Page 19 of A Mustang River Christmas

“I gathered that. I also didn’t want to pepper her with questions, since I figured it’s not any of my business.”

He shrugged. “It can be your business if you want.” His eyes caught hers and held. “I mean, if you’re interested in taking on all that baggage.”

“First things first, we should probably get started on this project.”

“Probably. I don’t want to get in trouble with the mayor. Now that Addison has all that power, she could easily use it to destroy us.”

“Luckily, she probably won’t,” Laney said, laughing. “I don’t think Addison destroys anything. She just relentlessly builds everything up.”

“True that.”

“I do admire her passion,” Laney said. And that left her with some questions rolling around inside of her, questions that she decided not to ask while they instead turned the conversation over to making a plan for the best way to approach the build. They would be able to get most of it done tonight, thanks to the detailed schematics that she already had, and the fact that she had already assembled all of the supplies.

“We can load it up in the truck afterward,” he said. “I can help you get it moved into the lobby, and then we’ll spend tomorrow working on the elements.”

“I think I can do the elements by myself,” she said. “I mean, now that I’ve had your expert intervention.”

“I’ll help,” he said.

And she didn’t argue with him because maybe he was doing it to help, maybe he was just trying to be closer to her, and maybe he really didn’t think she could do it, but she couldn’t be sure which thing it was, so she elected not to be argumentative. And maybe she was being a little bit too prideful about her own abilities. He was the expert. Far and away. It would be good to work beside him and learn something from him.

That comforted her a little bit. It gave a purpose to this... Connection. One that wasn’t her getting in too deep.

She’d done love once. She hadn’t liked the end result at all.

Hadn’t liked what it looked like when she sacrificed her freedom and linked her fate to someone else’s.

Pike did the necessary measuring and ran the large table saw, Laney worked on assembly. And finally, they had a large, beautiful structure that did resemble the Painted Ridge Resort.

It was even more amazing to see it on a grand scale like this.

“Amazing,” she said.

“I think so,” Pike said, arms crossed.

The hotel was all squares and rectangles, wood and river rock, large windows and hard angles. They’d captured a very basic plywood replica of it here, and now they just needed to bring it to life with their gingerbread plan.

“Does it put you in an awful position? Having your employee know who you’re sleeping with?” There they were, right back in the other conversation. She ground her teeth together. “No. Not... I mean... You know how it is. You correctly guessed last night that my ex was also a chef.”

“On your level?”

“Oh, no. He was not a head chef. But we met working in a restaurant, and you know, the hours are so long, you end up with people you work with more often than not. Even if it’s a bad idea. And it is a really bad idea. So no, I’m kind of used to working around people who are enmeshed in my sex life. But, I feel sorry for her, since it is her dad.”

“When I said that we have a particular sort of relationship, what I meant was I had to earn my way back into her life.”

She had suspected that based on what Chloe had said earlier.

“I bet,” she said. “That must have been really difficult for both of you.”

“It was. It still is sometimes. I’m very aware of how much of her childhood I missed. I was able to come back into her life when she was a pre-teen. And I’m glad that I was there for the teen years. But she was always worried that I was going to relapse. She was always worried that she was going to lose me again, and that’s why I told her I would always be really honest with her. So I always talk to her. About everything. Because that’s how I’ve earned her trust back. By being upfront. I was never going to lie to her about this. Even if I would have preferred for her to just... infer rather than to have to confirm it because she caught me sneaking back into my own house.”

“Honestly, you guys must have a good relationship. I don’t have anything close to an honest relationship with my parents.”

“They probably also didn’t abandon you for five years of your childhood.”

“You didn’t abandon her, Pike, you were sick.”

He shook his head. “I get that. But I’m never going to absolve myself for that. So, don’t try to do it for me. I’m not allergic to feeling the consequences of that, I like it.”