
Sitting back on her heels, she took in the mess. “Okay, so it looks like you found exactly what you were hoping to find, though.”
“Yeah, I didn’t come this far back earlier.
Or ever. There are even a couple of mattresses, but I don’t know if I can get them up the stairs in this ridiculous getup.
” As he said it, he adjusted the robe because it was resting dangerously high on his thigh—an inch or two more and she was going to see more of him than was appropriate.
She looked around, unwilling to just let all this stuff—especially the mattresses—stay down here. “You know what we haven’t done?”
“No, what?”
“Looked at our phones to see what the weather apps say about when there might be a break in the rain. If there is one, then we can come back down for the mattresses then,” she reasoned. “In the meantime, we grab what we can and go back upstairs.”
He was frowning, but she didn’t know him well enough to know why.
“Axel?”
“Um…yeah. Sure. That will work.” He got to his feet but turned his back to her so he could once again fix the robe and poncho.
“I brought two extra bags down with me to carry stuff back in.” Rummaging through the pile, he found them and handed her one.
“Grab a package of pillows, a package of sheets and comforter, and maybe more towels and another robe too, and I’ll do the same. ”
Nodding, Maisie got to work and in no time, they had what they needed. She slung the bag over her shoulder with a laugh. “I feel like Santa Claus!”
Luckily, that made him laugh. “I’d rather heft these bags around in the snow than the rain, but when we get upstairs, we’ll look at our phones. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that earlier.”
“To be fair, we’ve had other things to deal with.”
“True.” They walked over to the door, and he motioned for her to stay behind him. “I’ll lead the way. You can hold my hand or hold on to the poncho or something. Just stay close, okay?”
“Okay.”
It was just as miserable going back up as it had been going down. The only good thing was that Axel’s body blocked a tiny bit of the rain. When they stumbled through the doorway, they were both breathless as they dropped their bags to the ground.
Shivering, she didn’t even think about what to do next. “I’m going to take a shower.”
“Same.”
Much like she’d done earlier, she took her time. After all, what was the rush? They were stuck here for the night. And she was so cold and miserable that the extra time under the hot shower spray went a long way in making her feel better.
When she finally emerged from her room, she walked out to the lobby and found Axel already there, studying her presentation. His hair was damp, and he had his jeans on under his robe. But with his back to her, she had no idea what he was thinking.
“Crap,” she whispered as she slowly walked over to join him, not sure of what to say. So, she stepped up beside him and waited for him to say something first.
She didn’t have to wait long.
“This is…wow.” Turning his head, he looked at her. “This is really impressive, Maisie. And you did all this just by going online and looking up the resort?”
Nodding, she tried not to let herself preen.
“I know originally the plan was to come here with some basic ideas and you were going to let applicants tour the property to get a feel for it. But I believe in doing my homework, and I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time.
” The mirthless laugh was out before she could stop it.
“And I ended up doing that because I was late.”
“To be fair, your truck broke down.”
“I know, but…”