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I giggled. “Backcountry skiing.”
“Ah.” He nudged Lincoln with his elbow. “You should’ve taken her with you today.”
I shook my head. “Nope. I had too much going on.”
“How did we do the other day with all your calls?” Asher asked.
I paused, taking a breath as I contemplated how to answer that. “I am so grateful for you guys taking all those messages,” I finally said.
Lincoln snorted as he slid a sly look at his brother. “You took great messages.”
“We tried,” Asher said.
I shook my head as I laughed. “I’ve just been following up on all that. And also, I mean, it’s not like I can take every day off and do trips.”
“You could be a guide if you wanted. I’m sure Adele would be on board with that,” Asher said.
As if on cue, Adele appeared in between Lincoln and Asher in the doorway, which was starting to get crowded. Adele met my gaze, her lips twitching. “I don’t know what I’m on board with, but I support whatever you want, Chloe.”
I lifted a hand, giving her a mock high five in the air from where I stood. I didn’t quite trust myself to get any closer to Lincoln, so I had to stay over here. “I love that Adele is one of the guides, and I did have fun snowshoeing. But, I don’t want to do that full time. I love being in the office. It feels like my wheelhouse. I’m organized. I love spreadsheets. I love staying on top of things and feeling like it’s all running efficiently.” I made a check mark in the air with my fingertip. “Taken care of.”
“Efficient Chloe,” Lincoln said, and maybe Adele and Asher didn’t pick up on the thread in his tone, but I did. Because he’d called me that moments ago and this morning when we were in bed together.
Asher obviously noticed something, because he slid his gaze toward his brother, one dark brow arching. “Are we calling her Efficient Chloe now?”
Adele looked between the brothers before her eyes met mine, and I sensed she picked up on something too. But all she said was, “Chloe is incredibly efficient.”
“See?” I said.
Lincoln’s smile felt a little private, somehow having the effect of making me feel like it was just him and me here. And yet, I had to stay sane.
Keep your shit together, Chloe, my sensible inner voice said sternly. You can’t be falling for this guy this fast. He’s sort of your boss.
I wanted to argue the point. Maggie was my boss. Except, well, the Silver family owned the resort. I kicked that thought away. I didn’t really want to worry about that right now. This felt too good, and I hadn’t felt this good in, well, ever. So there.
“So why is everybody standing in my doorway?” I finally asked.
Lincoln paused, tapping two fingertips to his jaw. “Because you’re the center of this place. You and our mom.”
“Me and your mom?” I yelped.
“Yeah. You’re on top of everything.” Adele agreed without hesitation, while Asher nodded along.
“Oh.” I blinked.
“We like hanging out with you, Chloe,” she added. “Your office is always warm and inviting. We come in, we’re freezing, we say hi to you, and then we go to the kitchen and eat.”
“Speaking of eating,” Asher said, “what’s for dinner?” He looked first at Adele and then at Lincoln. Lincoln shrugged.
“Food?” Adele replied.
“That’s all I need to know,” Asher said flatly. Cole appeared, and the three of them meandered off, while Lincoln stayed right where he’d been the whole time. The only thing that changed was he had dropped his hand from the doorframe. I kind of missed the sight of that little sliver of skin.
“You eating with us?” he asked.
I cleared my throat. “Yeah.”
“Anytime you want to go backcountry skiing, I’ll take you. I can take you with one of our groups or we could just go on a day when I don’t have a trip.”