Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
It was a little after nine when Axel pulled up to the resort in the morning. He was used to being up early, and he knew he had a long drive and wanted the opportunity to talk to Connor before Maisie showed up.
As expected, there was a ton of activity going on when he arrived. Today was a workday, and he felt a little guilty about not being there and doing his part. And then he felt even worse because he was going to take a few days off to go with Maisie to the city.
He parked and climbed out of the truck and tried to figure out where he should go first. Fortunately, Slater was walking his way.
“Hey, you’re back!” his buddy said as he approached. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks. And thanks again for taking care of my crew yesterday. It was a real dick move for me to leave the way I did when I have a ton of responsibilities here.”
“Extenuating circumstances, and you’re allowed to step away when you need a break. Out of all of us, you’re the only one who’s basically been here 24/7. If anything, you’re due for some time off.”
Raking a hand through his hair, Axel laughed softly. “Funny you should mention that. Maisie and I talked last night, and I’m going to go with her to the city today. She’s having dinner with her parents and asked me to go with her.”
“Wow! That’s a huge step. And I’m guessing that means the two of you worked things out?”
He nodded. “I’m in love with her. I don’t know what the hell she sees in me when she can clearly do better, but I’m going to just ride it out until she realizes it.”
Slater’s expression hardened. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Put yourself down? Why wouldn’t she see something in you? You’re an incredible person. The only one who doesn’t see it is you.”
“Well…”
“I’m serious, Axel. You are the most honest and loyal person I think I’ve ever known. I’d trust you with my life. You’ve been a great friend to me for all these years—to all of us—and it sucks that you don’t believe in yourself.”
He was about to comment when he spotted Connor walking their way. Slater caught the direction of his gaze and chuckled.
“This is my cue to get back to work.” He clapped Axel on the shoulder as he leaned in close. “Remember what I just told you. Every single one of us has your back, no matter what.” He paused. “Go easy on him.”
“We’ll see,” he murmured even as Slater stepped away.
“I’ve got your crew covered. I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Thanks, man. Seriously.” They shook hands just as Connor stepped up.
“You’re here.”
Axel nodded. “I’m here.”
“Want to talk in my cabin? I can whip us up some breakfast.”
“Um…yeah. Sure.”
They turned and started making their way toward the cabins, with Connor making small talk about all the work they accomplished yesterday with getting the guest rooms in the lodge furnished.
“And Slater said the punch list for the cabins is almost done, so when the next batch of furniture arrives, we should be good to go.”
All he could do was nod because none of this was new information to him.
When they stepped into Connor’s cabin, Axel glanced around. “Where’s Annabeth?”
“At school,” Connor replied as he stepped into the kitchen. His cabin was the largest of all the ones they were currently using. They had all agreed on it since he was moving Annabeth here with him.
“Any word on when you’re going to be moving into a place of your own? I thought Harlow had been showing you houses.”
“She has, but nothing’s thrilled me. I’m actually toying around with the idea of buying property and building a house.
It’s been kind of nice staying here in the cabin and just having the time to be with my daughter and talking to her about what she wants us to do.
I feel like back in Boston, I was always working, and she was with a nanny or at school, so we weren’t really having any down time together. So for now, this is working.”
He handed Axel a steaming cup of coffee.
“Have a seat at the counter while I make us something to eat. What are you in the mood for?”
“You don’t have to do that, Connor. Maisie’s gonna be here around ten, and I need to get some things together.”
“Then how about a muffin? I baked a bunch of them yesterday, and Annabeth convinced me to bring some back to the cabin and then refused to eat any of them,” he explained with amusement. “I’ve got cinnamon crumb, banana nut, blueberry, and chocolate chip.”
“I’ll take the cinnamon one. Thanks.”
He sat down on one of the stools and within minutes, Connor was sitting opposite him with his own coffee and muffin. “On a scale of one to ten, how pissed at me are you?”
Axel couldn’t help but laugh. “Yesterday it was an eleven. Now it’s around five.”
Grinning, Connor nodded. “Okay, then I’m heading in the right direction.”
“Maisie explained everything to me so you don’t have to, but…you and I have been friends since we were five. Your loyalty should have been to me.”
“It always has been, but…when she told me her story, it was like Lexi all over again.”
Damn. He’d forgotten about that.
“It was all so damn similar. My parents were obsessed with me marrying someone appropriate. Appropriate by whose standards, right? I mean, I knew I wanted to marry Lexi from the time we were fifteen, but…she wasn’t from the right side of the tracks, and I was forced to break up with her.”
“I remember that summer. It was brutal,” Axel said quietly. “Lexi was a great girl.”
Connor stared down into his coffee. “Lexi was the best girl, and I had to break her heart. It was awful. I was so depressed, but my parents didn’t care.
The next thing I knew, Rachel was being thrown at me, and they badgered me about how she was the perfect wife material.
The harder I pushed back, the more things were being taken away. ”
There wasn’t anything he could say to that.
“So, I completely understood how helpless Maisie was feeling. I suffered for years, and I just couldn’t let her go through the same thing.
And as for keeping her secret, well…I get why you’re mad at me, but it wasn’t my secret to tell.
I had no idea how the whole thing was going to turn out or what kind of information I was going to find.
We just didn’t expect everything to explode the way it did yesterday. ”
It was hard to stay mad when everything Connor was saying made sense.
“It’s just a crappy situation no matter how you look at it,” Axel admitted.
“Exactly.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Connor spoke again.
“So the two of you talked things out?”
He nodded. “We did. There are still things we need to discuss, but I’m going to the city with her today and to dinner with her and her parents tonight.”
Connor’s entire face lit up. “Seriously? That’s awesome! Have you talked to Milo yet?”
“Um…no. Why?”
“He was doing a little digging on Maisie’s father for her. He’s got a file.”
As much as he wanted to ask what was in it, he didn’t. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear that.”
“Don’t you want to know what he found?”
Axel shook his head. “Maisie deserves to hear it first, and if she wants me to know, she’ll tell me.”
His friend studied him for a long moment. “You’re in love with her.”
“I am.”
“Good. You’re good for her.”
That made him laugh. “Me? Really? How do you figure that?”
“You respect her. You’ve respected her privacy all this time, even though it made you miserable. And yesterday, you defended her. She’s never had anyone do that for her.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because no one did it for me either,” Connor replied quietly. “You may think growing up wealthy means your life is easy and wonderful, but trust me, that’s not always the case.”
“I’m sorry, Con. I’m sorry that I misjudged you. You’ve always been a good friend, and I guess there were a lot of times when I just assumed that you had this great life all the time.”
“I was brought up to put on a good facade. I was never supposed to do anything but smile and make it look like everything was just the best.” He shrugged. “That’s why no one ever realized how much I hated being married to Rachel. The only good thing about it was having Annabeth.”
Nodding, Axel took a sip of his coffee. “Have you ever thought about reaching out to Lexi?”
Connor’s laugh was a bit mirthless. “More often than I’d like to admit. But then I think of how awful it would be to disrupt her life and make her remember what I put her through.”
“Not you. Your family.”
“I was still the main messenger. I’m sure she looks back on her time with me—if she ever looks back on her time with me—and regrets it all.”
“I don’t know. We all spent the following summer together…”
“She spent most of her time with Kelsey and some of the other girls. We kept our distance.” He sighed as he picked up his mug. “I’d like to think we would have been happy, but…that ship has sailed.”
They finished their muffins, and Connor wiped down the counter.
“So? Are we good?”
Axel stood and smiled. “Yeah. We’re good.”
“Do we need to hug it out or something?”
They both laughed. “Nah. But I guess we could shake on it.” He held out his hand, but Connor stepped around and hugged him anyway.
A bro hug—lots of clapping on each other’s backs.
When they stepped apart, they were both grinning.
“So…you’re meeting Maisie this morning?”
“Yeah, she said she’d be here around ten. And I really need to run over to my cabin and get my shit together.”
They turned just as Milo knocked and let himself in. “Oh, hey! You’re back. Everything okay?”
He chuckled again. “Yeah. Everything’s great. I’ll let Connor fill you in. I’ve got to get ready because Maisie’s going to be here any minute.”
“Um…before you go, I just want to say I’m sorry if my involvement in all of this upset you. I just wanted to help.”
“We’re cool, Milo. And if it weren’t for you, Maisie would still be struggling with her parents.” He paused and noticed the folder in his friend’s hand. “Is that…?”
“This is everything I could find on Dominique and Alexander Quinnland.”