Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Sheridan
Jasper’s long legs chewed up the sidewalk, but he kept his pace slow for me. I clutched the plastic container with both hands. This wasn’t foolish. It wasn’t impulsive. I was in public with the strange man I had picked up outside a coffee shop.
If my brothers heard about what had happened, I’d never hear the end of it.
They’d double down on pressuring me to sell the resort.
Then, if I sold it, even though I’d have to split the sale with them, they’d have opinions with a capital O about what I did with my share of the money.
Mom gave me a chance to make a living doing something that was in my blood.
We approached the park. Beyond the library, the area opened up. Trees towered over an expansive green lawn littered with several white canvas tents that were being taken down. Pickups pulled in and out of the lot. The farmers’ market. I hadn’t returned long enough to ever visit.
Grief tugged at my chest. I should’ve taken more time off.
I couldn’t think about it now. I had to keep my wits about me.
I didn’t know Jasper Duke, but there was nothing about him that filled me with fear.
His reaction was quite respectful. Anyone else would’ve…
I didn’t know, but a lot of reactions would’ve been appropriate. Instead, he was helping me.
“Over here is a shaded picnic table.” He veered to the left, onto the grass toward a cluster of tall trees looming over several picnic tables. A family sat at one, and Jasper aimed for the farthest away.
His swagger hooked my attention. Duke. Did I know him? I recalled some Duke girls. Twins. No. They were close in age, though. Then there was a boy. Two? And one in my grade.
“Lily,” I said.
He cast a questioning look my way. “My sister Lily?”
A beat of triumph hit my veins. A tiny win, and meaningless, but I’d take it. “I remember her. How is she?”
“Good.” He grinned and held an arm out for me to choose a side.
When I slid onto a bird-poop-free section of the seat, he sat across from me.
His brown eyes had darker striations, creating a maze within.
He also had a granite jaw and wide shoulders.
With such an easygoing and supportive first impression, I didn’t realize how big and…
hard…he was. “She’s married with four kids.
Living in Crocus Valley and working at the vet’s office.
All the Dukes are back in town, actually. ”
“Your family left, and then you all moved back?” Mine was never that close.
He nodded, the corners of his eyes crinkling. His cowboy hat shaded part of his face, making him almost mysterious. “Lily started it, and the rest of us came back one by one.” The corner of his jaw jumped. “My grandma, uh, left some property to everyone.”
“I guess that’s what brought me back too.”
“Yeah?”
I cupped the yogurt container. “Mom and Dad started the resort when I was five. I grew up following Dad around working there. He passed away ten years ago, and Mom took over everything he was doing, on top of her tasks. She knew what that place meant to me, so she left it to me.”
I’d like to think that anyway. Most likely, it was because my brothers both operated ranches, and I had nothing to my name. I needed their support after her death.
“Your mom kept it going by herself?”
Barely, but I gave him a firm nod. “And if she could do it, so can I.” Why did I sound like I had to convince myself?
“Damn right.”
I laughed. “You’re officially the only one who has faith in me.”
“Don’t you have a couple of brothers?”
I appreciated how stunned he looked. “I’m the baby of the family.
The only girl, and a daddy’s one at that.
Or I was.” Hadn’t I dumped enough on Jasper?
He made it easy, and it was nice to have a connection in the area that wasn’t one of my employees.
I had nothing to prove to Jasper, but I’d started at rock bottom with him.
“Anyway, no. My brothers aren’t cheering me on, and we’ve gone back to hardly talking. ”
“Oof.”
“Yeah. I just hope they aren’t right.”
“They won’t be,” he said easily. “What’d you do before this?”
“Real estate.”
“Did you like it?”
“Hated every minute, and I was the lowest earner every year.” I couldn’t quit admitting all my failings to this guy.
We just met. I barely remembered him, which meant he was likely playing with the cool kids across the playground.
Football, kickball, dodgeball. I did anything that didn’t require me to get picked last for the team.
“Then Mom passed, and she left the resort to me.”
“She had your back.”
I smiled and warmth flowed through me. He was wrong, but I couldn’t get enough of his quick confidence. “She wanted me to be happy.” That wasn’t a lie. “I’m going to try to make her proud and show my brothers I can do it.” And do a job I enjoy.
He gave his head a shake. “I don’t get it. Why don’t they think you can do it? I’ll always be ride or die for my sisters. My brother too, but he’s got his shit together better than anyone I’ve ever known.”
I nibbled on my lower lip. His gaze dipped to my mouth and I was tempted to lick out, just to see what he would do.
Not the time, Sheridan! “They think I’ve been bailed out or helped more than them.
Dad bought me a car when each brother had to work for one.
But I did work. At the resort!” When he nodded, I gathered my courage to say the rest. I’d already dumped everything and my mother on him.
“I left college after sophomore year, and that upset my dad. Then I worked odd jobs, mostly at hotels.” I wanted to capture the freedom I’d had trailing my dad around as a kid.
“Then just as my real estate career was drawing its last breath, Mom passed and left me an escape plan. I’ve got to make this work, and I have to do it on my own. ”
Sympathy softened his eyes. “What happens if you don’t?”
“We sell and split the profits.”
“Ah. And if you draw a bunch of debt, that eats into their inheritance.”
“Yep. So I’ve gotta make this work.” I spun the container in my grip. It’s warm, like Mom was with me. Maybe she sent this guy?
As if he’d be interested in me. My first impression left a lot of room for improvement, and it wasn’t like I was in a place for a relationship when I had so much else on my plate.
“You’re doing better than me,” he said. “I’m jobless and renting a house from my brother.”
I never wondered why he was wandering around, but then I’d been out for coffee in the middle of the day too. Nothing about Jasper said he was lazy. “It’s not because there are no jobs in your field?”
He stretched his hands over his head, drawing his shirt tight across his broad chest. Wow. When he relaxed, he shook out his strong limbs.
Thank you, Mom.
“First, I got laid off,” he continued. “Then when Lily and Eliot married, he moved from across the border in Montana to Crocus Valley.” Crocus Valley was only ten miles away.
“He hired me to be the Knight’s Cattle Company manager, and that’s what I’ve been doing until he and his siblings decided to sell. ”
“You’re between jobs.”
“You could say that. After being outside for years, working in an office isn’t at the top of my list. Got any work for a handyman?”
I ran through the list of tasks to do at the resort.
The roof on the old garden shed needed to be replaced.
A few rooms could use new carpet. Others screamed for a paint job.
The budget included a maintenance guy, but the man who had worked for Mom quit right before she passed, and he hadn’t had a raise in years.
The stress had likely contributed to her heart attack. “What if I told you I did?”
Surprise flitted across his face. “I’d be out there with my tool belt on.”
That easy? He didn’t know the pitiful details. “We haven’t discussed wages or hours.”
“I just need something to do, Sheridan.” He was more serious than he’d been all morning, and that included the ash debacle. He’d basically been laid off, but he didn’t want to be idle.
I could respect that. “I’ve got plenty of that. I’d have more, too, if I could expand.”
“You plan to expand?”
I shook my head. “No plans. There’s no way to, but if I could get beach access?” I let out a wistful sigh. “If I could get direct access to the water and make it easy for the boaters to come up for food and drinks, it’d really help the bottom line.” And keep me—and everyone else—employed.
His jaw was tight. Was that alarm on his face? Whatever it was disappeared. “How could you do that?”
Did he know something about the property I didn’t? He’d been so open with me, surely he’d have told me something. “Well, I’d like to purchase the property between me and the docks, but the owner refuses to sell. Tells me she can’t.”
His nod was slow. “That’s too bad.”
“Right? I don’t even need the whole thing, but she said it can’t be split up. I’d negotiate, but no. She said to call back at the end of August.” I had the summer to figure my shit out.
He flinched. “That sucks.”
Was he that incensed because I was? The guardedness coming from him was unusual, but I didn’t know him. He’d been open and charming, and now he was…closed. I had no words for this turn.
“You’ll make it work,” he said with sudden authority. “You’ll be able to get Bishop’s Landing going again and be profitable.”
Warmth filled all the little empty cracks that had been cold since hearing Mom died. “Thank you. And you can start Monday.”
Jasper
“You got a job?” Alder set a to-go coffee cup on my kitchen table and sat across from me with his own. It was Sunday, and he was out running errands for work on his own house. Since I was renting from him, he stopped by to check on the place. Mostly to check on me, though he’d never say that.