Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
He hadn’t had time for that little interlude, but God, it had done his body good.
All he could think about was Marlowe, though, and he had to get the ranch in order.
Though it was as in order as it was going to get at this point.
Guests were coming in tomorrow, but the Painted Ridge Dining room was opening up tonight, a soft, grand opening, and Laney had every table filled with a reservation.
Marlowe and her staff would probably be busy seeing to all the last-minute details for the reservations, and he would do well to stay away, he was sure.
But, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
They had left Painted Ridge early yesterday morning and had left this thing between them open-ended.
The reality was, right now, there was no point pretending they weren’t going to find their way back into bed.
They were.
He hadn’t meant to spill his guts quite like that.
Apparently, not having had a real relationship meant that he was prone to that. He wasn’t sure how much he should share, what he should hold back, and it had felt right to tell her that.
Marlowe was no stranger to family drama. She’d given him a lot of details about her. He had figured it was safe to tell her all of that.
But anytime he talked about his mother’s death, he got a sick feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t shake off.
Normal, he supposed, but that didn’t make it pleasant.
Laney sent a text to Walker later, inviting the Grayson family to come and dine at the restaurant tonight, and that gave him the perfect excuse to make sure he saw Marlowe. He asked Laney if there was room for Marlowe, and she confirmed there was.
At midday, he stopped by the front desk, where Marlowe was dressed in a black button-up shirt and skirt, looking uptight and efficient, and like a gift he wanted to unwrap.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” she said, barely looking up, but her cheeks turned bright red. That satisfied him. “I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with the rest of the family and me tonight at Painted Ridge Dining Room. Laney has a special table for us.”
Marlowe looked up, shock on her face. “Do you want me to eat with you?”
“Well, yeah. The calm before the storm, right? You have people checking in tomorrow at three?”
“I’m very aware.”
“And pretty much every business owner in town is coming for dinner tonight in the restaurant.”
“I mean it sounds great…”
“Oh, hi,” a tall, slender young man wearing black, just like Marlowe, came out from the back office and stopped when he saw Cody.
“Hi,” Cody said.
“Did you need anything special?”
“No,” he said. “I… I’m the owner.”
“Oh. I’m Chris.”
“Hi, Chris,” Cody said.
He wondered if the kid had a crush on Marlowe. God knew if she had been Cody’s boss, he would’ve been completely obsessed with her.
Of course, he was the boss. But the idea of a role reversal wasn’t entirely unappealing…
“I’ll just… leave you, then.” Chris slipped back into the office and closed the door.
“I think he was checking on you,” Cody said.
Marlowe laughed. “What?”
“Because you were talking to a man. I think he might have a crush on you.”
Marlowe’s eyes shimmered with humor. “You’re hilarious. He was checking you out. And then had to excuse himself quickly since you own the ranch and he doesn’t want things to be awkward.”
Cody blinked. “Oh.”
“No worries about Chris having a crush on me. He’s great, though. The whole staff is. I’m really looking forward to… To everything. And yes, I will have dinner with all of you tonight.”
“Great,” he said.
And what he didn’t ask was if she would take him upstairs afterward. But it was what he really wanted to ask.
He was getting in too deep with this.
But it wouldn’t stay that way. There was no way that it could. It simply wasn’t possible.
It would have to cool off. Because these things inevitably did.
Just like Walker, before this, he had never experienced the kind of chemistry that made him feel like once wasn’t enough.
But with Marlowe, twice wasn’t even enough.
And it wasn’t until he was getting ready for dinner that he realized he had asked her to sit at his family table. No wonder she had looked at him like he was crazy.
He would add a couple more people, but that would put Laney out, and he didn’t want to do that either.
“Marlowe is joining us for dinner,” he said when he and his siblings all pulled up to the front of the hotel. “So, behave yourselves.”
Walker and Lila exchanged glances. He wondered if Lila had any idea about him and Marlowe. Odds were she and Walker would’ve had a good laugh about it at this point. But both of them kept their expressions neutral as they went inside, which was a shock.
“This place is really something,” Walker said. “Back in the day, we would’ve been eating scraps out of the dumpster out back, and now we own it.”
Yeah. They did. If only Cody found that more satisfying.
It was such a strange, unsatisfactory feeling that sat down low in his gut. He had expected this to fix everything. Instead, he felt… On edge. It was like that toast they had back at the barn the other night. Them singing his praises, which just made him feel like…
He hadn’t thought that getting here would make him worry this much about being like his father.
He figured that he would just feel triumphant. Instead, he felt like all he’d been doing was climbing a ladder, ready to assume his father’s same position.
When he had taken Marlowe out to Painted Ridge the other night, he’d been trying to recapture that feeling he’d had when he was younger.
Longing for that place.
The way that it had consumed him. All his anger, the feelings of unfairness.
The drive, the knowledge that someday it would be his, and now it just was.
It felt like his due, and he felt like it fit him, rather than feeling like it was some great triumph, it just felt like something he should’ve always had.
This kind of bone-deep certainty that it had been meant for him, and maybe that was fair, but…
It hit him in a way that felt uncomfortable.
Maybe this was the problem with never trying to talk to his father.
Maybe it was the problem with denying the man the chance to tell him what he really thought.
Because sometimes Cody wished that he could understand his father more, just so that he could be absolutely certain he wasn’t him.
There was a bright, sparkly – literally – hostess standing at the front of the restaurant. Her blonde hair was in tight braids, and she had glitter on her cheeks. “Welcome to Painted Ridge Dining Room,” she said.
“Thanks,” he said. “Miriam will be here to take you to your table soon.”
Like a choreographed dance, Miriam, a short young woman with curly dark hair, walked them over to a table at the far end of the dining room. There was an incredible view of the mountains behind the resort, and of the lush green lawn that they’d had put in.
He was enjoying it, but he could see a price tag on every single thing he looked at in the place. Could see just how much money he’d spend, and how much they were going to have to earn back to make this place work. Yeah. That was not exactly a soothing element of the experience.
But at least it looked amazing.
They got seated, and he looked up just in time to see Marlowe walk through the front of the restaurant, wearing a blue dress that swished around her knees when she walked.
Her hair was down, bouncing around her shoulders, and she was making direct, hard eye contact with him.
Like he was the only person in the room.
He lifted his chin, and she smiled just slightly.
She paused and chatted with everyone at the restaurant on her way to the table, and it was clear that everyone knew her, and loved her.
Someday, he wanted to meet her idiot husband just so he could ask what the hell was wrong with that guy?
If a woman like Marlowe wanted to marry you, wanted to build a life with you, why would you blow that up?
It didn’t make any sense.
“Hi,” she said, greeting everyone but him, taking a seat in the chair next to him. Then she turned toward him. “Hi.”
“Hi to you too,” he said.
The moment stretched on a little too long, their eyes meeting and holding for more time than they should.
Walker and Lila were looking at them, and there really was no point pretending.
“You could stop that,” he said to them. “If you both know, don’t pretend.”
“Oh, good,” Lila said. “That means I can say – Marlowe, I thought that you were more sensible than this.”
Marlowe looked at Cody and then looked at Lila. “I challenge any woman to be sensible around your brother.”
“Gross,” Lila said.
“If you want to talk about it,” Marlowe said, “we can definitely talk about it. Don’t forget, I’ve been best friends with my sister-in-law for years, which means –”
Marlowe cut herself off, like she realized that she was comparing situations. He hadn’t taken it that way, but he could see that she was concerned that he had.
“Yeah, feel free to harass them both,” Cody said, doing his best to smooth it over.
“I will just tell you,” Marlowe said. “All of the food on the menu is fantastic. You can’t go wrong.”
“Laney cooked some dishes for us as part of her interview, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what she did with the directive.”
“It’s amazing,” Marlowe said. “I’ve been so spoiled.”
“Hello,” their waitress, Keisha, who had long braids and dark brown eyes, stood there smiling at them, her eyes glittering. “The chef would like to bring out a selection for the table, if that’s all right.”
“That’s more than all right,” Cody said.
And then they were served food that could have kept an entire army going across the plains.
There were things that he had never tried before – fried squash blossoms stuffed with cheese – and things he had definitely had before – flank steak – but cooked to perfection and dressed with sauces that were just a little bit different.
It was the best restaurant he’d ever been to, and it was his.
He could feel pride then.