Page 50 of High Side
Brit glanced at her. “Yeah? You blackmailing her or something?”
“Nope. Worse. I’m her kid.”
Brittany gaped. “But you’re from Gunnison.”
“I am. I mean, that’s where I grew up. A while back, I found out I was adopted, and Liz is my birth mom.” She held her breath, hoping this didn’t go badly.
“Okay, wait. What? That’s nowhere near enough information. Did you find out accidentally? Did you work for her first? Does Lupe know?”
“Lupe does know. I worked for her first, believe it or not. And yeah, I found out through one of those DNA tests. Her brother had one done, and I had gotten one done when my adopted mom had breast cancer. It was crazy. When I found out I was like, what?” It had been nuts.
They’d had it out, too. She’d been so mad, and really for no reason. Liz really had no idea who she was, either.
“So… Liz is bi?”
“Liz grew up in a church where they didn’t allow lesbians. She was pregnant when she left home for college. She had me and gave me up without telling anyone. True story.”
“Aw shit. That sucks.” Brittany reached for her again. “Are you—I mean, obviously you’re okay now. And you want to do this? Take over the business? Is that what she’s training you for?”
“Yeah. Eventually. Right now she wants just what she got today. Someone to manage when she’s not able to be here.” Kylie paused at the fork leading either to her place or into town. “What do you want to do for supper?”
“I can make mac and cheese and hot dogs.” When she laughed, Brit poked her. “Hey, it’s comfort food. And then we can be alone.”
“I’m in.”
“Are you worried? I mean, about…all this? It’s a lot of pressure.” Brit actually sounded concerned.
“Nah. I mean, it sounds new to you, but they’ve been easing me into it for a while. I argued about stepping up a bit, but only because I’m selfish and want to stay on the river.”
Brittany chewed her lower lip, and Kylie let her mull that over. She obviously had more to say, but it might not come out now. Ky guessed it was a lot of pressure for Brittany now, too, dating the owner’s kid.
She just hoped it wouldn’t make Brittany run the other way.
She was stupid for the girl, when it came right down to it. Moving Brit in had only made that worse.
“Yeah. That would be tough.” Brittany gave her a laughing look. “You’re so old, though. I can see why you’re moving up.”
“I am going to beat your ass.”
Brittany hooted, and Kylie got them moving home, because she thought it was okay, and she needed that comfort food, her girl, her dog, and a snuggle.
Hopefully, it would be a damn quiet night at M&M.
* * *
Brittany stared at her resume on the screen of her laptop, chewing on her lower lip, which was one of her worst habits. She pulled out her Chapstick to put some on to help with the roughness, and sighed.
She was freaking out.
Finding out that Kylie was Liz’s daughter and would be running the outfitters at some point put this weird pressure on her. Not because Kylie was essentially her boss; they’d worked that out.
But because if she was going to stay in town, she definitely needed to have a job somewhere else. So she was putting in at the ski mountain, the hotel, and the winery for the end of the rafting season.
But her lack of experience was woeful.
She should call her mom. She was the queen of wildly exaggerating her job talents without actually lying…
Mom would be excited to hear all about Kylie, too, and to hear about the dog and the house and the job and…well, everything.
