Page 64 of The Last Resort
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Rachel stood on the stone steps outside the front of the main entrance and watched as her sister headed down the ski-lodge road. Once Kellie’s car had disappeared around the bend and was lost from sight, Rachel glanced up at the sky. Apart from a few scattered gray clouds, everywhere she looked was a huge and very welcome patch of blue.
Please god, no more snow or ice.
Could winter finally be giving way to Spring? Her and Matthew’s shared concern over the layer of ice on the roof had them holding back on celebrating the pending arrival of warmer weather.
I wonder if the Brocks know someone with a crane who could scrape it off before it turns to water and floods the lobby. Or even lay some pipes down and take the flow directly off the roof. I’ll talk to Matthew and see what he thinks.
She and Kellie had already packed away all the groceries, and with Matthew adamant that he didn’t want her helping with his model, Rachel found herself with time on her hands.
I could do with some fresh air and a walk.
The softening snow crunched under Rachel’sboots as she made her way from the resort grounds to a nearby path which led along the edge of the woods. Past the property line of the Green Tree Resort, the dirt track widened. Wooden signs along the trail marked the distance into town, along with expected walk time and level of difficulty. Someone had put a lot of effort into making this a good walking trail.
“Now this is something we should be looking into for the redevelopment. There must be a heap of things we can offer guests outside of the usual things. Not everyone wants to ski.”
Rachel made a mental note to add that to her and Matthew’s now daily project discussion. He seemed to be slowly coming around to her way of thinking, and if she could get him to see a way for the dollars to work, then they stood a real chance of saving the original resort. At times he was hesitant about things, and she sensed it had a lot do with what his family might say if he failed to win approval for the bid.
Do billionaires even know how to spell failure?
As she walked along the path, Rachel let the worries of the resort and her life slip gently to the back of her mind. Her to-do list was never ending, but it could all wait. She needed time for herself. A few precious minutes alone.
But as soon as she let her worries slip away, her heart took up its case and pleaded.
What on earth are we going to do about Matthew?
They’d reached a point where friendship might be the inevitable outcome. After a couple of impromptu kisses neither of them had pushed for more. She should be grateful that he was maintaining a respectful distance. Keeping their relationship as close to professional as possible was the sensible thing to do right now.
It would be really dumb for her to get seriously involved with him again, especially now that she knew who he really was, and the consequences for the Brock family if the sale toRoyal Resorts were to fall through. If she and Matthew couldn’t make their relationship work a second time, he might decide that Aspen was all too complicated for him and walk away from the project.
And where would that leave this old place, and my family?
There were lines that she shouldn’t cross.
And yet, all she could think of was the ache in her body. The yearning for him to touch her. To let her desire for him win out.
“Let it go, Rach,” she muttered, rounding a bend in the path. “Just get this?—”
Something black dashed out from the woods, then stopped in front of her.
A bear. A baby bear.
No sooner had her brain registered this fact, then a crashing noise behind her had Rachel whirling round.
A second small black bear now appeared from out of the trees. It put Rachel in the unenviable position of having a bear on either side of her, with both the way forward and back on the trail effectively blocked. She knew enough about bears to be sure that where there were baby bears, the mother couldn’t be too far away.
She wanted to scream for help, but her brain refused to engage. Fists clenched tightly by her sides, Rachel searched frantically for a way to escape.
To her left was the drop over the side into the ravine, and down to the lake.
That’s a long way to fall.
The only safe route left open to her, away from either bear, was through the woods.
She took a half step toward the trees, then stopped. Her blood turned to ice.
A dark shadow rose from the snow-covered undergrowth. The shadow had a long nose and piercing black eyes. Themother bear huffed a clear message of warning as she ambled toward Rachel.
