Chapter 18
The next morning, Grant was more confused than ever about what he was doing with his life. During his conversation with Thandie last night, he had accidentally admitted the truth about just how exhausted he was. After he became a widower, his job had given him purpose and a sense of control over his life. Moreover, his job had been a well-timed distraction.
Thandie, or perhaps the serene setting of The Foundry itself, showed him that he couldn’t go on like that forever. Ringing in his head and heart was the warning that he had given to the incredible woman sitting in the spa with him last night. What happens after a year, or even five? You’ll burn out. He was burned out. He knew that now, and maybe he was ready for a change.
The thought of settling down was a secret he had kept in the back of his mind. Until last night, he hadn’t been brave enough to even say it out loud to himself, let alone to a spirited woman who he barely knew. But being around her felt so easy. Why had he broken his own rule to not get involved with the people or places he visited?
“Because I’m an idiot,” he said and buried his head under his bed pillow.
There was nothing wrong with a little flirting. Since there was little pressure that he would ever see her again, it seemed harmless enough. But Thandie was different. He not only wanted to see her again, and soon if he could help it, but he wanted to see much, much more of her.
For once, he wasn’t being consumed by his own heartache. Instead, he possessed an intense focus on what or whom had wounded Thandie and sent her on an escape mission. A mission that had landed her in the boonies, running a wellness retreat, and catering to a bunch of middle-aged people. She alluded to the cause of her pain, but she wasn’t in any more of a hurry to spill all her guts than he was. And who could blame her? They each hardly knew the other.
Grant threw his pillow against the wall and flopped back. Staring at the rounded beams of the ceiling, he remembered the curves of her body as she had slipped out of her clothing and into the warm spa water. Her tan skin contrasting in the low light with her white bra and panties that looked more like a bikini than underwear, and her wet hair falling in long strands over her shoulders. And one delicious brown curl that clung to the damp skin of her chest. How he wished to explore the depths . . . of her soul.
He shot up from the bed and straightened the covers. “What are you doing, Grant Goldie?” he scolded himself. “You’re being selfish. And stupid. And—” He had nothing more to chastise himself about. He had spent a decade wallowing in the cage he constructed around his own heart. She was the one that needed healing now, not him. She was the one who showed him there was hope. She was the one that he couldn’t stop thinking about. She was the one?—
The landline phone rang in the kitchen.
Grant dropped the throw pillows where he stood and hurried across the room. “Go for Grant,” he said and pressed the handset to his ear.
“Grant. Davis Mothan here, I’m glad I caught you. I tried your cell first, but it wouldn’t connect. The front desk put me through.”
Just hearing the name Davis sent a twinge through his shoulders. “Sorry about that. The signal here is terrible, but I have it on good authority that the issue is being remedied.” Grant took a deep breath and sat in one of the leather chairs beside the front door. “What can I do for you, Mr. Mothan?”
“I was hoping for an update. And call me Davis, please.”
The way his boss said Davis, holding out the s like a simpering snake, curled Grant’s stomach. And his fist. He knew there was no way that Mr. Mothan was the same man who had hurt Thandie, but the name alone caused a protective tension to ignite his sinew.
“Things are going really well. I don’t have my final report completed, obviously, but my first impression is a good one. This place is spectacularly beautiful and serene. The food is fantastic. The activities are engaging and unique. The director is amazing. Thandie has a way with the guests that I’ve never seen before.” Grant paused as Thandie walked by his window on the pathway outside. He swallowed hard. “She makes everyone feel like they are the most important person at the retreat. It feels like home here.”
“Sounds like you want to move in.” Davis chuckled again in that haughty, not funny way. The same way Davis had sounded when he spoke of the people busying themselves on the streets below his corner office. “What did you say the director’s name was again?”
Only half paying attention to the man on the line, Grant answered, “Thandie. She’s doing a bang-up job.” Grant craned his neck, and his eyes followed the sway of her hips as she carried a large tub of something towards the dock. He would be joining the next activity at the bottom of the hour. “Anyway, I have some more things to investigate before I’ll be ready to give my full opinion. For one thing, it’s very wet here, and I see a potential issue during certain times of the year when profitability might go down.”
“And other times?”
“As long as there are procedures in place so that the guests still experience what they’ve paid for, then it should be fine. I can tell you that your investment would allow them to hire more staff and improve some of the buildings where inclement weather activities could be held. But overall, you might want to start looking for your checkbook.”
“I’m very keen on moving forward, but I’ll wait for your full report. And Grant, don’t let this woman—the activities director you said—blind you with her charisma and beauty.” Davis coughed away from the receiver and cleared his throat. “I’ll be in touch.”
The line went dead, and Grant shook his head at the awkward goodbye. He hadn’t mentioned Thandie’s beauty, or her charisma, yet Davis had. Was Grant’s crush on her so obvious that even a person thousands of miles away could tell how smitten he was, or was Davis more informed about The Foundry and its staff than he had first let on?
Checking the time, Grant slipped on his hiking boots and tucked the red laces inside the tongue. He was in a hurry to catch up to the woman who had captured his attention. Though there wasn’t much catching up to do. Thandie had stopped twenty paces down the path and was bent over picking up the numerous scissors and pruning shears that lay scattered on the ground. The tub lay nearby and was turned onto one side where she must have dropped it.
“Thandie!” he called out. “Thandie.”
She removed an earbud from one ear and looked over her shoulder at him. A smile lit her face as their eyes met. He knew he was smiling too. He couldn’t help himself. Slowing, the damp gravel shifted beneath his feet as he met up with her.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Goldie?” she said. Her smile had betrayed her at first, but was replaced with a soft and distant look in her eyes.
“Mr. Goldie, huh? Okay? Can I help you out here?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’m nearly finished. Have you eaten today?” she asked. “Brunch is being served in the barn. God, that sounds so terrible. In the barn,” she said with an affected country accent.
“You don’t like the barn?” he said and chuckled at the way he had mimicked her country voice.
“I’ve been trying to come up with different names for it. The clubhouse. The main house. The hall. Nothing sounds right. But the barn sounds too basic.”
“It is what it is. If you tell someone to go to the barn, they’ll know exactly where to head to.”
“True,” she admitted as she rocked her head back and forth. “It doesn’t leave any room for misinterpretation.”
She seemed distracted by something, constantly looking over his shoulder and around at anything other than him. “Is everything all right?” Grant asked.
Thandie laughed her answer. “Of course. Why would you think anything is wrong?”
“We said no pretending, right?”
She shrugged and laughed out her response again. “I’m not pretending. I’m totally fine. Everything is fine. You?”
There was no use in fighting her on the detail at the moment. He knew she was bothered by something, and most likely by the something they had shared while in the spa last night. He suspected she was self-conscious about having let her guard down with him. He wasn’t embarrassed by it at all. He had felt freedom in her honesty. He had felt something natural and real for the first time in a long time. And the cracks in the wall protecting his heart were deepening with each additional moment he spent near her.
“I’ll let you get back to it,” he said. “The nature walk is soon?”
“Yes. I’ll see you there?”
He nodded and turned back towards the cabin. That freedom he had felt with her was so much more than just a conversation with a beautiful woman. The part he focused on was that he had felt. All the years of taking on every job he could to get away from dealing with the realities of his life, he had been hurting, too. That feeling of wanting to settle down, of wanting to have a life with someone again, meant he was healing. It meant that his feelings for Thandie weren’t just about her. His feelings meant that he was ready to move on. It meant that things were about to change in his life.
And change for the better.