Page 63 of Making New Plans

A mischievous gleam replaced the uncertainty in her eyes. It kicked up my pulse and my imagination.

Anticipation curling in my gut, I gestured for her to mimic my stance, right foot squared off behind left foot, fists up. I waggled my fingers in a “bring it on” gesture. With a fierce look of concentration, she cocked back and threw her fist toward my stomach.

At the last second, I caught her wrist and spun her around, so her arm was locked behind her back, and her body slammed into mine. I slid my foot between hers and whispered in her ear, “I could sweep you off your feet again. You seemed to enjoy it the first time.”

Her body shuddered, and I released her, not wanting to push my luck. But when she turned around, the look on her face had me thinking I should’ve held on to her for a bit longer.

As she inhaled, her throat flexed, drawing my eyes to the bead of sweat in its hollow. “You tricked me.”

I grinned unapologetically and shrugged. “No trick.”

“You told me to punch you!”

“Yes, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t block you. Or demonstrate a highly effective way to overwhelm your opponent.” I saturated my words with as much innuendo as I could.

She bit her lip, her eyes fastened on me and the color still high on her face. I read the tension in her shoulders and switched tactics.

“Here, throw punches into my hands to work on aim and speed.”

She relaxed marginally and did as I suggested.

Over the smack of her fist into my palm, I asked, “How’s the basement coming along?”

She didn’t break focus as she answered. “Good. All done. The shelves are up. Thanks to you and Carter. I finished putting supplies back on them yesterday. And the washer and dryer are hooked up and functional again.”

“Excellent. You can scratch those off your terrifying planner then.”

I caught her quick smile when she punched my hand harder. My arms were probably going to regret this later.

“Is there room in your busy schedule for looking over the books with me?” I asked. “I thought we could see if there’s room in the budget for a few larger renovations in the lodge, like new carpet, new paint, that kind of thing. We can only destroy ugly decorations for so long.”

She laughed between huffs. “Yeah, we can look. Our busy season will be picking up soon, which means more money but more guests to trip over.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I promised. I glanced up the bank and through the trees to where I knew the old house stood empty. “And one more thing. The old house. I had some ideas about what to do with it.”

She stopped abruptly and stepped back, her eyes wary. “Like what?”

A sliver of tension wedged into my chest. “How about I show you?”

She nodded, and we trudged through the sand to the path. As we walked through the bare trees and evergreen bushes, my nerves tightened.

I’d written and sketched out some ideas since talking with Sal, but I didn’t know how Chloe would take them. They were big changes, bigger than any we might do to facelift the main lodge. Changes that would take much longer than my thirty-day term. But my usually practical mind had refused to give up the ideas in favor of logistics.

I led her up to my room. I noticed she glanced around before stepping in after me. Afraid someone would see us and make assumptions? The thought irked me, but I pushed it away.

Laying open my sketchbook and lining up a few loose pages of notes and sketches on my small table, I gestured for her to take a look.

She leaned forward, squinting at each one.

“Several of my ideas include bulldozing the building completely, but there are a couple that turn it into something else.” She still said nothing. I pointed to each sketch. “That one’s an activity center. You know, if people bring their kids and want a fun place for them to hang out. This one’s a rentable house idea. We could put in bunk beds and a game room and make it some kind of luxury rental. Or we could destroy the structure and make room for—”

“Cabins,” she finished softly. She traced one fingertip over my rough sketch of a cabin standing where the old house stood in a clearing.

I held my breath, not sure what was going through her head or if she even wanted me to know. So, I waited. Eventually breathing again, of course.

After a very long minute of silence when I couldn’t even see her expression because she was bent so close to the paper, she finally leaned back. Her lips were twisted in a slight frown. “All of these ideas would take a considerable amount of time and money. Things we—you—don’t have.”

I hadn’t expected her to be that abrupt. I rubbed a hand over my stubbled chin. “Agreed. But you said that the busy season is picking up, and we can work out the money between the lodge and the old house.”

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