Page 105 of All Tied Up

The whole thing took three hours, and then there was the inevitable chitchat, everyone acting like they were best buddies because the new company owner had a shiny new toy and the seller had millions of dollars, and Neil was the one who had waded through hundreds of pages of contract agreements to make sure it went off without a hitch.

When someone busted out the champagne, Neil took an obligatory sip and toasted each of them.

He was never going to see any of these people again.

When everyone finally left and Neil thought he could slip from the room, Jackson elbowed him. “What was with you today?”

Neil raised one eyebrow, face emotionless.

“You were way out of it. I could tell. I’m good at reading people.”

Unlikely, since Jackson seemed to have no idea how much Neil disliked him. Or maybe he did. Neil didn’t care.

“I got stuck up in the mountains because of the storm. I had to drive in early today. Probably just tired.”

Jackson smirked. “You were supposed to be back Tuesday. You get ‘stuck’ in a nice piece of ass?”

Neil couldn’t even deal with that today. It was disrespectful and rude on a hundred levels, and he didn’t have the patience for battling it out with Jackson right now. “Something like that.”

He could see Jackson moving in for a high five and he quickly avoided it to walk out of the room.

The second he had his office door closed, he dialed the lodge. No one picked up. He thought about leaving a message, but he wanted to talk to Sebastian, so he waited.

Needing something to do, Neil logged into his email and started replying to things.

He called again.

On the third attempt, Ty picked up. Halfway through a semi-rehearsed spiel about not taking any new bookings, Neil interrupted him.

“Hey, Ty, it’s Neil.”

“Oh hey. Um… you saw the tree, right?”

“Yeah. I was wondering if I could talk with Sebastian. I think I have some ideas for some small business loans.” Specifically, Neil could undersign them.

Ty put him on hold for a moment and then came back. “He can’t talk right now.”

“OK. Well, will you tell him I called?”

“Of course.”

“He can call me back any time. Day or night. If I’m in a meeting, I’ll step out of it.”

“Good. I’ll let him know that, too.”

Only Sebastian didn’t call.

Not on Thursday or on Friday either.

Neil couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t get the image out of his head. The tree on the cabin. Jamie hugging himself. Sebastian lashing out.

The vacation had been a little slice of paradise, something he hoped to treasure forever, until suddenly it wasn’t.

When Saturday rolled around, Neil considered just driving out there.

That would probably be overstepping though. If either of them wanted him, they would have called, right?

He paced his living room, debating internally. They must be busy. They were trying to make repairs and certainly hadn’t promised him anything more than a few days together.