LITMIR.BIZ

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you want anything?” she asked, reaching for a bottle of water in the fridge.

      “No thanks. Your mom and I had dinner and tea afterward.”

      She cracked open a bottle and took a drink.

      “Russ and I got to talking about you and Decker.”

      Gosh. She hadn’t seen Decker in years. She’d thought about him when she’d first arrived home, wondering if he’d changed. She’d had a crush on him in high school, not that he ever noticed. He’d been insanely popular and very active in school programs. Smart and ambitious too. Tall and well built, he had thick, black hair that would probably never recede and dark eyes that held an intensity that had magnetized her. All the girls wanted him, though, and that had shied her away.

      “He’s running The Lodge now, isn’t he?” She already knew he was. Decker had always sparked her interest and curiosity. She felt that same unruly excitement she had when she was in high school, as though knowing he was out of her league made him all the more desirable.

      “Yes, and Russ talked about him someday taking over the entire operation.”

      Decker stood to inherit a fortune, then.

      “Russ said he asked Decker if he’d be interested in partnering up with you and he is.”

      Partnering up? She set the bottle down and searched her dad’s face. He seemed hesitant to say what he obviously worked his way toward.

      “You mean a business relationship?”

      “In a way. Decker is a busy man. He doesn’t have a lot of time to spend building a relationship with a woman.”

      “Whoa.” She held up her hands. “Relationship? What are you getting at, Dad?”

      “The Hadleys and the Coltons would make a powerful partnership. Decker wants a family. You’re devoted to your work. You’d make him a fine wife, honey. He’d be lucky to end up with someone like you.”

      She dropped her mouth open. Was he suggesting what she thought?

      “You want me to marry him?”

      “Russ and I thought the two of you could get together and see if it’s a viable possibility.”

      “But...you want this to advance your business.” Anger began to simmer up. Her own father had used her as a pawn, an asset to tempt the mighty Russ Colton.

      “This wasn’t my idea, Kendall. Russ is the one who brought it up.”

      “But you eagerly agreed to put up your own daughter as collateral.”

      “No. It isn’t like that. I wouldn’t have agreed to anything if I didn’t think you and Decker would make a good pair. You liked him in high school.”

      “I did not,” she replied abruptly.

      “Your mother told me. You mentioned him a couple of times and she caught you looking at his picture in your yearbook.”

      Kendall didn’t recall talking about Decker, but maybe she had asked a few questions, as intrigued as she had been by him. “What does Mom think about this...arrangement?”

      “She doesn’t like it.”

      “But you came here anyway?”

      “I talked her into it,” he replied in a low, even tone. “I promised I wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do.”

      She wouldn’t let him anyway. Her mother probably knew that and it was the only reason she let him come and talk to her.

      Kendall considered her father a while. He loved her; she had no doubt about that. But he too often used her as leverage to advance the company. This had to be the worst he’d ever done—agreeing to try to marry her off to a stranger.

      Well, Decker wasn’t a complete stranger, but she didn’t really know him.

      “I’ll think about it,” she said. She just wanted to be alone.

      “Russ invited us over for dinner tomorrow night.”

      Shock jolted through her. He had made dinner plans without talking to her first? Why? Did her father plan on reintroducing them? Did he hope they’d be attracted? More likely he hoped her teenage crush would reignite.

      “You’re making me feel used,” she said tightly.

      He put his hand over hers and gave her a squeeze. “I would never do that, honey. You’re my daughter. You’re the most important thing in my life.”

      Yeah, and sometimes the most valuable asset.

      Though she’d never admit it to her dad, the notion of seeing Decker again did rather intrigue her. She wasn’t the shy girl in high school anymore. And from all she’d heard about Decker, The Lodge was his one and only true love. She wondered how a company could steal a man’s heart that way. Didn’t he want to find happiness with a woman? Have a family? And if not, why? Curiosity got the better of her then.

      “All right.” She’d like to see for herself how Decker Colton had turned out. Just because she had dinner with him didn’t mean she’d marry him to save her family’s business, however.

      Her dad smiled, more from relief than excitement over having dinner with the pompous Russ and Mara Colton. At least, Kendall had always considered them that way. Maybe she had listened to talk around town, that Russ and Marion held themselves far above the less fortunate.

      After her father left, Kendall skipped her bath and spent the next thirty minutes searching for her high school yearbooks. She found them in the basement in a box with other items she had held dear in those days. Taking the whole thing upstairs to her bedroom, she turned on a family movie channel and began spreading out a journal and other items she had saved for future reminiscence. Ticket stubs to amusement parks, museums, concerts and movies brought back a lot of fond memories. She had planned to put them into a scrapbook but hadn’t gotten around to it. She had also kept little trinkets her friends had given her over the years. She still stayed in touch with the four women who had been her closest friends since the seventh grade. Picking up some colorful wristbands, she smiled with the memory. They had all decided to exchange wristbands for Easter and these four were the ones she’d received.

      She’d kept a close-knit group of friends all through school. She hadn’t been into cliques and hadn’t understood the importance placed on popularity. Life was so much bigger than that. She’d gone into forestry because she loved nature. She also loved the alone time.

      Maybe being an only child had made her somewhat of a loner. Never much for social gatherings, she’d preferred to spend her time reading novels and bird-watching.

      Setting the wristbands aside, her curiosity nudged her to move on to the yearbooks. “Well, Mr. Colton,” she said, “let’s have a recap and then see how you turned out.”

      She opened her sophomore yearbook and passed over some of the notes signed on the pages until she reached a page with Decker standing up as class president. He was a junior that year. She flipped to the page containing his photograph and stared. She wondered if he still had those boyish dark good looks. He’d been tall and lean. Maybe he’d filled out some more since then. She remembered passing him in the halls every once in a while. Sometimes he noticed her. She could still feel the jolt of excitement over the way his eyes connected with hers. Had she imagined his interest? Back then she’d fantasized about going to the prom with him, making all the girls envious. It seemed so silly now.

      She moved on to her junior yearbook. Brushing photos and other memorabilia aside, she rolled onto her stomach, lifted her calves and wiggled her toes as she drew the book front and center.

      There were several pictures of him that year. How many times had she turned to them just to look at his cute face?

      As the warm, familiar tingles of attraction enveloped, her phone rang.

      Abandoning her

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