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“We went on a little vacation,” she said, only to be interrupted when her husband brought over another couple and made introductions, drawing the conversation—and his wife’s attention—away from his stepdaughter and wife.
Turner seethed. He needed to find out where they’d gone on that vacation. He’d seen the mayor and his wife only two weeks prior, so if she’d seen his stepdaughter, it had to be recently.
His PI was currently chasing a lead in New Jersey, but Turner didn’t mind going and tracking down his bitch of a stepdaughter in the meantime. He could use that kind of vacation.
He waited and watched for the chance to get close to Marilyn or the mayor again so he could find out just where his vacation was going to be.
Chapter 10
What had started out as a wide dirt road was now a rocky trail and a thirty-degree incline, and Joy had to admit she was feeling it on the back of the horse and knew she’d be sore later. Still, she was going to miss Colorado. She hadn’t taken advantage of the hiking out here as much as she should have. She’d been too busy working most of the time.
“I hear it gets worse up ahead,” Kaeden said as he came up alongside her.
When she only shot him a look, he laughed.
“You look like you wish you’d stayed behind.”
Joy grinned but looked around. “Nah, it’s worth it. It’s so pretty. The falls at the top of the trail are supposed to be amazing.”
“So I’m not failing as an event planner yet?”
She eyed him at her side. She was tempted to ask if that was really his assignment here. From what she’d heard in his talks with his boss, the point wasn’t so much that he was supposed to plan events. It was more that he was supposed to oversee others planning the events. Although she didn’t know why that distinction would matter, she’d seen Jack keeping an eye on Kaeden’s interactions with the interns and she wasn’t entirely sure the boss was happy.
But it wasn’t her business. Instead she said, “We’re two days in. I think I’ll reserve judgment.”
“Tough crowd.”
“What else you got planned?” Joy reached for the water bottle she had in her day pack and swallowed some before putting it back.
He named a restaurant for dinner that Joy knew was a tourist trap. The food was horrible and the service wasn’t much better.
“Skip that. Trust me. Have the interns call Empire Burger and see if they can fit in a large group tonight. If they can’t, try The Flip Side.”
He was looking at her with something that wasn’t all that filled with trust and confidence.
Joy shook her head, a smile teasing the corner of her mouth. “I was right about the crepes, wasn’t I?”
Kaeden grumbled but he took out his phone and managed to balance his reins in one hand as he sent a text with the other.
“Are you really texting the interns? You realize they’re five yards ahead of us. You can talk to them.”
“A text is fine.”
Joy was laughing as she watched the interns check their phones before turning to give a big thumbs up to Kaeden. “Oh, and you should add panning for gold to your list of activities.”
Kaeden pointed at her. “Stop screwing with me.”
She was pressing her lips between her teeth as she raised one hand in anot megesture. “I promise. The kids will love it. You get to see some of the old tools that were used for gold mining during the gold rush and then you each get a little pan and you look for gold in a river. They can find garnet too.”
“Garnet?”
“Dark red stone. I think it’s the birth stone for January. Anyway, the kids will love it. We send families there all the time and they always come back to the lodge all excited at the tiny chips of gold they pulled out of the river.”
“You get to keep the gold?”
“Yup. All two cents worth. You’d need to pan for days to get anything that would earn you enough for a cup of coffee. But it’s fun.”
Kaeden sent another text while Joy shook her head.
