Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Marlowe was so breathless she was dizzy. She wanted to stand there staring at that man forever, and she wanted to go running from the building — screaming for dramatic effect — and into the woods, never to return.
Cody was even sexier than his voice.
Hotter than hell.
Gorgeous enough to break through a devastating marital betrayal and a cross-country road trip of heartbreak.
He had to be six foot five. The answer to the question: Is he hot or is he tall? was a resounding yes in his case.
A solid wall of muscle, it was obvious, even without her crossing the lobby to get closer to him.
He was wearing a cowboy hat, inside, and it shaded some of his features, but she could still see that they were angular, rough, and perfect.
He had dark stubble on his jaw that was halfway to being a beard, and it made her fingers itch, wondering what it would feel like.
And also made her want to run away because the last thing she wanted was to think about feeling another man’s beard.
Much less her boss’s beard.
It was a forbidden beard.
Painted Ridge was a lifeline. She had nothing left. She didn’t have a lease, she didn’t have a house, and if she didn’t take this job, she had no money.
They had put everything into this move. And now she was here by herself, needing it to go ahead even without Aiden.
Because if she didn’t have this, she really didn’t have anything, and the last thing she needed was to find her boss hot, especially when she was in such a precarious position.
So she was ignoring the hotness, as best she could.
She looked past his shoulder, through the immaculate lobby – it was gorgeous, pictures didn’t do it justice – toward the window at the back, and the view there.
“So, I’m really sorry. I can do this by myself.
” She forced herself to drag her eyes to his.
She ignored the low, simmering heat in her stomach.
“I’m very sorry, I didn’t realize that this would happen.
But when I tell you, I have been the one who has been mainly running things for most of our marriage, believe me.
Aiden was very good at guest services, but so am I.
I was the one who managed all of the organization. Guest satisfaction, things like that.”
“Well…” He seemed speechless, and he looked angry that he was speechless.
It took him about thirty seconds to say anything.
“If you think you can handle it, I don’t really have time to look for anyone else.
We’re supposed to open. We’ve hired staff.
Not just you. We have reservations. We are supposed to open in a month, and I need you here.
But if you feel like you’re in over your head, you’re going to have to ask for help. And I don’t have the time to help you.”
He wasn’t being placating, that voice was just as sexy as it had been over the phone, and just as uncompromising.
It was clear that he wasn’t going to baby her. Which was fine. She didn’t need to be babied. She didn’t need anything like that at all.
“I’ve got this. Trust me. For the bar, I managed the entertainment, scheduling, ordering supplies, all of that. Aiden was very good at bartending, at making menus and things like that, but…”
“I don’t need you to do all that here. My sister is going to manage the master schedule for everyone at the resort.
We have software, so if people want to trade shifts or anything like that, it should be easy for you to make adjustments, but Lila is going to make sure that we have the personnel that we need.
You can work with her on hiring and firing as we go forward.
My chef at the restaurant will obviously handle concerns relating to staff there.
And of course, Cara, whoever you decide to hire at the bakery, that’s up to you. ”
“Okay,” Marlowe said. It was starting to sound less demanding than other jobs she’d done. Honestly, it was incredible. When they had been driving up to the ranch, she’d been stunned by the natural beauty, but she was even more stunned by how perfect the hotel was.
Natural light flooded in from the wall of windows at the back of the room, a view of the mountains and the river that was so stunning it took her breath away.
The floors were warm wood, and the check-in counter – which would be her post – was the same natural wood, with a sleek, black stone top. The wall behind the counter had wood acoustic treatment with a black iron mountain and black letters weaving through it that read Painted Ridge Resort.
There was a sleek, inviting seating area at the center of the room, and to the left was a stone chimney and fireplace, with a couch in front of it.
Then there was a room she could only barely see from where she stood that looked like a library.
To the right was the restaurant, which offered the same stunning views as the lobby.
Just. Perfect.
She looked at Cody, and she realized he wouldn’t have it any other way. She could just tell that about him. He was exacting. It wasn’t an act, that was for sure. It was who he was. Deeply. Down to his bones.
“I promise you, I’ve got this. This isn’t my first time working with reservation software, and I know how to handle the needs of guests.
We had a very upscale clientele in Maine, and they were very, very finicky.
We also had security concerns, because sometimes we had famous guests, and I’m also very good at managing that. ”
“I don’t know that we’ll get anybody famous. But there’s a lot of money that will pass through, that’s for sure.”
“I can do that.”
The more that she thought about all the things that she had done at the previous jobs she’d shared with Aiden, the more she realized how imbalanced it had been.
And with respect to Cara – though they had talked absolute shit about Aiden the entire way here – she didn’t see the point in holding it back now.
“He was dead weight,” she said.
She wasn’t sure she meant it, not all the way. She was broken and hurt and angry, and Cody was sexy, but her heart was still broken.
She didn’t want Aiden back, she also felt very clear on that. Because she would never be able to trust him ever again. For her, trust and stability were everything. The pillars of her adult life, because she hadn’t been able to have them as a child.
He was supposed to be her one. Her stability. The proof everything would be okay.
He was the only man she’d slept with. Knowing that he had been with another woman… No. She would never be able to take him back.
She contained all those feelings, all at once. And she wasn’t sure if she believed, not entirely, that her whole life was going to be better because he wasn’t in it.
She wasn’t sure that she believed that he was entirely deadweight, not when she got a picture of him standing behind the bar, making martinis and smiling at the guests, looking handsome, but not in a dangerous way.
Not the way that Cody was.
The last five days had her completely messed up. She didn’t know if she was on the ceiling or the floor.
That was the honest truth.
“I can manage without him. And honestly, maybe even better.”
Cody lifted a dark brow. “I don’t know how I feel about the fact that I hired a couple, and now it turns out that you were just doing PR for him.”
“No offense,” Cara said, “with respect to the fact that you’re a man. But I think women are doing PR for their partners more often than people realize.”
Cody’s other brow shot up, joining the first. “You’re her sister-in-law, right? Am I… Wrong in assuming that her husband is your brother?”
“Not at all. Which should tell you something. I’m here with Marlowe, I’m not back with Aiden. I think that Marlowe is amazing, and I know that she’s going to do wonderful things for the hotel. And like you said, it’s too late to turn back now.”
“Right. Well. Let’s head out to the bakery, take a look at the place.”
He pushed past them, walking out of the lobby and into the parking lot. Marlowe exchanged a glance with Cara.
“He’s hot as hell,” Cara said.
Marlowe didn’t want to agree. “And terrifying,” she said.
“Well, I don’t know if you realize this, Marlowe, but he’s a whole cowboy.”
She had noticed. She’d never had a cowboy fantasy before, but right at the moment, she felt consumed by it.
He was something utterly new.
Something wild and untamed, something part of this harsh, jagged landscape. More mountain than man, an old-growth tree rather than a sapling.
He made Aiden seem insubstantial, not just with regard to his physique, but there was a weight to Cody that she had never sensed in Aiden. Or really, any other man.
Not that she had vast experience with men. She chose to stop thinking about men and start thinking about her job, her new home, as she stepped out of the lobby and into the parking lot.
The March sun was bright and warm on her face, though winter was still fighting to keep its grip, a chill hanging onto the clear, crisp air. The mountains were capped with snow, and there had even been thick snow banked on the side of the highway she and Cara had taken to Mustang River yesterday.
Like the man, it was a rugged sort of place.
“I’ll drive you,” Cody said.
“Oh… Sure,” she said.
Cara scrambled to get into the backseat of the truck, and Marlowe felt awkward. Did she get in the backseat and make it seem like he was chauffeuring them? Or did she get in the passenger seat and put herself next to him?
Next to him, she decided, because that was the not weird thing, really.
She rounded to the passenger’s side and got in, buckling her seatbelt, even though she had a feeling they weren’t leaving the property.
He backed out of the parking space and headed down the paved road, back toward the highway.