Chapter 11 #2
“Sure, there is, boss,” Walker said, moving away from him and pushing into the middle of the room, where he began to mingle with the guests as easily as he did everything.
Walker was just so annoyingly adept in social situations, something Cody had never picked up, and how would he?
You had to have some kind of natural affinity for it when you lived in a town where half the girls were forbidden from speaking to you.
He had been treated like something scary, not like something to be pitied. A guy from the wrong side of the tracks who might be uncivilized.
But it wasn’t the same as learning to talk to people. Learning how to be in a room. Even winning in the rodeo wasn’t the same as all that.
He could be stoic and professional. He had figured that out easily enough.
But this thing that Walker did, he just didn’t have that.
Neither did Lila.
Lila was also hanging off against the wall, looking like she would rather be anywhere else. Probably out running with the wild horses.
He crossed the room to where his younger sister was standing. “How are you doing?”
“Fine,” she said.
“Yeah? You don’t look like you’re having fun.”
“This isn’t really my thing,” she said. “I mean, it’s great. It’s really cool. But at this point, there are a lot of people here, and I don’t know any of them.”
“Lies. You know me. You know Nolan.”
“I’d rather jam an ice pick through my eye.”
“Okay. You know Marlowe and Cara. Laney.”
Lila hesitated. “Yes. And they’re very nice.”
“But?”
“I don’t really know how to do that. Have…
Friends. Especially female friends. Not in that way that like I’m not like other girls or whatever.
Just in the way that in school, no one was nice to me, and all I had was…
you. And Walker.” She looked sincerely distressed before she said the next name. “And Nolan.”
“Sorry, kid,” he said. “I did really try.”
“I know you did,” she said. “You did more than try. You’re the best older brother. In the world. Hands-down. No contest. But… that doesn’t mean I know what to do at a party.”
“Yeah. Because I don’t know what to do at a party. Walker should’ve taught us both.”
“Walker is possessed of dark magic,” Lila muttered.
Cody chuckled. And at that moment, he looked up and saw Walker talking to Marlowe. Marlowe looked at ease talking to Walker in a way that she never looked when talking to him, and he became very aware of the fact that she had done a lot of communicating with Walker over the last little bit.
“Yeah. Definitely dark magic,” he said.
He waited for a breath, then another. And then he decided he just couldn’t deal with it. “Excuse me.”
He crossed the barn, making a beeline for his brother and Marlowe.
And when he was only a couple feet away, Marlowe looked up, her eyes going round. She was frozen like that. She didn’t smile, didn’t offer a greeting. Nothing of the kind, in fact.
“Hello,” he said.
It hadn’t occurred to him until right then that she might be upset with the fact that he hadn’t contacted her since that afternoon.
He had thought that she might be glad about that. Because they had professionalism to worry about all of that sort of thing. But maybe he had misread the situation.
“Hi,” she said.
Walker looked between the two of them. “Well. I’m going to go circulate. It was nice to talk to you, Marlowe,” he said.
Later, he was going to kick Walker’s ass. He asked for this. He knew exactly what he was doing. That jackass. He had baited Cody over here by chatting Marlowe up, and now he was leaving, so that the two of them could talk.
Marlowe looked up at him, beneath the veil of her eyelashes, and dammit all, he was a sucker for that. For the way that she was gazing his direction.
That questioning look on her face, her cheeks bright pink.
“Hi,” he said, again, because it seemed important to do now that Walker wasn’t here. Like it was the real greeting.
“Hi,” she responded.
“How are you? I mean, how is the hotel?”
“Oh, everything’s going great. The staff is awesome, Laney is the best. Really fun.”
“You divorced yet?”
He hadn’t meant to ask that.
She wrinkled her nose. “No. But, thanks to you, or… Lila, for hooking me up with the lawyer’s information. I’m on the path.”
“Good. I just wish that I could be there to see the look on his face when you initiate things.”
“He’ll be thrilled,” she said.
“I don’t think so.”
The two of them looked at each other for a long moment, and the color in her cheeks mounted further. “He’s with somebody else already.”
“You know what I know about men like that? And think they’re going to lose anything. They think they get to have everything on their terms. The minute that you make it your terms, he’s going to have an issue.”
“I hope so,” she said, smiling broadly. “Because I would really like to cause him some problems.”
“I have no doubt you will.”
A little bit of tension settled between them, but he was bound and determined to get things back on track.
He had decided already that that afternoon together wasn’t going to change anything.
It couldn’t change anything. Because they worked together.
Because they were building this place together, and she was…
She seemed like she was doing good. He should be relieved by that.
He didn’t want to be the asshole boss who slept with her and made her feel uncomfortable around him.
Well, he was an asshole because he was her boss and he had slept with her, and he wasn’t all that reassured that she was doing good. Because he sure as hell wasn’t.
“You don’t feel like you need anything ahead of the grand opening?”
“No. Everything is great. Everyone is so professional. You’ve put together an amazing team. It’s very impressive, Cody.” She looked around the room and lifted her beer bottle to her lips. “Your mom would be proud.”
Her words hit him squarely in the solar plexus, because they weren’t just empty words.
She knew a little bit about his mother, about him and his siblings’ lives, and he knew that it had been something he wanted to hear.
Even if he could never ask anyone to tell him, to reassure him. Even if he could never admit it.
“Thanks,” he said.
“So, this is the big venue for the weddings?”
“One of them. Obviously, there’s the potential to have smaller weddings outback at the hotel. Or to have a ceremony out there, and a reception in here. We have different packages. And both...”
It felt so stupid to be having small talk like this with her. He couldn’t recall ever having to try to engage a woman that he had slept with before after the fact.
When he was in the rodeo, they had all been strangers. Women that he met one night in one city, and then never saw again.
As far as the town went… Well, it had always been women who didn’t want to admit that they slept with him. He had been their definition of slumming it. Their shame had kept them from ever engaging with him afterward. And damn, he had no practice with this.
No practice with what level of conversational intimacy was appropriate when you’d been inside of a person.
And you were trying to pretend that you hadn’t.
Small talk, he supposed, but it felt so silly and shallow and all manner of things he didn’t especially like to waste his time on.
They were standing in the middle of a crowded room, and it felt like they were the only two people. Certainly, she was the only person he really wanted to speak to.
“The bakery is great too,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve gone in and had some sweets, but I eat there every morning.”
“I’ve been in a couple of times,” he said. “Looks like Cara is a pro. Just like you said.”
“I’m very trustworthy,” she said.
“You are. That’s why I knew that I could trust you to get the hotel up and running without me breathing over your shoulder.”
A small, funny smile curved at the edge of her mouth. “Oh, is that why? Because you trust me so much?”
He couldn’t help but give her the same sort of smile right back. “Yes. That’s why.”
Silence stretched between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
It was an echo of that afternoon in the cabins, where the tension had been something wild and delicious.
Berries growing along a sundrenched river.
Sweet and tart and tempting. But too much of it and you would make yourself sick and ruin your appetite.
Though he was beginning to wonder what the hell he was saving his appetite for when all he wanted was her.
“You should see the patio out back,” he said.
The minute the words exited his mouth, he knew that he was full of shit, and he knew exactly what he was doing.
“Patio?”
“Yeah, it’s just a nice little area that we put together. Again, more venues for parties and things like that.”
“You know, I was wondering if it would be worth putting in some RV spots,” she said.
“Really?”
“Oh yes, that can be very profitable, so I’ve read. People look for wineries and ranches, unique places to park their RVs.”
“Fascinating,” he said, feeling edgy. “I’ll have to look into that.”
“Yeah,” she agreed as she followed him while he wove through the crowd of people in the barn, heading toward the back door. He could feel someone looking at him, and he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Walker, who winked. He looked away quickly.
He pushed open the back door, and Marlowe stepped out into the darkness.
He closed the door behind them.
“It’s not very well lit,” she said.
“No. It’s not. That’ll have to be fixed.” He reached out and grabbed the bottle of beer from her hand, set it firmly on one of the patio tables just to his left, then took a step toward her. She backed up a step, then another, until her shoulder blades were back up against the side of the barn.
“I don’t think you came out here to show me the patio,” she said.
“No. I lied. Are you okay with that?”
She glanced up at him, and he could see the full moon reflected in her eyes. He needed to hear her say yes.
He needed it more than he needed air.
Then finally, she nodded, just a little bit. “Yes.”