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Chapter One
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Hands on his hips, Sean Pierce stood at the entrance of North Pole Camping & Cabins and shook his head.
“Only an idiot would come up with an idea like this.”
A center green, the overgrowth now brown and dry and littered with fallen leaves, was encircled by vacant lots intended for campers with trailers or tents and three ramshackle cabins. The office, also fashioned to resemble a log cabin, wore an air of sad neglect. The glass panes were streaked with dirt, and the door hung crooked in the frame.
“If you were smart, you’d sign this patch of land over to the town and go back to New York.”
Sean didn’t usually talk to himself, but since he’d lost his fiancée and his boss—who also happened to be his ex-best-friend—there wasn’t anyone else around to converse with.
Maybe he should get a dog so people didn’t think he was crazy.
Well, crazy-er.
After all, only an lunatic—or a very, very,veryangry man who’d been cuckolded by the woman he loved and the friend he trusted—would walk away from a career with a prestigious architectural firm in New York City for a derelict inheritance in the wilds of northern New York State.
An inheritance he’d decided not to bother claiming until betrayal and blind fury compelled him to walk away from everything he thought mattered.
Now he was talking to himself and facing an impossible project: refurbish a four-acre campground in two and a half months or forfeit the property.
“Well, dumbass, since you’re already up to your ankles in trouble, might as well wade in all the way.” He withdrew the clipboard from under his arm and wroteShit That Needs to Get Done.
He underlined it twice and added an exclamation mark.
“Start at the beginning. Outline the project. Organize the process. You got this.” Now he was talking to himself like he was a self-help coach.
Still, approaching this renovation like it was just another job took the emotion out of the equation. He could ignore how much was riding on a successful outcome. He could forget his carefully orchestrated life had fallen apart. Dig a hole and bury the chaos and fury and—if he was honest—fear.
Sean Pierce was a control freak. At the age of fifteen, he mapped out his education to obtain a master’s degree in architecture. His plan included an internship with the premiere architecture firm in Miami, which served as a steppingstone to join the top design group in Manhattan.
By the time he was thirty, he aimed to have his career established so he could turn his attention to starting a family. After dating beautiful, talented, affluent Nikki Macco for eighteen months, he proposed. Josh, his partner and best friend, had been the first to toast their engagement.
Two weeks before their wedding, Sean discovered control was nothing more than an illusion. Everything he’d worked towards, invested in, and dedicated his life to now lay in ruin. Not everything, he amended. Just everything that depended on other people. He was still the master of his own destiny. Restoring North Pole Camping & Cabins was critical to restoring his confidence. He didn’t know what came after that, but for now, dealing with the dilapidated campground was enough.
“I need an inventory of assets,” he muttered, jotting another heading on the clipboard.
Thirty minutes later, he’d completed a circuit of the area, which was equivalent to the size of four football fields. The forested terrain began at the Ausable River and narrowed to the peak of a triangular shape that extended several feet up a slope. As Sean stood on the hillside, he admired the view.
“This would be a great place for a house.” He pivoted, slowly scanning the horizon from north to south. Because of the woods, the campsites weren’t visible, making him feel farther from civilization than he was. “It wouldn’t take much work to level out a space for a log cabin that nestled into the hill. Give it some protection from the elements and cut down on utility costs.”
He shook his head to ward off the distraction.
“You’re not here to build houses,” he chided himself. “If you don’t get this campground operating again, you won’t be here at all.”
He started back to the office where he’d parked his Lexus. Now that he had a fair idea of the site’s structures and utilities, he needed to dig up paperwork and permits, learn more about the campground’s history, and find out if there were any zoning or building restrictions. His uncle’s attorney was a logical place to begin.
An idea was starting to take shape in his head. With it came a subtle adrenaline rush and buzz of exhilaration.
“Fuck Nikki. Fuck Josh.” He walked faster, breathing in the crisp, pine-scented autumn air, clipboard slapping his hip. His master plan hadn’t included renovating an abandoned campground in rural northern New York State, but now that he was here, he would take control of the situation and turn it into a success.
Sean broke into a run, chest expanding with anticipation. “I got this,” he shouted, the words carried away on the wind.
He had this.
Chapter Two
