Xavier was surprised to hear that. He didn’t think it would show that quickly, at least not to anyone outside of Hannah. “I do feel better,” he admitted. Damn, he meant it, too—that was a new one for him. He had been doing such a good job covering up his real emotions for so long, he had almost forgotten what it feltlike to be honest about them. He should have started working with Sarah a long time ago, but at least he was doing it now.
“And how are things going with Hannah?” Aaron asked.
Xavier chuckled. “Hey, at least let me keep some things to myself,” he protested, holding his hands up.
“We’ve all seen you coming out of her cabin every day this week,” Aaron pointed out. “If you want to keep it a secret, you’re not doing a very good job at it.”
“Point taken,” Xavier replied with a grin. With that, he said his farewells to Aaron and headed back up to his room.
He supposed he would have to talk to Lawson about what was going on between him and Hannah. He’d been putting off the conversation because of how angry Lawson had gotten when he learned about Xavier kissing his sister last year. But knowing Hannah left the lodge with him the night of the crash, Lawson had to know they were together.
He wasn’t exactly sure what he would call their relationship, being so new, but he loved it. He loved coming back to her cabin every single night, spending an evening with her talking and laughing and…well, the rest of it, too.
He had waited so long to be with her, and now that he was finally getting to enjoy that closeness, he would do anything he could to preserve it. Including taking her seriously with what she had said about Jed, even if he wasn’t sure he saw much of it himself.
But he knew Hannah wasn’t the kind of person to just start pointing fingers for no reason. She had worked with plenty of people like Jed over the time she had been at the sanctuary. So if she had doubts about his true intentions, he believed that they came from a place of real discomfort. He would need to talk to her a little more about it this evening, reassure her that he and the other guys were looking into the situation.
It was a warm day, now that spring was starting to come around, and he’d ended up pretty sweaty after all the work he’d been doing. He didn’t want to subject Sarah to that and he had some time before his appointment, so he headed up to his room to grab a change of clothes to wear after he showered.
But when he reached his door—the door he knew he had locked, just like he always did—he found it pushed open a few inches. Again.
Chapter Eighteen
“Do I really have to spend the whole afternoon in the office?” Lawson complained as he pulled the door shut behind him. “When we’re just getting the first sunshine of the season.”
“Yes, you do.” Hannah laughed at her brother, pointing firmly to his chair behind the desk. “Go on. Sit down. I want to talk about the finances.”
“Good news, right?” he asked her a bit nervously.
“Yeah, great news actually,” she assured him with a nod. She had been taking care of the finances at Warrior Peak Sanctuary since they opened. She had never imagined she would be any good at it, but there was something oddly satisfying to her about crunching the numbers, seeing how everything came together and what all was impacted with the changes they implemented. Watching as the sanctuary started to really thrive.
She was sure they would need to hire a full-time accountant eventually, the bigger they got and more money they brought in, but for now, she seemed to be doing a decent job keeping on top of it all. The bills were getting paid and employees got their salaries and their guests were being taken care of in a way that helped them recover and reacclimate to their lives in positive ways. Those were the most important things right now.
“Good,” he replied, sitting down in his desk chair and grinning. “Thank God I have you around. I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here to keep on top of the practical stuff.”
“Yeah, you’re lucky,” she teased and pulled out the papers she had been working on earlier in the day. She had just finished looking at the intakes and outgoings for the previous year, and it seemed like they were doing exceptionally well.
Along with the funds they received from grants, they worked with several non-profits to raise funds for the upkeep of Warrior Peak. Since the place was originally Xavier’s family home, he’d used the family money he’d inherited along with money he and Lawson had scraped together to get them started. Over the past few years, they’d continued to grow from word of mouth and additional donations from previous clients after their time at the lodge.
Lawson and Xavier had also agreed to rent out spaces in the paddocks at some clients’ requests, so those who had horses of their own could bring them and tend to them while they stayed at the sanctuary. It became an additional layer of therapy to some, to bring something familiar that they loved and cared for to help ground them. Even Sarah thought it was a great idea, and it had worked out well so far.
“This is the first year we’ve had enough left over to start thinking about building another expansion,” Hannah explained, placing the papers on the desk in front of her brother and running her finger along the numbers to show him just how well they were doing. “I was thinking maybe a separate office for Sarah next to the main lodge here, so she and her clients would have more privacy.”
Hannah paused and searched Lawson’s face for his immediate reaction to her idea. She didn’t usually give specific input to new additions; that was his and Xavier’s territory. But she just knew this was a good idea. It would be good for all the people who made appointments with Sarah, especially if they were reluctant to do so, wondering what others thought seeing them visiting her office space at the lodge.
“I’ve been doing some research and thought the empty section of land right next to the lodge would be perfect. It would be more secluded and quieter for her patients than having to deal with all the extra noises in the hallway and at the front desk when new people arrive. They’d have more privacy to focus on their needs and recovery. We could even add a connecting hallway between the spaces so clients didn’t have to go outside in bad weather.”
“I think that sounds like a great idea, Hannah,” Lawson agreed, peering down at the numbers and squinting slightly. “How much do you think it’ll cost?”
“We’d need to reach out to local contractors and get some estimates to get a better idea of that,” she explained. “But I think we could easily cover it with the amount of profit that’s come in these last few months especially. And maybe even see what additional funds would be necessary if we wanted to do a whole therapy space down the road, hire more therapists.”
Lawson leaned back in his seat, nodding as he listened to her. For some reason, she always found herself a little nervous when she came to her brother with ideas like this. She figured it was a result of him being the older one in the family, the one she turned to for guidance. He had always been around to make the big decisions and put plans in motion.
“You want me to start sending out some feelers?” he asked.
“If you’ve got the time, that’d be great. If not, if you’ll write me out a list of specifics I should inquire about, I don’t mind doing it,” she offered.
Ever since she and Xavier had started seeing each other properly, she had felt beyond nervous about how her brother was going to react. She was sure he knew about it by now, given that the others seemed to have figured it out, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still worried about what he was going to say. In fact, she had called him in to talk finances in the hopes she couldget him alone long enough to speak about what was going on with Xavier.
