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“No, uh. Yes, she is. But we’re not together. Not like that.” I wasn’t sure why it felt important that he know that, but that little tick lifted one side of his mouth again.
“So are you planning to write a piece about the resort? Any questions you want to ask while you’ve got me captive?” The playful grin fell. “Oh shit, are you going to mention the elevator?”
“I probably will write about the resort,” I answered truthfully. I didn’t tell the whole truth about the next part, though. The questions I wanted to ask him probably weren’t the ones he would be expecting. But I could get close. “I pitched my editor a piece as a way to offset the cost of coming out here for the conference. I’ll leave out the elevator if you want me to.” I’d get the piece, and then I’d ask him about Jake. The problem was that I didn’t know exactly what to ask, and if I started there, my chances of getting the cover story might disappear.
“Maybe you should wait and see how long we’re stuck before you make any promises.” His smile was careful, but kind. I could sense something guarded in him, like he didn’t have a lot of practice showing his real emotions. I’d have put good money on him being excellent at poker.
We sat in silence a moment, my father’s voice in the back of my head spewing anger and hatred. Here was the man who’d ruined our family, who’d taken my brother from us. And I was making small talk? But what was I supposed to do? There was noeasy way to mention casually that you were the little sister of the guy who’d died in that massive, life-changing accident you’d had that one time.
“So. Did you grow up knowing you’d run this place some day?”
He shook his head. “Not at all.” Archie rubbed the back of his neck, and those eyes clouded again before he blinked hard, seeming to clear whatever dark thoughts had passed across his mind. “No, Aubrey did, maybe. But it was more of a childhood fantasy than anything that seemed like it would really happen. Our uncle never said anything about leaving it to us when he was alive.”
“He just...left it to you? He didn’t tell you he was going to do that?”
“Nope,” Archie scrubbed a hand across his jaw like he was thinking for a second, then went on. “It’s been a little complicated,” he chuckled, and I suspected he was referring to the treasure hunt. “Seems like we might be here a while. You up for a story?”
I grinned at him, relieved he seemed willing to talk to me. I’d get the story now. Talk about my brother later, if he still felt chatty. “I’m a writer. I’m always up for a story.”
Chapter Four
The Kasper Ridge Special Package
GHOST
The woman sitting across from me smiled, and the very air between us seemed to warm with the intensity of it. There was no good reason I should feel suddenly like baring my heart—or any part of my past—to a stranger, but that didn’t change things. I wanted to talk. And it had been years since anyone had made me feel like doing much beyond surviving one day and then the next.
So I talked. She was a stranger, and I’d probably never see her again after this week, anyway. Plus, if she wanted to write a travel story about the resort, I figured it couldn’t hurt.
“Uncle Marvin had always been kind of an odd cat.”
“Odd how?” she asked, tilting her head a way that made her look studious and sent a little fizz of attraction through me. She was so pretty.
“Odd like...he wasn’t really into material things. Like, at all.” I paused, remembering my great uncle, and the way he’dbrush off any questions about money or expense. “You’d think a guy running what was supposed to be a luxury resort would spend some time and money keeping the place up, right?”
“Probably, yeah.”
“But he always said Kasper Ridge was all about the experience, that just being here should be enough for people.” I thought back to all the recent renovation, wondering what Uncle Marvin might have thought about them. Would he think the place hadn’t been enough for me?
Emily shook her head lightly, smiling. “I mean, I guess it’s one thing to be in a gorgeous place, but guests still expected running water and a good meal, right?”
“At the very least. Don’t you look for a little more than that when you travel? Or have you been roughing it when you travel for work?” I wondered about the far-flung places her job must take her and a pang of envy pinged inside me. I was ready to travel too, to see what else the world had to offer.
Her mouth twisted for a second, and then she said, “Getting to travel at all is nice. I’m not picky.”
“So Uncle Marvin kept the place running when we were little kids, but by the time we were in high school, he’d closed it up, and he was just living up here.”
“A pretty big place for one guy.”
“Yeah, it was. I think it made him a little nuts maybe, being up here all alone.”
“He wasn’t married?”
“He was, actually. And I think when my aunt died, that’s when he gave up a little bit. They had one of those love stories...” I didn’t know how to describe the relationship I’d only heard about with my aunt and uncle. Aunt Lola died before Aubrey and I ever came up to Kasper Ridge, but I’d been old enough to understand from the way Uncle Marvin talked that whatever was between them wasn’t your run-of-the-millmarriage. I’d never witnessed it, but from the stories he told, the shine in his eyes when he talked about her, their love was the stuff of movies with big sweeping soundtracks.
“Tell me,” Emily suggested, her voice a breath.
I met her eyes for a second, surprised to see the interest burning there in her dark gaze. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a conversation I’d wanted so desperately not to end. Was it strange to be enjoying my elevator’s failure during the biggest event the resort had held thus far?
