mirror my own. But you know what angered me more than anything?”
“You’re gonna tell me,” Melanie stated.
“The girls were afraid. They knew that I was upset after speaking to that self-important jackass. It was like old times. When their father started ranting and raving, they would always clam up, hoping not to anger him. That’s the exact way they acted today when Mr. Patrick O’Brien got up on his high horse and gave me the boot. He can fire me, give me a leave of absence, whatever he wants. He’s the boss. But what he can’t do is frighten my girls! I won’t allow it, and I don’t care if he fires me for leaving early today. They’ve seen enough already.”
“Do you think you should bring Max in on this? After all, he is your real boss, and Patrick’s, too. He owns Maximum Glide, and I bet Grace would have a thing or two to say about Patrick’s pissy managerial skills, not to mention his treatment of you.”
“No, I don’t want to do that. Besides, I think this is personal. You know Patrick and I went out a few times; it didn’t work out for whatever reason, and it’s as though he’s had it in for me ever since. I don’t want to involve Max, and certainly not Grace, in her condition. I will handle this, but thanks for offering. It’s nice to have a friend go to bat for me.” Stephanie put a finger to her lips, stopping further conversation. The girls were waiting at the front door.
“We brushed our teeth and our hair just like you said,” Amanda informed her.
Stephanie bent over to give each of the girls a kiss on top of their shiny brown, nicely combed hair. “You’re good girls,” she added. And they were. Other than an occasional disagreement over something inconsequential, the girls got along remarkably well.
“Then I say it’s time we go to see that giant evergreen that is going to light up Maximum Glide. Are you two ready?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Ashley cried as she stomped down the stairs.
“Be careful, those steps are slick,” Melanie said, then took Amanda by the hand and walked with her to the bottom of the stairs before she slipped and fell. That was the last thing Stephanie needed at this stage of the game.
Once they were loaded back in the Taurus and the girls were safely buckled in their seats, Stephanie relaxed. She knew how much the girls had been looking forward to that night. No matter what issues she had to deal with after the day’s events, she was a mother first. A fun night out with the girls would make what she knew she had to do much easier.
Chapter 8
Patrick sent Candy Lee on her way along with the rest of the Maximum Glide employees. He’d already been there for over an hour, and from the looks of things, it appeared that the weather had driven away whatever onslaught of customers he had expected. Stephanie had been right about closing Snow Zone even though her reasons for doing so weren’t. She couldn’t just take off whenever she felt like it. She had a responsibility to Maximum Glide and to him. While it wasn’t he who signed her paychecks, without him she wouldn’t have such a cushy position at the resort. It usually took an employee years to be promoted to a management position. And because she was good at her job, he’d given her the benefit of the doubt, and after last year’s screwup, he hadn’t demoted her. She was loyal to a fault, always on time, and never complained when he asked her to do things that normally a stock boy or girl would do. She did an excellent job no matter what he asked of her. She even cleaned the employee bathrooms every evening before she left.
He was still kicking his own rear end for the comment he’d made about her getting any “funny ideas” about their future. Where the hell that had come from he didn’t know, but he’d kick his own butt a hundred times if he could take back those words. Stephanie hadn’t even hinted that she wanted anything to do with him after their last movie date. It was he who’d decided she wasn’t top-quality pickings on the meat market. Patrick sighed. If his mother or his three sisters even had an inkling that he’d referred to a woman as meat on the market, all four of them would string him up like cattle, then use a cattle prod on him. He didn’t really think of women as “meat.” It was just something the guys said when they were trying to be macho. And he always wanted to blend in when he was with the guys. Max was the only one who really knew him, knew that he was more than the image he presented to the world. He was educated and quite brilliant, but that didn’t always work on the slopes, though he had to admit it had been a blessing dealing with suppliers and a few angry guests. He knew what worked financially and what didn’t. Max trusted his judgment, but he knew Max would be mad as a hatter if word of how Patrick had treated Stephanie got back to him. As much as he hated to eat crow, he was going to have to serve himself a very large portion and swallow every bite as though it were the rarest of caviar.
He hadn’t planned on attending the Christmas tree lighting, but knowing that Max and Grace would be there, not to mention Stephanie and her two kids, he figured it wouldn’t look good if the manager of the resort didn’t put in an appearance for what was widely billed as the kickoff to the Christmas season at Telluride. Plus, he didn’t want to give Stephanie the opportunity to corner Max and Grace, not before he had a chance to explain to them what had happened.
Knowing another hour wouldn’t make or break the day’s sales, he quickly went about the business of closing the shop. Candy Lee had restocked all the shelves before she left, telling him that someone had to do it if Stephanie wasn’t there. She went on to tell him what a great manager Stephanie was and that she wouldn’t blame her one little bit if she just up and quit. Someday he was going to tell that kid to keep her thoughts to herself. But he liked her, she reminded him of Shannon back in the day. Candy Lee had…moxie, and he liked that about her. He secretly wished some of it would rub off on the store’s manager. She was just a little too compliant at times. Not that he would admit it, but today she’d really surprised him when she walked out in the middle of her shift. Took a lot of guts for her to do that. He probably would’ve done the same thing had he been in her position. Which he reminded himself he wasn’t. He’d had a job to do, and he did it. He could’ve left out that part about the future, but it had just rolled off his tongue. Why it had rolled off his tongue was something he did not want to think about. No how, no way. He liked his life as it was. No complications, no children to complicate the complications, certainly no children to break his heart into a million tiny pieces the way Shannon’s death had left Colleen, Mark, and Abby. That was just too much pain for one man to tolerate.
He turned off the computer systems, did a batch report on the credit card machine, and counted out the cash, checks, and traveler’s checks. After that was finished, he tallied up the day’s total sales and was extremely impressed. Stephanie usually made a bank deposit on her way home from work. He’d do it because he felt he owed it to her. Once he had all the required checks stamped with the account numbers on the back of them and deposit slips made out, he stuffed them into the bank bag.
Since all the normal closing duties were finished for the day, Patrick walked back to the office just to make sure there wasn’t anything there that needed his attention. He opened the door, peered in, and saw nothing out of the way. He ran his hand along the length of the wall searching for the light switch when the flashing green button on the answering machine caught his eye. Dammit, he couldn’t leave without listening to the messages. They might be important, and with Stephanie not there to take them, he’d have to intercept them in case there was something that needed his immediate attention. He pushed the PLAY button. A monotone female voice said, “You have fifteen messages.”
“What the hell?” He hit the forward button several times as most were calls from suppliers, customers, and other departments at Maximum Glide. He was about to click the STOP button when he heard a soft, but businesslike voice speak as though the woman were in the room.
“Hi,
