his commentary replayed in her head, each time blurring her vision for Snowy Sky—her dream, her goals, her life—a little bit more.
She felt light-headed.
Then the chairman spoke again, “Before we adjourn, Park has requested time to bring up a new issue.”
All eyes turned toward Park who made a show of clearing his throat. He seemed to have a special smirk on his already smirk-filled face. Hannah felt a fresh swirl of dread as he began to speak.
“As we all know, during the finance and construction Snowy Sky Ski Resort Incorporated has sold two blocks of shares to investment firms, each block being twelve percent of the total shares. The purchasers were Pop Bottle Inc. and L-DOG Investments. L-DOG has just purchased the shares owned by Pop Bottle, giving L-DOG twenty-four percent ownership. L-DOG is ultimately one hundred percent owned by Tate Addison who according to our bylaws is now entitled to a seat on the board.”
He made a motion for Tate’s tenure to begin immediately. It was seconded.
Hannah sat in stunned silence, even as she reeled internally. She suddenly felt invisible within her own company—the company she had created. The resort she was building. These events seemed absolutely surreal. Tate owned a quarter of Snowy Sky? How could this have happened? Why in the world would Tate want a share of Snowy Sky?
None of this made any sense.
Before Terry could proceed with the vote, a voice of reason called out from her monitor again.
“Point of order, Mr. Chairman?”
Fixing her eyes on the screen, focusing on the face of her dear friend Edith Milner, currently vacationing in the south of France, Hannah prayed she could somehow stop this nightmare.
“Yes, Mrs. Milner?”
“According to our bylaws there is protocol to be followed as to the addition of new board members.”
“But this is an exceptional case,” Park returned confidently. “Surely we can forgo the normal vetting process here. As Tate is already involved in Snowy Sky, we can assume his motives are pure.”
“Surely you’re not suggesting we make an exception to a legally binding procedure based on personal recommendations, are you, Mr. Lowell? One of our many responsibilities as board members is to keep the threat of litigation to an absolute minimum.”
Park looked flustered, and irritated.
Tate jumped in. “Not only do I think Mrs. Milner’s point is valid, I look forward to working with someone as astute as she clearly is. I suggest the vote for my tenure be tabled until the next earliest convenience.”
Edith’s voice boomed from the monitor again. “That’s a wonderful idea. I emailed you the section and paragraph number, Terry, pertaining to the procedure for adopting a new member. Please forward it to the other members, so that everyone may easily locate and review the information.”
Hannah wondered how Edith had found it so quickly, but knowing her friend the way she did, she wouldn’t be surprised to learn Edith had the bylaws memorized. She couldn’t wait for their next Skype session.
The motion was made and passed. As the meeting concluded, Hannah looked at her watch, pretending that she had some place to be. Gathering up her belongings, she left quickly with brief comments to a couple people and waves of goodbye to a few more. Snow started to fall as she strode out the door and across the parking lot to her SUV. She climbed in, started the engine to defrost the windows and tried to decide what to do.
Instead of driving the short distance to her house, she turned down the hill toward town. She needed to think.
An idea formed in her mind and she pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. By the time she left with two packages of comfort cookies and a sack of oranges, flakes were falling in earnest, but she didn’t even consider aborting her plan. At this point her only real comfort seemed to be the thought that at least there was one thing Tate Addison couldn’t take from her.
* * *
TATE PULLED HIS pickup into the heated garage of his rented home. Home. He took a moment to relish that thought; funny how the big house was already feeling exactly that way. When he’d signed the lease, he’d only viewed photos online.
The custom-built structure had turned out to be even more incredible than he’d imagined and yet somehow managed to maintain a cozy feel. He thought the log-cabin design and the amount of warm Alaskan cedarwood accents probably played a big part in accomplishing this atmosphere. Every time he walked through the door he counted his blessings that the house had become available.
Viktor was in the spacious kitchen preparing lunch. He enjoyed cooking and the skill was one of many domestic tasks that he’d insisted Tate learn so that he’d know how to take care of himself. Luckily for him, Viktor liked to cook more than he did, so often he did the shopping while Viktor prepared the meals.
He looked up as Tate walked in; his pale blue eyes alight with curiosity. “How did it go?”
“Good, I think.” He set a box of doughnuts on the counter and handed over the brown paper bag. “Look what I found at the bakery in town. You’re going to love that place if you haven’t been there already.”
Viktor peeked inside and then dipped his nose into the bag for a sniff. He reached in a hand and brought out a small chunk which he popped into his mouth.
“This is rye bread,” he stated and then mumbled happily in his native Ukrainian. “Thank you, Tate. We will have some with our lunch.”
Tate took a seat at one of the stools behind the bar directly across the black granite countertop from Viktor.
“Great reception from the board.” He thought about Hannah and amended the statement, “Most of the board.”
Viktor grinned. “Let me guess—your skier—she was not so pleased?”
My skier? He thought about how Adele had called him Hannah’s snowboarder. He’d liked that. Now he realized that he’d likely annihilated any chance of that. The thought depressed him to a surprising degree.
Despite her brave face at the meeting, he could see that she’d been upset. How upset? He wasn’t sure. She’d left too soon after the meeting for him to find out.
He snagged a piece of roast beef from the platter Viktor was assembling.
“No, she was not so pleased.” He repeated Viktor’s words with a grin of his own.
Viktor began slicing the deliciously pungent rye bread. After slathering a chunk with butter, he took a healthy bite, reminding Tate of Hannah’s comment at the board meeting about skiers being the “bread and butter” of Snowy Sky. A niggle of guilt poked him. He reminded himself that guilt had no place in this scenario. He was doing this for Lucas.
“What will you do?” Viktor asked between mouthfuls.
Tate shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do. She will eventually see that my recommendations make sense. She can’t just ignore snowboarders. Well, maybe she can, but the board won’t—not now. And if she doesn’t like that, then I’ll have to make her understand how much this venture means to me—to
