When Cami arrived at the hotel, she found four guys putting in trays of perennials, but no Vince. She stopped to check out what they were doing. The grounds were going to be beautiful, and she couldn’t wait to see how the meandering flowerbeds filled in when the last plants were in place. When Cory, the freckled kid who’d helped with the ballooning adventure, greeted her, she asked, “So where’s the boss today? On another property?”
“He’s probably still at the nursery digging through paperwork.” His grin was quick. “He was grumbling over it when we left there a few hours back.”
“Nursery?” Vince worked in a nursery too? Why did he hire out guys to do the work here if he had to have all these extra jobs?
“Yeah, Nature’s Garden on Oak Drive.”
She paused for a moment. “So how many guys does he have working for him, and are you part time?”
“Full time from the day after school gets out until I go back, part time in the spring and fall, usually. There are about twenty of us on this end of things. Another dozen or so at the nursery.” He grinned. “Vince always mutters about tracking inventory and payroll when we ask for a raise, but he’s a good boss. Everyone loves him.”
The answer gave her pause. So not a small business—at least, not nearly as small as she’d thought. “He owns the nursery, too?”
“Among other things. My mom says he can’t keep his fingers out of anyone’s pies.” He pressed dirt around the plant and rose, collecting the empty plant flats. “I keep thinking I’m going to convince him to take me up in the balloon for free, but he’s holding me at the employee discount and working ground crew in exchange for air time. Guess I’m not pretty enough.” He chuckled at his own joke and moved to the truck.
Cami considered his words for a couple of seconds before moving back to her car. She pulled up the nursery address and popped it into her phone mapping software before heading off.
Twenty minutes later she found Vince swearing at a computer monitor and riffling through a stack of papers on his desk in what was an otherwise meticulously organized garden center. She shut the office door behind her and stared at him, her arms crossed over her chest and tapping the toe of her Ferragamo pumps.
His expression changed from irritation to happy surprise. “Hey, I didn’t expect you to drop by.” He rose. The smile dimmed as he approached and he took on a wary expression in his eye. “What’s wrong?”
“You have a gnat-sized business? Because thirty-odd employees, even if only for half the year, doesn’t seem so gnat sized to me.”
He came around the edge of the desk and leaned back against it. “I said compared to the number of employees the hotel was going to be running, it was gnat sized.”
“Right. And you’re just a small town boy with a good work ethic and big dreams.” She’d been had, and she didn’t appreciate it in the least. She should have known with a father and two siblings who were lawyers, that Vince wouldn’t be content with small potatoes. And hadn’t he come across as smooth and educated?
His eyes grew cool. “What’s wrong, Cami? Upset I’m not practically a beggar? Harder to blow me off at the end of the summer as a fling—one you indulged in just to get back at your dad—if I’m a real business man?”
“That’s not it at all.” Except she was starting to wonder if it was. At least partly. She’d thought this was all lighthearted fun and games, and then he ended up being more than she expected. “Tell me, do you have a degree?”
Vince straightened. “I have a master’s degree in landscape architecture with a business minor from Cornell.” He stepped toward her. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Yes, her mind screamed, but she couldn’t admit it. Didn’t understand her internal reaction. “I have a problem with being lied to.”
“I didn’t lie to you. I told you your dad had some dream about us getting together. I told you I owned a business. I’m a landscaper.”
“And what other pies do you have your fingers in? I should have known when your dad was such a hotshot lawyer. Your family makes such a pretty picture, all successful and bright and moneyed.” She thought about the start-up costs for his business after he attended an expensive university. “Do you have a trust fund, too?” She couldn’t believe she bought into all of this. Hadn’t she learned anything from Trent? No one was what they seemed, were they?
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Cami. You’re every bit the trust fund baby I am. And more, since I have the funny feeling yours is far larger than mine was. And I have my fingers in a few pies. Diversifying is a good bet in a small area like this. Some years the weather doesn’t cooperate and we have a bad winter, or a bad snow removal season, or I get a disease blight and lose a bunch of seedlings and have to start over in the spring. It’s the whole principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket.”
He stepped closer, so there were only inches between them. “And before you ask, yes, I have ties to Gage’s ski resort. He, Jeremy, and I have a partnership—if extremely unequal—and that’s why I help out with the mountain bike festival and the hot air balloon rides.”
She backed into the door as he crowded her, thunder in his eyes, but she kept her head erect and met his gaze. “You’ve been keeping this from me?”
He raised his hands in disbelief. “If you wanted to know, it’s pretty much public record around here. Well, except for the ownership issue at the ski resort. Most people think some big corporation owns it and Gage just manages the thing. It keeps the pressure off some. We admit to the ballooning though.”
That didn’t make her feel better. “I don’t appreciate being made a fool of.”
“I don’t appreciate you only wanting to be with me if I’m a washed up nobody. You say you’re enlightened and don’t care about status or money, but then you prove otherwise—only it’s the opposite of what one would expect.” He whirled back and returned to his seat. “You can leave now.”
“I will. And don’t expect to see me back here, either.” She pulled the door open and stalked out, refraining from slamming the door behind her.
~*~
As soon as she was out of sight, Vince stood and shut the door to give himself some privacy. He swore up a blue streak, kicking at his oak desk, swearing more when it hurt his toes, even through his cowboy boots. He’d never had a woman upset with him for being more successful than she’d first thought.
Things had been going great between them, great conversation, plenty in common, oodles of chemistry. He thought she’d felt the mind-to-mind connection he’d experienced. What was her problem?
When someone came knocking at his office door, he took a calming breath before returning to his chair. “Come in.” He had piles of paperwork to catch up on before he could go to a job site and work off his anger with a good sweat. He smiled at the young woman who ran one of his registers and moved back to work mode. There was time to worry about the rest later.
~*~
Cami took another survey of the progress at the hotel, and stopped by the local office for the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment to pick up the job applications waiting there. They would do a mass-interview period in three days under Harrison’ organized hands, and there would undoubtedly be more interviews to come. They would likely end up interviewing over a thousand people before all of the spots were filled, and she was glad she’d only have to be in on the appointments for her small department, leaving the rest for the others.
Through it all, she thought of her argument with Vince and though she told herself she was in the right, she couldn’t let it go.
She returned home to find Rosemary giving Jonquil what was probably an unwanted cooking lesson. Sage sat on the sofa in the great room, setting out lotions and masks, sugar glows and bottles and tubs of things Cami couldn’t identify.
Sage smiled at her. “Delphi’s catching the red eye and will be here in the morning.” “Great. I’ve got applications for every department.” Cami held up the sheaf she’d picked up, then set them on the kitchen table. “Read them over when you get a minute. Harrison said he’d be here bright and early Saturday to discuss strategy.” Retreat was her best option right now, as she didn’t think she was fit company, even if she had wanted to spend time with these women—which she didn’t.
“As soon as they put the cake in the oven, we’re going to test out some new products I’m considering for the spa. Care to join us?” Sage asked.
Cami managed a smile, but couldn’t vouch for it coming across happy. “I’m up to my eyebrows in work. But thanks.” She hurried away before she could get drawn into more conversation.
As soon as her bedroom door clicked closed behind her, Cami stopped and took a deep breath. She felt so angry. Angry at whomever was causing problems for them in the news. Angry with her father for keeping so many secrets and dumping them all together in this. Angry that he’d planned for her to get together with Vince, and she’d just fallen right into place like the obedient daughter she’d always been. Angry at the other women for existing and ruining her image of the father who had always treated her with the adoration every child deserved.
She didn’t have to toe the line in everything, though. And she had no intention of becoming bosom buddies with his other daughter or letting things with Vince get serious. It was time to strike out for independence.