The Rockwell Legacy Box Set

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Kai threw himself back into his trail work. Nicole’s questions about his relationship with Max had rattled him. It reminded him that he and Max still had a huge gulf between them. They’d been getting along only by avoiding awkward topics.

He kept asking Max about the lodge’s finances, but the frustrating man refused to give him a straight answer. Neither Gracie nor Jake knew much either. Why did Nicole know more than any of them?

It seemed strange.

One more mystery surrounding Nicole.

In the meantime, autumn was coming.

The days were getting shorter and crisper, the nights more brilliant with stars. Forecasters kept warning about early storms, either rain or snow or even hail. Kai wanted to finish tidying up the trails before the first snowfall. He gave the generator system a tune-up and made sure all the handheld radios worked. Prepping for winter felt good, and more than once the thought crossed his mind…what if...?

He always dismissed the thought before it finished forming. He couldn’t stay. Not unless he and Max cleared the air about a few things.

A group of birdwatchers booked the lodge for the fall warbler migration. He strolled into the lodge one morning as Nicole was helping out at the reception desk.

She had a way of lending a hand when it was needed, even if it wasn’t her actual job. He’d seen her helping in the kitchen, doing loads of laundry, weeding in the garden.

While he poured himself coffee, out of sight, he listened to her chat cheerfully with them. Her friendly manner put them at ease as she handed them trail maps and keys to their rooms.

Casually eavesdropping, he heard her respond to a question with a light laugh. “No, I know nothing about birds. But my sister loves them so much she renamed herself Birdie. We used to have a hummingbird feeder and she’d watch it all day. One day, she just decided that was her name. Birdie. We thought it was a phase, but nope. She’s Birdie to this day.”

So Nicole’s sister was named Birdie. The sister in the wheelchair, the one Nicole had never mentioned after that time in the ski room. Should he google Birdie? What was the point? Nicole had no obligation to share details of her personal life with him. She was here to take Dad’s blood pressure, that was all.

The fact that she raised Kai’s blood pressure just by walking past him, with those long legs and curvy hips, that wasn’t her fault. He had to stop treating her like a threat.

The deadline for saying ‘yes’ to the Montana job passed. He made no effort to look for another one.

Did that mean he was staying? He wasn’t sure what it meant, only that he wasn’t going to Montana.

One day, when he needed a break, he drove into town and met with the fire department guys. They shot the s**t about the old days—the kitchen fire that nearly burned down Majestic Lodge, the wildfires that had come so close when he was a kid.

They pestered him about signing on as a volunteer fireman like his brother Jake.

“Can’t. I’m not sticking around. I’ll be back in the real world soon.”

“Ain’t nothing more real than the mountains, you know that,” the chief said.

“Yeah, I do, but these aren’t the only mountains.”

“Wash your mouth out.” They all laughed, since loyalty to their piece of the Cascades ran deep.

After that, he stopped for a burger at the Black Diamond Grill. His high school crush, Betsy Polaski, ran it now. They flirted for a while, but his heart just wasn’t in it.

Finally he stopped at the Last Chance to see Jake. He was training a new waitress, a bombshell redhead who would have rung all his bells a month ago. But her lack of clear blue eyes and soft lips was a real problem. That is, her lips might have been soft, but he didn’t even notice.

“I heard Nicole’s giving some kind of presentation about the lodge tonight,” Jake told him. “You’re going to check it out, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it. You coming?”

“Nah, dude. I’m leaving it all in your hands. That’s why you’re the oldest. I get to kick back and sling drinks while you defend the Rockwell legacy.”

Kai exchanged a forehand grip with his brother, then grinned at the new waitress. She wore square black-rimmed glasses and a diamond stud in her nose. “Good luck with your new boss. You’re going to need it.”

“Don’t scare away my employees,” Jake warned. “Or I’ll tell her to charge you, for once.”

“Is he on the freeloader list?” the new waitress asked innocently, pretending to mark him down in her notes.

Both the brothers laughed, and Kai headed back up the twisty road to the lodge, each curve so familiar it felt like a part of him. Light spatters of rain hit his windshield. He tuned the radio to the local weather channel, where the forecasters had been warning about a front moving through. The familiar sounds of the weather report—winds out of the northeast, gusting up to thirty miles per hour, possibility of local flash flooding—made him smile.

The truth settled into his bones. He liked being back at Rocky Peak. He liked being near his siblings. In many ways he belonged here.

Except that he didn’t, not really. Not the way things were with Max—polite and distant. With so much still unspoken. With Max and him at odds, he’d never really belong here.

Between caring for Max and helping Renata pack brown bag lunches for the birders, it took Nicole some time to put together her ridiculous PowerPoint. Keeping an eye out for Kai also kept her busy. Every roar of a four-wheeler had her snapping to attention. Every glimpse of a broad back, long legs and work boots had her heart skipping a beat.

But finally she got it done, and Kai, Gracie and Max gathered in the TV room, where she hooked her laptop up to the big flat screen. Kai’s vibrant presence made her heart skip a few beats. He was the target of this presentation, but now that it was really about to happen it felt so underhanded.

Selling is the best option for them all, she reminded herself. They can’t afford everything the lodge needs.

She passed around a platter piled high with chocolate chip cookies Renata had made for the occasion. Kai helped himself to an entire handful, then sat back with a wink, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee.

“If you’re trying to soften us up, it’s working.”

“That’s good.” She smiled at him nervously. “Cookies improve every situation, if you ask me.”

“I second that!” Gracie, already in her pajamas, sat cross-legged on the couch. “Maybe we should turn the whole lodge into a bakery.”

Max snorted. “We ain’t turning my legacy into cookies.”

“You could do worse.” Gracie tapped his arm with impish affection.

Kai popped a cookie in his mouth and motioned for Nicole to get underway. Max ignored the cookies and chewed on the end of an unlit cigar instead.

She cleared her throat and clicked play on her PowerPoint presentation. A vintage photo of a pared-down version of the lodge appeared on the screen. A group of skiers in old-fashioned gear posed in front of it. One of them was Max’s grandfather, the original founder.

“Max asked me to put together this presentation because as soon as I arrived here, I started spouting ideas about other ways to use the lodge. Finally he asked me to put them all in one place. Think of this as a kind of vision board of what the lodge could be.”

She glanced at her audience of Rockwells, who were all gazing at their ancestor. It was hard to tell, with his sheepskin-lined leather hat, but Nicole thought he had a strong resemblance to Kai.

“As you all know, Rocky Peak Lodge has been in the Rockwell family for four generations. It has a wonderful and historic legacy going back seventy-five years. In the early days, only the most intrepid outdoorsmen made the trek to this lodge, drawn by the pristine wilderness and remote ski trails. Over the years, as the lodge was built up and expanded, it became more accessible to guests of all ages and skill levels. The demographic base is wider and more diverse today.”

She switched to another slide, with a graphic breaking down the demographics of the guests.

“Nonetheless, you can see that the guest composition skews toward the male, thanks to the preponderance of hunters and outdoorsmen who book the lodge. This is rugged territory, so that makes sense. However, in my view this creates a golden opportunity to appeal to a broader spectrum of people.”

“What if the broader spectrum of people isn’t especially interested in a wilderness experience?” Kai asked.

“We make them interested. And who says it has to be a wilderness experience? Do you have any idea how much women will pay to be pampered in a gorgeous setting?”

Kai was frowning at her latest slide, which showed a breakdown of the average cost of treatments at the upper echelon of West Coast day spas. “Is that a typo? One thousand dollars for a massage?”

“It’s more than a massage. It’s a four-handed massage with an added volcanic hot stone age-defying treatment.”

“So you defy age by getting thrown into a volcano? I like it.” Kai smile grimly. “Who gets to do the throwing? I can volunteer.”

She rolled her eyes. “Mock all you want, but this gives you an idea of the financial potential. We wouldn’t have to charge that much, but we could.”

“I thought you were talking about fresh air camps for kids, that sort of thing. What happened to that part of the plan?”

Yeah, well…that part didn’t fit in with Felicity’s scheme.

“First things first. We need a new model in order to bring in more profit. That will open up all kinds of possibilities.” She switched to the next slide, which showed a topless woman face down on a massage table with a practitioner dripping oil on her back. “Now we get to the good part. Raindrop therapy is the hottest trend in holistic health. Imagine a place where each precious raindrop brings peace and healing.”

Kia peered at the slide. “I’m sorry, you want to sell rain?”

“It’s not rain. It’s essential oils applied in a certain sequence.”

“I’ll take that kind of raindrop therapy.” Kai pointed to the window. Rain from the storm was pelting it hard.

“You’re being obtuse. Raindrop therapy isn’t—”

“And what building is that?” Kai interrupted, leaning even closer. “That’s the fire station.”

Nicole tried not to flinch. Of all the crazy changes she’d thrown into this PowerPoint, that was the one most guaranteed to annoy Kai. She’d taken a photo of the fire station outpost and made a few digital cosmetic changes to it.

Gracie’s eyes widened. “Oh wow. It looks completely different. You want to paint it gold?”

“It’s not gold, it’s saffron. A very healing color. And it’s not technically a real fire station. It’s just a nice-size building with lots of open space. It hasn’t been staffed in years, right, Max?”

Max grunted and chomped on his cigar.

“It doesn’t have to be staffed,” said Kai. “That’s where we store the rescue gear and other equipment. Not to mention the fire truck. The fire department uses it when they need it.”

“But how often does that happen?”

She already knew the answer to that question. Not very often.

“Also, the equipment is outdated. For it to be really useful, it would have to be modernized. When I spoke to the fire chief, he seemed to think they could get on just fine without the station up here.”

Kai waved at the screen. “Whatever you want to call it, that fire station is the heart and soul of this lodge. That was the original inspiration. The whole reason for building up here. Old Man Rockwell saw himself as a kind of guardian of the ridge. Back me up, Max.”

Max scratched at his beard. “That’s what the family legend says. But that’s history. We’re talking about the future now.”

Kai shook his head, slumping deeper into his seat. “Hey, it’s your sandbox, Max. What else, Nicole? Let me guess, you want to change the name too. Rocky Peak is just so…masculine, am I right?”

“It is, a bit,” Nicole agreed. She hadn’t intended to bring it up so soon, but since he’d asked, she skipped ahead to a later slide. “I came up with a list of alternative names. They would all work well, staying with the mountain theme, and of course you guys would have the final say.”

She scanned the list projected on the screen and smothered a grin. Meadow Sweet Retreat and Day Spa. Lilith of the Valley Day Spa. Rivers and Rainbows.

“We don’t have a river here,” Kai ground out. “Or any f*****g lilies of the valley.”

“It says Lilith of the Valley,” Gracie pointed out. She was leaning forward, peering at the screen with a perplexed frown. “Who’s Lilith?”

“Lilith is a very popular figure right now in certain circles,” Nicole said. “She represents uncontained female energy, magnificent and angry. But these are just a few suggestions for new names.”

“Here’s another,” Kai growled. “How about ‘Overpriced and Ineffective Beauty Treatments for Spoiled Celebrities,’ is that about right?”

“Kai, that’s mean,” said Gracie. “Personally, my favorite is Meadow Sweet, because we actually have a meadow.”

Kai rubbed his temples, as if a bad headache was growing. “Flip ahead to the slides about the kids’ camps and good causes and so forth.”

“I don’t have any slides, but just off the top of my head, fresh-air camps for juvenile offenders.”

“What?” Kai’s head shot up. “You want a bunch of junior criminals up here?”

“Don’t be so judgmental. Everyone deserves a second chance. I’ve also thought about survival skill instruction, as I mentioned before. The lawn would be a great place for a paintball tournament. Then there’s art therapy for the disabled, as long as we can add more ramps. But that can all come later. Step one is a complete transformation of the lodge from the ground up.”

“So if we’re really going to be literal here, the name would be Afterthought Camps for Poor People as a Fig Leaf to Justify all the Spoiling of the Rich Celebrities.” Kai unfolded himself from the seat and stood up. “I think I get the gist here. How much more do you have in those slides?”

“Kai,” Max said sharply. “She’s just trying to shake things up a little. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

Kai’s gaze clashed with hers, as an image of his “panties”—form-fitting boxer briefs—swam into her mind. “Like I said, it’s your sandbox, Dad. If you want Real Housewives of the Cascades in here, it’s your call.” He headed for the door grabbing another handful of cookies on his way out. “I kind of like the bakery idea, myself.”

All the energy in the room seemed to rush after him. Nicole gazed at her two remaining audience members. “Too much? Too fast?”

“Oh yeah, you definitely lost Kai.” Gracie snagged another cookie.

“What happened to all those other ideas you had before?” Max grumbled. “They weren’t all so fruitcake.”

“They haven’t gone anywhere,” Nicole assured him. “They’re all right here in my head.”

Gracie c****d her head thoughtfully. “But I like some of these new ideas, like art therapy for the disabled.”

Nicole swallowed hard. Trust Gracie to home in on the one element that Nicole herself would most love to bring to Rocky Peak, if she had any say in it. Birdie would adore it. But it would never happen. The Summit Group couldn’t care less about art therapy. There was no money in it. Not like timeshare condos or high-end luxury suites.

She shut down her laptop. “How about I tweak a few things before we go any further?”

“Nah, don’t bother. That son of mine has his mind made up,” growled Max through his cigar.

Aaaaand…her job was done.

Too bad she felt like s**t about it.