Page 103 of All Tied Up

“What’s up?” Sebastian asked, already dreading the answer.

Ty pointed out the window, vaguely in the direction of cabin three.

Sebastian looked but all he could see was a wall of leaves pressed against the back window. It looked like the top of a tree in a place where no tree should be.

“No one was in cabin three last night,” Ty told him softly.

Fuck. Fuck!

Sebastian stalked out the back door, noting that the tree had knocked down part of the porch overhang. He was already calculating the damage in thousands of dollars, and that was if the porch hadn’t caused any damage to the main body of the lodge.

He’d need to get caution tape up, roping off the exit that he’d just used.

And he hadn’t even seen the real problem yet.

His shoes squished in the over-saturated grass as he made his way around the tree.

Then he just stood there, like the mud had sucked him in and glued him to the spot.

He knew that tree. It’s long, tangled roots had hung down, exposed, over the cliff. The landscaping people had explained that it was critical for preventing erosion and warned him not to cut it.

Now its massive roots were reaching up to the sky, and it had sliced cleanly through the cabin, pulling the roof down with it in a hazardous V of loose beams and metal struts. Sebastian didn’t need to look at the trail to know it would be washed out.

Thoughts flitted through Sebastian’s mind but he couldn’t catch them. He knew he was supposed to be taking care of things. Potential gas leaks. Guest communication. Tree removal. Insurance claims.

None of them made any sense though.

Because this was it. He didn’t have a few more months to figure things out.

It was over now.

He would have to sell to someone with deeper pockets, and that was it.

Over.

Jamie came up behind him and let out a low whistle. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.” That about summed it up.

Three was the cabin they’d just renovated, too. Right after the sewage leak that had already taken months of their time and savings.

But it didn’t matter.

Sebastian turned away, only to find Neil standing on the porch. He was dressed in a professional suit, seeming miles away from the catastrophe that Sebastian couldn’t bear to look at.

What was it that Neil had said? That small business owners had tiny problems, but they were their problems?

Well, this problem seemed huge, and so did every other one that came along. This one was just too much. Insurance would take months to come through, but he needed to get the tree cleared now.

Jamie wouldn’t be able to run his entire business without the pathway safe and stable.

Sebastian should probably go inside right now, write Ty a check, and tell him it would be the last one.

Neil called out in the drizzly, gray morning. “Can I help with anything?”

“Go to your meeting,” Sebastian snapped back.

This whole thing had been a fantasy. A pipe dream. Like the idea that Neil could somehow help Sebastian save the business if he just wrote a better budget.