Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Fuck his life. Honestly. He had been with more women than he could count, which wasn’t a point of pride per se, but it just meant that he wasn’t a greenhorn when it came to dealing with the opposite sex. And today, he had very nearly kissed his employee, and had said, out loud, “I’m your boss.”
As if he was scolding her, when he was scolding his damn self.
Unbelievable.
“You weren’t wrong,” Walker said, riding his horse alongside Cody, and generally making Cody want to punch him in the face. “She’s hot.”
“I never said she was hot,” Cody snapped.
“You did. You relented and said she was beautiful. Maybe I’m embellishing the statement, but…”
“She also works for us. And her husband just left her.”
“What an asshole.”
“Stay away from her,” he growled.
Walker’s brows shot up to the brim of his hat.
“You don’t need to tell me that,” he said.
“I’m never going to go after a vulnerable woman.
That’s the last thing I want. Somebody who’s in emotional distress?
I’m not that kind of guy. I can get the fruit at the very top of the tree, thanks, I’m not the type who goes collecting soft apples off the ground. ”
“She’s not a soft apple.”
“I didn’t say she was, I just meant that I don’t do that in general. I’m not our dad.” Walker snorted. “Well. My presumed Dad.”
They had only ever spoken about this one other time, when Walker had been drunk the night their dad had died. Cody cast his brother a glance. “We could do one of those DNA test things if you want.”
Walker snorted. “Hell no. Then I might actually find somebody. Not that I’m super hungry to share DNA with David Reynolds, but I’m also not hungry to figure out that there’s some other deadbeat out there that shares my DNA.”
“Fair.”
“Better the devil you know, right? Because the devil you don’t know could potentially be a serial killer.”
“Man, I guess. I think that’s a bit of a leap.”
“Mom had shitty taste in men, Cody.” Cody’s shoulder muscles tensed, and he hoped Walker wouldn’t go on. But he did. “You know, none of us could be his kids. Mom wasn’t exactly a reliable narrator about all of that.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Nothing that deep. I just… Don’t think she was always super honest about her whereabouts, and also, there were more men than Dad. Presumed Dad.”
“I know that,” Cody said.
“I know you know that, but sometimes I think you… I don’t know. I don’t think Mom wanted to be happy. I don’t think she knew how to be happy. That’s why I go out of my way to make my life happy.”
“Mom was miserable because that bastard was always keeping her on the hook.”
“And she chose the misery. Because it was the only thing she knew.”
He didn’t like this conversation.
“She was your mother. Have some respect.”
“I love mom. I love her still. Respect… that’s a little bit harder for me. You feel the way that you want to, Cody.”
Cody gritted his teeth. “She did her best.”
“Cody, you did your best,” Walker said, his face uncharacteristically grave. “And without you, Lila and I wouldn’t have had anything. You know I hate to inflate your ego any, but that’s the fact. Whatever good we had growing up, that was you. We were lucky to have you.”
Cody didn’t like this at all. It was uncomfortable, and honestly, he preferred the discomfort of having nearly kissed his employee and making an ass of himself.
“Mom had it hard enough without her own kids talking about her like this.”
“She’s dead,” Walker said. “And yeah, you’re right. She did have it hard enough. But so did we. And some of that was because of her.”
It was the weirdest thing to Cody, because between himself and his brother, he would’ve said that he was the least forgiving, most rigid of the two of them, but for some reason on this… Walker was set. And unkind.
“Oh, you know who wants to have her wedding here?” Walker asked.
“Who?”
“Addison Carey. Can you even imagine? She was so awful back in the day. She still is, I’m pretty damn sure. But now she wants to get married on our ranch. When she wouldn’t even make eye contact with me in the hall during high school.”
“Yeah. Their whole family is kind of a piece of work. Wasn’t her dad one of Dad’s good friends?”
“The very same. Because they’re basically timber barons and have all that lumber money. Anyway, as much as I don’t like her, I can’t say no to the wedding being on the property. Not when it would benefit us so much.”
“Well, you could say no if you wanted to.”
“And admit that she gets under my skin? Hell no. By which I mean, it annoys me. Nothing more to it than that.”
Cody was enough older than Walker, and by extension Addison, to not have a clear picture of her. He had an awareness of her family, but not really of her specifically.
However, what he could remember from the times he had seen her around town recently was that she was beautiful. Hard for him to call it up now, since his body was so obsessed with Marlowe, but he had a feeling that she got under his brother’s skin in more ways than one.
And probably, was one of the few women that he’d never managed to charm.
It was good for him. Speaking of egos that needed to be uninflated.
“Oh, hey,” Walker said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Someone’s on the main road headed toward the resort.”
“Probably the moving truck.”
Walker had a security camera feed that went straight to his phone, Cody couldn’t be bothered with anything like that.
If somebody was going to drive up on the property without his knowing, he would deal with it if he had to.
If they were a friend, he’d offer them a beer.
If they were a foe, he would offer them the end of his thirty-aught-six.
Either way, he had it covered. And he wasn’t especially worried.
He just thought Walker liked tech. Walker’s financial indulgences were different than Cody’s. Walker had a new truck with all the special features, a new phone, a new computer even though the only thing he did on it was work on spreadsheets and scheduling. Well, and monitoring his security system.
“Do you think she needs some help?”
What he thought was that Marlowe would probably benefit from him staying away from her. Because obviously, where she was concerned, his guard was a little bit low.
“I’m sure she can handle it.”
Walker chuckled. “You definitely think she’s hot. Or you would be over there.”
“Wouldn’t it be the opposite?”
“Not with you. Because you know exactly how you want to conduct yourself. You’d never put yourself in the potential path of temptation with an employee.”
“Again, I’m also not our dad.”
“Yeah.”
Silence stretched between them.
“But this is it, you know.”
“What is?” Walker asked.
“It’s showing everybody. Because Samantha Ford wants to get married on your ranch. And you could turn her down, if you wanted to.”
“No. Letting her do it is so much more rewarding.”
“Agreed.”
He didn’t keep going, but there was more to it. He had the power to be a good boss. He had the power to turn this place around. Hell, he’d given Marlowe that truck to use, and he hadn’t asked for anything in return.
His dad would have.
Because his dad had been a prick.
And Cody might be an asshole sometimes, but he had honor.
“I suppose I should go check on her. Make sure that the moving men are doing their job. Because if they don’t, she might need some help lifting things.”
Walker chuckled. “Help lifting things?”
“Yes,” Cody said. “I might not be good for much, but I can lift some things.”
“Cody, your biggest problem is that you’re good for too much. People don’t appreciate it, they take advantage of it, and they don’t see the real you.”
Cody didn’t feel like that was true. But he didn’t want to bother his brother about it anymore. Didn’t want to keep talking about it. It wasn’t exactly his favorite topic of conversation. Because what was there to say?
He’d never been a big one for relationships, and on the occasion when he had attempted to have one, it had all ended the same way.
He was closed off, he was inaccessible. Wasn’t emotional enough.
And he made it very clear he was never going to be more of any of those things.
Always a non-negotiable. He could understand that. Relationships were about compromise.
Which was why he didn’t like relationships. Cody Grayson wasn’t one who liked to compromise.
“Better get on over there,” Walker said, grinning.
Cody shot his brother a middle finger as he rode back toward the barn, putting his horse away and then getting into his truck.
“Chivalry,” he muttered. “This is goddamn chivalry. And I’m not taking shit from a guy who wouldn’t know chivalry if it bit him in the handsome face.”
But, he also knew he was lying. He wanted to be near her again, even though it was a bad idea. Even though he had made an ass of himself only a few hours ago. I’m your boss.
He pulled up to the front of the hotel, which had the beater truck, a moving truck, and Cara’s car parked in the lot, and even though he was preoccupied, he did take a moment to admire the place.
The black paint and honey colored wood beams and accents made a sharp-looking silhouette against the backdrop of all the glorious nature around it.
The soft, bark-lined paths that ran around the property, the tall pine trees.
They had lavender planted in the front, but it wasn’t blooming yet, because it was still too cold and too early.
Eventually, it would be a riot of color and nostalgia. It had been his mom’s favorite.
She would love this place. Would’ve wanted to stay in it.
If she had just lived a little bit longer. If he could’ve given her this life. The money that he’d earned.
If he could’ve just done more.
He swallowed down the lump in his throat and all the regret in his body and walked beneath the covered area in front of the hotel lobby and pulled on the wooden handle, slipping inside.