Page 27 of #Resort Love (Lakeview Harbor #1)

Chapter Nine

Smashing things felt great.

He knew it would, but the more things he smashed, the better he felt.

“What the hell are you doing?” Axel shouted as he came storming toward him.

Walker had the sledgehammer poised over his head, ready to take down another wall. “What? What’s the matter?” Slowly, he lowered the tool, using it to lean on.

“Dude, look around! We were only going to demo that one wall between the registration desk and the offices. You took down that and three others and were starting on a fourth!”

For a moment, Walker simply blinked at him like he didn’t fully comprehend what he was saying. Then he looked around and realized just what he had done.

Shit.

“I guess I got a little carried away,” he said with a nervous laugh.

“Ya think?” Axel raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “If you’re not going to stick to the plans…”

“No, no…I am. I just got a little distracted. It felt good to be doing something like this and I got carried away. It’s not like I’m going to make a habit out of it, okay? You can relax.”

“Walker, we’ve been working for four days and you’re definitely distracted. You refused to talk about Harlow after we all left the pub the other night, but clearly she’s the distraction.”

He went to argue, but realized he didn’t know what to say.

“Look, we are just getting started here and if you keep trashing things, either the contractors are going to charge us even more than what we budgeted, or you’re putting a shit ton of extra work on us. You need to deal with the issue.”

“Um…”

“And by issue, I mean Harlow.”

He frowned. “Yeah, I got that.”

“I get it. This place is a huge stumbling block for the two of you. She doesn’t like what you’re doing, and you don’t like people disagreeing with you.”

Again, he went to argue, but Axel kept going.

“The thing is—and I’m saying this as your friend and as a co-investor—I’m not fully on board with your vision either.” He shrugged. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, you know?”

“If it ain’t broke? Seriously?”

“Look, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

You want to make one section of cabins like a romantic retreat, great!

We can incorporate landscaping and private patios and that sort of thing.

Personally, I think it can be cute. Pricey, but cute.

But the rest of the cabins? They were always booked.

Always. And they were booked by families.

You’re not going to get the couples-crowd that you’re thinking and then we’re going to have cabins sitting unused and not making money. ”

He wasn’t ready to admit defeat yet.

“I get what you’re saying, and I…I guess we can talk about it when everyone gets here this weekend. Even Milo’s going to be here for a few days, so we’ll have a big sit-down meeting and vote on it then. Will that work?”

And yeah, he was heavy on the sarcasm by the end of that question.

All Axel did was smirk, and that ticked him off.

“What do you even know about all of this? You’re not just listening to what Harlow said, are you?”

When his friend looked away and busied himself, Walker got suspicious.

“Axel?”

Sighing loudly, Axel turned to face him. “Okay, I wasn’t going to mention this until the guys were all here, but if you’re gonna keep pushing, then I don’t have a choice.”

“What…?”

“You know how I’ve had to go into town and over to Pineview to get some tools and supplies? Well, I got into some conversations with the guys at the lumberyard and the Home Depot. They were all familiar with the resort, and I decided to do an informal poll.”

Now it was his turn to sigh loudly. “We’ve been over this. The locals aren’t who we’re marketing to!”

“But they’re still people who visit here and know what they like and don’t like in vacation destinations, Walker!

” He muttered a curse before continuing.

“Look, we all get it; you went into the luxury resort business and that’s your thing.

But it’s not the only thing! What made this place so special and so successful for over thirty years is how it was a place for families. Hell, that’s how we all met!”

“And I get that, but it’s okay to change things. I don’t know why that word is coming across as a bad thing to everyone, but change can be good too, you know.”

“Did you do any market research? Have you considered having a professional company do it for us so we don’t go in the wrong direction here? Harlow mentioned how the majority of her clients are families and that most of the people moving to this area are families.”

“Again, the locals aren’t…”

“The locals use the resort a lot throughout the year,” Axel interrupted.

“The community rents the space for events, the schools come up here for field trips, and your grandparents always gave discounts to the community. Those were the people who kept this place going in the off-season. If you don’t believe me—or Harlow—talk to your grandparents about it. ”

Oh, he was going to, but…

“Wait. Harlow didn’t mention any of this when we were at dinner the other night.”

“I know.”

“So then how…?”

“I ran into her in town. I was driving around just sort of taking in the whole thing and I saw her walking into her office.” He shrugged. “I stopped in to say hello and we got to talking.”

“Why? Why would you seek her out after everything I told you? Do you have any idea how fucking pissed I am right now?”

“I do,” Axel replied evenly. “But my reason for stopping in there initially had nothing to do with you or the resort. The fact is that we’re all going to be using the cabins here for a while, but that’s not permanent.

I wanted to talk to her about rentals or even the possibility of buying a place.

I’m not jumping in right now, but I need to start planning ahead. ”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me about that?”

“Believe it or not, Walker, I don’t need to share every thought or concern with you. I’ve never done that with anyone in my entire life. I’m used to answering only to myself.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it sound like…”

“It’s cool. I get it.” Turning, he faced Walker. “But I meant what I said. You need to talk to Harlow because you’re too distracted and that’s going to lead to either someone getting hurt or you costing us thousands more. Think about it.”

He walked away, leaving Walker surrounded by the rubble he created.

The thing was, Axel was right. He was distracted and making stupid mistakes. But he didn’t see how talking to Harlow was going to change anything. They were still in the same shitty situation as they always were, and…

“Dammit, why can’t I just forget her?” he muttered with frustration.

“Because you clearly have genuine feelings for her!” Axel called out from the next room.

“Shut up!”

Although…it made sense.

He just wasn’t happy about it.

“I’m going out!”

“I don’t want to see your face until tomorrow,” Axel said loudly. “Tell Harlow I said hey!”

Walker didn’t bother responding. Instead, he left the lodge and went down to his cabin and took a shower.

By the time he was dressed and heading out the door, it was barely four.

He didn’t know where Harlow lived, so he was going to have to go to her office first. He didn’t even have her phone number.

He’d thrown away the card she’d given him and now he wished he hadn’t.

Not that it mattered, because somehow, he would make this work.

He was about to pull away from the resort when his phone dinged with an incoming text and he shook his head when he saw it was from Axel, and it was Harlow’s phone number.

Axel: I wasn’t sure if you had this and thought it might come in handy.

Axel: And if you do show your face here tonight, you better bring some beer and maybe some snacks. Good snacks, not the cheap kind.

Axel: I have a feeling we’ll both need them.

Axel: Good luck!

Tossing the phone onto the passenger seat, he pulled away, telling himself her number was plan B.

The entire drive into town, Walker tried to think about what he was going to say. They’d already established all the reasons why nothing would work between them, but…was she as miserable as he was? Couldn’t they maybe pretend the resort didn’t exist and just spend time together?

The snort was out before he could stop it.

The resort was his life for at least the next six months. There wasn’t a way for him to just not talk about it. And just like that was impossible for him, it would be wrong to ask her not to talk about her feelings about it.

No matter how much he wanted to.

Hell, if she could just keep her opinions to herself and accept what he was doing, they would get along fine—great, even!

“This is impossible,” he murmured. “Why am I even going into town?”

He contemplated turning around and just going back to the resort and dealing with Axel and his bullshit.

But if he did that, he’d need to bring back beer and snacks, so really, he was stuck going into town anyway.

For the rest of the drive, he forced himself to think about the upcoming weekend when the guys would all arrive.

They had coordinated their flights and whatnot so they would all be arriving by lunchtime and he was seriously impressed by that.

They were going to do everything at the resort—all their meals, all their planning, everything.

They were going to fully immerse themselves in all of it, which meant using the lodge for practical reasons.

The cleaning crew was coming tomorrow to handle the cabins and the kitchen of the lodge, along with a common area that they were going to set up for their meals and meetings.

Although, now that he made such a mess knocking down the extra walls, that was probably going to be a massive problem.

“That I will handle tomorrow.”

He and Axel could clean up the demo debris while the crew worked on the cabins.

Problem solved.