Chapter 5 #2
“My dad always used to tell my mom they would be together someday, and no matter how little proof there was that it would ever happen, no matter how obvious it was that it wasn’t going to, she believed him.
And that’s the thing that makes me have no use for liars.
Because yeah, it’s easy to think that somebody should be smarter.
That they should be just a little bit more cynical, my mom really could’ve used a good dose of cynicism, let me tell you, the problem is still the liar. I don’t lie.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate that. Good to know I’m not working for a liar.”
“My brother Walker is a liar, though a little bit more benevolent than our father, but that’s just a warning.”
She frowned. “What kind of liar?”
“Walker likes to spare people’s feelings. Not something I’m familiar with, and he’ll tell a little white lie to do that. It’s definitely in his wheelhouse. “
“Oh.”
“It’s not like he’s married or anything. That would be a disaster.”
Not a glowing recommendation, though she didn’t think Cody saw it that way. This was all just facts to him.
“I see. And he’s your younger brother.”
“Yes.”
“I think I exchanged a couple of emails with him. He’s your marketing manager?”
“That he is. Because he is just so damn good at spinning things.”
“And lying.”
“We all have our strengths. Then there’s my younger sister, the one who does operations. She is going to help you out. Don’t take anything she says personally. She’s… Like me.”
“Oh.”
“A little less tactful sometimes.”
That would be funny if it weren’t a little bit scary. “Okay. I guess I feel prepared.”
“She did promise to make egg sandwiches for the meeting, though.”
“Great,” she said.
Just then, the truck pulled up to a lovely ranch house. It was vast, with natural wood siding and large windows like the kind in the lobby of the hotel, but it was a lot more rustic.
“This is your house?”
“Yes. My brother and sister each had their own place on the property, but they’re usually here.”
He was close with his family. So that said something good anyway.
He wasn’t all bad, no matter how he pretended to be prickly.
He also couldn’t be entirely cynical.
He was building too many things to be cynical.
In her experience, cynical people didn’t tend to accomplish very much, because they talked themselves out of it before they ever got started.
No. Building up something like this wasn’t the act of a cynic. She could see what he meant, she could see the hard edge in him, but there was more than that. It was complicated, and so was he.
Do not go writing fanfic about this hot man in your head. That is very stupid. And you know better. Especially now.
She practically shook her head, trying to get all these thoughts and feelings out.
She really couldn’t do that. Just because he was handsome didn’t mean she could turn him into something benevolent, especially when he was making it clear that he wasn’t that.
As soon as he put the truck in park, she got out, followed him up the front steps, and into the house.
There was a loud discussion happening, and even if she couldn’t make out the words, she could hear the passion.
That had to be Lila.
A smooth, male voice responded, and she was sure that was Walker, based on what he had said about his siblings. It tracked right along with how he had described them.
They rounded the corner and entered the dining area, and both Lila and Walker turned to look at her.
“Lila,” he said, gesturing to a brunette. “Walker,” he said, pointing toward the blonde man. “This is Marlowe.”
“Nice to meet you,” Walker said, standing up quickly and extending his hand.
“Calm down,” Cody muttered.
Marlowe blinked.
Was Walker… Flirting with her? But then, based on what Cody had said, Walker was a flirt and a little bit of a grifter. So, she was going to stay well away from him.
Really, she wanted to stay well away from all men, she didn’t want to be experiencing this attraction for Cody. It was off-putting and strange.
“Nice to meet you. Both of you,” she said.
“Have a seat,” Cody said.
She complied, sitting down in front of a platter of sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade.
“Drink?”
This question came from Lila, who didn’t look frightening. She was petite, wearing a flannel, with dark hair and a twinkle in her eyes. She seemed like the kind of person who would maybe enjoy a dirty joke, but she didn’t give off quite as much of a spiky aura as Cody did.
Or maybe that was gender bias on Marlowe’s part, since men weren’t her favorite right now.
Men had never been her favorite. Not as a general species. Aiden had laughed with her about that, and she’d said often to him, thank God — thank God! — that she didn’t have to date.
All the while, he’d been one of the men she hadn’t respected, and he’d just smiled and laughed with her, gotten into bed beside her, and turned out his bedside light like he wasn’t a liar and a cheater.
“I thought it would do us all good to sit down and go over the plan,” Cody said.
Lila smirked, picked up the pitcher of lemonade, and poured Marlowe a glass, without Marlowe confirming that she wanted one. She took it and thanked her.
“I love to see you in planning mode,” Lila said, looking at her older brother. “Because I know you hate it.”
“I don’t hate it,” Cody said.
This was fascinating. A look at the way the people around him interacted with him, the people who were familiar with him. His family.
She tried not to be interested in that. Tried not to feel like she was mining the interaction for gold.
She was.
“Yeah, you do,” Lila said cheerfully. “Cody is happiest when he’s outdoors. He isn’t one for paperwork.”
“None of us are,” Walker said. “But unfortunately, running a ranch and the business that we’re building within that requires a lot of paperwork. I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that.”
“Paperwork is a lifestyle choice that I’ve made,” Marlowe said. And tried not to think about all the paperwork that would be involved with a divorce.
She blinked and dragged herself out of that thought. “But, I don’t really mind it. Lila, I’m under the impression that you and I have some crossover responsibilities?”
Lila nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been liaising with vendors for supplies for the hotel.
Linens, drinks, things like that. I hired the grounds crew and housekeeping for the hotel.
We have local wineries that are putting wine in the little store in the lobby, but we also have bigger drink companies supplying our fridges for room service and for the restaurant. ”
“Good,” she said. “And you’re managing scheduling?”
Lila nodded. “That was the idea.”
“You don’t have to do that. I think it would be easier if I did it, since I’m going to be at the hotel every day. But I’m happy to let you take on broader operations.”
“Oh. Sure,” Lila said.
She seemed happy about that, and not like she thought Marlowe was overstepping, which she was grateful for.
“I haven’t managed a staff this size, but I have managed them before.
I just think it’s easier because I’m the one who’s going to be interacting with them every day.
So, if something comes up, I’m going to be the one who’s there.
The one that they’ll go to first if they need time off, or if they have to go home early, or if they can’t come in because of an illness. ”
“What other places have you managed?” Walker asked.
“It’s on her résumé,” Cody said.
“I don’t want the résumé version. I want to hear about it,” Walker said.
“Oh. A guest farm. In Vermont. There were cottages, and a whole working farm besides. That was really fun. And then after that, a bed-and-breakfast in Maine. Which was gorgeous. Right on the beach. But then, for the last couple of years, it’s been the bar in Brooklyn.
There are guest rooms above it, and it was very different.
I didn’t really enjoy it.” She was trying so hard not to say we.
“All of these jobs seem to be the kind of thing that take over your life,” Walker said.
Those words were a bit too targeted. They were like a small knife blade sliding in between her rib cage.
“I suppose so. Ranching isn’t any different, is it?”
Cody shook his head. “No. I guess you can have an office job, work for somebody else, but then you go home at night, and you leave the job there. In theory. I know that isn’t always true.
But then, there is the kind of job that becomes more than half of who you are.
I think having a ranch is that. I guess running hotels and resorts is much the same. ”
“I’ve lived where I worked for most of my adult life. With the bar, I lived across the street in an apartment. So, that was the furthest away from work I had been for a long time.”
“I guess we all live at work,” Lila said. “Funny. I never really thought of it that way.”
“Did you all always know that you wanted to… Do this?”
“Hell no,” Walker said. “I just wanted to get rich. I went into the rodeo because Cody got rich doing that.”
Rich. Well, of course, he was rich. He couldn’t be building something like this if he wasn’t.
Though she had the distinct feeling, based on the way Walker had said that, and based on everything that Cody had told her, that they hadn’t started out that way.
“And after that, you decided that you wanted to have a ranch.”
“We inherited a ranch,” Lila said. “I guess we could’ve turned around and sold the land, split all that up, but then…”
“It made more sense to just run it,” Cody said.
“I see.”
“Cody is the one who got it into his head to make this a luxury resort. The tourism here has gotten more and more fancy over the years. A lot of people come to this part of the state to ski, and he visited some places in Montana and Wyoming, got a sense for what people are looking for.”