Up to Snow Good - Kelly Collins Page 0,33
been bedding women since way before you were born. I know what I’m doing. You know what I like about Jane?”
There were plenty of things to like. She was pretty and willing, but there were things to be cautious of. She wasn’t after his father’s heart but his money.
“Tell me.”
“She’s exactly like me. She goes after what she wants and won’t stop until she gets it. I’m what she wants. I know what I’m doing.”
“I don’t doubt that. What worries me is that I don’t know what you’re doing. About anything. Not about Jane, and not about the lodge.”
“You don’t think I’m serious about giving you and that girl my blessings?”
He hated the way he called her “that girl.”
“Her name is Lauren.” A long, tense silence passed before Max said, “I want to believe you.” His father pulled his top desk drawer open and took out the manila folder, laying it flat on the desktop. He opened it, raised the letter, and tore it down the middle, pairing the scraps and tearing them again.
“Does that make it clear?”
Max sat in a quiet shame for not believing him. “Thank you.” His father nodded, and Max went on, “What about Jane? She’s got her sights set on marrying you. She says she’ll come between us if you don’t propose by the end of the year.”
Pops cracked a wry smile. “You just let me worry about Jane, son. You go back and get that winter village thing happening at the lodge, I’ll handle things here. Haven’t I always?”
Max couldn’t disagree, but it still left him with a sense of worry he couldn’t escape.
He drove back to the lodge, thinking about the winter village and the future of the beleaguered ski lodge. It wouldn’t survive in the coming economic and ecological climate.
That’s why the old man changed his tune. He knows I’m right about taking a kinder approach, but he also knows what’s coming.
It was better to stand back and let the economic realities take their toll and then come in and sweep up after the place came tumbling down.
It made Max’s heart feel hollow, but it was more complex than merely feeling betrayed by his father. He’d always known what kind of man he was, so he couldn’t be surprised. His greater challenge was not feeling guilty for whatever part he’d played in Lauren’s ultimate downfall.
They’d fail. Max had to admit to himself, they were just spinning their wheels. Had his father gotten to the store owners, to the pastor even, paying them off to shut them out so he could stand back and watch them fall flat on their asses? He could stand there and pretend to be Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas morning while the lodge continued its death march into bankruptcy.
What happened when he finally came in and made an offer? Lauren would think he’d been lying to her, playing her, siding up to her as part of his father’s campaign, but what if he was wrong, what if his father really was on the level?
Had he become so jaded, so hard-hearted, that he couldn’t welcome legitimate goodwill from his own dad?
There were no clear answers and little time to reason it out. He pulled up to the lodge where construction workers had arrived and begun building the faux cottages and lampposts that were key to the lodge’s transformation.
Lauren stepped out to welcome him, a sweet smile on her pretty face.
“It’s happening, look at what we’re creating.” She swept her arm out like she was offering him the world, and she was. She was offering him her world.
“It’s amazing. You’re amazing.” He pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss.
In that moment, he could see her as his wife, stepping out to greet her husband. The kiss deepened, and he felt as if he was home. He pulled away and looked up at that rustic lodge and sighed. It was a special place, and he couldn’t think about what would happen to it, and what part he might have played in its fate.
He had to believe it wasn’t too late. Though the puzzle was getting more complicated, Christmas was coming, and they were still together. As long as they were in love, everything else would fall into place. Of that, he was certain. Almost certain.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lauren
Only a few guests lingered around the lodge, which had become the center of an expanding construction project assembling the winter village. It took shape quickly, and Lauren was happy that it was coming together.
The