AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The thing was, she knew that getting to know Hudson better was leading away from professional into personal. At least for her. And she wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that the admiration she felt for Hudson could easily morph into something more.
There were several reasons why that was a terrible, no good, very bad idea. First, and most importantly, he didn’t share her faith. He hadn’t come right out and said he didn’t. But at the same time, when she’d spoken about the faith her family embraced, he hadn’t said that he too was a Christian.
Second, they were technically co-workers. And while being co-workers didn’t seem to impact Jay and Misha, or Gareth and Aria, Kayleigh wasn’t sure how a relationship would work for them. Most especially because he lived in New York, and she didn’t. And she never planned to.
She needed to stop thinking about what a great guy he was, and how attractive he was. Instead, she had to keep focused on how well he did his job and remind herself that he was just a co-worker. Unfortunately, how he approached his job was part of what she found so attractive about him.
For Hudson’s part, however, Kayleigh wasn’t sure that he viewed her as anything but a fellow Remington employee. He hadn’t mentioned a girlfriend, but of course, that didn’t mean he didn’t actually have one.
But even if he didn’t, he probably met many beautiful women in his travels. She was just a small-town girl, managing a resort that had ended up being targeted by someone with unknown motives. Their paths would never have crossed if Alexander hadn’t felt that Hudson needed to come and figure out what was going on.
Kayleigh couldn’t decide if she was happy about that or not.
On a professional level, she wished he hadn’t had to come. However, on a personal level, she was glad to have met him—regardless of where their friendship led. It gave her hope that maybe there was a Christian man out there that shared the attributes that Hudson had.
Even as that thought crossed her mind, Kayleigh’s heart balked at the idea of any man in her life but Hudson. Which told her that perhaps her caution was coming far too late.
Since she had plenty of work to do, Kayleigh focused on that, even as she wondered if perhaps Hudson would want to meet for lunch. To discuss business, of course.
However, as the lunch hour neared, there was no call from Hudson, and he didn’t show up. It wasn’t a big deal as she had packed a lunch for herself that morning. So when noon arrived, she went to the small fridge she had in her office and pulled out the salad she’d placed in there earlier.
Seated at the small table, she said a prayer of thanks for the food. Before ending the prayer, Kayleigh hesitated, then tacked on a prayer for Hudson.
He’d seemed tired, and her heart ached for him after hearing about how he’d lost his mom. It also seemed like he was on his own in the world, and she prayed that God would bring people into his life so that he didn’t feel lonely.
Maybe they’d still be able to be friends, albeit long-distance ones, once everything had been figured out at the resort. Until then, they could—should—only be friendly co-workers.
Her outward actions must only reflect that, even if inwardly, her heart was clamoring for something more.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hudson stared out the window at the snowy landscape, listening as the man on the phone explained what he’d found while looking through the system. Or rather, what he hadn’t found. The person who’d hacked the system had known how to hide their tracks, even though what he—or she—had done was apparent.
He had really hoped that the computer expert would find something that might help them move in a direction that would resolve the apparent attack on the resort.
Unfortunately, that hadn’t been the case. The man had assured him, however, that he was monitoring things now, so that if the person hacked in again in the future, he’d see it and be able to track them.
It was better than nothing, Hudson supposed, but it wasn’t what he’d wanted to hear. When the guy in the computer department in New York had mentioned that Roman was the best, Hudson had been very hopeful. Now, however, he was just frustrated.
He knew that he shouldn’t let it get to him, but he was tired from the Scotland trip. Even though he’d told Kayleigh he had a handle on the jetlag, he didn’t really feel like he did.
“Anyway, I’ll keep you in the loop,” Roman said. “As soon as something pops up, I’ll let you know.”
“I’m not sure they’re going to try another theft,” Hudson told him. “So this might be a dead end.”
“For thefts, yeah. But if they’re going to do anything else around the resort, they’ll probably still not want to be on camera, so they’ll try to take control of them again.”
Hudson rubbed his forehead. “Yeah. Of course. That makes sense.”
“We’ll get this sorted out.”
“I appreciate your confidence.”
“I have confidence in my abilities and my computers.”
Hudson wanted to have that confidence also, but he felt too tired to drudge it up. “I look forward to hearing from you again soon.”
“Yep. Have a good day.”
