He finds me there around noon.
I see him before he reaches me, crossing the atrium with the easy, unhurried stride that I'm already starting to recognize, and I have approximately four seconds to decide how to look like a person who has not been thinking about him.
I use those four seconds poorly.
"Laptop and cold coffee," he says, stopping in front of the alcove. "How's the piece?"
"How do you know I'm writing a piece?"
"You've been staring at the screen for twenty minutes with the same expression people get when something is almost right but not quite. Writer’s block?"
He was watching me for twenty minutes.
He was watching me for twenty minutes and I didn't notice because I was thinking about him.
I need to get my life together.
"No, it's good," I say. "Getting there. The morning gave me a lot to work with." I pause. "Including the escape footage. That's going to do very well."
"The photographer sent it to you."
"She did. It's excellent." I look up at him. "You're very calm in it."
"That's the job."
"I'm not calm in it."
"You're very entertaining in it." There it is again, the contained lifting at the corner of his mouth thing, that wants to be a smile but is keeping its composure. "Justin wants everyone for lunch. He's testing the bar menu and he's made it a group event whether we want it to be or not."
"That sounds exactly like Justin."
"It is exactly Justin." He looks at my laptop screen, at the document I haven't closed. "Bring the work. You can write after."
There's something about the way he says that. Not a suggestion. Not a request. Just a quiet rearrangement ofmy schedule, offered with complete confidence and a bit of dominance. He’s definitely a Daddy. He gives orders without them feeling like orders.
The unsettling thing is that it is completely fine and I like it.
I close the laptop and go.
CHAPTER 4
The resort does a thing every evening called the Night Walk.
It's in the preview materials and I’ve been looking forward to it. It’s an optional guided after-hours stroll through the lit resort grounds, seeing the outdoor spaces when the day guests are gone and it's just the lights, the mountains and the Colorado cold. Holly described it as immersive. The preview packet called it atmospheric. Justin, when I asked him, said Anthony actually designed the route for peak experience but also safety. It’s something special they can offer the guests who are staying at the resort above those who come in for the amusement park and day skiing opportunities.
I put on my good coat and don't examine my motivations. I’m not even sure if Anthony is even going to be on the walk. It doesn’t stop me from doing a tad bit more makeup and making sure not a hair is out of place.
There are four of us when we set out, and yes, Anthony is here. It’s just us and two of the travel writers who are here for the preopening. It lasts maybe thirty minutes before the travel writers peel off toward the heated bar that is vibing with a younger local crowd and after work employees.
And then it's just us.
Anthony doesn't suggest we turn back.
I don't either.
We just keep walking, and the path winds through the resort gardens with the lights overhead and the mountains dark beyond them, and the snow has that quality it gets at night where it almost seems to glow from the inside. It’s lit up and absolutely magical.
"How long did the route design take?" I ask.
