Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Though I wasn’t nearly as articulate as her. “If you want it, it’s yours. I don’t want to micromanage. I just want to make sure that I’m not going to wake up with some fancy ski resort that wants to kill my mountains.”
Dinner finished up, and Holly excused herself to head to her apartment.
Major and Hux waited until she and the girls had left to go clean up the kitchen before saying, “You like her.”
I scoffed. “I like her, sure.”
I liked her a lot, actually.
I just wasn’t sure that I was going to do anything about it.
“She still hates you a little bit,” Major pointed out.
Tell me something I didn’t know…
“You should just tell her the truth at this point,” Hux said. “I mean, it’s not like you were purposefully an asshole to her. Didn’t play her and her dad. You did what he wanted. Plus, it cost you almost twice what the land was worth. Which, I still think is absurd. But you didn’t ask me.”
I snorted. “No, I sure the fuck didn’t.”
Major chuckled, clutching his belly.
Hux stood up, gathered all the empties and the rest of the trash on the table, and headed into the kitchen.
Only when it was just Major and me did he say, “Do you think that they’re going to cause problems?”
“I don’t ‘think’, I know,” I admitted. “They’re working with that company. They’ve been trying to pass it for years and haven’t found a way to do it. They even tried taking our land ten years ago, and Dad had to fight tooth and nail.”
That’d been when I decided that as club president of the Dixie Wardens, a mantle I’d taken on early, that I wouldn’t allow anyone in this town to be pushed around.
I would fight for what I thought was right.
And that was the creed I’d lived by for the last ten years.
This mountain was our home, and we weren’t going to be letting anyone take it from us.
“You ready, old man?” Sorcha asked, tapping Major on the shoulder.
Major stood up, tossed my sister over his shoulder, and declared, “I’ll show you, old man.”
Sorcha giggled like she was a teen and not an almost fifty-year-old.
Hux came out moments later with a grin on his face.
“What?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing.” Hux grinned so cheesily that it made my teeth grit. “Just talking to Joe about what ‘grandpa’ name you were going to be called.”
I flipped him off and headed outside, checking on the animals one last time.
I was giving some extra love to Applesauce and her foal when the door to the barn’s bathroom opened and Holly stepped out in a towel and nothing else.
We both froze.
“Uh, hi.” She smiled tentatively. “Night.”
I closed my eyes, trying really fucking hard to forget the way she looked all wet and slippery, but didn’t manage it.
It was like the view was permanently etched into my brain, right at the front, where I could think about it for all time.
TWELVE
I wish being a bitch paid the bills.
—Holly’s secret thoughts
HOLLY
It was hard to hold on to my anger toward a man who I could tell did everything he did for a good reason.
It was even harder to hold on to that anger when that same man that’d stolen so much from me gave me just as much back.
To say that my head was a confused mess would be an understatement.
It only kept getting more and more swirled up in confusion as I arrived at work and found out that I had a coffee there waiting for me, as well as a couple of Danishes from Reyelle’s.
“Thank you.” I smiled at Gena.
“Don’t thank me.” Gena grinned. “Boss man’s brother got it for you. He was here for all of point two five seconds before he was out the door again. He said ‘this is for Quad Shot’ and hightailed it out of here like he was late.”
My heart thawed just that much more toward Denver.
He’d had a meeting in town with the town council so he could fight with them on water rights as well as the plans to build a ski resort when there were already two resorts, two towns over.
He wanted to be able to water his cows—which was completely understandable. The town council wanted to divert the water to a tributary that would then run water through a new ski resort.
To say that Denver was pissed would be comical.
He was way more than pissed.
He was livid.
He’d left a note on my door this morning telling me about the town council meeting at Hopp’s, and that I needed to be there if I wanted to be a part of this new venture.
I had a feeling that he was fully capable of getting anyone, anywhere to back down and do his bidding.
More so, I figured if they didn’t back down, he’d play hockey with their eyeballs.