Page 40 of High Side
“I do my best.” Brittany took Kylie’s hand and drew her into the house, closing Sadie out of the bedroom as they headed inside.
“Mmm… I like your best. I like your bits, too.”
She laughed and echoed what Kylie had said earlier. “Ditto. Come on. Let’s get naked.” That was better than having long, strange discussions any day.
Thirteen
“Kylie! Get your ass in here.”
Liz waved her down when she walked in, and she blinked, because as far as she knew, she hadn’t done anything wrong. She was back on active duty, she had tomorrow off for the Fourth of July, and life was pretty good.
“Hey, what’s up?” She ducked into Liz’s office, which always felt a little weird, because she was both an employee and family.
“How’s your foot?”
“Fine. I mean, I’m cleared for rafting.”
“Well, why don’t you wait until this weekend? Take one more day today here at the shed?”
She frowned. “Why?”
“Because I worry about you.”
“Would you tell Joe not to get on the water today?”
“Probably, but Joe isn’t my daughter.” At least Kylie couldn’t say Liz wasn’t honest as hell.
“I hope not. He’d make an ugly woman.”
Liz laughed, then sobered a bit. “This is a good chance for you to do some management work. Take a load off me and Lupe for a bit.”
“What? Are you guys okay?” She actually stood up, her heart pounding good and hard. “I mean, you’re not sick?”
“No! No. Sit down, huh?”
She sank back into her chair, swallowing hard. “God, don’t do that to me.”
“Oh, honey, no. No, we’re just wanting to go do something fun in the summer sometimes. Or take weekends off. You know, normal shit. We’ve been running this company for thirty years. Not a single weekend off without stress in thirty years.”
“Shit.” That had never occurred to her. Taking over M&M had always been a someday thing. She figured she had plenty of time left on the river. But thirty years?
“Just start part-time for now. Manage half the week and raft the other half. Work up to it so next year you can be the full-time manager for the high season.” Liz studied her, those eyes like looking in a mirror.
“Yeah? Whoa, that’s wild. I—Part-time, huh? I can do that. I need to start learning everything right?”
“You do.” Liz smiled then, looking relieved. “So, how about a few days a week? Starting today.”
“That was evil, woman.” Still, part of her loved it. Her mom had a breast cancer scare when Kylie had been sixteen, and she’d panicked about getting cancer. That was when she’d found out she was adopted. She’d found Liz seven years later.
“What? I wasn’t trying to frighten you.” Liz winked. “Have a cup of coffee with me?”
“Are there doughnuts?”
“Aren’t there always doughnuts with Lupe? She loves her fried dough.”
“She does. I love her fried dough. The fry bread and the sopapillas.” Lupe was such an earth mother, always feeding people.
“Yeah, me too.” Liz winked at her. “You’re going to be amazing at this. I know it.”
