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“Okay. I’ll do it.”
“Excellent!” Mitch beams at me as he rummages in his desk drawer. “You’ve always been a brave girl, Gemma! I will say that about you. You’ll have to travel out to Pines Peak to catch up with him, I’m sure. The boy’s more apt to use his phone as a paper weight than an actual communication device, like I said. Here’s the key to our ski house. Use the place for as long as you like. And, let me jot down the address for that trailer of his…”
He hands me a single brass key, and then I wait as he writes out an address and then hands me the paper.
Mitch and I shake hands over his desk. “Good luck,” he says to me with a wink.
“Thanks.”I have a feeling I’m going to need it.
Chapter2
Gemma
The minute I get into the car with Carly, I start fretting aloud. “What have I done…” I groan, as I pull my seatbelt across my chest.
The dinner of perfectly slow-cooked, succulent pot roast and flakey, buttery biscuits did not ease my mind about the job I accepted from Mitch.
If anything, I’d spent the dinner doubting my decision to play matchmaker to a guy who pretty much stomped on my heart, when I was a little baby bird about to fly the nest.
“I have to do this, right?” I ask Carly “I mean, I can’t turn down half a million dollars just because I don’t want to deal with Parker. Sure, he was the first guy I fell for, stupidly, and he crushed me, but in the big picture, that’s no big deal.He’sno big deal. He’s nobody, really. Sorry—he’s your brother.”
Carly, behind the wheel, looks grim as she fires up her Volvo. “He’s my brother alright. Freaking Parker.” She’s not happy with the situation, either. “I can’t believe my dad is asking this of you. He should’ve just signed over a check.”
“No, no. I don’t want a handout or a favor. He wants to know the process works before he invests. That’s fair.”
“I’m sure you presented the relevant facts. You are Queen of Statistics, Gem. At this point, Dad’s meddling for his own entertainment.”
She steers us down Woodberry Lane, past the house I grew up in. My parents still live there, but they’re at my Uncle’s place in Virginia this week, thank goodness. I have enough on my mind tonight without worrying about having to stop in and weather their questions about my personal life. According to my parents, I work too hard. They never made millions, so what do they know? If I want to reach my goals I have to apply myself full-on. Running a company like mine takes dedication. Commitment. Sacrifice.
Carly turns onto the main artery that will take us to the interstate. “And not only is he meddling in Parker’s business, but he’s putting you in a crazy position. I know how bad you had it for my brother.”
“Really, it was no big deal. We never dated.”
“You guys were practically inseparable for three straight weeks. If that’s not dating, I don’t know what is. Admit it, Gemma, even for a woman of steel like you, this is going to suck.”
“All that happened ten years ago. It was nothing. Honestly. This is just one more hurdle to jump.”
“You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. Iknowhow you were about Parker. I know howeverygirl is about Parker. I’ve been dealing with this my whole life. Last winter, I brought Hannah to the ski house for a weekend…? Remember that friend I had from Bikram Yoga?”
“Right.” I’ve met plenty of Carly’s friends over the years, and Hannah doesn’t particularly stick out, besides a vague image of willowy yoga-physique and flower-printed leggings.
“Yeah, well, what a painthatwas. We ended up running into him on the hill. For the rest of the trip I had to listen to Hannah go on and on…‘Where’s your brother? Is Parker going out tonight? Can we meet up with Parker?’ It was ridiculous. And shestilltalks about him, every time I run into her at the studio.”
“Carly, I was eighteen when I had a thing for him. That was forever ago and it doesn’t matter now. This will be easy.”
“Oh… ho ho. You are soooo wrong, dude. Easy has nothing to do with what you’re about to attempt. First of all, he’s not mature enough to even think about tying the knot. My brother will never grow up. It’s like he thinks just because he moved to the town we used to go on family vacations to, his life can be one big holiday all the time. Like the rest of us have to grow up and become responsible, productive citizens, but he can goof off all day and it’s fine. I swear, he drives me crazy.”
“Maybe your dad’s right, and he needs to meet the right person and settle down.”
“Are you kidding me?Settle down?Are we even talking about the same person? No way. Every time I talk to him, he’s dating someone new. My Dad’s setting you up for failure. Parker’s thirty-three going on seventeen, and that’s how he’s going to be for the rest of his life.”
She takes a right onto the Mass Turnpike, and merges into the long parade of traffic that will carry us back into Boston. Rather than stick to the slower right lane, she presses the gas and her sleek Volvo catapults forward, launching us into the speedier, middle-lane traffic.
“His life’s in the toilet these days,” she adds, while scanning the radio for a suitable song. “The last time I went up to the log cabin, I went out to his place to see him… It’s this cheap little double-wide mobile home way out on the edge of town. And did Dad tell you he got fired from the tennis center?”
“Yeah. I have some questions about that.”
She groans as she glances over her shoulder to check traffic, then merge left again . “No kidding. I think we all do. Like how does a guy with two Olympic medals for tennis get fired from a job at a crappy little tennis center in the middle of nowhere? That place should’ve been kissing the ground he walked on. Instead, they canned him.”
