Goodbye Gifts: (The Steamy Version) (A 'HOT' Castle Mountain Lodge Romance Book 5) (8 page)

Morgan gave her a sidelong glance and took another sip of her coffee. “I honestly can’t believe you agreed to that.”

“I know.” Carmen dropped her head into her hands and rubbed at her temple. “But honestly, he didn’t give me much of a choice and I guess I didn’t see what the harm was.”

“But now?”

“Now I think I might like Dylan,” she mumbled.

“And you don’t want him to find out and think it was all fake,” Morgan guessed.

Carmen looked up into her friend’s eyes and nodded.

“So tell him,” Morgan said. “If you want to see where things could go with him, be honest. Nothing good can come from keeping secrets if you want to be together. But I don’t get it, Carmen. Didn’t you just say you were too busy for a relationship? Not that I don’t think it’s awesome you’re interested in someone, but if it’s not going to be serious, does it really matter?”

Carmen shrugged and fiddled with the handle on her mug. “So honesty,” she said. “Or say nothing?”

“I think it depends on what you want. There’s probably no harm in it if you never plan on seeing him again.”

“Awesome.” Carmen rolled her eyes.

“Sorry I can’t be more help,” Morgan said. “But for the record, I’m all for a relationship.” She smiled and Carmen recognized the glow in her friend’s face. It’d been there since she and Bo finally made their own relationship official and moved in together. She couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. It might be nice to have that, too.

A commotion at the front door caught her eye and she sighed. “You’re not the only ones who’d be happy with me in a relationship.” She nodded towards the entrance where her mom and dad were busy turning down the efforts of the bellboy while simultaneously arguing with each other as they dragged their suitcases into the lobby. “Here comes the heads of the ‘marry Carmen off’ committee now.”

Morgan laughed. “I’m sure they’re not that bad.”

Carmen raised her eyebrows, causing Morgan to laugh harder.

“Maybe you should introduce them to Dylan,” Morgan suggested between giggles. “At least that way they’d think you were settling down.”

“Right.” Carmen stood and straightened her blouse. “And they’d be planning the wedding before they even left. No thanks.” She turned to Morgan and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks for the chat. Now, wish me luck.”

“You got it.”

Carmen loved her parents; she really did. And she reminded herself of that fact as she crossed the lobby towards them. She’d hoped to head them off before they got to the check-in desk, but her mother had beaten her to it.

“We have a very important reservation,” her mother was saying to Joe, the customer service clerk on duty. “If you look it up, it should be under Carmen Kincaid. That’s K-I-N-“

“I got it, Mom.” Carmen flashed an apologetic smile to Joe, who grinned back and turned to the next guest.

“Carmen.” Her mother turned to her and frowned. “We expected you to meet us.”

“I am meeting you, Mom. I’m here, in the lobby.”

“Well, you could have—“

“You look good, kid,” her dad said. Carmen turned and let her dad hug her. It didn’t matter how old she got, or how long it’d been, nothing felt better than a hug from her dad.

“She looks too thin,” her mother said.

“Thanks, Mom.” Carmen stepped out of her dad’s arms and grabbed an envelope she’d slid into a drawer behind the desk earlier. “I already checked you in. Come on, I’ll take you up to your room so you can get settled.”

“Did you get us the suite?” her mom asked. “I was really hoping we could stay in one of those fancy suites like where Gage Mitchell stayed when he was here. Bill, he was the star of
Extinction
. And that new Western show. I can never remember the names of these—“

“
Tumbleweed
,” Carmen supplied.

“Tumble-what?”

“
Tumbleweed
,” Carmen repeated. “That’s the name of the show.”

Her mother waved her hand. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Did you get us one of those suites? I hear they’re quite fancy and have their own living rooms and—“

“Linda, I’m sure whatever room Carmen got us will be fine,” her father interrupted. “We’re just happy to be here, kiddo. It’s been too long.”

Carmen grabbed the handle of a suitcase and started walking towards the elevator bank. “It has been awhile.” She tried not to do a mental countdown of how many hours she had left in their visit, but the idea of spending some time with Dylan and away from her family was becoming more and more appealing by the second.

Dylan forced himself to focus on the task at hand, which at that moment was dealing with his general contractor. He glanced one more time out the window at the sunny fall day. He'd been in his makeshift office, an empty boardroom that Trent had given him to use, since six a.m. He'd already decided to work at least until one o'clock before taking a break because he knew exactly where that break would take him, and once he found Carmen, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be returning to the office. At least that was his hope.

With a sigh, he pushed thoughts of Carmen out of his mind for the moment and dialed the number for Jake Mentz, his head contractor working on the Springs, returning his call. He already knew what Jake was going to want. The same thing he'd been wanting to know for the last few weeks—when he was going to get paid. And Dylan would have an answer for him, too. Just as soon as Trent showed up with the signed contract from the Braxtons. But Dylan couldn't put off the call any longer.

The phone rang only once before Jake picked up.

"Harrison."

"Hey, Jake. Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you. I've been trying to get some answers about that issue we were talking about."

"By issue, you mean my paycheck?”

Jake never minced words, which is one of the things Dylan had liked about him from the beginning.

"That's pretty much it."

"Tell me some good news then, Harrison. I have a whole crew that's looking to get paid here next week and I can't keep sitting on promises."

Dylan rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had two choices. He could tell Jake the truth, that the funds were close, but not confirmed. Or he could take a gamble that Jake would take his crew off the job and walk out. Well," he said after a moment. “I have good and bad news.”

“That doesn’t sound like what I want to hear, Harrison.”

Dylan sighed. “I’m sorry, Jake. The good news is, the investor is closer than ever to signing.”

“But?”

“He hasn’t yet.” Dylan braced himself for the contractor’s response.

There was silence, and then Jake said, “You know I’ll have to stop work, Harrison. I’m sorry.”

Dylan was afraid of that. The promise of money was just not the same as actual money. “I get it, Jake. I do. It should only be a day or two at most,” he added.

“Let me know, Harrison. As soon as you have the funds, I’ll get my guys back on the job. But—“

“I know.” Dylan ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the roots. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

He hung up the phone and Dylan looked out the window in an effort to slow his thoughts. He needed to secure the Braxtons and fast. If Trent found out work had stopped on the Springs, it wouldn’t go over well. He hated to lie to him, but maybe he could just avoid the topic altogether and as soon as the Braxtons signed, everything would be back to normal. Trent better come through with the contract because without it the Springs was in real trouble. Not to mention himself. He picked up the phone and pushed the button for Trent.

Three rings and the call went to voicemail.

“Trent. It’s me. I forgot to ask you last night about the contract.” Dylan could have kicked himself after he stormed out of the restaurant and hadn’t even checked with Trent on the status of the most important business deal they’d ever had pending. Carmen was becoming too much of a distraction. This was why he didn’t get involved with relationships. They caused nothing but trouble.

Dylan shook his head and focused on the task at hand.

“I need to know where we stand with the Braxtons,” he said into the phone. “It’s crucial that we have an answer and the funds by tomorrow at the latest. Call me back right away.”

He hung up the phone and pushed up from his chair, choosing instead to pace in front of the window, not like it was going to help.

If they didn’t get the investment dollars, the entire project would be compromised and Dylan would need to do some quick maneuvering to keep it from going under altogether.

Suddenly, the room was too warm. He unbuttoned the top button on his shirt and looked at his watch. It was only eleven o'clock, but he'd had enough. He couldn’t stand around and worry. It wouldn’t do any good and until he heard back from Trent, there really was no point in carrying on with anything else. He couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he had something else he was supposed to do, but he couldn’t focus on a damn thing anyway. He closed up his laptop and stuffed his things into his case. He was done.

He knew he could probably find Trent in his office, and that probably should have been where he was headed, but he couldn’t think straight and there was only one person responsible for that. And only one person who would be able to cure it.

Dylan took a chance and headed for the lobby, since that's where Carmen seemed to spend most of her time, even when she wasn't working.

Sure enough, just as he'd guessed, he spotted her dark hair bent over the reservation desk. She wasn't wearing her uniform, which he took as a good sign. Maybe he could convince her to take off for the afternoon.

"Hi."

She jerked her head up, but he was rewarded by the smile he loved so much when she realized it was him.

"Hi," she said. “I’m glad to see you.”

His heart sped up a little. Maybe he wasn’t the only one whose thoughts were completely occupied by the other.

“Really?”

“Yes, I wanted to apologize for last night,” she said. “I shouldn’t have taken off like that. I just…well, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He leaned on the desk and resisted the urge to reach out and touch her face. “Maybe you can make it up to me?”

She smiled, but gave him a questioning look. “Shouldn’t you be working?"

"Probably." He shrugged. "But I don't have any meetings today and I was sitting in one of those boardrooms in the back getting a few things done, but I kept getting distracted."

"Oh, yeah?" She tilted her head and her hair fell like a wave over her shoulder. "By what?"

Dylan propped an elbow on the desk, and looked into her eyes. "It's such a beautiful day, and all I could think about was spending it outside with you.”

She didn't immediately object, which Dylan took to be a good sign. In fact, there was a glint in her eye and she said, "Did you really?"

Encouraged, he leaned in. "I did. In fact, that's all I've been able to think about for the last few hours. And I believe you told me there was a lot to do up here in the mountains. How about you show me what Castle Mountain Lodge has to offer?"

She didn’t say anything right away and Dylan noticed the hesitation that clouded her eyes. She looked down and tapped her pen on her desk. After what seemed like a very long time, she looked up and said, "As a matter of fact, it would be a perfect day to visit Crown Lake. They'll be putting the boats away for the season soon, but it would be lovely out there today."

"Boats? Let's do it." He grinned. A day in a boat with Carmen would be exactly what he needed to take his mind off the Springs and the precarious situation he was in.

"Oh, there's just one thing." Carmen's face clouded for a minute, her smile fading. "My parents are here.”

Dylan stood up and stretched his neck. "That's right," he said. "You did say they were coming. What are they up to today?" He had a feeling he was going to regret the question.

Carmen flinched. He'd gotten the impression the night before that she wasn't overly excited about their visit, but he'd just assumed she was overreacting the way most people did when they had to entertain family members.

"You may have noticed I'm not working today?" She gestured down to her jeans and sweater. "I took the day off and promised to spend some time with them, so..."

“Oh, I see,” he said with a straight face. “So that's why you're standing behind the desk instead of hanging out with them?” He couldn't resist teasing her a little. He grinned and she shot him a look, but returned his smile. "It's okay," Dylan added. And before he knew what he was saying, he added, "Why don't you see if they’re interested in a boat ride. It could be fun.”

"Seriously?" She tilted her head and blinked at him as if he'd just suggested they all go to the moon and back. "You just busted me working on my day off in order to avoid them, and you're really offering to take them out to the lake?"

Yes, he thought. He was definitely going to regret it. But more than anything, he wanted to spend time with Carmen, and the alternative—going back to the boardroom to stress about money he didn’t have—was just not appealing enough to make him change his mind. "Yes," he said. "I guess that's exactly what I'm offering."

"Okay," she said slowly. Her face lightened, and Dylan was rewarded with a grin. "Let's do it. Why not?"

Carmen called up to her parents’ room and told them about the plan while Dylan went to change. He turned his phone off and stuffed it in his back pocket. There were a million reasons he should keep it on and wait for Trent’s call, but there was one very good reason to ignore it. And she was waiting in the lobby.

By the time he returned to the lobby, Linda and Bill Kincaid were already there and anxiously awaiting their departure. It took Dylan only five minutes to determine that her parents were nice people who simply wanted to see their daughter more often. It was also easy to see how frustrated Carmen got with them, and he decided to make it his mission to make sure all three of them enjoyed their afternoon on the lake as much as he planned to. Dylan figured if he could keep her parents happy and entertained, maybe he'd win a few more points with Carmen and maybe he'd finally be able to sneak in a kiss later on, since all Dylan could think of when he looked at her was how good her full lips would feel on his.