AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He turned to see Nic Winters standing in the area where customers waited for their drinks to be made. Holden walked over, arm outstretched, and they shook hands.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Holden blurted.
Was he ready to discuss this yet? Yes, after what he’d learned over the past couple of days, he was definitely ready to loop Nic in on his plans.
“We need to schedule a meeting,” Holden said. “I mentioned an upcoming project. It’s pretty big. Assuming you’re still open to a job here in Misty Mountain.”
Nic had relocated to Misty Mountain after falling in love with Faith’s sister, Charity. As far as Nic knew, the two of them were going to be brothers-in-law, so it made sense that Holden might help him out with a job. But he’d first hinted at it to Nic long before he’d met Faith Ardmore.
“A ski resort, I heard,” Nic said.
“Nic?” an employee called out.
Nic held up a finger to tell Holden to wait and rushed over to grab his order. All Holden could do was stare at him, trying to process the comment he’d just made. Shaking his head, Nic turned the coffee cup around to show Holden his name, printed on a sticker on the side, as he walked back.
“They add a ‘k’ at the end, every time,” Nic said.
But Holden’s mind was still reeling from what Nic just said. “How did you hear about the ski resort?” Holden asked, careful to keep his voice down. The last thing he needed was for someone else to overhear. “I haven’t told anyone.”
Nic shrugged. “It’s all over town. But you need some investors, right? You know Matt does that sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?”
“Invests. He has a bunch of properties around town. Rentals for tourists. What you’re doing could be right in his wheelhouse.”
He was so blown away by this conversation. He’d done everything he could to keep things secret, but maybe somebody overheard at the Mexican restaurant the other night. No telling in a town like this. Gossips got a hold of something, and it was all over.
“That might be too steep a price for an investor like that,” Nic said, looking off into the distance while pressing on the lid of his coffee cup. “But if several investors pooled their funds—in fact, maybe the whole town would want to invest. You might even get the city to pay for part of it. And Matt’s the mayor. Yeah, Matt’s the one you should be meeting with.”
He hadn’t allowed much room for Holden to respond to any of those statements, but now he paused, seeming to remember how this conversation started.
“But wait,” Nic said. “How do you see me being a part of it?”
“I need somebody to run it. You seem like the perfect person.”
Nic frowned as he took a long sip from his coffee. “How do you figure?”
“You ran a huge farm before coming here, right? I need someone who knows how to handle the day-to-day stuff. Assuming this goes through. I certainly don’t expect you to put your job search on hold, but if we can get this moving before you find something else, it would be a huge load off.”
“I’d love to work with you,” Nic said. “Especially since it looks like we’ll eventually be family.”
Uh-oh. That could be a problem. Nic would have no way of knowing that Holden and Faith weren’t really getting married. But eventually, the truth would come out. Maybe, in this instance, Nic wasn’t the best man for the job.
That bothered him for reasons beyond that, though. Holden suddenly felt a little sad that this guy wouldn’t be family. He liked sitting around the Christmas table with him, Charity, and Faith’s parents. That was one thing he hadn’t planned—getting attached to Faith’s family, even in the small amount of time he’d spent around them.
But then, he hadn’t counted on getting so attached to Faith, either. He was supposed to be keeping his distance. That was starting to prove impossible.
“Think about it,” Nic said. “Go ahead and grab your drink. Here.”
Nic reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He had to balance it on his thumb to make sure he kept the cup in hand. Before Holden could offer to hold his coffee for him, Nic whipped out a business card and handed it over.
“You have my phone number now,” Nic said. “Shoot me a text and maybe the four of us can go do something one night. We can go to the Playhouse or something. You can bring J.J. too, if you think she’d want to hang out with a bunch of boring grown-ups.”
As Holden headed over to the counter to place his to-go order, he mulled over the offer. J.J. would be more than happy to spend the night at a friend’s house so he could, in fact, go on a double date with Nic and Charity. But there was something about continuing to get close to her family that bugged him. And he wasn’t sure what to do about it.
18
J.J had a plan, and it was a plan Faith was all too happy to help with. She wanted to spend the weekend at her friend’s house—one of the Ambers. Faith couldn’t keep up.
