Page 44 of Ms. Fortune
I wiggled away from him, gratefully taking a handful of tissues out of the glove box to clean myself up. The logistics after the heat of the moment could really kill the mood.
He watched me struggle back into my clothes and asked, “Are you ready to go home? If you don’t think you’re ready to handle being there yet, we can go somewhere else until you are.”
“There’s nowhere else to go.” I sighed and turned to lean my forehead against the clouded window. “I called Banner out on her bullshit. She had done it for her husband. She thought she could force me to sell to one of his clients and he would make partner. The crazy thing is, I don’t think he even cheated on her.I’d looked at hotels before I started walking up the pass. There’s nothing available this time of year.”
He scoffed. “I can make something available. Just say the word.”
I laughed. “Maybe you should forget about those famous favors if you really want to start over and live a normal life.”
He was quiet for a minute before muttering, “You’re probably right.”
“We can go home. Avoiding the lodge isn’t going to unburn it. I’m going to have to clean everything up if I want to build something new. Might as well get a head start and show everyone I’m not going anywhere.”
He pushed open the door and climbed out of the cab to brush the gathered snow off the headlights. When he came back, his hair was dusted with snow, and his cheeks were rosy red.
“I want you to know that if you decide to sell the land, I’ll buy it from you. Even if you never step foot on that property again, I won’t let you lose it. Your grandparents wanted you to have it, and I don’t think they would have cared if you used it as a resort, built your dream house, or let the mountain take it back. As long as it’syours,they’d have been happy, and their final wishes would be fulfilled.”
I smiled at him and said, “Someone else told me that they’d always wanted me to make it mine and I’d just misinterpreted their hopes for me. I thought I was happy, making them happy all these years, but I might have missed the mark.”
He grunted his agreement. “That someone sounds smart.”
She was smart because she’d saved this man and seen his potential from the start.
I guessed she and I had that in common.
I’d thought I was going to break apart and turn into an inconsolable mess when I saw the wreckage left behind by the fire. While my heart twisted and ached and I was very uncomfortable seeing the rubble and knowing what was lost, I didn’t feel like it was the end of the world any longer. It was going to take time, a lot of hard work, and a fuck ton of money to rebuild, but as long as there was an option to start over, I hadn’t lost the most important part of the property—my hopes and dreams.
I let myself be sad and cry about everything for a week. Once I assured myself there were no dead bodies and nothing lingering that might track back to Risky’s former life, I said my goodbyes to my childhood home.
I tried to convince my parents to come home and pay their respects to what once had been, but they didn’t return any of my calls or text messages. When they finally reached out, it was only to encourage me to sell off the land and to warn me not to spend all my inheritance on constructing something new. Because according to them, I still needed to send them money when they were tight on travel funds. I didn’t bother to remind them that they’d spent their share of the inheritance before the check was even in their hands. I told them I was putting the property into a trust, and if anything happened to me, the land and whateverwas on it was going to go back to the bordering national park, and the state could decide what to do with it as long as they didn’t remove any of the structures built on the property. Of course, they were furious and made demands they had no right to make.
It really was the best choice to prevent the land from becoming a tool to use and manipulate others in the future. My grandparents would’ve never wanted their legacy to turn into what it had. It was supposed to bring people together, not have them turn on each other.
For the first time in my relationship with them, I told them if they wanted money from me, they had to come get it in person. There would be no more rushing around to wire them funds at their whims. They needed to put in the bare minimum effort of parenting if they wanted me to support them. I was done being an ATM.
I was too busy to stay depressed for long. It was fortunate the cabins remained untouched because it would’ve been a hassle to travel up and down the pass to deal with the fire investigators, the sheriff’s office, the insurance people, lawyers, and even the local news if I was forced to take refuge in town instead of being able to remain on the mountain. Now that it was a pile of ash, the lodge was getting more attention than it ever had while the doors were open to guests. People had taken a keen interest in the wild stories coming to light about all the things that had happened before the fire.
My favorite part of the newfound attention was watching the sheriff squirm, trying to answer questions about the investigations surrounding the mishaps and attempts on my life. It was obvious to everyone the man hadn’t taken my concerns seriously, and now he was making national headlines for his incompetence. It wasn’t long before news of his gambling and exorbitant debt found their way into the growing story. I knewwithout having to ask that Risky had put the man’s vices at the forefront of public opinion. The grumpy old man announced his retirement and that he was handing all things related to me and the lodge over to the state police for further investigation. It might’ve been one of the happiest days I’d had in a while.
The celebration didn’t last long. As soon as the state police got involved, they arrested Banner, and even though she tried to explain that her husband was the mastermind behind the sabotage, there was no proof of his involvement. She was the only one taken into custody and charged. Which meant I’d put a new mother and a Blue River staple behind bars. The local gossip mill was having a field day with the situation. I could hardly go into town, and when I did, I felt like the main event. All eyes were on me, filled with silent curiosity and judgment.
I bumped into Banner’s mom after a meeting with the lawyer, who was handling any legal issues stemming from the recent food-poisoning situation. I couldn’t tell if she had been waiting to ambush me or if it was just my luck. She cornered me and cried, begging me to reconsider pressing charges against Banner. She wept when she told me Rosie missed her mother. She tried to coerce me by reminding me how welcoming their family had been when I was a teenager. She told me I was tearing her family apart and accused me of being selfish and cold-blooded. Not once during her tirade did she mention Banner was regretful for any of the choices she’d made.
It forced me to admit that Risky was correct when he’d told me that when I blamed myself so often for things that went wrong, it was all too easy for others to push their accountability onto me. I didn’t fight back when someone said I was at fault. Because I used to believe them without question since that was what I’d been conditioned to do. It was unfortunate for Banner’s mom that I was committed to breaking that habit going forward.
I told her the best thing she could do was get Banner to hand over any evidence she had on her husband and leverage that into a deal for herself. I thanked her for all she’d done for me in the past. I tried to gently remind her that Banner’s actions had hurt a lot of innocent people and would’ve ruined my business if the fire hadn’t taken the lodge out. My honesty earned me a slap across the face and a permanent ban from the family restaurant. The minor altercation added more fuel to the gossip going around. It was like I was the only thing on the locals’ minds at the moment.
Thank goodness there was fresh powder on the mountain, keeping the streets and shops packed with tourists. I was hoping everyone would be so busy with the high season that all the surrounding talk would die down faster than normal. If it didn’t, I was happy to set the record straight, both face to face and through my lawyer. I would no longer play the role of the bad guy when I’d done nothing wrong.
I drove back up the mountain with my face stinging from the slap. I had to borrow Risky’s truck whenever I made the trip into town. Most of the time, he offered to take me and play my chauffeur.
Today, I was on my own because he had to pay back one of those notorious favors. It seemed he wasn’t the only one stocking up on them to call in. He had taken a private plane to Denver to meet up with Zowen Archer to take care of something he needed addressed in exchange for all the work he had done, setting up my now-incinerated security system. When I’d dropped him off at the small regional airport, he’d kissed me goodbye and reiterated that I needed to be careful while he was gone.
The man really thought I was a walking disaster and just clumsy as hell, not the world’s unluckiest woman.
I’d promised him I would be fine and reminded him there were endless meetings with surveyors, contractors, and demolition crews. I wanted to get started clearing the debris off the mountain as soon as I could. The weather and the location made the process tricky and costly. I had no idea how long it was going to take for the insurance company to finish their investigation, or if the fact that it had been burned down because of arson would affect the payout. In the interim, I’d let Risky give me a hefty loan with the promise to pay him back once the insurance investigation was settled. He’d acted like he couldn’t care less if I gave him the money back, which meant I was obviously going to be the one to control the finances in the future.
When I pulled in front of the lodge and faced the torched remains, I got a pang in the center of my chest. It was better than the hollow, aching feeling that had consumed me right after the fire. I grieved for what had been and looked forward to what would be. The possibilities for the future were as endless as my imagination. I already had grand visions and grand expectations.
