Chapter 1
Chapter One
“Taste this.”
“What the…?” Slater choked as he sat up and started swinging. “What the hell, Connor?”
Unfazed, Connor stood back and blinked at him. “You said you enjoyed a good bourbon butter cake, so I made one and wanted your input.”
“It’s two in the morning!” Furiously kicking off his blankets, he stood. “How the hell did you even get in here?”
“Please, you never lock your door, and I was excited about how this came out and didn’t want to wait until the morning for you to try it. Plus…” He shrugged while holding the cake plate. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
His friend’s eyes went wide. “Wouldn’t mind? Connor, I was asleep, and you know what? I love to sleep. You know what I don’t love? Having someone shove a forkful of food in my mouth while I’m sleeping! What is wrong with you?”
He still wasn’t seeing what the big deal was. “We’ll come back to that in a minute. But what did you think of the cake?”
Raking a hand through his already mussed-up hair, Slater let out an angry sigh. “That’s it. You’re out of control. We’ve all noticed it lately, but this is the last straw.”
“The last…?”
“And where is Annabeth, huh? Did you just leave her alone in the cabin while you were baking up at the lodge?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I would never leave my daughter alone. I baked in the cabin. I figured I invested in the upgraded appliances; I might as well use them. Tomorrow, I’m thinking of making…”
“I don’t care what you’re making, Connor!
” Slater yelled before letting out a long breath.
“Look, you’re a phenomenal chef; everyone knows that.
But lately, you’ve been obsessed with menus and trying new things.
And before you say anything, I know we’ve all benefited from it, but… you need to calm down.”
“We are opening our doors in less than eight weeks, and we don’t have the menu finalized,” he reasoned tightly. “I think this cake could be a great addition, don’t you?”
Slater’s expression went from annoyed to furious in the blink of an eye. “Get out.”
“What? Why? I just need…”
“You need to leave. And then you need to go next door to your cabin, and go to sleep. And lastly—and I can’t emphasize this enough—you need to never, ever come in here in the middle of the night ever again.”
“What if it’s an emergency?”
As soon as the words were out, he knew he’d pushed too far.
“Alright, alright. I’m leaving. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”
“It is the morning!” Slater shouted, shoving Connor toward the door.
Connor stepped out onto the front porch and turned to say one more thing, but Slater slammed the door in his face.
And locked it.
He supposed it was mildly inconsiderate to feed his friend cake in the middle of the night.
While he was asleep.
“But in my defense, Slater’s a light sleeper and should have heard me come in,” he murmured before walking down the steps and out onto the path that led back to his own cabin.
Which is where he should have stayed. His eight-year-old daughter was sound asleep and only a few feet away, but he had locked the cabin before he stepped out and knew it was secure enough for everything to be okay for a few minutes.
Still, it was the wrong thing to do, and now he felt awful about the whole damn thing.
You’re out of control. We’ve all noticed it lately, but this is the last straw.
What exactly did that even mean? How was he out of control? And who noticed it?
“I hate when people are vague.”
Quietly, he stepped up to the door of his cabin and let himself in.
Everything was peaceful and quiet, but he still went to the door to Annabeth’s room to check on her.
She was his entire world, and everything he was doing here at the resort was to ensure that she would have a good life.
He wanted her to have stability and to be surrounded by people who loved her, who were also good influences.
In a nutshell: not his family.
Sure, they were wealthy and they meant well, but their values were not the ones he wanted his daughter to grow up around.
So here he was back in Harbortown renovating and re-opening a resort that was a central part of his childhood.
And doing it with the best people he knew.
He and Slater, Walker, Axel, Milo, Jace, and Kelsey all met here at the resort as kids and stayed friends all these years. Now they were breathing new life into the place that meant so much to all of them.
Annabeth stirred a bit in her sleep, but once she was quiet again, Connor stepped away from the door. Their cabin was the largest of all the ones he and his friends were using, but it was still small compared to how he and Annabeth were used to living.
The Winslowes were an old-money family from Boston. Connor had grown up on a magnificent estate where everything was expensive and nothing was off limits. He went to the best schools, traveled the world, and whatever he wanted, he could have.
Well, almost.
Sighing, he went to their small kitchen and did his best to quietly clean up. He’d done most of it while the cake was baking, but there were still a few things that needed to be wiped down and put away. He loved cooking but hated the cleanup.
“I can’t wait to have a staff up at the lodge.
” Next week he was going to start interviewing prospective chefs and kitchen staff.
It was something he was both looking forward to and dreading.
For starters, he had no idea the kind of people their ad was going to attract.
He was used to owning restaurants in Boston, Dover, and Cambridge.
Big city, high-end restaurants got you top of their top-of-their-class chefs.
But a resort in a small town in upstate New York? He honestly had no idea.
Yawning, he wiped down the counter before shutting out the light and padding to his bedroom.
His tiny bedroom.
He’d been house hunting for what felt like months and nothing felt right.
He’d almost closed on a house, but it failed inspection and put him back at square one.
So, he had just purchased a piece of property and hired an architect and contractor to build him exactly what he wanted.
Annabeth had given her input as well, and all she wanted was a bedroom where she could have her friends sleepover, a playroom for all her toys, a room where she could dance, and a backyard with a pool.
It didn’t seem like much, but those few requests were just a small portion of why they needed to build.
Of course, that also meant they were going to be living in the cabin for at least six months.
He hadn’t mentioned it to his daughter, but that wasn’t going to work for him.
As much as he hated the idea of renting something short-term, it seemed like the most logical solution.
Actually, Walker’s fiancée Harlow—who was an amazing real estate agent—had suggested the rental scenario from the start, but he had been too stubborn to do it. And now look where he was?
Another yawn. Stripping down to his boxers, he slid beneath the blankets and felt all the tension leave his body.
He was tired. Exhausted even. And yet…he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he was forgetting to do.
Or maybe a sense of impending doom. Either way, he’d been feeling on edge lately, and maybe that’s what Slater was referring to.
“Yeah, I’m going to have to apologize to him tomorrow,” he said, rolling onto his side. “And try to remember boundaries.” His eyes drifted shut, and before he knew it, he was asleep.
The alarm went off way too early, but that wasn’t anything new.
In the distance, he could hear Annabeth running across the cabin right before she slammed the bathroom door shut.
“Note to self, tell the architect to put her bedroom on the opposite side of the house.” Knowing there was no time to linger, Connor stretched and climbed out of the bed, shutting the door as he grabbed his robe.
Their morning routine was fairly consistent.
Alarms went off, Annabeth got first dibs on the bathroom while Connor got up and made her breakfast. While she ate and got dressed, he’d grab a shower.
Once he was dressed and ready, he’d drive her to school.
As much as he’d love to sleep in, he enjoyed their time together on the way to school.
He loved hearing about what she thought was going to happen during the day and then would hear how it actually went on the way home.
Simplicity at its best.
Stepping out of the bedroom just as she ran by on her way back to her room. “Morning, Daddy!”
“Morning, Princess!”
And so it went. Today’s breakfast was a veggie frittata and toast, and when he stepped out of the bathroom after his shower, he saw she had eaten all of it.
“You ready?” he called out and smiled when she joined him with her backpack all packed and good to go.
The drive to school was completely uneventful, but Annabeth was looking forward to art class today and promised to bring home something they could hang on the refrigerator.
On his way back to the resort, he rehearsed his apology to Slater in his mind and hoped this wouldn’t turn into a big thing.
He’d say he was sorry for coming into the cabin so late and waking him up and promise it would never happen again.
Then he’d offer to make him his favorite breakfast—blueberry pancakes—and hopefully they’d just move on.
“Fingers crossed.”
But when he walked into the lodge, it was eerily quiet. He came in the back way, like he always did, and there was usually some sort of work going on. Walking through the massive kitchen, he stepped out to the lobby and paused in his tracks.
Standing in front of him like a wall were Slater, Axel, Maisie, Walker, Harlow, and Milo.
And there was a massive sign above their heads that read, INTERVENTION.
Shit.
“When did you get here?” he asked Milo.