Page 1 of Wrong Idea

prologue

Carver ‘Car’ Storm

“Mr. Storm?”My eyes shut the moment I heard the breathy high-pitched voice on the other end of the phone.

“Yes, Nicole?” I droned, making my annoyance clear. The new manager I’d hired was a pain in the ass.A major one.One I most certainly didn’t need nor want.

I hired her because she’d seemed like a determined woman. Too bad she seemed determined to corner me at every possible turn and work her way into my pants. I might not have a type, but I didn’t screw employees.

Never had and never would.

Unfortunately, according to my brother, our HR guru, I couldn’t just fire her like I wanted to. Owning a chain of high-end hotels and coming from a family that was more than well-off was never easy. There were days when I had to admit I was tempted to walk away from the day-to-day of things and retire.Take it easy like our brother Grant liked to do.

And I could do that.Easily.Money wasn’t an issue. I could be on a boat floating happily in the Mediterranean or bumming it up on a beach on the West Coast. Instead, I worked what felt like twenty-four/seven, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

According to my brother, I did it to myself.

I was a micromanaging dick who needed to learn how to delegate shit. That was easy for him to say. He didn’t have the pressure of a new location weighing on his shoulders. I’d purchased The Crown way below asking and was determined to change it into a five-star luxury ski resort instead of the rundown shamble it was. Not only would it be the jewel of my portfolio, but I knew what building something like this could do to the small mountain town of Moonlit Pines. My brothers had talked me into this place. The two of them had been chomping at the bit tobuy the old ski resort in hopes of renovating it into something beautiful and help the small town come back from all the economic hits it’d taken through the years.

“I was wondering if we could have a performance evaluation.” Nicole’s annoying voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Maybe tonight?” There was no hiding the breathy insinuation she attempted. I cringed. The woman was relentless, and not in a good way.

She was trying to slip her way into my bed, and I wasn’t interested. Not only did she work for me, but I didn’t do relationships. I hadn’t been in one in over two decades.

“Your performance evaluation will be held in the conference room with HR present first thing in the morning,” I informed her sternly.

“Well, I was just––“

“I know what you were doing, Miss. Bell,” I cut her off, keeping my tone more than stern. “And it is highly inappropriate. Consider this your first and only verbal warning. From now on, I would prefer our communication to be via email. Thank you.” With that, I hung up. I didn’t have time for her, or anyone, really.

I’d made a life for myself and my family. Built on the little nest egg our parents left us when they passed.

I stepped into the spa area of the resort and headed to their breakroom, all while ignoring every little detail I wanted to change. That would come soon enough. It was actually the next thing my crew would be working on once they were done with the rooms in the east end of the resort.

If it had been up to me, I would have demolished this whole space. Not that it wasn’t nice. The wood was solid and worked with the mountain aesthetic. But the old flooring needed to be ripped up, every wall needed a new coat of paint, and equipment needed to be updated.

About the only thing I didn’t want to change was whoever made the coffee here. It was the best cup I’d had in a long time. A million times better than the one Miss Bell insisted on making in the main break area by my office.

I’d just finished pouring myself a cup of coffee, mentally going through the list of things I had on my itinerary, when my brother walked in, his nose stuck behind an iPad as usual. Before I knew it, my distracted youngest brother, Harrison, bumped into me, too consumed by whatever was on the screen to notice I was standing there.

“Shit!” I cursed, making him snap out of reading whatever the hell he was reading. Somehow, I managed to hold my coffee out to keep it from spilling and splashing all over me. Unfortunately, his open-faced, cream cheese bagel landed on my black dress shirt.

Cream cheese side down.

“Shit! Carve,! I am so sorry, man! I didn’t see you.” When he pulled the bagel off me, my eyes shut as I breathed in deeply. “Relax, Car, it’s not that bad.” I opened them and looked down.

“Harrison,” I growled. It was worse. Smack dab on the middle of my chest, I had a ring of cream cheese. “Jesus, do you put a whole tub of cream cheese on your bagel?” I growled. I could feel my blood pressure rising.

“It’s not that bad.” He rolled his eyes. He didn’t get the list of things I needed to get done and how I didn’t have time to go up to my room to change.

“What the hell are you looking at anyhow that has you that distracted?” I asked. Harrison was great at what he did, but the guy was also easily distracted. It seemed out of the three of us, I was the only one who knew how to focus.

“It’s nothing.” He set the iPad down and reached for a paper towel. Before I could stop him, he tried to wipe the cream cheese off my shirt, only making matters worse. A muscle beneath my eye twitched.

“This is all I needed this morning,” I growled, and he winced. “I have a meeting with the construction crew who are working on redoing the rooms in the east end. I don’t have time to head down to my place and get a new shirt!” I shared.

“I know.” He sighed. “Oh! I have an idea.” He turned and hurried away. I turned my back and headed to the sink. Before I turned the faucet on, he returned with a navy-blue polo in hand.

The same one our employees wore as a uniform.

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