Chapter 2
Reese
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to grow up without a family surrounding me. To be an only child, or at the very least, not to be swimming in cousins because, truthfully, they were pains in the ass. Even the one I considered my best friend. Her maybe most of all.
Then I realized I would hate it.
My family was everything to me. The legacy previous generations had established, and that I hoped to make soar, was the most important thing in my life.
Sometimes, I wondered if they were too much for me, but then again, most people I knew thought the exact same thing about me—that I was too much, and I hated that.
“I was thinking I was helping you. Reese, you can’t do this alone. You’ve tried dozens of things these past months with no luck, and your year’s almost up. We don’t have much more time to move the ship forward, so to speak. Put this puppy in drive.”
Ever pointed my way from her spot, curled up on a chaise lounge on the balcony of my apartment I shared with my brothers.
However, right now we were alone, and I was ready to let Ever have it.
Her heart may have been in a good place, but she’d completely lost her fucking mind.
Picking up my wineglass, I took a sip and grabbed a cube of cheese off the board.
I’d never turn down one of our wines and a charcuterie.
I think she came over bearing gifts to placate me, which I was having none of.
The placating that is, I was totally having her gift.
“Helping is, oh, I don’t know, thinking up another fundraising option or another bank I can talk to.
” Though it would take a lot more than one more fundraiser to see my plans through, and I feared I ran through every bank in the state already.
I stared at her, wondering if someone had dropped her on her head as a baby.
I didn’t remember hearing about that, but who knows?
“Like that’s going to be enough anymore? You’ve tried so much already. C’mon, Ree, you know that if we’re going to expand, we need some big guns. I simply took the step of reaching out to them.” She took a sip from her glass before popping a grape into her mouth. “You’re welcome.”
I’d blown through three quarters of the year the parentals had allotted to get this expansion vision off the ground, and it wasn’t going well.
I had plans galore and land aplenty. What I didn’t have enough of was capital.
Not by a long shot. I knew Ever’s heart was in the right place with her latest move, but I worried about her brain.
“Big guns? Ever, you reached out to two of the largest resort hoteliers in the world. Billion-dollar companies.”
I knew what she was saying was true, but I couldn’t fathom how she thought calling these companies was the way to go about it.
For years, I have been dreaming of expanding.
Of making the Henley businesses a destination, somewhere people traveled to instead of happening upon as they went winery hopping.
I wanted it so much I could practically taste it.
It was a time-honored Henley tradition—grow what we had already built.
The previous two generations had done it.
That’s how we ended up with the businesses we had.
The older generations were more than hesitant to agree to my plan, and that was being polite.
In times like this, I missed my Grams and Gramps something fierce. They would have been the ones I went to before venturing into the lion’s den. For counsel, for suggestions, heck, just for support.
Except they were gone now. They left before I was ready, before I knew what I truly wanted to do here.
Before I got their approval for it. Through months of stress, disappointment, and rejection after rejection, my biggest worry was always that they wouldn’t agree to what I dreamed.
Thinking they would be disappointed in me cut deeply.
“Ree, be honest with me and yourself.” She popped another grape into her mouth. “I know we can get what we want, but we need help and money. Money most of all, probably. Companies like Fitzgerald and Conti-Montgomery have exactly that. Money. Lots and lots of it.”
“I know,” I sighed, “but those companies?”
I never should have shown her my vision board.
Both companies had popped up during late-night research rabbit holes I went down, trying to figure out exactly what it was I wanted, what I envisioned.
Neither had exactly my dream, but there were elements that spoke to me.
There was also the distinct possibility, or maybe probability, they would try to snatch our land right out from under us.
Never in a million years did I think she’d call one.
“Yes, those.”
“You couldn’t have, I don’t know, reached out to smaller ones?” Ones that wouldn’t laugh at us. Be honest, like Ever said. It’s not them laughing that I worry about. It’s them coming in and taking over.
She smirked and popped a piece of cheese in her mouth. “Oh, I did. I reached out to a bunch of others, too, but really, it’s the same thing I say about men.” She licked her lips and moved her hands farther and farther apart. “Go big or go home.”
“You went enormous, Ever.” The woman was a menace.
With a waggle of her brows, she smirked. “Just the way I like ‘em.”
Closing my eyes, I shook my head. “What is wrong with you?” I held up my hand before she spoke. “No, don’t answer that.” I was equal parts intrigued and horrified at what her answer would be. “What the hell did you tell them?”
“Not a whole lot. I called the Acquisitions department and said we were looking to expand, not sell. Then I asked if they ever worked with small resorts. I didn’t even speak to a person, just some automated system.”
“We’re not a resort.” Not yet. Sure, I wanted to be, and that is exactly what had me in this predicament.
Leaning back in my chaise, I looked out over the property I’d lived on my whole life.
The buildings, the land, the mountains—it was all home.
It was everything I loved and wanted to see flourish.
My family had done it before, and I couldn’t imagine not adding to it.
It was what a Henley was supposed to do. Love the land and grow our legacy.
“Yet. We’re not a resort yet.” Ever looked my way as if she knew exactly what I’d been thinking.
This was the woman I went to for everything.
A few years younger than me, it never once stopped our friendship from cementing.
Our cousin, Ava, was closer to my age, but she’d moved away for school.
Ever and I stayed and had grown close. “But we’re going to get there, and to do that, we need help. ”
“I know you’re right, don’t think I don’t, but this kind?
” What experience did I have in handling companies like these?
None. Exactly zero. A small-town girl up against a big city company, I couldn’t be any more of a lamb waiting for the slaughter if I tried.
Who else is going to help? That was a question I could ask all day long and not one single time be able to answer.
Not exactly true. No one would help. It’s not like we were rolling in money.
We had land and businesses that stayed afloat, but that was about it.
To do what I wanted, we needed cash and resources.
Neither of which I’d had any luck in acquiring.
Two things those companies had.
“Yes, this kind.” Ever winked my way before lifting her glass in a toast. “Think about it; this could be the start of an amazing adventure.”
The only thing was, I worried the adventure might be more than I could handle.
“AHHHHH!” My scream of frustration echoed in the empty lobby of the B&B and accompanied the very unwise choice of throwing my phone, which was fortunately plucked out of thin air by my brother.
“Whoa there, flamethrower,” Logan teased as he strolled from the hallway leading to the kitchen.
Logan was our chef, and while the man could make the most mouth-watering breakfast pastry, he might lose his shit if he had to do it for the rest of his life.
A bed and breakfast, by its very name, didn’t serve other meals, and that’s exactly what Logan longed to do.
We’d sat on the couch in our apartment long into the night, more than once, talking about his dream restaurant we’d build on the property someday.
If that day ever came.
“Don’t take my head off. I come with an offering.” He placed my phone and a plate with a chocolate-raspberry muffin right in front of me.
“Why is everyone bringing me food? Are you people trying to bribe me?” I propped my hands on my hips, staring my brother down.
“If you don’t want it…” he said as he reached for the plate.
“Yeah, I did not say that.” I broke off a piece and stuck it in my mouth.
The fresh berries and dark chocolate burst over my tongue.
“God, that’s delicious,” I moaned. “You do know that even if we eventually build your restaurant, you’re not free from making breakfast for us, right?
Or at least me. There’s no way I’m giving these up. ”
Sometimes I worried I’d have to do just that.
Would he stay if we never got this expansion off the ground?
If his dreams stayed just that: a dream and not a reality.
Logan never gave any indication of wanting to leave, but he wanted more, the same as I did.
What if he couldn’t get the more he searched for here?
My other brother, Kellan, was off chasing and grabbing hold of his dream, but maybe realizing our dreams wasn’t in the cards for all of us.