Page 93 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 1

SAM

I wasn’t sure what the older man was playing at, but I didn’t like it.

Barney had obviously lifted the notebook from Truman’s house while he was creeping on the guy the other day.

It was clear Truman had understood what I was saying about the notebook not being in the fire, but he did a good job changing the subject before Barney caught on.

“Do you think the insurance company will send out an adjuster?” Truman asked Barney. It was the perfect distraction. Barney puffed up and began giving Truman advice on how to handle the insurance adjuster. Meanwhile, Tiller raised an eyebrow at me and nodded his head toward the back door.

“Will you come check out a rotten board I found? I wanted you to tell me if I should replace it.”

I nodded and found my boots next to where I’d tossed my saddlebags in the corner of the kitchen by the back door. I shoved my feet into them before following Tiller outside.

“That guy is a meddling prick,” I muttered once we reached the privacy of the backyard.

“No kidding. Also a pompous windbag, which is an expression I’ve always wanted an excuse to use.”

I took in a deep breath of cool, clean mountain air. This really was a beautiful place. The ski mountain sat right behind their house, and the trees were beginning to bud. “You don’t really have a rotten board, do you?” I asked.

Tiller shrugged. “Probably. This place is huge. I’m sure something’s rotten somewhere.”

“That notebook wasn’t in the fire,” I said.

“No. It wasn’t. Seems to me the guy swiped it from the farm and is using it to try and be a hero. What an idiot. Not sure I could have stayed in there without laughing in his face.”

He was right. It was embarrassing. Barney was so intent on winning Truman over, he was willing to use the fire as a way of appearing the savior. If he wasn’t such a plodding Goody Two-shoes, I might have suspected him of actual arson. Instead, I mostly suspected him of being pathetic.

I was grateful there were plenty of other people in town Truman could rely on besides Barney Balderson. It was a good community, and this visit had confirmed it for me. Tiller and Mikey had moved from Houston into a much better social situation.

I envied them their future here and wondered if now was a good time to ask Tiller how serious he’d been about an opportunity for me here.

“When you decided to move to Aster Valley, did you… how did you make such a big decision that quickly?”

Tiller thought about it for a little while as we walked down into the yard and across the grass toward the tree line.

“I didn’t decide to move to Aster Valley,” he said with a soft smile.

“I decided to do whatever it took to make Michael Vining happy. And Mikey was going to move here with or without me. So I bought this place to make him happy. And I moved to Aster Valley because that’s where my Mikey was. ”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Because it was. I would give up my NFL contract for him, Sam. And you know it.”

I did. Tiller would do anything for Mikey, but the feeling went both ways. Which was why they were able to have both Mikey’s future resort in Aster Valley and Tiller’s current NFL career in Houston.

I thought about my life back in Houston, my family, my company. None of it meant very much if Mikey and Tiller were here.

And if Truman was here.

“I never saw myself settling down with someone,” I admitted. “I thought I was shit at relationships.”

Tiller glanced over at me. “You were shit at relationships,” he said with a smirk. “Because you always put your family first.”

“I thought that’s what I was supposed to do,” I said, throwing my hands up. “I was told my whole life that family came first, blood was thicker than water. I was the man of the house after my father was sent up, and it was my responsibility to be there for them.”

Tiller nodded in understanding. “But relationships can’t be one-sided.”

“I know that now. I would never choose my family over Truman. He deserves better than that.”

He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, turning me to face him. “I mean family relationships can’t be one-sided.”

That distinction stopped me in my tracks. “Family relationships can’t be one-sided,” I repeated under my breath, testing the words as they sank in.

Tiller started walking toward the woods again. “You know better than anyone how much effort Mikey put into trying to please his parents. But they always treated him like the runt of their litter. How long should he have kept trying to please them, Sam?”

I thought of Mikey’s asshole of a father. The fact he remained Tiller’s coach and boss couldn’t have been easy on Tiller.

“Any amount of time is too long,” I grunted. “Should have left that bastard years ago.”

Tiller shook his head. “Don’t say that—then I wouldn’t have met Mikey. But I’m sure glad he’s left him now. It’s better for him to take himself out of that disappointment loop, don’t you think?”

“Of course it is.” Why was he stating the obvious?

Tiller turned to me again with another annoying smirk. “Haven’t you been in a disappointment loop of your own?”

God, he was right. I tried so hard to rescue my family time and time again just to find myself right back in a mess one of them had made.

Now that Sophie had finally found Ethan, maybe I could stop worrying about her so much.

And since I’d decided to cut Kira off, as hard as it was to do, that left my mom.

The queen of the disappointment loop.

I loved her. There was no doubt about it. She’d had a shitty time of it with my father. But it had been years now, and it was time for her to stop treating me like his stand-in.

I noticed Tiller watching me as I made the connections between Mikey’s family’s manipulations and my own.

I thought about punching the cocky footballer in his smug face. “Shut up,” I muttered instead. “You made your point. But it’s not that easy.”

His smile dropped. “No. Certainly not. Mikey spent two hours crying on my shoulder last week because his mother had called to tell him she’d heard an exciting rumor he was writing a cookbook.

Never mind the fact he’s told her about the book many times in the past five months.

Unless he completely cuts his parents out of his life, he’ll have to deal with her obliviousness and his callousness. ”

I sighed and leaned over to pick up a fallen twig to fling it into the woods. “Enough about my family. What do you think about the business owners going after the sheriff over this pension fund? Are we leading these guys into more trouble?”

“No. I pulled Pim and Bill aside and made sure they know I’ll cover Julian’s attorney fees. It’s in our best interest to get this shit sorted out before we even think about opening the resort. We can’t ask new vendors to come into Aster Valley as long as this extortion scheme is in the works.”

“Good point. At least everyone seems to appreciate you and Mikey being here. I know Mikey was afraid of what the people of Aster Valley would think when they found out you wanted to reopen the ski resort.”

“Most everyone is thrilled, actually. They recognize how much new business it will bring to town, and the locals who’ve been around long enough to remember how things were have assured the others that it’s a good thing. For the most part we’re actually being urged to speed up our original plan.”

Tiller turned to me again, and I could tell what the look on his face meant.

“And speeding it up means needing a right-hand man,” I suggested.

“No. It means needing someone to take complete charge of it. I don’t need an assistant. I need a partner.”

“You have Mikey.”

“Of course. But he wants to focus on the lodge. I’d really like you to come on board as a stakeholder and the chief operations officer for the ski resort.

” I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t know what the fuck that was, but he stalled me by raising a hand up.

“Before you argue, just hear me out. Phase one is getting the pieces and parts in place. Julian is coming on board to handle the legal and financial side. Contracts, investors, real estate holdings, working capital, and a bunch of other shit I don’t know beans about.

His dad runs a mining company, and he raised his kids to take it over one day.

Julian hates mining, but his sister’s a crack shot at it.

So he’s got the business know-how and the money side, right?

He’s got the fancy education. Meanwhile, the retired skier I told you about, Rory Pearson, will help us with that side of it. ”

“Shit, Tiller. Sounds like you’ve already pulled together some great guys. You’ve been hard at work since the Super Bowl.”

Tiller nodded. “Mikey and I have been working our asses off. Ever since we met Rory, we realized what a big opportunity we had to launch this with his help. But we need someone to handle the construction and repair to get this place up and running sooner than we’d planned.

You’ve been hiring specialty laborers for years.

You know how to find the right person for these jobs.

We need lift maintenance and repair, land clearing and grooming, and who the hell knows what else.

You also know how to get the right permits and zoning shit handled.

I need someone I trust to manage this part of it.

And you can hire all the help you need, but the man at the top of operations needs to be someone we trust. That’s you. ”

It was a big job, but god, it was exciting to consider. “I don’t have capital to invest. I mean, once I sell my place in Houston, I’ll have a little something, but…”

“No,” Tiller shook his head firmly. “Hear me out. I wanted to talk to you without Mikey because he gets emotional, and this is about business.”

I nodded in agreement.