Page 69 of Release Me

“I know. It does feel like that. I’ve been so busy at work,” I say, walking with Delaney toward the coffee shop in the lodge.

We stop, waiting in line, but of course one of the baristas flags us over to the side, shaking her head at the idea that we might have to wait.

“The usual?” she asks, and Delaney and I both nod, a silence passing between us and I feel guilty for not telling her.

I know she wouldn’t talk, she wouldn’t share my secret, but I worry that she will tell Alex and Alex will tell Max. None of this is intentional or malicious, but easily done without realizing it. I also don’t care to have this discussion with Max either. My brother can be stupidly overprotective, and this is one of those times I know he’d pull that shit.

A few seconds later, the barista hands us both our drinks and two small bags. Delaney smiles at me and I can’t help but return it, knowing what’s waiting for us in the bags.

“Thanks,” I call as we walk away, heading back toward my office. “How much time do you have to hang out?” I now ask even though we are both supposed to be working.

I have an unscheduled appointment to meet with the owner of the Mountain View Motel. I say unscheduled because I know there’s no way that guy is going to even talk to me. I have to just show up and I’ve convinced myself this is the best way to start my day. Meeting with a grumpy old man who will probably call the police on me.

“I have a training session scheduled in thirty minutes,” Delaney responds, walking into my office, we both take a seat, pulling out the chocolate croissants from the bags. “How about you?”

I swallow hard, again hating that I’m lying to her, and feeling like I need to make things less awkward after her seeing me with Ethan in the elevator, I say, “I have something to tell you.”

“Oh my god, you’re sleeping with Ethan, aren’t you!” Delaney whisper-shouts, her mouth hanging open, her eyes wide.

“No!” I whisper-shout back, vehemently shaking my head. “What made you think that?”

“I don’t know. I saw you together this morning and you went to work early. You’ve been gone a lot.” She air quotes the word gone as if it’s code for spending time with Ethan, and while she isn’t wrong, I can’t tell her that.

“Ethan is expanding Badger Creek and he wants me to run all the expansion properties,” I blurt out, covering up for the fact that I’m still lying to her.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Delaney replies, clearly caught off guard.

“No one knows but me and his business partner,” I clarify.

“That explains why you’ve been gone and why you’ve been in Ethan’s office so much,” she replies, and I nearly choke on my coffee as I take a drink. My hand goes to my mouth, attempting to avoid spitting coffee all over Delaney.

“I haven’t been in Ethan’s office that much,” I say, sounding defensive.

“I didn’t say you were. People were talking about you being in there and now there’s a real reason. You know how people here love to gossip. Let it go,” Delaney replies, her lip curled up in annoyance at the gossip.

She had her fill of it when she returned to Tahoe after leaving to go to college. Things didn’t work out and she hated the idea of coming back here. She worried what people would think and she knew they would gossip. Just like I know people are talking about me and what is happening behind Ethan’s closed office door.

“Can you tell me his idea?” she now asks, changing the subject and sounding genuinely interested. We’ve both worked here since we were in high school, seeing Badger Creek go through a few different owners and Ethan is by far the best we’ve ever worked for.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone. He doesn’t want it going out until he does the press release, and like you said, you know how people here love gossip.”

“My lips are sealed,” Delaney says, pretending to lock her lips and throw away the key. She looks ridiculous and I laugh a little at her silliness.

“He bought the timeshare building across the road from our condo and is planning to renovate it. He hopes to turn it into luxury rental villas under the Badger Creek name.”

“That’s really cool. And you’re going to take over running it along with the lodge?” Delaney now asks.

“That’s the plan.”

“Shit, Zoey, you’ve made it. All without the help of your family or anything else,” she says, a huge smile on her face. “It feels good, doesn’t it?” she now asks, and I know she felt this too when Ethan asked her to run the new ski school with Alex.

There was a time when she thought she’d be a ski instructor at Badger Creek forever. Without that college degree, she was certain no one would take a chance on her. Ethan did though and it turned out amazing.

The way she says it does make me feel good, but there’s always that idea that Ethan and I being together will cloud the fact that I did do this on my own. I don’t want that to diminish what either of us have done, which is why we’ve agreed to keep things quiet for a while.

“Yep, it’s pretty cool and today I’m going to go meet with the owner of the Mountain View Motel to see if I can get him to give up his land lease to Badger Creek,” I say, clenching my teeth and closing my eyes. It’s going to be a rough one.

“You’re going there alone?” Delaney jokes. Growing up here in Tahoe, we always thought of the Mountain View Motel as the kind of place you’d go to drink underage and smoke weed. It feels like that’s still the kind of place it is.

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