The silence that follows makes me dread saying anything to Silver. I can almost hear Hope’s name in her thoughts, considering they’re best friends and all.
“Have you reached out to her?” Silver’s voice is quiet, gentle, and I hate that I’m the reason for her timidness.
Bitterness rumbles in my chest. “I’m sure you know the answer to that.”
“I do, but I figured I’d talk to you about it for once. You know, if you want to.”
An image of Hope crosses my mind, but it’s not the image I’d grown to adore that I’m seeing now. This one is eerily like the sadness on her face when I told her I’d fire her if she didn’t take the job in Seattle. I pushed her away in the cruelest, coldest way possible, and now I’ve lost her forever.
“You’re going to regret this, Anderson Bexley.”
I still hear her final words. They’re a haunting whisper whenever I’m alone with my thoughts.
“I don’t think we should go there,” I say quietly.
“But it’s been a whole year. You two were so close, and you worked so well together. If anyone can help see you through this marketing stuff, it’s definitely her.”
We take the path that leads toward the newer side of camp that Silver has yet to see completed. While I was excited to show her, all I can think about now is the woman who got away. “There is absolutely no way Hope will consider helping me after…” I shake my head. “Never mind. Can we drop it? I have something I want to show you.”
I steer her down a newly lit path into a territory that used to be nothing but woods for miles. My brothers and I had ventured back into these woods when we were younger and had a heyday building forts, shooting BB guns, and running our bikes over the same hills so many times that we created trails.
It was during those happy days that everything felt normal between us all, before life happened and reality tore our family apart.
When I hear Silver gasp, I know she spots the surprise I had in store for her. “Anderson Bexley, you put in a restaurant?”
I chuckle and tug her toward the swinging doors. “More like a little saloon. But yes, a restaurant. It’s like a real resort now. Complete with a glamping area filled with luxury tents, five-star cabins, and…” I wave my hand out. “Tada! A bar.”
Her gray eyes are so wide and unbelieving, it hits me straight in the chest. “I can’t believe you’ve been keeping this from me. This is everything you and your brothers dreamed of back in the day.” She wraps her arms around me. “You did it.”
I feel a hollow ping. The fact that I did it without the help of my brothers is a gloomy thought that I wish I could douse along with the reminder that I’d lost Hope. It’s all one dart in the chest after the other.
“So, what’ll it be?” I walk around the curved bar and grin. “Are we getting a little drunk tonight?” I hold up a bottle of wine. “Or a lotta drunk?” I hold up a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Silver tosses her head back and laughs. “I think Jack will take care of us tonight.” She sits on a stool across from me and slaps her palms on the counter. “I’m so proud of you, Anderson. Please tell me the guys know about all the work you’ve put in.”
While Silver is the most supportive member of my family, she’s too sweet and innocent for the truth at times. “You know the deal. Jamison’s caught up in the corporate life in Seattle, Benson’s traveling the world and crashing on couches for a living, and Cayson’s got it made in the Air Force. This place isn’t their dream anymore. They couldn’t care less.”
Silver’s mouth forms a pout. “It all just feels so wrong. Surely, they miss this place. I didn’t even grow up here the way you boys did, and I miss it every day.”
I pour out a shot of whiskey over ice, top it off with some club soda, and slide the tumbler to her. “Yeah, well, we sheltered you from a lot. When you showed up, I think we all wanted to heal, so we tried.”
Silver nods. “You boys put on a good show, I guess. And I was too caught up in my own baggage to realize things were so off.”
I sigh. “Yeah, well, you were here when things changed faster than any of us were ready for. In the blink of an eye, it felt like I lost everyone.” I smile at the ray of light shining right in front of me. “Except for you. You stayed. You saved me, Silver.”
She places her hand on mine. “And you saved me. What you all did for me back then is something I’ll never be able to repay.”
I raise my brows, telling her precisely how wrong she is. “You repaid us plenty. But now, the success of this place is on my shoulders, and it’s beginning to weigh me down. I need your help.” I give her all the irresistible charm I can muster with a batting of my lashes and a pouty mouth. “Please help me figure out what the fuck I need to do next to get an entirely new type of customer to vacation here.”
Silver’s soft smile is the most genuine thing I’ve ever seen in my life. “You know I’d do anything for you. I still think you should call Hope, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, I have another idea. You’ll just have to trust me.”
I raise my arms as another glimmer of light dances in my chest. “You have all my trust. Tell me what I need to do.”
Chapter Two
HOPE
The tips of my almond-shaped nails tap away at my keyboard like my world is up in flames. Urgency. That’s the name of the advertising agency that has employed me for the last year, and it’s also the fire they’ve conditioned me to have. It’s how I’m to treat every single situation, important or not.
An email pings, and I answer it immediately.
A request for proposal comes in, and I read it before any other agent in the city can get to it.
A client calls, and I drop everything to speak with them.
It’s one fire after the next, and I’m the one in charge of putting them out. By the time I get home, my mind is still reeling. So much so that sometimes it feels like I swallowed a ticking clock that never stops, but I know that’s just the nature of working for Dexter Van Clark, owner and COO of Urgency Marketing Services. His business dealings are as posh as his name, which is why I was certain that he would fire me as soon as he realized I was the complete opposite.
“Miss Davies,” an authoritative voice chimes over my phone intercom. “Please stop by my office. We have a new proposal to discuss.”
My pulse quickens as I gather my notebook and pen while pressing down on the intercom button to respond. “I’ll be right there Dex… er… Mr. Van Clark.”
I pull my hand away like I’ve been burned and squeeze my lids closed. Shit. Why is he always so serious? When I walked into this place last year, I was my old bubbly self, always trying to make someone laugh or smile. All that began to slip away as I learned how to play the corporate game, and Mr. Van Clark was the perfect mentor. He was also as intimidating as hell, with his quizzical gaze, challenging rise of his brows, and a professional demeanor that is well beyond his years. Before meeting him, I never would have guessed he was in his late twenties.
I make the short walk down the hall to the corner office. The shades that face the hallway are drawn, but his door is cracked a smidge, so I push it open and enter the naturally lit room. The office is an immaculate masterpiece, with one full window wall that overlooks Bell Street in downtown Seattle, a white leather couch, minimal decorations, and a desk that looks like it came straight from the seventies.