After I’d gottenrid of Veronique and showered, I headed toward the lodge. My family, the Strongs, owned and operatedManor at Sienna Sunset Resort. It was the only 5-star, black-owned luxury resort in Oregon. It was a popular destination situated at the base of the Cascada Noir National Park. Growing up the mountains, rivers, valleys, waterfalls, and campsites had been our playground and backyard. I was the youngest of four boys and all of us had remained in the Pacific Northwest and close to the family’s lodge.
My eldest brother, Bayliss, was the veterinarian for the horses that we kept at the stables located on the property.Brewer was the head chef at the lodge’s most decorated restaurant,Good Ashes. Beckham owned and operated the resort’s wilderness adventure tours. Then there was me. I was a builder. Loved construction. Loved remodeling and modernizing homes for locals as much as I enjoyed building vacation villas for investors and real estate magnates.
Brewer only openedGood Ashesfor dinner, so I headed to the restaurant that was open for breakfast,STG Homestead. My brothers were already there when I arrived, so I slipped into the only available seat at the table. I spoke to each of my siblings, stopping at Bayliss. He was nine years older than me. I couldn’t say that he treated me like a pesky little brother, because the truth was that he treated all of us like pesky little brothers—even Brewer, who was only three years younger than him.
“I’m surprised to see you here. Thought you spent Saturday mornings tucked up under your wife.” I swiped through my phone as I spoke.
“One Saturday a month. I give y’all one Saturday a month because y’all act like little women if you don’t get yourbig brothertime from me.” We all chuckled as he continued. “Other than that, you’re right. My weekends are for my baby, so we can be on our newlywed shit.”
Two of my brothers were newlyweds and it was wild as hell. Beckham met his girl, Collins, when she booked a wilderness vacation at the resort. Halfway through her trip, she brought her mom, Alisha, out from Chicago. Bayliss took one look at Alisha and fell in love. My brothers were clearly some charming ass dudes, because next thing I knew, both women had relocated from Chicago to Jackson Falls, Oregon. Now, not only were they married but Beckham and Collins were expecting their first kid.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” Brewer’s eyes met mine across the table. “I thought for sure you would be fucking up on some random tourist this morning.”
“He probably was. Probably dropped her off at her room so she could make that flight right before he stopped through here.” Beckham didn’t look up from his phone as he commented.
“Look,” I began, “as a member of the Strong family, it’s important that I contribute to the services that the resort offers. I’m the official pipelayer.”
“Corny ass.” Beckham chuckled.
“Young ass.” Bayliss shook his head.
Brewer didn’t comment.
I ate breakfast and shot the shit with my brothers a little while longer before we all had to head out. Saturday was a heavy day for adventure tours. There were always a large number of tourists that wanted Beckham to lead them into the mountains bright and early. Brewer spent the vast majority of his time atGood Ashes, doing everything in his power to make sure that it stayed on top. Bayliss was headed home to spend Saturday with his wife and his boys.
Initially, Alisha had been hesitant about giving Bayliss a chance because he was fourteen years younger than her. She had four grown daughters of her own and was out of childbearing age. She felt like it was unfair to tie Bayliss up and not be able to give him a family. What she didn’t know at the time was that Bayliss was divorced. He and his first wife had two sons. Bayliss wasn’t looking for a woman he could build a family with. He was looking for a woman that would be family with him.
I left the restaurant and headed to the first of two projects my company, Jackson Strong, was working on. The first was a remodel on a house that was purchased by a couple of empty-nester retirees. They were moving from Minnesota and looking to make a more quiet, laid-back life in the Pacific Northwest.
I walked the property with my foreman, Sheldon, listening as he filled me in on where the project was at and what still needed to happen. I jumped in with the guys, doing some adjustment onthe cabinet installation, so that when the appliances arrived we could slide them right into place.
Right around lunchtime, I blew the spot and headed into town. I stopped by Butterscotch Café, grabbing some sandwiches, chips, and drinks. Once I had the food, I made a stop at the vacation villa we were working on for a millionaire real estate investor and his wife. They planned to use the 5500 square foot, seven bedroom, seven bath home as a vacation playground for them and their closest friends. When they weren’t using it to unwind, they planned to rent it out for corporate retreats.
While the men broke for lunch, the foreman of that project, Sparren, caught me up on their progress. He’d been in contact with my office manager, Darlene. According to her, there was a delay with the flooring. But while we waited on the delivery, the roofers would come through and lay the shingles.
By the end of the day, I was tired. That didn’t stop me from stopping through Bayliss’s place, though. After a quick game of football in the front yard with my nephews, the three of us headed into the house to eat the dinner that Alisha prepared.
It wasunusual that I had a week busy enough to keep me away from my brothers, but that happened. I wasn’t completely out of the loop, because we had a group text. I was aware that Alisha’s “hold-out” daughter, Bailey, decided that she needed a break from Chicago and finally agreed to give Jackson Falls a try for a little while. She’d moved into the house Alisha and her daughters Collins and Church used to share. Now, Perkins lived there with her brood of daughters.
Since she married Bayliss, Alisha had implemented Sunday night dinners. All of us, the Strongs and Kingsleys met at their house for dinner every Sunday night. I had no complaints. It helped us connect with one another, keeping our family bond strong even as the family expanded. Not to mention that Alisha could cook her ass off. She was such a good cook that even Brewer respected her skills.
I sat at the table facing Bailey. She looked . . . sad. The vibe was always jovial and lighthearted when the Strongs got together. And for the most part the Kingsleys had grafted in almost seamlessly. The laughter and the joking that wasn’t coming from Bailey made it obvious that she wasn’t on the same thing the rest of us were on.
I didn’t know her story, but I knew it couldn’t have been good. I’d heard rumblings that she lost a baby earlier in the year. That alone had me surprised that she was alone. Every time I saw her in the past, she was always loved up with some wack ass, corn-ball dude.
Bailey was a beautiful woman. It went without saying that I noticed her. I just never really paid her much attention. My thought was that if she married a clown dude like him, there was no way we would ever be able to mix.
I’d never been overly friendly to either of them. She was always with her man. There was no way in hell I would ever engage a bitch like her husband. Since I wouldn’t engage him, I never engaged his wife either. It was simply a “hi and bye” situation with both of them. But now as I sat across from her, there was no way I could ignore the dark cloud hovering over her head.
She was a pretty girl. Beautiful really. And without him glued to her side, she actually seemed softer. Less tense. Her face was free of any makeup and she had dyed her once dark hair a mixture of pink and blonde. That must’ve been something theKingsley women did when they were in crisis, because when Collins first arrived in Jackson Falls, her hair was dyed a deep green.
The pink hair complemented Bailey’s light brown complexion and her hazel eyes. Her nose was a little too narrow to be considered wide, and her teeth were straight and white. But my favorite of her facial features was her lips. They were full—just pouty as hell for absolutely no reason at all. Swollen like somebody was kissing them minutes earlier, or like she’d been sucking dick. I shook my head to clear that thought.
I let my eyes sweep over her oval shaped face one last time. Collins’s face was heart-shaped, but I heard that all of the Kingsley girls had different fathers. That was one of Alisha’s biggest shames. She thought we would judge her for it, but my brother didn’t allow her to sit in embarrassment. He charged it to the game. Told her that she was just looking for love in the wrong places. And with him she had finally found it.
After dinner, Sunday night morphed into a chill session. Bayliss would put either the football or basketball game on the big screen, and we would hang as a family. As soon as we finished cleaning up, I watched Bailey disappear out the back door and onto the deck. For some strange reason my feet carried me out after her.
Jackson Falls was a rainy place, but Spring was considered the actual rainy season. Regardless of the weather, the view from Bayliss’s backyard was still the shit. You could see the snow-capped mountains in the distance dotted with hundreds of evergreen trees. She stood by the deck railing looking at something I couldn’t see.
