A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain #1)(68)

This time it’s different. She’s taken the opposite tactic—bringing me coffee without asking and handling me carefully. She is gentle when she reminds me that I have board meetings and conference calls.

I must be more pathetic than usual.

“Here’s that Wired article about Deevers,” she says sweetly, putting a glossy magazine on my desk. “You sent him a bottle of Washington State cider as a congratulatory gift. And here’s a chocolate blackout cookie to get you through your call with Tim Lanstrom at Kappa. It starts in ten minutes.”

I eye the cookie suspiciously, because random treats from Sheila are not that common. It looks tasty, but I don’t reach for it. Instead, I flip over my phone from where I set it face down on the desk. Blank screen. No calls or texts from Ava.

Ow.

Ava is officially avoiding me now. It’s been more than a week since we last spoke. For a couple of days, I assumed she was just too busy. But now it’s official. She’s ghosting me.

I glance up to find Sheila watching me with concern in her eyes.

“Have you heard from her?” I blurt out like a crazy person.

Sheila’s flinch looks guilty. “We’ve spoken. I had to thank her for comping my room those extra nights.”

“How’s, um, her state of mind?”

She smiles. “Should I dash off an email, asking her for a full report?”

“No.” I put my head in my hands. So this is what it feels like to lose your head. It’s been a long time since I felt like this. I miss Ava so bad.

I dread the day when my father signs that contract. It’s all mixed up for me—the fate of our relationship and the fate of the mountain. I feel like I’ve let Ava down. And my father, too, except he’s too much of an asshole to notice.

It’s killing me that there’s nothing I can do.

“Your call with Tim starts in just four minutes.”

“Tim...?”

Her eyes widen. “Lanstrom. At Kappa.”

“Right.” I straighten up and shake my computer mouse. “Logging in now.”

She waits until I actually do it before she dares to leave the room.





By five p.m., I’m feeling like a caged animal inside my office. Still no replies to my texts to Ava.

I can’t stand it anymore, so I decide to go home early. Maybe a run in Byxbee Park will fix me. Rising from my desk, I toss my laptop in its bag and leave my office. I pause behind Sheila. “Hey, I’m going.”

She whirls around almost violently. I’ve startled her. Then she shoves her laptop aside and looks up at me. “You’re going…where?” she asks, confused.

“Home.”

She blinks. “At five? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just done for the day.”

“Okay,” she says. And then her eyes do a guilty flick towards her laptop.

When I glance at her screen, I see apartment listings. “1BR, 1 Bath, just $1200.” My first thought is—wow, that’s really cheap for the Bay Area.

Then I realize it’s not the Bay Area. There’s a map on half the screen, and it’s for Penny Ridge, Colorado. “What the…?”

“Um…” Sheila says, staring at me with wide eyes. “Reed, it’s wrong to read over someone’s shoulder.”

“Sorry, but what the heck? Who’s renting in Penny Ridge? You’re not doing that for me, right?”

Slowly, Sheila closes the laptop. “No.”

“Then who?” It doesn’t make sense. “For Ava?”

“No, Reed.” She shakes her head. “It’s for me.”

“What?”

She stands up suddenly. “Can we talk in your office?”

I turn around and march back in there, sitting heavily back down in my chair. “Explain.”

“Ava said she’d hire me,” Sheila says quietly, sitting down in the visitor’s chair. “And I’m considering it.”

“Hire you? That makes no sense.”

Except it actually does. Sheila is a bright, talented college graduate who’s terrific in a business setting. And Ava is going to manage the property, moving up into my father’s job.

Of course, she’d want Sheila in the number two spot. Who wouldn’t?

“She’s poaching you?” I yelp. “I can’t believe this.”

“Don’t be mad at Ava,” Sheila says.

“I NEVER GET MAD AT AVA.”

She holds up two hands in submission. “Look, you know I’ve been doing some soul searching. I need to try new things.”

“Goddamn it. She hates me that much?”

Sheila groans. “I promise this isn’t about you. And it’s not even a sure thing. Ava wants to wait for the dust to settle on the acquisition before she tries to hire me for real.”

“And when will that be? Since you know so much about it.”

“Well…” Her guilty face returns. “I hear the final contract will be ready sometime in the next three days. After your father signs, it goes to the state review board. The review process could take two to four weeks.”

I make a growly noise of pure frustration. “You’re willing to work for the Sharpes? If you think I’m a pain in the ass…”