Snowbound with the Boss(14)

Then there were the storyboards to go over, checking out the dialogue and scene shots for their upcoming Christmas release, and that didn’t take into account setting the groundwork for the first Celtic Knot convention—along the lines of the big fantasy cons, but set solely around the Celtic Knot video games.

The Wyoming hotel was their only holding big enough to accommodate a con of any kind and now that Sean had both Mike and their partner, Brady Finn, on board with the idea, Sean had to get things rolling.

That meant, whether he wanted to or not, he had to talk to Kate about it. The fact that there was a part of him looking forward to seeing her face again was something he didn’t want to think about. Over the last several weeks, they’d communicated mostly through email, except for one phone call that had been brief and unsatisfying. Hearing her voice had sparked his memories even as the distance between them had sharpened the frustration gnawing at him.

His cell phone beeped, and he glanced at it. Today would be a video chat, and he wasn’t at all sure if it would be better or worse to actually see her face when he spoke to her. On the second beep, he grabbed it and answered. Kate’s face popped up on the screen, and he felt a jolt of something that was part pleasure, part irritation. Why’d she have to look so damn good?

“Kate,” he said tightly. “Good to see you.”

“Hello, Sean.” She paused as if she was considering what to say, so he spoke up to fill the void.

“I wanted to talk to you about plans for the conventions we’ll want to hold at the hotel.”

“Right.” She nodded. “You told me a little about your plans when you were here.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes were direct, and so blue he felt as though he could fall into them and drown. Not easy to keep your mind on work when you were looking into those eyes, he told himself. “It’s why we’re going to need those extra cabins.”

“Oh,” she said, perking up, “I wanted to talk to you about the cabins, too.”

“Okay, but first tell me how much progress you’re making.” Because while she talked he could enjoy watching her. The flicker of emotion on her face, the shine in her eyes, the way her mouth moved...

“Well,” she said, “the interior work is going great. We’ve got most of the kitchen finished, and the quartz counters will be going in by the end of the week...”

She kept talking, detailing the work being done, and he knew he should be more focused on it. He, his brother and Brady Finn had each been in charge of a hotel’s makeover, turning them into exact replicas of one of their bestselling games.

Fans all over the world were already lining up to stay in “Fate Castle” in Ireland, where Brady lived, and the Laughlin hotel based on the “River Haunt” game was next, probably opening around Christmas in conjunction with the latest game being released. Then there was this one.

Sean’s hotel was based on “Forest Run,” a game featuring soulless creatures, brave knights, sorcerers and Faery warriors. This hotel strategy was important, as it offered their gamers the chance to live out the fantasies of the games. It was one of the next big steps Celtic Knot was taking to push them into the stratosphere of success.

So yeah, Sean should be listening, making notes, but instead, all he saw were Kate’s eyes, and he remembered how they looked with firelight dancing in their depths. He saw her mouth moving and nearly felt the soft glide of her kisses across his chest. She flipped her ponytail back over her shoulder, but he saw a thick mass of soft black hair spilling around her face as she rode him to completion.

“So, what do you think?”

“What?” His brain tried to catch up. To sift through what she’d said to pick out a few key words so he wouldn’t have to admit he hadn’t been listening. “The cottages?”

She rolled her beautiful eyes. “Yeah. What do you think about the new idea for their design?”

Stall, he told himself. Use that charm you’re always insisting you have. “Well, it’s not easy to make a decision without more than just a description.”

Her eyes narrowed on him. “Yeah, I thought you’d say that. So I had my friend Molly draw these up. She’s not one of your artists, but she’s better at it than I am.” She held up a tablet and showed him a raw, rough sketch. Intrigued, he brought the phone closer to examine what she was showing him. His first reaction was that he liked the idea very much.

Instead of a squat, square cabin as they’d first discussed, she’d come up with something that would look...almost mystical.

“It’s sort of based on caravan wagons,” she was saying as she flipped pages to show him more.

He could see the inspiration behind the drawings. The cabins themselves looked like half circles, resting on the flat edge. Walls and roofs curved with arched doorways brought to mind fantasy houses from fairy stories. Each one would be singular, individual, he saw, as he studied the different drawings. He could see it, the small, rounded cabins nestled in the forest, surrounded by flowers and trees, their brightly colored doors signaling welcome. Hell, he thought, people would stand in line to stay in those cabins.

When she was finished and faced him on the screen again, she asked, “So? Shall we go with these? I’m asking now because the ground’s getting soft enough to start excavation. We’ll have to install a new septic system, centrally located so we can connect all the cabins to it. Once that’s in, we’d like to lay foundations for the cabins themselves.”

“Septic system,” he repeated with a short laugh.

“Well, yeah,” she said. “We’re too far from the county sewer lines to hook into them, and the hotel’s tank isn’t big enough to handle the extra load from the cabins.”

He chuckled again and pushed one hand through his hair.

“What’s so funny?”

“This conversation,” he told her. “I don’t think I’ve ever discussed sewers with a lover before.”

“Ex-lover,” she amended quickly.

A ping of something sharp and cold shot through him, but he let it pass. “Point taken. Okay, yeah. I like the drawings a lot. Make sure you leave the walls blank for our artists to come in and paint murals based on the game.”

“Right,” she said, all business again. “We’re on that. And in the hotel, we’ve got acres of white walls just waiting for them. I think we should wait until most of the work’s done before you send anyone out, though.”

“Agreed.” He turned his chair until he was facing the window with a view of the backyard and the flowers beginning to bloom there. Spring was coming, and he wondered if all the snow at the hotel had melted yet. Not the point, he reminded himself. “Fax me those sketches, will you? I want to show them to Mike and the artists. Run them past an architect and get some plans. They’ll probably need refining, too.”

“I’ll send them this afternoon.”

“Okay,” Sean said and wanted to ask how she was.

“Then, I guess that’s it.” She looked over her shoulder and it wasn’t until then that Sean keyed into the background noise of hammers and saws. “I should get back to work.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Me, too.”

“So, good,” she said, nodding. “Everything’s good. I’ll keep you posted with emails about the progress here.”

“That’ll work.” His gaze locked onto her face even though he knew that seeing her like this would only feed the dreams that were already tormenting him nightly. That fact annoyed him, so his voice was brusquer than he’d intended when he said, “I’ll expect those faxes today.”

“You’ll have them. Look,” she said, “I’ve gotta go.”

“Yeah, me, too,” he said again and noticed that neither one of them was making a move to hang up. Were they twelve? That spurred him to action. “All right. Thanks for checking in and for the suggestions.”

“You’re welcome. Bye.” And she was gone.

In the sudden silence of his empty office, Sean felt a chill far deeper than he’d experienced in a snowbound hotel.





Six

Five months later

His brother was married.

Sean was having a hard time getting his head around it, but facts were facts. Jenny Marshall was now Jenny Ryan—a new bride and pregnant with their first child. The baby had been a surprise and had really knocked Mike off his game for a while. But he’d come around, worked out his own issues and finally realized in time that Jenny was the only woman for him.

The Balboa Pavilion was the perfect spot for a summer wedding, too. He glanced around at the stately old Victorian, with its wide view of Newport Bay and the hundreds of pleasure crafts lining the docks. The dance floor was gleaming beneath thousands of tiny white lights and beyond the glass walls, a summer moon shone down on it all as if in celebration.

Sean’s gaze shifted back to where his brother and Jenny were dancing, holding each other as if they were the only two people in the world. Times change, Sean told himself as he leaned negligently against a wall. Not too long ago, Mike and Jenny had been at each other’s throats. Now they were pledging eternal love and about to be parents. Speaking of parents... Sean turned his head to look at his own folks. Jack and Peggy Ryan looked as happy as he’d ever seen them. He frowned thoughtfully and took a sip of the aged Scotch in his hand.