I texted back that I had a date, and left the chat before they all jumped down my throat for details. I wasn’t ready yet to have them rain on my parade for wanting to give Penny a chance. I switched over to Penny’s messages.
Me: Are you free for dinner Friday night?
My office phone buzzed from Matt. “Holden is on the line. Ready for his call?”
“Yep.” The line clicked twice. “Holden? Nice to hear from you. How did you manage to talk Junior Steele into selling you the ski resort?”
“As if there were ever any doubt I could? Got it for a decent price. Now I’m looking for a firm to design the rebuild,” he said, his confident voice unchanged since the day I’d met him.
“I’m surprised you want to open a new venture like this. Don’t you have enough money after Griffin bought out all the brothers’ shares of West Games?” With another client, I wouldn’t get so personal or casual in conversation, but we went back a few years.
“Why do any of us with money work? Aside from something to do, it’s legacy building, my friend. Think about it. TheSnowman now owns a snowy mountain in upstate New York. Doesn’t get any sweeter.”
That brought a snicker. He’d been a top-rated snowboarder with the nickname of Snowman the media had given him before an injury brought his star status in the world of winter sports to a halt.
I launched into some questions about his project. He filled me in on the current sad state of the lodge, in full 80s disrepair.
“It needs a modern uplift. Something in line with the Steele Valley Resort that would attract their exclusive clientele. This should be the equivalent of Colorado’s Aspen by the time we’re through.”
“Lofty goals. Sounds like you definitely need Bellamy Brothers to tackle this. I’ll send over our working agreement for you to sign.”
“Nah. Come see it first. Spend a day here. See my vision. Then we’ll deal with contracts.”
Given our friendship, I’d go along with his wishes. Of course, we had to reminisce about a wild vacation we’d once spent with the guys, touring islands on Rex Buchanan’s yacht. Ten days involving plenty of alcohol, women in every port town we stopped in, and fishing. That was all before Rex and many of the others married and slowed down.
Before I knew it, an hour flew by. Matt knocked on the door, a sign we had developed to get me off long-winded phone calls. “Holden, gotta go. But I’ll have my assistant reach out to you about that visit to the lodge.”
Matt popped his head in after I hung up. “Go well?”
“Start a folder on the West Ski Lodge Project with all the usual, contract, etc. Have Caleb come see me ASAP. I’m going to assign him as lead.”
“He’ll complain he has too much work again.”
“Then I’ll hire another person for his team. Also pencil in a weekend for me to go to Steele Valley.”
“Will do. Oh, there’s a woman named Penny on the line for you. She said she’s a friend. Would that be the Friday night dinner type of friend?” He pushed his glasses up his nose with a raised eyebrow.
“Go. Shut the door behind you.” I smirked, and clicked into her call. “Penny? Did you see my text?”
“Just now. I’ve been in an interview today, which is why I’m calling. I was so nervous at first, feeling like I answered every question wrong. They said even though I was a few years out of college, they’d still like to hire me and get me up to speed with some on-the-job training.”
“That’s fantastic. Which firm?” I leaned back in my leather chair, hoping for the best for her.
“Merrill & Merrill.”
Fuck. My face fell, and a ball of lead landed in the pit of my stomach. If there was one firm I should have warned her about, that was it. I’d hired some of their former employees, all spreading the word that Mitch Merrill was a dirty bastard. I wanted Penny nowhere near him.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had applied with them?”
“A lot of things happened between us Saturday night. It didn’t come up and I guess I didn’t want to dwell on the job search or to get my hopes up by telling you I’d sent a few resumes out. It’s only an entry-level designer position, but I think it has a lot of promise. They were impressed by the letter you wrote about me.” Of course they would be. “So what do you think? Should I take it? If not, I have two more interviews next week with other places.”
“I’m sorry, Penny, but I can’t recommend Merrill & Merrill. Word has it that Mitch Merrill’s been investigated twice forharassment and tax evasion and still thinks interns are fair game.” My answer came immediately.
“Oh. I see.” The disappointment in her voice hit me. I couldn’t have that.
“Who are the other two firms you have interviews with?”
“Baxter & Rydell.”
