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“You know how I feel,” I say, giving his shoulder a light shove. “I’ve told you before.” I’d told him I’d rather a resort than those ugly monstrosities.
I love my grandparents. They’re not exactly fans of Longdale, though. They didn’t want their daughter, Marie, to follow her new husband here. But she did, and my younger sister and I were born and raised here, even though our father was out the door and out of our lives before Claire was even born.
My mom passed away from a swift-moving brain tumor when I was nine. My grandparents were kind not to uproot us when we’d had our only known parent taken from us. But they never could quite curb the bitterness over having to change their lives for us. It hangs in the air around them like smog.
Oliver interrupts the thoughts that always cause a dash of pain. “Now that you’re here and inside, what do you think? Are you still glad you’re not standing in a wind turbine field?”
“Yes. It’s breathtaking.” I take in the vaulted ceiling and balcony.
“And it’s small enough that we’re not going to have hundreds of people coming and going, taxing the town’s resources.”
“How many guest rooms are there?”
“Just fifty. All suites.”
Our footsteps echo along the cozy, matte hardwood. “How does it feel for you?” I ask. “I know you never thought you’d make Longdale your home, as much as Aunt Stella wanted you all to.”
“I don’t know. It’s a little strange. I flew in from Capri.”
Ah, yes. He loves Capri. Oliver and I are opposites…it’s good for me to be reminded of that every so often.
“How are the Capri deals coming along?”
“Lots of strings to pull, but things are happening.” His eyes light up.
“I’m sure it’s lovely there.” I refrain from saying:I’m sure the women are lovely there, too.
“We needed boots on the ground, someone to take care of all the red tape and bureaucracy to get permits.”
I knew it had become his passion project. “Well then, what convinced you to move here?”
“It’s—I haven’t moved here exactly.” His gaze is trained on the floor. “I’m just renting this place up the hill. It started last Christmas when we were all in Denver. Sebastian was being a real sweetheart to me, you know, buttering me up.”
“You mean, he wasn’t a big grump like usual?”
“He wasn’t. We played basketball the night before I went back to Capri and he says, “You can go back. But come to Longdale in the spring. I need you to run the operations at the resort, Oliver. You’re the best, Oliver. You know, just stating the facts.”
I laugh.
“And I said okay, but it was only temporary. I’d work to get things up and running, make sure we were staffed and had the logistics in place, and then I’d go to Capri. And keep scouting other places, too. I told him I’d work on the Capri project remotely. Hopefully when I get back, we’ll have broken ground.”
“So, being here is anexception?”
“Yes,” he says. “I haven’t helped much with operations in the past. But now that the resort's almost ready, we’ve been getting things in place.”
“How long are you going to stay in Longdale?” I brace myself for his answer.
“Seven months total.”
My stomach flip flops. His stay really is going to be temporary. That’s a good thing, I remind myself. “A strange number. Why not just half a year or a year? Make it even.”
“Because Sebastian said, ‘The number of free throws I make in a row is the number of months you have to stay on at Longdale Lake.’”
“And he made seven in a row?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m lucky it wasn’t more.”
My chest tightens at his words.
