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Blake had no sooner sat down behind his desk, ready to orient himself to the work he needed to accomplish, when his brother said, “Blake, I need you for two seconds.”
He looked up to find his brother Jesse standing in the doorway. Halfway, at least. He nodded down the hall and disappeared. Blake sighed as he got to his feet to follow Jesse. He couldn’t just ignore his request. Jesse—and it was always Jesse, not Jess—ran the customer-facing side of the lodge.
He handled all their guest relations and bookings. Now that they had a functional and beautiful website for the lodge, Jesse’s workload had eased slightly. He still worked with Becks, their cousin who’d come to the Texas Longhorn Ranch to get them online, as did Blake. In fact, he had a meeting with her about mid-morning.
When they held their big monthly meetings, where new activities and ideas were presented, Blake or Adam always acted as voice for Jesse. He had a mind Blake couldn’t comprehend, but he didn’t want any of the accolades. For as grumpy and closed off as he was, he managed to handle the guests and their complaints like a champion.
If things got really bad, Jesse and Blake referred disgruntled customers to their sister, Holly. She was the charmer of the Stewart family, having gotten all of the charisma that Jesse lacked from their mother. There wasn’t any problem that Holly couldn’t fix, and both Blake and Jesse tried to only send her their most difficult customers.
Jesse handled everyone else, and the moment he stepped into the public spotlight, he shone like all the lights over a football stadium. Behind closed doors, though, and Jesse only spoke in growls and grunts.
Today, he led Blake into his office, which he shared with another of their brothers, Nash, and Holly. The three of them ran the lodge from morning to night, while Todd, Adam, and Sierra ran the actual ranch side of their land. Blake oversaw it all, and he couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t worked seven days in a week.
Jesse picked up a card and showed it to Blake. “I’m thinking a caramel tasting for our April Spring Break event.”
Blake took the card, which didn’t have even a hint of caramel on the front of it. He frowned, trying to put together dots that didn’t exist. In fact, the card was a birthday card with some well-known cartoon characters which Jesse happened to love.
“Who is this from?” He flipped open the card only to have Jesse rip it from his hand.
“No one,” he growled. “What about caramels? We just got that new ritzy pastry chef.” His eyebrows went up, but Blake rubbed his fingers together, the skin still burning from the speed with which Jesse had taken the card from him.
“How did you get caramels from Winnie the Pooh?” Blake tilted his head at his brother, trying to see past the dark look on his face. Jesse always operated with that look, and Blake wasn’t alarmed.
Jesse turned and dropped the card on his pristine desk as if he didn’t care about it. Blake wouldn’t be surprised to find it magneted to his fridge—with perfect ninety-degree angles between it and other appliance decorations—in his cabin. He turned back to Blake and folded his arms. “The card came with caramels.”
“What flavor?” Blake asked.
“Sea salt,” Jesse said. “Which is so boring. I think your fancy girlfriend-chef could come up with some amazing flavors, and we can have guests taste-test them. Guess the flavors. Sell the winners in the front shop.”
Blake’s brain filled with so much from what Jesse had said, which wasn’t unusual. “First,” he said, holding up his palm. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Yet,” Jesse said without moving his lips.
Blake didn’t argue with him. “Second, you’re talking about having Gina make a lot of caramels that we give to guests for free.”
“Right.”
“And then we start selling the winning ones in the store.”
“Yes.”
Blake looked over to Holly’s desk, finding more comfort there. She organized things into trays, but at least it looked like someone worked at the desk. Jesse was so neat, and so square, and while Blake knew why, it still unsettled him if he spent too much time in his brother’s space.
“That’s a lot of work for a pastry chef,” he said. “She might not be able to make caramels every day.”
“She doesn’t have to make them every day,” Jesse said, as he loved to argue. The man could argue that horses didn’t have four legs, for crying out loud. “Just during the taste-testing event, which won’t be more than a few days. Then, according to her schedule, she can make them and we’ll stock them in the store.”
“Let me talk to Starla.”
“Okay.” Jesse nodded at him, and Blake turned to leave. Nash came through the door in that moment, and the two of them almost collided.
“Whoa,” Nash said, chuckling as he stepped to the side. He loved to laugh, and he hardly ever said a sentence that wasn’t accompanied by a chuckle. “Things are lookin’ good in the kitchen.”
“Really?” Blake asked, which caused both Nash and Jesse to peer at him more closely. Instant heat flushed through him, and he wasn’t even sure why. “I mean, yeah, of course. I didn’t think she’d be a problem.”
“Not for the kitchen anyway,” Jesse muttered, and Nash laughed right out loud. The two of them sat down at their desks, with Jesse going to his computer, and Nash pulling his event book toward him.
During the last first and last ten minutes of breakfast, and again at the top of the eight o’clock hour, Nash would stand in front of the mic and tell guests what their morning activities were, if they could get a grab-and-go lunch that day, and where to meet for the afternoon outdoor activities.
