Page 9 of Making New Plans

They hushed and huddled together.

“Wait!” Gina yelped. She snagged a bag of potato chips from our counter, tore it open, and started munching. “Okay, go.”

I launched into the events in much more detail than I had with Sarah. When I got to the part about how we went nose-to-nose in my office, a round of gasps filled the kitchen.

“Aren’t you worried he’s going to fire you?” Rose asked, her incredibly large, dark eyes widening.

“He doesn’t officially own the lodge yet, so to hell with him I say,” Sarah muttered, giving me a salute.

Gina quirked her lips with a twinkle in her eyes. “No offense, but I’m kinda surprised you pushed back at all.”

I shrugged. “None taken.”

Because I definitely agreed with her. Sure, I was used to dealing with uptight guests, lazy vendors, and dozens of little disasters every day, but I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d genuinely fought for myself. I’d given that up cold turkey since childhood when I’d refused to eat the lasagna at my dad’s inaugural celebration with the town as mayor. My mom had been so furious that I’d “caused a scene” that she’d forced me to eat it every day for a week until I learned to force it down without a single complaint. A few more memories plucked at the back of my mind, but I ignored them as usual. Instead, I focused on the present.

“He’s so hard to read, but he seemed to kind of, I don’t know, relish it?” My neck prickled with heat at the description, but I couldn’t think of how else to describe the visceral excitement that pumped off him when he was in the heat of an argument. And I’d thought about it only several dozen times.

“I bet he did,” Gina said with a smirk.

My neck grew hotter. “Don’t even go there, Gina,” I warned.

She threw her hands in the air. “I’m just saying! It’s been a while since…you know. And the best way to put the past all the way behind you is to get with the hot new resident.”

“Thanks, Rafiki. I’ll keep that in mind while I’m training him to take over my lodge and sell it out from under me.”

Rose crinkled her nose, the tiny diamond stud in it winking at me. “You think that’s what he wants to do? Maybe he’ll hang on to it by the end.”

I shook my head. “He definitely didn’t want to stay. You should’ve seen his face when I mentioned him staying at his family’s old place. He probably wants to sell it off so he can take the money and wash his hands of everything. As for what he’d need the money for…”

Sarah tipped her glass at me. “That’s the first thing you should find out if you’re going to get in this guy’s head.”

Thinking about how quickly Hunter had shut down any questions, I doubted he’d sit down and map out his plans for me. But they were right—the more I knew, the easier it would be to figure a way out of this that didn’t end with me job hunting.

I set down my glass and whipped out a pad of sticky notes from the junk drawer. “This is good. Keep it coming.”

Rose piped up. “You’re a great people person, Chloe. Maybe if you just showed him how great of a manager you are and how much the lodge means to the town, he’d reconsider what to do with it at the end of the waiting period.”

“Aw, thanks, sweetie, but this guy doesn’t seem like the swayed-by-a-smile type. I’ll give it my best, but I need a plan of action.”

Sarah tapped her lips, her eyebrows scrunched in thought. “No, hang on a minute. Rosie could be on to something. We know you’re a badass boss and could run that place with your eyes closed. This guy came in off the street—he, what, draws buildings for a living? You could run circles around this guy and make him realize that he’s in over his head and needs you to run the lodge. And who knows? If he’s super impressed, maybe you can swing some of those ideas you’ve been obsessing over in your not-so-secret Dream Lodge binder.”

My mouth dropped open as the other two nodded, completely unsurprised by my binder. I mean, I had dragged it to a meeting or two, so it was possible they’d seen it. But I’d been fairly private about what was in there. Sure, they’d heard me talk endlessly about what I’d do to improve the lodge had I any actual power, but there were ideas in that binder that I hadn’t told anyone. Mostly because my grand plans never seemed to work the second I tried to act on them.

But instead of owning up to any of that, I jotted a few notes on the pad. The oven timer dinged, and Gina went to grab the pizzas while Sarah shuffled out plates and Rose retrieved napkins. A fraction of my stress crumbled away watching them. Each in their own way, they’d been there for me, boosting me up when no one else, including myself or my own family, would. Friends who will do exactly what you need without question are worth their weight in gold, diamonds, and chocolate.

“Thanks, you guys,” I said, a lump in my throat. “You have no idea what you all mean to me.”

Gina was the first to reach out and crush me into her soft embrace, her dangly earrings tickling my cheek. The only mother out of the four of us, she never shied away from physical contact in general. Rose slid a delicate arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder while Sarah, the least touchy-feely, gave me a gruff shoulder-shake-rub combo.

I shook them off good-naturedly. “All right, all right. How are you three planning to keep me distracted from my to-do list tonight?”

“Pizza!” Rose chirped.

Sarah nodded. “Wine.”

“And I brought some movies over,” Gina added. Of course, she did. She was the only person I knew who had gigantic CD binders full of movies and could quote several movies, including The Godfather trilogy, from beginning to end. Yeah. Insane.

I groaned. “Okay, but it’d better not be one of those cheesy horror movies again.”

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