Page 8 of Defended By the Lumberjack
We sleep together through the night, wrapped up in each other like we've been doing it our whole lives already. Before day breaks with its sleepy winter light late in the morning, I wake my girl up, desperate to have her again before I have to head down the mountain without her.
"I'll be back tonight," I promise. Leaning across the rumpled sheets to kiss her pouty lips.
"I have the dinner shift till nine." July's hands wrap around my neck, her kisses feeling a hell of a lot more like good morning than good bye.
"I'll be back before then. I have to go into the office and get a few things done. You want me to bring some things back? I can stay a few days."
"Sounds perfect. I don't get time off until Monday."
Believe it or not, July and I actually managed to do some talking through the night. I know she needs to stay at the ski resort to be close to her work. As soon as she has a few days off, I plan to pack her up and bring her down to my place.
We'll work out the logistics later. But she won't be living in the cramped one bedroom apartment of employee housing much longer.
And she won't be losing her job either.
It's not a long drive down to my cabin. I found property for sale along one of the nameless, winding roads that spur off the main highway on the uphill side of town. Moonshine Ridge might be small as towns go, but it's built tight, with most all the businesses that make up "town" within walking distance of each other.
Residential areas sprouted up around the city center over time, with most of the houses close enough to pass for actual neighborhoods.
I wanted open space. So I built my place out here, on the five acres I was able to snag for a good price, but only because I had the resources to put in the road myself.
And speaking of those resources; I hope I'm not about to hang myself with the rope I was given, but I don't even bother swinging home for a shower and a change of clothes. Passing the turn off to my place, I head straight for the Murdock offices knowing damn good and well that the big boss, Clinton, doesn't have anything better to do with his Saturday morning than be at work.
Chapter Five
July
My phone buzzes and I smile as I read the text from Levi.
He's been texting all day, letting me know he meant every word he told me last night about our future together. I can't explain it, but I know he's right about being meant for each other.
I text him back to let him know I left a key for him with the front desk staff so he doesn't have to wait for me downstairs. I add silly hearts to the message and he sends back a kissing face and tells me he'll be here soon, even though it's still early and I have hours before my dinner shift ends.
"Hey, July?" Pepper Jones pokes her head through the kitchen door.
"Yeah?" My heart rate ramps up to one-sixty. Pepper and her husband, Eddy, are the owners of the ski resort-- my bosses.
"I know it's going to be late and all, but when you're done tonight, could you swing by the office?"
"Uh, yeah. Sure thing."
Pepper's friendly voice gives nothing away, but if the bosses want to see me at ten o'clock on a Saturday night, it can't be good. Especially not after the unhappy customer last night.
Even Levi's next text can't cheer me up as I start prepping for the early dinner crowd.
"Hey, Perry, I need to grab some things from the back." I give my assistant the heads up that I'll be out of the kitchen for a bit and push through the door to the hallway.
The owners did their best to build the state of the art kitchen in the space provided by the original nineteen-sixties architecture of the ski resort's main building, but inevitably, some of our supplies ended up being kept in a storage room that can't be accessed from inside the kitchen space. Towels, storage containers, bowls, that sort of thing.
It seems the lunch crew didn't bother restocking the kitchen towels when they cleared out this afternoon, and not only am I the one with free hands at the moment, I could use a minute to myself.
"Hey Chef."
The man's voice catches me by surprise. When I turn around with an armful of dishtowels, he's standing in the store room doorway, blocking my exit.
"I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you in private."
The way he says "private" makes my skin crawl.
