and thoughts he didn’t want to deal with.
Unaware she was being watched, she turned slightly. He saw her lift the chain from around her neck, open the locket and look at it.
There was no mistaking, from the look on her face, that she had memories of her own to deal with. And he didn’t want to know what they were!
He walked away from the open patio doors, and moments later he shut the door of his home office. He waited for the familiar surroundings to act as a balm on him, to draw him back into his own world.
But they didn’t. He thought of her standing on the deck with the wind lifting her hair. The fact that he suddenly didn’t want her to go was all the more reason to make the arrangements immediately. Thinking of them leaving filled him with relief. And regret. In nearly equal proportions.
He glanced at his watch. It had been less than eight hours since she had arrived in his office.
His whole world had been turned topsy-turvy. He had revisited a past he thought was well behind him. He was feeling uncertainties he didn’t want to feel.
He needed the safety and comfort of his own world back.
He dialed Michael Baker’s number.
Michael sounded less guarded than he had in the past, almost jovial.
“It sounded like you had your hands full,” he said to Joshua.
“My niece and nephew are here for a visit.”
“My wife and I were under the impression you didn’t like children,” Michael said.
“Don’t believe everything you read,” Joshua said carefully, sensing the slightest opening of a door that had been firmly closed.
“We had decided to just tell you no,” Michael said. “Moose Lake Lodge is not at all like any of your other resorts.”
Baker said that in a different way than he had said it before, in a way that left Joshua thinking the door was open again. Just a little bit. Just enough for a shrewd salesman to slip his foot in.
“None of my resorts are ever anything like the other ones. They’re all unique.”
“This is a family resort. We’re kind of hoping it always will be. Does that fit into your plans?”
To just say no would close the door irrevocably. He needed to meet with the Bakers. He needed them to trust and like him. He was certain he could make them see his vision for Moose Lake Lodge. Hikes. Canoe and kayak adventures. Rock climbing. The old retreat alive with activity and energy and excitement.
Whether that vision held children or not—it didn’t—was not something Joshua felt he had to reveal right now.
“I could fly up tomorrow,” Joshua said. “Just meet with me. I’m not quite the superficial cad the press makes me out to be. We’ll talk. You don’t have to agree to anything.”
“You might be making the trip for nothing.”
“I’m willing to risk it. I’d love to see it. It’s a beautiful place in the pictures.” He always did his homework. “Just being able to have a look at the lodge would be great. I understand your grandfather logged the trees for it and built it nearly single-handedly, with a block and tackle.”
Hesitation. “Maybe we have been hasty in our judgments. We really don’t know anything about you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“It probably couldn’t hurt to talk.”
“That’s how I feel.”
“No lawyers, though. No team. Unless—”
“Unless what?”
“How long are your niece and nephew with you?”
A few more hours. “It hasn’t quite been decided.”
“Look, why don’t you bring them up for a few days? Sally and I will get to know you, and a little about your plans for Moose Lake. The kids can enjoy the place. This is the first year we haven’t booked in families, because we’re trying to sell and we didn’t want to disappoint anyone if it sold. We’re missing the sound of kids.”
It was an answer to a prayer, really, though how anybody could miss the sound that had just filled his apartment, Joshua wasn’t quite sure.
Still, the situation was shaping up to be win-win. He could give the kids the vacation he’d promised his sister. He could woo the owners of the Moose Lake Lodge.
It occurred to him he should ask the nanny if she thought the trip would be in the kids’ best interests, but she had a way of doing the unpredictable, and she probably had not the least bit of concern in forwarding his business concerns.
She might even see it as using the children.
Was he using the children?
The little devil that sat on every man’s shoulder, that poked him with its pitchfork and clouded his motives, told him of course not!
Told him he did not have to consult the nanny. He was the children’s uncle! Susie had wanted a camping toy. This was even better! A real camping experience.
“We’ll be there tomorrow,” he said smoothly. “I’ll land at the strip beside the lake around one.” He was juggling his schedule in his head. “Would two days be too much of an inconvenience?”
“Two days? You mean fly in one day, and leave the next? That’s hardly worth the trip. Why don’t you make it four?”
He couldn’t make it four. His schedule was impossible to squeeze four days out of. On the other hand, if he stayed four days, he could send the kids home knowing their mother and father would be only a day or two behind them. He could claim he had given them a real holiday.
Plus he could have four whole days to convince the Bakers that their lodge would be safe in the hands of Sun.
“Four days,” he agreed smoothly. “It sounds perfect.”
“We’ll be at the runway to pick you up.”
Joshua put down the phone and regarded it thoughtfully. The usual excitement he felt as he moved closer to closing a deal was strangely absent. Somehow he thought maybe he had just created more problems than he had solved.
CHAPTER FOUR
DANNIE woke up and stretched luxuriously. The bed was phenomenal, the linens absolutely decadent. She snuggled deeper under the down comforter, strangely content, until she remembered the day held nothing but uncertainty.
Had Joshua booked them tickets for home? Why did she feel sad instead of happy? Was she falling under the charm of all the stuff? The luxurious rooms, the million-dollar views?
Or was it his charm she was falling under? She thought of the smoke and jade green of those eyes, the deep self-assuredness in his voice,
