“I was showering and changing. I tried to get your attention, but you were so focused on your book, I thought I’d let you be. Come on, I think Jack was making something with beef, and I could eat my weight in some cow rightnow.”
Chloe laughs. As they walk into the dining room, she sees Jack and Mary Lou serving people.
“Come on, over here. I don’t want to sit with those people again.”
Chloe knows who Danielle is referring to. The older people who came to their table last time. They could barely keep their hands off one another. And while it might seem cute that two people in their mid-eighties could still act like teenagers, it was gross to watch them make out with her hands questionably close to his junk. Chloe would rather not see that again, especially while she’s eating.
“Something special for you ladies,” Jack says as he sets a bottle of red wine at their table. Chloe glances around and sees that no other tables have wine. Maybe Jack has a thing for Danielle. “It goes perfectly with the filet. Axel wanted to make sure that you had something special, Chloe.”
Her face goes blistering red. Axel had wanted her to have wine with dinner, he wanted her to have something special. Mary Lou serves them filet mignon with garlic butter and small potatoes. It looks delicious.
“Thank you, Jack and Mary Lou,” Danielle speaks up while Chloe is still tongue-tied and blushing.
“No problem, enjoy. Let Axel know if you like the wine, he said red was your favorite.”
He listened, he actually listened when she’d rambled on about food and drinks she liked. They were coming back from town, and he had simply asked her what kinds of things she liked, and she began rattling off food until she realized he hadn’t specified, and she could have talked about anything she liked. But he had paid attention, clearly.
Her cheeks are flushed from part embarrassment and part arousal. Never has a man so attractive paid attention to her like this. He’s handsome, kind, caring, and attentive. Fuck, she’s doomed.
Chapter Nine
Axel
Axel is sweeping the front of the lodge when the door opens and a throat clears. When he looks, he sees it’s Russell and David from Harvey Development Group. The two men he does not want to see.
“A word, Mr. Henderson.”
He sets the broom off to the side and strides back into the lodge. He doesn’t want them in his office, doesn’t trust them not to snoop, since they already seem to have access to some of his financial records. He leads them to the ‘business center’, which is really a room off to the side of the front of the lodge with a computer for guests to use and a fax machine. His father had converted an office space to be a ‘business center’ when there was a convention there in the nineties, and a bunch of executives needed to use a computer. Now it basically sits empty except for the occasional person who checks their email.
“What,” Axel says it as a statement, not a question. He doesn’t want these men here in hislodge. Doesn’t want them in his space. Russell is the asshole of the two. Looks at the lodge like it’s dirty and beneath him, like it’s a one-star motel. David seems nicer, but Axel doesn’t trust him. He’s seen the way David walks around with a notebook and tablet, he’s clearly the investigator of the two, and Axel doesn’t know what he’s investigating. He doesn’t like the fact that they’re staying at the lodge at all, but they had prepaid in full for the largest cabin, and that alone will pay Jenny and Levi for the week.
Russell pulls out a document from his briefcase and sets it down on the desk in front of Axel. It’s a contract, that much Axel can see.
“Mr. Henderson, Harvey Group has been very generous with its offer. We have evaluated the land and the-” Russell looks around with distaste, “-building. This offer is more than fair.”
“I’m not selling. I’ve told you this already. What do I need to do to get it through your thick skull? I. Don’t. Want. To. Sell. You haven’t even told me what you would do with the land if I did sell. This lodge has been here for generations. It’s part of the town. The town relies on the lodge for its business.”
“Not a lot of business.”
Axel growls low. He knows the lodge hasn’t been bringing in a lot of visitors like before. When his father was alive, the town was always bustling. Three restaurants and a gift shop. Now the gift shop is gone, and only one restaurant remains. He feels a pit in his stomach like all of this is his fault. Like the fact that the townsfolk lost business is because of him.
Russell doesn’t seem taken aback. If anything, he looks more smug after Axel growled, and Axelwonders how much he knows. He smells human, but that doesn’t mean he’s notsomething.
“I’m not selling.”
“I beg you to reconsider. It is in your best interest to sell now. When the lodge has failed and we come in and buy it for pennies, you’ll wish you had accepted this offer.”
“The lodge is doing fine. I don’t know where you got your information-”
Russell pulls out another packet of papers. Axel recognizes immediately that they are the accounts with transactions and statements. It’s clear they’re in the red. He can even see the areas these fuckers have highlighted. There’s no denying it.
“Where did you get these?” Axel fists the packet of papers, crumpling it in his hand.
“We have our sources,” Russell says with a sneer.
Axel rips the pages to shreds. He can’t help it. He feels rage swarm through him. His bear is close to the surface with how angry he is. He can’t shift in the lodge, not in front of these assholes. They would probably have him taken away, locked up like a science experiment.
“We have other copies, you know? You can destroy those, but I can just print more. I can even do it here,” Russell motions to the computer at the desk.
