She went downstairs in the loft apartment and poured herself a cup of tea, adding three spoonfuls of sugar. She usually joined Nora in the coffee shop before heading to the resort, but Nora had her hands full watching Amanda and Blake’s teenaged son and toddler daughter this week. Mel might be down in the shop, but it was more likely Amanda’s other cousin would be enjoying her coffee with her fiancé on the deck of their waterfront home. So Cassie fixed herself a bagel and sat at the kitchen island, feeling almost as restless as Nick West.
Ugh! She’d known the man only three days, and he was in her head constantly. His big laugh when he was kidding around with employees—who all seemed to adore both him and his practical jokes. The way he started every conversation with a booming “Hey! Whatcha doing?” The way he rapped the corner of everyone’s desk sharply with his knuckles every time he passed it. Except hers. After the first time he did it and she’d squeaked in surprise, he’d left her desk alone.
But she hadn’t managed to stop his infuriating running joke of putting her stapler—the bright blue one she’d flung at him on their first meeting—in a different place every day. Monday afternoon she’d found it on her chair. Tuesday, it was next to the coffee maker. And yesterday, when she attended a meeting in the surveillance room with Nick and the entire security staff, the blue stapler was sitting on the circular console that faced the wall of monitors. She spotted it immediately and turned to glare at him, only to find him laughing at her. Ass.
Sure enough, when she walked into the office later that morning, the stapler was sitting next to a small vase of daffodils on her desk. Wait. Where did the daffodils come from? The sunny flowers were in a simple vase, which on closer inspection turned out to be a water glass.
“They reminded me of you, slugger.”
Nick West was leaning against the doorway to his office. He’d taken his jacket and tie off and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. That was his usual uniform during the day. He always looked ready for action.
“Excuse me?”
“You know—sunny and bright and happy?” He was baiting her. Yesterday, he’d asked her why she was so serious all the time. Deciding the misogynistic question didn’t deserve an answer, she’d walked away, but she should have known he wouldn’t drop it. She dropped her purse into a drawer and clarified her comment.
“I was referring to the ‘slugger’ part.”
“Well, you’ve got pretty good aim with that arm of yours, and you’re a fighter. Slugger seems to fit you.”
Cassie’s breath caught in her throat. He thought she was a fighter?
“And what should I call you? Ducky, for how fast you dodged the stapler?” He gave her an odd look, somewhere between surprise and admiration. Then his face scrunched up.
“Ducky is a hard pass. Let’s stick with Nick.”
She looked at the flowers. “Please tell me the director of security didn’t steal these flowers from the garden in front of the resort.”
Nick winked at her. He was a big winker. She did her best to tell herself those twinkling brown eyes of his had no effect on her. “They actually haven’t left the property, so at best, the director of security has just misappropriated them. I think they look nice there, don’t you?” She rolled her eyes.
“I’m sure a cheating accountant thinks misappropriated funds look nice in his bank account, too, but that doesn’t make it any less a crime.”
He barked out a loud laugh. “And here I thought I left all the attorneys back in LA. You missed your calling.” He turned back to his office, but stopped cold when she called out.
“Oh, Mr. West?” His exaggerated slow turn almost made her laugh out loud, and she hadn’t done that in a long time. He admittedly had a goofy charm. “Don’t forget the stapler. You seem to prefer mine to the one you have in your office, so maybe we should switch.” She picked it up and tossed it gently in his direction, surprised at her own moxie. He was equally surprised, catching the stapler with one hand. She nodded at the daffodils. “And thank you for the stolen goods.”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Just following orders. Blake told me to treat you right, remember?”
Cassie rolled her eyes again and turned away, ignoring his chuckle behind her.
A couple hours later, Nick was surprisingly all business during their tour of the grounds, jotting notes on his tablet and snapping pictures. It was a gorgeous early May day, warming dramatically from earlier in the week. A breeze raised gentle waves on the lake, which were shushing against the shoreline.
They started by walking around the exterior of Blake and Amanda’s home, a rambling stone castle named Halcyon, then worked their way down the hill past the resort, all the way to the golf course that hugged the shoreline. The entire complex, including the residence, covered over one hundred acres, and by lunchtime, Cassie felt as though they’d walked every one of them.
She rattled off anecdotes as they walked. Nick’s security staff had been showing him around all week, but Blake instructed her, in his absence, to give Nick a tour that included the stories behind the business. This place, with lots of help from Amanda, had changed Blake’s life. He wanted his employees to understand its importance. Nick listened and nodded, busy with his notes.
She told him the history of Halcyon and how close the mansion had come to being destroyed, along with the resort. The rebirth of the resort, thanks to Amanda’s designer eye and Blake’s hotel fortune. The coinciding growth of the town of Gallant Lake, where most of the employees lived and many guests shopped and dined. The upscale weddings the resort specialized in, often for well-heeled Manhattanites. And the new championship golf course, already home to several prominent charity tournaments.
He glanced at her several times as they headed back from the golf course, but she was careful not to make eye contact. His chocolate eyes had a way of knocking her thoughts off track. The waves were larger now that the wind had picked up. Above them was the sprawling clubhouse, a stunning blend of glass and timber, with a slate tile roof.
“Where’s the best place to launch a kayak around here?”
“What?”
“I want to get my kayak in the water this weekend, and my rental doesn’t have a dock yet. Does the resort have a launch site?”
Cassie stopped walking and looked at him, brushing away the stray strands of hair that blew across her face. She knew her mouth had fallen open, but it took her a moment to actually speak.
“You’re asking me about kayaking?”
“You live in a mountain town. You must do something outdoors. Are there mountain bike trails here? Places to rock climb?”
Her chest jumped and it startled her so much she put her hand over her heart. That had been dangerously close to a laugh. She shook her head. “You are definitely asking the wrong person. I’m sure those things exist around here, but I don’t know anything about them. You should ask Terry at the front desk—he’s outdoorsy.”
“Outdoorsy?” His shoulders straightened. “I’m not ‘outdoorsy.’ I enjoy outdoor activities. There’s a difference.”
“And that difference would be?”
Nick stuttered for a minute, then rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But it’s different, trust me. You’ve never kayaked here?”
“Uh...no. My idea of a good time is curling up with a book