Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
He didn’t hide out the next day.
He set up his crew to work on the cabins and then went up to the lodge to check on the progress there.
When he spotted Maisie, he immediately went over to her.
She looked so freaking good in a pair of snug jeans that hugged all her curves and a T-shirt that clung to all the right places.
His hands twitched with the need to do exactly what he said last night and haul her over his shoulder and take her to his cabin, but he refrained.
For now.
There were people everywhere and they were all in motion. Walker spotted him and jogged over.
“Hey! I was about to come looking for you.”
“Really? Why?”
Walker motioned for Axel to follow him over to one of the tables set up against the wall. “We’ve got so much going on in so many areas of the resort right now that we thought it might be helpful if we used these.”
He handed Axel a walkie-talkie.
“Seriously? Walkie-talkies?” he asked with amusement.
“Or you can call it a two-way receiver. I’m not picky. It’s just getting to be too much to keep running all over the damn property when we need someone. Right now, we’re going to test it with you, me, Connor, and Slater.” Then he handed Axel a clip he could use to add it to his belt.
“Okay. Thanks.” He hooked it onto his belt and shrugged.
“Are you here to help build some furniture?”
“Um…no. I’ve got a crew working on the cabins and I just wanted to come up and see how everything was coming along up here.”
Walker smiled proudly as he glanced around.
“It’s really coming together. Like…I can’t even believe we’re at this point already.
It felt like it would never get here, but somehow Maisie made it all happen.
I honestly had no idea about the timeline and how long it would take between the time we placed the orders and the time it would all be delivered, but we lucked out and literally everything we ordered was in stock. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Seems like it.”
Clapping his hands together, Walker’s smile only grew. “I promised my grandparents I’d send them a video so they can see all the progress.” Pausing, he looked at Axel. “I still can’t believe we did this. Like…we were just a bunch of little snot-nosed kids running around here, and now we’re…”
“We’re grown-up snot-nosed men running around here,” he teased. They both laughed. “But I get what you’re saying. There are a lot of memories here. Good and bad. So it will be nice to only have good ones moving forward.”
Then he spotted Maisie, and he desperately wanted to keep her in the good memory category.
“There are only going to be great ones,” Walker corrected, but then he followed Axel’s gaze. “Okay, you either need to stop looking at her like that or take her back to your cabin. And I thought the two of you were cooling it for now.”
“We are, but it’s not what I want. I’m respecting her wishes. I just don’t like it.”
“And she won’t tell you what the issue is with her family?”
“Nope.”
They stood there in companionable silence for a moment before Walker spoke again. “I wouldn’t stand for it. And I don’t mean that like I’m being a jerk; I mean that if she’s clearly got something going on that is this upsetting to her, I’d want to be the guy to jump in and make it right.”
Axel glared at him. “Um…that’s not the stance you took with Harlow, so don’t even.”
“It’s not…”
“If memory serves, you accused her of some pretty horrible stuff when the reality was that her family was freaking awful. I’m guessing Maisie’s family is kind of the same way; otherwise, why would it be so dire for her to get this job?”
Walker didn’t respond because he was too busy glaring back at him, but Axel had no regrets about what he said.
The truth was his friend had been really hard on Harlow when they were first dating.
He spoke and acted without thinking or even knowing all the facts, so who was he to be giving Axel advice?
“Look, I get it,” Axel said because he couldn’t stand the silence. “You made mistakes, and you’re trying to keep me from doing the same.”
“Exactly.”
“I wouldn’t even know what to do. She hasn’t shared anything about her life. I don’t even know where she lives. Normally, I’m okay with that sort of thing. I prefer keeping things casual, so I have no idea how to go about finding out anything about her without pushing her away.”
“Well…maybe you should ask Milo to do a little digging,” Walker said carefully. “You know he’s a damn whiz when it comes to searching for information online. If you called and asked…”
But he was already shaking his head. “No. That’s an invasion of privacy. I can’t do that. It feels wrong.”
“How else are you going to find out anything if she won’t tell you?”
“I don’t know, but…I don’t want to be that guy. It’s like being a stalker.”
“No, it’s not. If you’re legitimately concerned about her, then you should try to find out more about her background. I’m not saying get her credit report and have someone follow her, but you can at least get her address.”
“Why don’t we have that? With the contract, I thought that would be important information.”
“Her company has a P.O. Box in Westchester, but that doesn’t mean that’s where she lives.”
Axel rolled his eyes. “No, but it’s a start, right?”
They were interrupted when one of their foremen came over to ask Walker about some of the furniture for their owner’s suite. When they walked away, he decided to go over and say hello to Maisie. She was studying something on her tablet but looked up and smiled when she saw him getting closer.
“Hey,” she said softly. “I was curious if you were going to say hello, but you looked pretty intense over there with Walker. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just talking about some stuff that I might need to do.”
Way to be vague…
“By the look on your face, you’re not happy about it.”
He shrugged. “It’s not anything I want to do, but…I think I have to.”
Tilting her head, she gave him a sympathetic look. “Anything I can help with?”
You could tell me about your damn life so I wouldn’t have to snoop!
Swallowing hard, he shook his head. “No, but thank you.” He glanced around at all the work going on around them. “Everything going okay in here?”
“It is! Oh my goodness, I love seeing the rooms come together! Would you like to see one?”
“Uh…sure.”
“Come on.” Taking his hand in hers, she led him through the stacks of boxes and the workers hustling about.
She led them down the hallway they had used that first night in the storm, but she kept going all the way down to the end.
They stopped outside one of the doors, and she faced him again.
“This room is a suite. It’s got a little more detail and personality, and I think it’s going to be a favorite with your guests. ”
All he could do was nod because he wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Ready?” she asked, and he nodded again.
Stepping in front of him, Maisie opened the door with a playful little push, stepping aside so Axel could be the first to cross the threshold.
The room smelled faintly of cedar, paint, and new fabric—the kind of scents that cling when something’s been built with care.
Inside, the space glowed. Weathered wood planks lined the walls, their texture softened by creamy drapes that swayed gently from the air conditioning blowing through the vents. Edison bulbs cast a honeyed light across the rough-hewn beams and the stone fireplace on the far wall.
Glancing at her in mild surprise, he asked, “When did we put in fireplaces?”
“Oh, it’s an electronic one. It’s really just for show. I mentioned it to Walker, and he loved the idea. We only put them in a handful of suites. But isn’t it fabulous?”
“It is.” Turning, he continued to look around.
The bed dominated the room—reclaimed timber dressed in layers of crisp white sheets, a chunky knit throw, and pillows in shades of sand and rust. A leather bench gleamed faintly at its foot, equal parts rugged and inviting.
It looked like something out of a magazine.
He’d never been in such a luxurious space before.
Moving around slowly, his boots muffled against the woven rug. He smoothed his hand across the dresser, tracing the iron pulls before glancing back at her.
“This is incredible, Maisie. It makes me feel like… I should stay awhile.”
Her smile was dazzling. “That’s the goal. Rustic chic. Comfortable, but still… worth remembering.”
Axel drifted toward the bed, his fingertips brushing over the knit blanket, testing its softness. He looked at her again, and this time his gaze lingered a second too long. “You really did all this? Like…you saw it all in your mind and then put it all together in here?”
She let out a soft breath, nodding. “Every swatch, every late-night sketch. And a few dramatic arguments with the procurement team. And a few healthy discussions with Walker. After I did the initial research on the resort, I just had a vision. I can’t explain it.
I saw the space and I just knew what I wanted it to look like.
” She laughed quietly. “I could have done without so much arguing, but…”
He chuckled low too. “It was worth it.” Straightening a bit, he closed the distance between them. He didn’t touch her, not yet—but the warmth of her felt closer than it should. “It doesn’t just look good, Maisie. It feels… like you.”
Inwardly, he groaned because that just sounded dorky.
“I mean…it all looks exactly like those sketches you showed me the day we met. You brought it all to life. I thought it looked perfect on paper, but you took it and somehow made it even better.” Pausing, he glanced around again.
“If I could have put into words what I wanted the rooms to look like, this is it.”