19. Winter Is Coming
Chapter 19
Winter Is Coming
Evan
I stared at my computer screen, but the words blurred together like someone had dumped water on them. Valentine’s Day event proposals, menu suggestions, and activity schedules all faded into a meaningless soup of letters while my mind kept drifting to last night. The gray sky outside matched my mood—gloomy with a chance of sexual frustration. And that was saying something, considering I was usually the human equivalent of a golden retriever on a sugar rush.
Did they...?
The question had been torturing me all morning, poking at my brain. I’d spent half the night imagining what might have happened if I hadn’t chickened out like some teenager at his first dance.
Me. The guy who once streaked through a black-tie charity gala on a dare. In my defense, I raised ten grand for puppies, and my assets were well received. Yet there I was, pacing outside that door like a nervous wreck before walking away, my usual confidence deserting me.
And I’d been the one who instigated the whole thing after seeing Archer march toward the elevators like a man on a mission. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to partake in some carnal pleasures, because I totally did. My heart was already feeling a little too hopeful about the whole situation. Bearing witness to the pleasures Tessa would undoubtedly experience with all of us at once would be my undoing. I didn’t just want her; I wanted my best friends back.
I glanced out the window at the heavy clouds rolling in. They reminded me of the storm brewing in my head: dark, chaotic, and full of Tessa. Tessa laughing at my jokes. Tessa at the spa, all flushed and gorgeous. Tessa with Archer and Liam...
The door burst open, nearly giving me a heart attack as Frank walked in. The surly old man did not know what knocking meant, and I was pretty sure he considered doors more of a suggestion than a barrier. “What are you doing in here and where are Archer and Liam? There’s a storm coming!”
“It’s just snow, Frank.” I waved him off, still half-lost in thoughts of what might have happened in that honeymoon suite last night. “We get snow all the time.”
The silence that followed was so profound I swore I heard my brain cells dying one by one. Frank stood there, mouth slightly open, staring at me like I’d suggested we replace all the beds with bouncy castles.
Then he started laughing with a deep, full-bodied laugh that made his whole frame shake and usually set off car alarms in the parking lot. I was about to join in, thinking I’d accidentally made some brilliant joke, when he cut off so abruptly it was like someone had hit his mute button.
“Gavin would have battened down the hatches days ago.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and the mention of Gavin’s name hit me like a punch to the gut.
I straightened in my chair, trying to maintain my usual devil-may-care attitude. “Come on, it’s winter. Snow is kind of our thing… right?” My voice had that slight wobble that showed up whenever I was trying to convince myself more than others.
“This ain’t your regular powder day.” Frank’s eyes narrowed, his usual good humor nowhere to be found.
I laughed nervously, but it came out sounding more like a guinea pig having an existential crisis. “How bad are we talking?”
“Biblical.”
“Like we need to build an ark and load up all the animals, or…”
Frank held up a hand, cutting off my ark-building plans. “Son, we’re at the end of the plow route. Dead last. Sometimes it takes days before they get to us depending on how many feet we get.”
“Days?” My voice cracked like I was going through puberty again. “But we’re a resort. Don’t we get priority or something?”
“No.” Frank marched over to a bookshelf I’d ignored for the last three months, pulling out a thick binder. He dropped it on my desk with a thud that made me jump.
I flipped it open, and my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “Holy... this is like a novel.” The list of preparations and tabs seemed endless, each item more daunting than the last.
“You boys need to get your acts together.” Frank pointed at the binder like it held all the secrets of the universe. “Everything you need to do is in here. We’re expecting up to four feet of snow. That might not seem like a lot, but average vehicles can’t drive through that.”
“Right. Yeah. Totally got this.” I didn’t got this. Not even close. But I plastered on my best ‘everything’s fine’ smile, the same one I’d been using since I arrived at the resort.
Frank gave me a look that my fourth-grade teacher used to give me when I tried to convince her my dog—that didn’t exist—really did eat my homework. “I’ll go find the maintenance manager and see how I can help.” He turned toward the door with the kind of purposeful stride that made me feel like even more of a fraud.
“That’s a good plan... I’ll um... find Archer and Liam.” I shuffled papers around my desk, trying to look important while having absolutely no idea what I was doing.
I grabbed my phone and pulled up the seldom-used group text I had with Archer and Liam.
Me: Where are you two? Winter is coming!
Liam: I’m in the gym.
Me: Did you know there was a storm coming? I wouldn’t be surprised if the Night King makes an appearance. Frank used the word biblical.
Liam: Frank thrives on drama. Archer sent an email out two days ago. Did you not get it?
I dropped my phone on a stack of papers and opened up my email, which had over five hundred unread messages. Sure enough, there was an email from Archer detailing the roles of each of the managers and a small list of tasks for me to complete. Shit.
This was why I shouldn’t be running a multi-million-dollar business. If I couldn’t run my own company, I certainly wasn’t going to ever be good at running one I hadn’t had a hand in starting. The worst part was that now, instead of only letting myself down, I was letting down other people.
Me: I’ve been having issues with my email. I’m on it…
Archer: Do you need help?
Me: That depends if you’re going to be sighing and making me feel like a loser.
Archer: I can’t make any guarantees on the sighing.
Did he just make a joke?
I smiled at my phone, a tiny spark of hope flickering in my chest. Maybe there was still a chance to fix my fuck-up if Archer was actually joking with me. The guy had the emotional range of a rock most days, so even the smallest hint of humor felt like winning the lottery. It wasn’t much, but I’d take what I could get.
Standing up, I grabbed the apocalypse binder and was about to dive into my apparently very late to-do list when Tessa walked in, bringing with her the faint scent of vanilla and coffee that always seemed to follow her around.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite chef coming to rescue me.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, falling back on my usual defense mechanism of flirtation. “Unless you’re here for a different kind of rescue? Because I’m totally down for that too.”
She rolled her eyes, but her smile was genuine in a way that made me feel simultaneously better and worse about myself. “You weren’t there last night.”
“Ah, so you missed me?” I leaned back against my desk, aiming for casual but probably looking more like I was having a mild stroke.
“Evan.” She said my name like she saw right through my class-clown act to all the insecurities lurking beneath. “Why didn’t you join us last night?”
I ran a hand through my hair, buying time while I decided how honest to be. “Would you believe I had an urgent meeting with my underwear drawer? Very demanding. Always trying to escape. You know how it is with rebellious underwear.”
“Try again.” She crossed her arms, fixing me with a look that somehow made me want to spill all my secrets.
“I...” The words stuck in my throat. “I chickened out, okay? I stood outside your door like an idiot and then left. Probably wore a groove in the carpet pacing back and forth first.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “But you sent Liam with ice cream, and you’ve been pushing for this. Did you change your mind? If you did, that’s perfectly understandable, but things seemed fine at dinner…”
“I didn’t change my mind. I didn’t want to fuck it up or overwhelm you with three of us at once so quickly.” It wasn’t completely a lie.
She gave me a look that told me she did not believe me at all. Apparently, I wasn’t as good at lying as I thought.
The laugh that burst out of me was probably a bit too loud, a bit too sharp, echoing in the office like a gunshot. “Everything I touch turns into a disaster. My marketing company? Crashed and burned. My friendship with the guys? I managed to fuck that up spectacularly. And now look at this place.” I gestured wildly around me, nearly knocking over a stack of papers. “I ordered heart-shaped beds, Tessa. Heart-shaped beds! Who does that? Besides Elvis?”
“I kind of like the heart-shaped beds.” Her lips twitched. “They’re... memorable.”
“They’re tacky as hell, and you know it.” The fight drained out of me. “I don’t want to mess this up too. Whatever this is between all of us. It feels too important.” The admission was like ripping off a Band-Aid—quick, painful, and possibly leaving a mark.
Tessa stepped closer. “You know what I think?”
“That I should stick to ordering regular-shaped furniture?”
She ignored my deflection like a pro. “Failing means you’re brave enough to attempt something in the first place.”
“That’s surprisingly profound for someone who told me the other day that she named her red stand mixer Sebastian.” I tried to maintain my grin, but it was wobbly around the edges.
“Hey, Sebastian and I have a very special relationship.” She poked me in the chest, her finger leaving what felt like a burning imprint through my shirt. “And don’t change the subject. The Evan I’ve gotten to know these past few weeks? He’s worth taking a chance on, and it’s time you started believing that too.”
I stared at her, warmth spreading through my chest like I’d downed a shot of really good whiskey. “So... what you’re saying is I should definitely order more heart-shaped furniture?”
She laughed, the sound making something inside me settle into place. “What I’m saying is, stop hiding behind jokes and outlandish decisions when things get real. You’re better than that.” The way she said it, like it was an obvious fact, made me almost believe it myself.
My brain literally hurt from everything I’d accomplished on such short notice. The guests now had all the information they needed, and I’d planned plenty of indoor activities if they decided to venture out of their rooms. Most of the snow would fall the following night.
I pushed open the conference room door, balancing a tray with three covered plates that smelled like heaven. Archer and Liam were already seated at the table, papers and laptops spread out between them like they were planning a military operation instead of preparing for a snowstorm.
“Tessa sent dinner.” I set the plates down and lifted the covers.
I was immediately transported to food heaven, and my mouth watered embarrassingly fast. Tessa had outdone herself with chicken marsala. The mushrooms were perfectly sautéed, the sauce looked silky smooth, and the roasted vegetables added pops of color that would make any food photographer weep. I seriously considered writing a sonnet about this meal.
I didn’t even bother cutting the chicken, stabbing it with my fork and taking a bite. “This woman is trying to kill us with all this delicious food. I could probably eat ten plates of this.”
Liam snatched up his fork and knife. “Better than dying in an avalanche tomorrow.”
“About that... thanks for not giving me shit about missing those emails. I know I’ve been... well, let’s say if there was an award for ‘Most Likely to Turn a Resort into a Theme Park,’ I’d be the reigning champion.” The self-deprecating joke landed easier than the actual truth that I’d been avoiding responsibility like it was my job.
Archer paused mid-bite. “You’re trying. That’s... something.”
“I am.” I inhaled deeply, the weight of what I was about to say settling into my bones. “I’m taking this seriously, really seriously, which means accepting that Gavin’s not coming back. That this is real now.”
Liam set down his fork. “I haven’t exactly been helpful or nice.”
“I suppose I could be more patient.” Archer’s expression suggested he was passing a troublesome kidney stone. It had always been hard for him to admit his mistakes or flaws. “We’ve been disappointing guests, and I’m sure that wasn’t Gavin’s intention.”
“We should at least be trying to maintain what he created until the two years are up and we decide if we want to sell our portion. That includes not redecorating with hearts and dolphins.” Liam gave me a pointed look, but his lips were shaking with the effort not to smile. “I think we all need to start asking ourselves, ‘What would Gavin do?’”
Archer’s entire demeanor softened for a moment. I could see the ghost of our old friend group in his expression. “Gavin would have fired our asses about twenty times by now.”
I almost aspirated my chicken. “Who are you two, and what have you done with my friends? Wait—” I snapped my fingers. “It was last night, wasn’t it? Whatever happened with Tessa must have scrambled your brains. Speaking of which… how did that go?”
Instead of Archer’s usual death glare at my ill-timed question, he smiled. Not his courtroom smile or his client smile, but something genuine that transformed his whole face. “I thought seeing her with someone else would be difficult, but watching her pleasure, sharing in that... it was incredibly erotic.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a voyeurism kink.” Archer never once struck me as someone who would want to watch two people have sex when he could be joining in.
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” Liam chuckled with obvious delight. “Did you know our friend here has Jacob’s Ladder piercings?”
My fork slipped from my fingers, clanging loudly on my mostly empty plate. “He has what ?”
Archer cleared his throat and loosened his tie. “We’re not discussing my piercings.”
“Oh, we are absolutely discussing your piercings. In detail. Possibly with diagrams.” The playful banter and easy camaraderie was like I’d stepped back in time to when everything made sense.
“And that’s my cue to leave.” Liam rose, collecting his dishes with the grace of someone making a strategic retreat. “We should all get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
“I’ve got some work to finish up first.” Archer wiped his mouth and piled his dishes onto the serving tray.
I leaned back in my chair, studying Archer’s tense shoulders. “Lawyer work or resort work? Because if it’s resort work, I can help. If it’s lawyer work...” I gestured to myself with a flourish. “I did watch all seasons of Suits, so I’m practically qualified.”
“It’s for the firm.” Archer’s jaw tightened in that way it always did when he was preparing for an argument. “I can’t drop everything because we inherited a resort. I have responsibilities.”
“You’re literally a partner.” Liam paused his retreat to lean against the doorframe. “Pretty sure that means you can do whatever you want. Including, I don’t know, taking a break to run the multi-million dollar resort your best friend left you.”
“It’s not that simple.” Archer’s voice had an edge to it. “My mom worked three jobs to put me through law school. She...” He swallowed hard, and I caught a glimpse of the weight he’d been carrying. “She cleaned offices at night, worked as a receptionist during the day, and worked retail on the weekends. All so I could have the opportunities she never did, and it literally killed her.”
The room fell silent except for the hum of the heating system. I thought about my own path with the easy privilege of having the funds to let me chase my dreams, even when those dreams crashed and burned.
“You know what’s funny?” I pushed my empty plate aside. “When I was seven, I wanted to be an astronaut. My mom bought me a telescope, and every night, she’d bundle up and sit outside with me while I looked at the stars.”
Archer and Liam exchanged confused glances, probably wondering if I’d finally lost it. I rarely talked about either of my parents and didn’t share a ton of fond memories. I chose to keep them tucked away since they hurt so much. Money didn’t change everyone, but it had changed my parents.
I cleared my throat. “One night, I saw this really bright star and got super excited. Turns out it was an airplane, but my mom... she acted like I’d discovered a whole new galaxy. She wasn’t encouraging me to be an astronaut; she was encouraging me to dream, to explore, to be passionate about something.”
Little did she know that that brief moment of encouragement would stick with me and help me follow my own path… even if that path was at times very curvy and filled with obstacles.
I leaned forward, meeting Archer’s gaze. “Your mom didn’t work three jobs so you could be chained to a desk, man. She did it so you could have choices. The kind of choices she never had. And right now? You’re choosing to honor an obligation to your firm over the last request of someone who believed in you enough to trust you with his legacy. He trusted all three of us and wanted us to have this opportunity we missed out on when we were being stupid.”
Archer’s expression shifted from defensive to stunned, while Liam’s eyebrows had practically disappeared into his hairline.
Archer stared at his laptop like it held the secrets of the universe. “I never thought about it that way. I’ve been so focused on not wasting her sacrifice that I forgot about the reason behind it.”
“Plus,” I added, because I couldn’t resist lightening the mood, “I’m pretty sure your mom would want you to have time to appreciate those piercings of yours. Speaking of which, how many exactly?—”
“We are not discussing my piercings.” But there was a smile playing at the corners of his mouth now.
“Fine, keep your secrets.” I stood up, grabbing the tray of our dishes. I’d know soon enough anyway.