Page 35 of You, Me, & Après-Ski
And after opening up to each other today, I had the even more insane feeling that under different circumstances, he might have let me.
Chapter 17
NOLAN
Afterscanningthroughtheold security records on my computer, I finished off my third cup of coffee as I awaited Bobby’s arrival. Since my confession to Val a few days ago, I’d renewed my investigation—starting with the staff interviews.
Right on time, a knock sounded at my door.
“Come in.”
The older maintenance man poked his head inside, looking unsure. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
“Yes. Have a seat.”
Wringing his hat, Bobby sat across from me. “Me and the boys are working as fast as we can, but with the weather and the holiday, the repairs are taking longer than—”
“This isn’t about that,” I said. “You’re doing fine.”
“Oh,” he replied, deflating in relief.
Smoothing my jacket lapels, I said, “I wanted to ask you about the ski lift malfunction back in January 2004.”
“Ah,” he said with a nod. “I wondered when you’d ask about that. I’ll tell you what I told the police. When I inspected the equipment the night before, everything was in tip-top shape. There was no reason that chair lift should have let go like it did. A real tragedy.”
“And you don’t know what could have caused it?” I asked. “An excess of snow or arctic temperatures?”
“The lift is built to withstand extremes like that. If I’d been able to inspect the chair after the accident, maybe I could have figured out what happened. But the police removed it from the scene, and it was replaced almost immediately.”
Interesting.Was the haste due to wanting to get the resort back in full operation, or did someone have something to hide? In any case, I believed Bobby. If he’d had anything to do with it, why would he have stuck around at the scene of the crime for years? “Thanks, Bobby. Send in Mr. Huxby. He should be waiting outside.”
Ducking his head, he left, to be replaced by a jittery-looking Barney. “I trust you’re enjoying your stay?” Barney asked, fingers tapping his pant leg in a staccato rhythm.
“Bobby told me something interesting just now about the defective equipment being removed before he could inspect it. You were the general manager at the time, were you not?”
“Yes, but I was boxed out of the investigation entirely. I had no control over what happened once law enforcement stepped in.” Sweat broke out across his forehead, but then again, the man was always a nervous wreck in my presence. I stared at him for a beat longer before moving on.
“I need more security footage sent to Jason. From the week following the accident as well. Can you do that?”
“Right away, sir,” he said. I stared at him, waiting. “Oh. You meannow.Yes, of course.” He tripped over himself in his rush, which I appreciated. Mr. Huxby was nothing if not accommodating.
Before heading home for the evening, I stopped by the bar for a quick drink. Nothing made me crave a good scotch more than the current stew of emotions boiling to the surface. But at least I had alead—someone had made sure Bobby never got a chance to inspect the broken chair lift. And I intended to find out who it was. It felt good to be making progress and to have something to dwell on besides Val.
“A secret for a secret.”
After opening up to each other in the greenhouse, we were toeing that precarious line again, a line that was becoming all too thin the more time we spent together. At home, sharing a meal or bumping into each other in the hallway wasn’t uncommon, but Val mostly kept to herself. I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want anything to do with me, or because shedid, and she was avoiding the temptation.
Whatever the reason, while things between us were thawing, an even bigger secret still hung over our heads. In the greenhouse, I’d been seconds away from revealing the real reason I was here at Hale’s Peak—to sell my fake engagement to the media and sell the resort itself—but I’d held back out of fear Val would think I was using her to further my own purposes before discarding her.
Why do I even care what she thinks?Hale’s Peak was my property, my decision. But that answer came all too easily. Spending time with Val was no longer just about appeasing Arthur and securing the sale, if it had ever been about that. Iwantedto be near her. That night when I’d heard her thrashing in her room, I’d thought someone had broken in. The thought of her hurting or in pain, it turned me murderous. And when I saw her sitting there in that bed with her tear-stained face, so small and vulnerable, my heart took a nosedive off a cliff. In that moment, a fierce need to protect her roped me in and had yet to abate.
No one had ever captured my attention like Valeria López, and I didn’t know what to do about it. Selfishly, I wanted to keep us in this safe bubble of exploration, however artificial and temporary it may be. But I’d have to find a way to tell Val the truth—about everything—if I ever hoped to have any kind of genuine relationship with her.Friendship,I corrected. Because that’s all she could ever be to me. Even if I was honest with her, it wouldn’t change anything. I was selling the resort, and I was marrying Cressida. Bitterness coated my thoughts and turned my mood sour.All this inner turmoil over a woman I can’t even have in the way that I want.The impossibility of our situation sparked the fuse of my ever-shortening temper.
I needed that scotch.
Claiming a seat at the rapidly filling bar, I flagged down Hugh. He already held a glass of my usual order and set it in front of me. “Here you are, sir.”
I raised my glass to him before taking a sip. “Thanks, Hugh. How are things living in the village?”
