A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain #1)(52)

I lift my head. Hell, I’d forgotten Harper was here. “Is she doing okay?”

“Totally!” Sheila beams. “She had a massage and a snowboarding lesson today.”

“Snowboarding, not skiing? I knew she and I were incompatible.”

Ava rolls her eyes at me, and Sheila lets herself out.

That leaves Ava and me alone together. I pass her a glass of wine. “How do you feel about cabernet?”

“I feel great about it.” She takes a sip and watches me. “Is this your go-to? I don’t really even know what adult Reed likes now that we’re not drinking from a warm keg at somebody’s off-campus house party.”

“I like lots of things,” I say quietly. “Like you, for example.”

Ava flushes and then looks away.

“Are you okay?” I ask her, flipping up the top of the pizza box and offering it to her.

“Thanks.” She takes a slice and then bites it, chewing thoughtfully. “I’m okay. But it’s just sinking in that the Sharpe deal is going to be dead in the water.”

“And you feel…?”

“Conflicted. I worked hard on that deal. Weeks of preparation. I wasn’t looking forward to working with the Sharpes, but…” She sets her wine and her food down in order to rub her temples.

“You were getting a promotion,” I say softly. “That will probably still happen, don’t you think?”

“Will it? Your father has to start from scratch now. Not that he’s gotten his head around it. He…” She sighs.

I wait for her to eat a little more before I press for details. “What did he say?”

“Nothing good. He behaved like it’s our fault the Sharpes are assholes.”

“Huh.” I take a fortifying sip of wine. “You mean he acted like it was my fault.”

She looks guilty. “He implied that you must be happy to be right. As if being right was all you cared about.”

Ouch. I let that sink in. “Honestly, it’s not even the worst thing he ever said to me, Ava. When I left here, he was blaming everyone for his own unhappiness. I’m glad you mostly haven’t seen that side of him.”

She lifts troubled eyes to mine. “I’m sorry. That sounds awful. He was pulling himself together by the time I arrived. The hotel was in rough shape, though. I thought maybe the recession had been a factor.”

“I’m glad he’s been good to you. And if he’ll let me, I’ll help him. See? I’ve been brainstorming.” I point to my sketch of Penny Ridge.

“An in-town development could be so cool,” Ava says, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Think of all that new terrain.”

“Oh, I am.” I wrap an arm around her. “It would be good for the town, too. More street traffic for the shops. Locals’ access to skiing would improve. Hell, the kids could walk to the lift after school. That was basically my dream when I was a kid.”

“I bet.” She smiles at me.

I glance down at my sketch, feeling a flare of excitement. Maybe Block doesn’t like my dad. But he might talk to me…

Ava’s phone bleats loudly. “Hang on,” she says, leaning over to fish it out of her bag. “I have to check this.” She frowns at the screen and then answers the call. “Yeah, Bert? What’s up?” She listens to him, then closes her eyes. “Okay, sure. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Did you call... Okay, good.”

“Problem?” I ask after she hangs up. “How big?”

“Bigger than a cat, smaller than a dog,” she says with a wry smile. “And there’s two of them.”

“Wait, what?”

She stands up. “Bert took a crew of ski-patrol members up for their mandatory nighttime training. They found two raccoons in the warming hut, because somebody left the door open.”

“And why is this your problem?” I have to ask, standing up, too. I’m already mourning my pizza date.

“Because it’s nine o’clock, and I’m the associate manager,” she says. “I’ll get someone on the maintenance staff to help me. But nobody’s officially on duty at this hour, and I can’t have the warming hut closed on opening weekend.”

“Huh,” I say slowly. “How about I come, too? And aren’t raccoons rabid?”

She grins. “You look nervous, Reed. But this is no big deal. It’s worse in the spring, because then we get bears.” She is already pulling on a sharp-looking Madigan Mountain Staff jacket. “Bert called the animal-control service already. Mostly I’m going up there to assess the damage.”

“I’m still going,” I say, unwilling to spare any of our precious time together. “I guess we can’t send my dad?”

“Your father and I used to trade off the burden of being on call in the evenings. But when he got married, I told him I would handle it for a while. It was my wedding gift to him.”

That doesn’t sound fair. I put on my ski jacket—the same one Ava had borrowed earlier tonight. And she’s zipping up hers. The subtle mountain goat logo she drew looks slick on it, too.

It almost makes me want one.





CHAPTER 25




WHAT A MESS, KIDS!