Deb Kastner - A Colorado Match

“Yeah,” he agreed with a chuckle, thinking more of the color of her hair than of his cast. “They have all kinds of nifty colors to choose from these days.”

“Does it hurt?” She took a seat next to him on the couch and crossed her feet at the ankles.

“It itches. I’ll live. Six weeks, if I’m on good behavior.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The cast. I’ll get it off in six weeks.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding relieved. “For a moment there I thought you were talking about me.”

Vince shook his head. He was thinking about her, but he wasn’t talking about her.

“Good, because you’re not getting rid of me.”

She was almost as blunt and straight-to-the-point as he was, and it took him aback. He stared at her for a long moment, wondering if there was anything he could say to dissuade her from her purpose.

From the look on her face, not much. Unless, of course, he could convince her she was wasting her time.

Which shouldn’t be that hard to do, all things being equal. His daily life was anything but glamorous; and really, having a cast on his leg wasn’t any huge hindrance to the mountains of paperwork on his desk that he had to tackle this afternoon. How exciting was that? She’d soon find that there was little she could do to remove the mind-numbing pace of running the lodge, and his business system, while not as up-to-date as she’d no doubt like to see it, worked for him.

More or less.

Maybe she would see he was hopeless and just leave him alone. His work—his life—could be summed up in three words: boring, tedious and dull. Okay, and maybe unsystematic, but certainly not chaotic.

For the tiniest moment he wished he had something exciting going on in his life, something that would spark the interest of a beautiful, successful woman like Melanie.

Yeah, right. Like that would ever happen. Besides, it was the lodge she was interested in—not him personally. He scoffed internally at his own foolish musings.

Better she learned the truth up front. And better he keep his mind where it belonged—on the lodge.

And not on a certain redhead.

It was hard for Melanie to concentrate with Vince’s clear, blue-eyed gaze on hers. He was probably wondering what kind of valid help she could possibly be to him.

If he knew the truth, he’d be bolting out the door without looking back.

She was about to rock his life—or the business part of it, anyway. The thought made her smile inwardly, although she kept her expression carefully neutral as Vince sized her up as if she were some kind of competition to him, like players on the opposing sides of a field.

He really didn’t get that they were supposed to be teammates here. She was working for him, not against him, but she sensed it would take her a while to get that piece of information through his thick skull. He had been perfectly polite, of course, but she knew he didn’t want her there. No doubt he was thinking of the quickest and most efficient way to get rid of her.

Which wasn’t going to happen.

Nevertheless, she was relieved when he finally looked away. It disconcerted her to have him staring at her so intently, especially when he cocked his head and flashed her a secretive smile.

“So…” he began, and then let his sentence dangle uncomfortably.

“So?” she challenged. She tipped her chin up and met his reflective gaze again, ignoring how ill at ease it made her feel to do so.

“What am I supposed to do with you?” he mused aloud, tapping a finger on his chin, right over the charming dimple that divided his strong, square jaw.

“Simple. Let me help you. This process is going to go a lot easier for both of us if you step back and allow me to do my work.”

He stared at her a moment more before speaking. The expression on his face didn’t change, but the sudden spark in his eyes let her know something was afoot.

“Okay,” he said at last.

“Okay?” she repeated, completely in shock. After the scene yesterday, she hadn’t really expected him to give in so easily. Or give in at all, really. He’d seemed too stubborn to go down without a fight. And now he was conceding?

“Sure.” His gaze narrowed as he smiled, or smirked, more like. Something was definitely afoot in Vince’s mind, and Melanie knew she wasn’t going to like whatever it was. “I have some paperwork to do in the back office. Because I’m short on help today, you can cover the front desk for me.”

“What?” she said, tempering her voice so it didn’t become tight and shrill.

The man was thoroughly exasperating. His eyes retained that amused spark, and the left corner of his lip completely betrayed him when it twitched upward oh so slightly. He was acting remarkably smug.

Did he think he’d won this round?

Well, then, he’d better just think again. She knew what he was up to. She arched her brow, her mind racing. Due to the restrictions laid on him by his family, he couldn’t turn her away outright.

But if she quit on her own? That would be an entirely different proposition now, wouldn’t it?

He was trying to annoy her on purpose—which would only work if she reacted as he expected her to do. It was, she realized, going to be a remarkably simple thing to turn the tables on him.

“All right, I’ll do it,” she said, smothering a smile. He wanted to play? She was all in.

He stared at her, looking unconvinced. His smug little smirk turned into a cute little frown, furrowing his brow under the top rim of his glasses.

“Really,” she assured him as she stood and walked to the door to the front office. She opened it, gesturing for him to enter before her. “I’m guessing the front desk could use some of my organizational finesse. It’s as good a place to start as anywhere. Once you see my work, I know you’ll change your mind about me.”

Vince shook his head and then nodded, looking a little bit dazed. Then, without a word, he pulled himself to his feet with his crutches and hobbled past her. He looked back only when he’d reached his office door.

“I’m warning you. You’re going to get bored. Fast. There’s really nothing to this job but waiting on the guests if they have questions or need extra towels. This time of day it’s usually deathly quiet around here.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” she answered. “Quiet is good. It will give you the chance to sit down and rest that leg of yours, and for me to get some work done.”

Vince frowned. “This isn’t going to matter, you know. It’s only a matter of time before you realize your efforts are futile.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” she said, twirling her finger to indicate he should turn back toward his office. “Now. You. Go. Sit.”

Vince couldn’t argue with Melanie. He didn’t really want to argue with her, when it clearly wasn’t going to make a bit of difference. He sat down in his comfortable black leather office chair, resting his head back and pressing over his eyes with his palms. He was getting a tremendous headache, but as he had told Melanie, he had a lot of paperwork to do. With a tired sigh, he leaned forward, opened a ledger and then, for a good ten minutes, rhythmically tapped a pencil against the smooth oak of his desktop.

At this rate he would accomplish nothing. She was already disrupting his routine, and she really hadn’t even started meddling yet. How was it going to be when she was standing over his shoulder, analyzing his business practices and criticizing his every move?

He closed his eyes, willing himself to concentrate on the paperwork in front of him. If he could just center his thoughts, he might be able to get something constructive finished; but that wasn’t likely to happen, especially because he could hear Melanie bustling about the front desk.