Page 11 of Making New Plans

I nodded, not trusting my voice with words, and marched out. My stomach twisted around the coffee and yogurt as I walked through town and up the pine tree-lined drive to the lodge.

Usually I loved the fifteen-minute walk, especially during warmer months, to clear my head before the workday started. But today, thoughts of Hunter, the lodge, and my future blanketed my mind like thick fog on the river.

Since it was only 6:30 when I arrived, I dumped my stuff in my office and headed back outside. Maybe a walk around the property would be enough to calm my nerves. Damn it, but it felt like the first day of school or something. Those days had always been the worst for me, from kindergarten through college. I’d always managed to put up a good front, playing the icebreakers and chatting easily. But I always worried that someone would see through me and think, for whatever reason, that I wasn’t good enough to be there.

My booted footsteps crackled the frosty grass as I traipsed around the back of the property. I sighed, glancing around the quiet grove of pine trees the lodge was named for. I wouldn’t call the lodge home, but I’d had dreams for it for so long. If only I had the power to make them come true.

Like the big firepits perfect for roasting marshmallows and gathering after a day of hanging out on the St. Croix River? I would love to build small cabins around them to entice more people. Guests loved cabins and having their own space, especially on a river. And the dark, cracked exterior of the lodge? I imagined bright, gleaming wood to replace it, with cute shutters around the windows. I’d thought of so much more for the inside, too.

Even though my friends had guessed I was unhappy with how the Erickson family handled things, I’d never shared these ideas. Why sit around discussing ideas that might never happen? The lodge had been around so long that most people probably never thought about changing it. Just me.

Turning my back on the lodge, my boots kicked up sand as I wandered onto the beach by the river. The town, and the lodge in particular, was located at the precise point where the Kinnickinnic River flowed from the Wisconsin side into the bigger St. Croix River. Hence Tangled River, named by the lumberjack who had founded the town.

The early morning sun glittered on the ever-moving water, dissipating the chilly fog that always gathered at night. The first hint of spring had already popped up in the birds singing from the many trees, both bare and evergreen, that crowded the shores. Pretty soon winter would be forgotten as green leaves and wildflowers took over the world. I pulled in a deep breath through my nose, eager for the first whiff of spring. I’d done the city thing and I’d done the small-town thing, but my heart always belonged here in Tangled River.

A rustling sound drew my attention. I crept closer to a bush and peered around it, thinking maybe it was a deer looking for a drink of water.

I wished it’d been a deer. Instead my eyes were assaulted with the image of the man who had suddenly upended my world like a canoe in rapids. His face was nothing but hard angles and concentration as he executed some sort of martial arts routine. He was shirtless and barefoot, wearing only some loose black pants.

Holy… My heartbeat tripled as I leaned forward and put hypothetical binoculars to my wide eyes. Yep. This was a code-red, major-hotness alert. How could muscles be so beautiful? Maybe it was just who they were on. Crap, he made them look good, the way he was twisting and leaning and balancing. Whatever he was doing had lit a bonfire behind my belly button. What on earth was he—

A squirrel burst out of the bush I was behind, squeaking in indignation. Probably because I’d drooled on him or something. But the little rodent had given away my position.

Hunter’s gaze swung in my direction as I dropped to my knees behind the bush. Great, just peachy keen. What possible excuse could I have for being out here, kneeling in a bush?

Footsteps swooshed through the sand toward me. And, for a second, Crazy took over the controls in my brain and screamed at me to run. But then Sanity shoved Crazy out of its chair and resumed. Best to face the music.

I shot up from the ground and dusted sand from my yoga business pants, with a wide smile on my face. “Oh, hi! I was just doing my rounds around the property before meeting with you. You weren’t going to show up like that, were you? I mean, I know it’s business casual around here, but you’re—” I waved my hand at his shirtlessness and almost slapped my palm to my forehead in the next instant.

Shut up, Chloe! I gulped, staring at a bead of sweat trickling between his taut pecs.

His expression was unreadable as he crossed his arms over that lovely chest. Even from several feet away, his heat reached for me.

I babbled on. “Uh, I mean, sometimes people come down here to do illicit things, like drink or have sex…” Because, of course, that was where my mind went. Dear lord, this was so unprofessional. My cheeks burned as his eyebrows went up.

When I remained in choked silence, he spoke slowly as one would to a wild animal. “Well, as I’m sure you saw, I wasn’t doing either.”

I wondered if God did lightning bolt requests. Like, “Hey, God, can you send a long bolt of electricity my way to blast me out of this conversation? Thanks.”

“So, um, what were you doing?”

He hesitated, glancing away from me to the river. “Taekwondo.”

Okaaaay. “Interesting. Well, I’d better head back to the lodge because we’re meeting in—” I pretended to check a fake watch— “fifteen minutes. Big first day, you know. Lots to do. Please wear a shirt. Um, for the guests. Anyway, I need to go check on Mable and George. For food and stuff. Okay, bye.”

Poised for flight, I froze when he questioned me. “Have you told anyone about yesterday?”

I reluctantly turned to face him again, putting Herculean effort in not looking at his chest or abs. Oh lord, his abs. You could wash clothes on them. What did he ask me? Oh, yeah. “Not yet, but if I don’t tell them soon, they’ll figure it out anyway via gossip or the fact that you’re living at the lodge and following me around.”

His jaw clenched. “No doubt. Give them just the highlights then.”

A record scratched in my brain. “Excuse me?”

His gaze veered toward condescending. “The highlights. No one needs to know anything other than I’m getting the lay of the land for a month. Then I’ll be gone.”

“And what about the part concerning what you plan to do with the lodge, their livelihoods, once you’ve done the minimal amount required?”

I’d switched from being awkwardly, yet hugely, attracted to him to wanting to murder him with my bare hands so fast that I didn’t even flinch when he took a quick step forward.

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