Chapter 8 #3
Lila was moving quickly, and she was out the front door before he caught her, and he followed along, wishing that he had just gone ahead and gone back to his place and gotten his own truck, because this was going to put them at the meeting in the same vehicle too, and he was getting kind of desperate for some space.
He also looked grubby and completely unwashed next to Lila who had cleaned up quickly and prettily.
“I look like somebody you just dragged out of the hills,” he said once they were on their way to the resort.
“Technically, I did drag you out of the hills.”
“Sure. But you got all polished up.”
“Most people would never call me polished,” she said.
“Most people don’t pay that close attention to you.”
He hadn’t realized that it was a weird thing to say until she looked at him like he’d grown another head.
“What?”
“I just mean... much has been said about you not being able to do customer service and things like that. I think there’s an idea that you’re rough around the edges. I don’t know that that’s true. I think when you cause a ruckus, you do it with intent, not by accident.”
She huffed a laugh. “I wish that were true.”
“You don’t think it is?”
“It’s not true with you,” she said. She bit her lip and turned away. “I didn’t mean to push you in the bathroom.”
His stomach went tight. Was this a good time to tell her that he suspected he knew why she had shoved him? No. That would be a very bad idea. It definitely wasn’t the time to say that, never was the time to say that.
“Well, maybe with everybody else then,” he said.
She looked away, leaned in and toward the windshield, like she was concentrating extra hard on the road. “Maybe.”
“My point is, I think you’re better at all those things than you think.
And I think sometimes it’s easy for me or your brothers to think of you like you were ten years ago.
And that just isn’t fair. You’re not who you were ten years ago, any more than any of us are.
But you especially. You were younger, and now you’re grown.
So, we have to stop thinking of you as being substantially different than we are. ”
“Well... Thanks,” she said.
She turned onto the resort road and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “That’s nice of you to say.”
“I’m not just being nice to be nice. I really do believe that.”
“Thanks again,” she said. Then hung a sharp turn into the resort parking lot. She parked in the closest space, and they got out, heading toward the door as Cara and Zane joined them.
“Hey,” Cara said, smiling brightly. “How’s the trailblazing going?”
“Good,” Lila said, as Nolan grunted.
“If you need any help,” Zane said, “I can take a break from the horse ranch and come do some more work over here anytime.”
Zane was in the process of getting to where he was pouring more and more of his time into his own operation. He was missed around the ranch, but obviously, Cody understood that he had his own goals.
And Nolan could certainly understand that too.
“Appreciated,” Nolan said. “But Lila and I pretty much have it.”
Yes, in some ways, he could see having another person out there with them as a buffer. Might be a good thing, but there was also something about it that sounded terrible.
Having to figure out how to defuse the weird tension between himself and Lila with an audience wasn’t high up on his list of things to experience.
Even right now, he wasn’t all that psyched about being with her in front of all these other people.
“As long as you’re sure,” Zane said. “I’m not going to fight you to do backbreaking work out in the wilderness when going home to my bed every night is too tempting.”
Nolan grunted. And then smiled and looked between Cara and Zane. He was being weird and taciturn, and he wasn’t normally, only because he felt weird about Lila. He was damned happy for Zane. He really was. “And I’m glad for you,” he said.
With maybe a little bit too much gusto, but that was the truth.
Zane had been one of the most closed off people that Nolan had ever met. The only reason he knew him at all was because Zane had loyalty to Cody from the rodeo.
Had ended up following him out here and getting in on the venture.
But Zane was an impossible person to really know, and Nolan had been acquainted with him for years. Cara, though, had gotten underneath his skin right away. Had changed him.
Had given him a new lease on life, by all accounts. And that was a miracle in and of itself.
It made it difficult to be dismissive of the power of love, and Nolan wouldn’t be, not after Marlowe and Cody, not after Zane and Cara.
He just couldn’t see where it fit into his own life.
They walked into the resort, and Addison was hovering at the edge of the restaurant. “Come on in,” she said, gesturing madly.
They walked across the lobby, and through to the Painted Ridge dining room. The elegant, modern space was full of other dinner guests, but Addison had snagged a large table at the back of the room.
Obviously, as it was the ranch’s restaurant, the owners got to patronize it whenever they wanted, and Addison was kind of one of the owners now by extension.
Walker was already there, sitting at the table, and so was Pike. Cody and Marlowe were absent.
“Okay, as soon as Laney has a minute,” Addison said, ushering them all into their seats, “I will launch into my plan.”
Laney, the head chef at Painted Ridge Resort, walked out of the kitchen a few minutes later, wearing a white jacket and black pants. Her hair was tied up, and the edges of a couple of her tattoos were peeking out of the rolled-up sleeves on her coat.
“Okay, we’re all ready to hear the plan,” Laney said, regarding the table with her arms crossed.
“I knew Marlowe and Cody had a date planned in town, so that’s why I suggested we do this tonight. I want to plan an engagement party for them.”
“That’s a great idea,” Cara said enthusiastically, and everyone else also made sounds of approval.
“We’ll have to plan it really quickly, but I figure we can use some of the facilities here on the ranch, but that’s going to be really difficult to do because Cody and Marlowe have their hands in everything.”
“That’s simple,” Pike said, leaning back in his chair. “You need a ghost event. So that we can mark off the space without them realizing that it’s for them.”
“That’s a good idea,” Laney said, and Nolan didn’t think that he imagined her cheeks turning a little bit pink.
“Thanks, Laney. I’m full of good ideas, actually.”
“I’m not surprised to hear that,” Laney said.
Nolan looked over at Lila, who glanced at him, and he arched an eyebrow. Lila did the same in return.
“That is a fantastic idea. So where do we think we should have it?”
“Marlowe loves the hotel,” Cara said. “But the problem with having it here is that she would end up having direct involvement whether we wanted her to or not, and that would mean that it would become work. So I think maybe one of the barns.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Addison agreed.
“I think we should do the big white barn,” Walker said, which was the official name of that venue. “Because it’s rustic but elegant, which I think works well for Marlowe.”
“You do have excellent taste,” Addison said.
“And who all are you planning on inviting?” Nolan asked.
“Everybody,” Addison said. “Everybody in town, because I think Cody and everything that he has done for the community, along with Marlowe, should be celebrated. Plus, I know Cody likes an opportunity to lord his successes over the masses. All the better that it’s such a great personal success.”
Nolan looked over at Lila, who was laughing. “He does love that,” Lila agreed.
“I do think that the day of the event, even though we’ll have it as a red herring, we need to distract them,” Addison said.
“Why?” Nolan asked. “Worst case scenario, they end up popping in and helping a little bit with their own event. I agree with you, they shouldn’t be planning it, but checking in on something that they don’t know is for them is kind of funny.”