Hotel Ladd (2 page)

“
Do you think Jillian Devane
wants to build a hotel like Nick?”

Visions of an exclusive wooded retreat
for elite guests swam through Annie’s mind, guests who would pay
top dollar to lose themselves in the mountains of Tennessee, the
forests, the natural beauty of the Appalachians. Felicity was
barely eighteen and stood to earn a fortune from her deal with Nick
Harris while Annie and Casey had nothing but bills as a result of
owning their share of the property.

“
I don’t know. Maybe,” she
hemmed. Annie knew full well Ms. Devane was interested in building
a hotel. In fact, according to Annie’s sister Lacy—her direct
conduit to all things Ladd Springs—Ms. Devane had looked into
purchasing land an hour north of here for that very reason. She
wanted to ruin Nick’s new hotel by building one of her own. Married
to Nick’s partner Malcolm Ward, Lacy had the inside scoop and
dished it out readily to Annie—because Annie had forgiven the past
problems between them.

Leaning forward, Candi grabbed a
cheddar-coated chip from a shiny blue plastic bag. “Have you asked
Cal about it?”

Annie looked at her friend, ignoring
the loud crunching from her mouth. “I don’t want to bother him with
it.”

“
Why not? He helped you get
the loan to pay the back taxes, didn’t he?”

“
He did,” she acknowledged.
Which was easy. His father, Gerald Foster, owned a bank in town and
pulled the strings. Not that Cal didn’t mean well, he did. Calvin
Foster helped, because he was a decent man. As part of the Foster
clan, he was a man of means, a man who’d been calling on her ever
since his return from Arizona six months ago.

Annie grew up with the Foster brothers.
They were four good-looking boys, wild and crazy and always out for
a good time with the ladies, although Cal had been the most tame
among them. His brother Jack married Delaney, and for a while, they
seemed like the perfect couple. It wasn’t until Delaney up and left
him that everyone in town learned the truth. Jack was abusive. He
was a drinker. A mean drunk, at that. After Delaney moved back home
with Felicity, Jack left town and Annie hadn’t heard a word about
him since. Brothers Beau and Clint had remained in town, married,
had children, held rank as respectable men in the community. Beau
ran the Foster family ranch, acres upon acres of premiere pasture
and mountains while Clint worked with his father at the bank, the
biggest and most prestigious for miles around. Despite the rowdy
reputation forged by the sons, the Fosters were a respectable
bunch. They had looks, money, smarts...

Victoria Foster would accept nothing
less. A socialite from Chattanooga, Cal’s mother came from money
and would not allow her move to the small town alter a single
aspect of her lifestyle. The Foster estate was grand, the land was
beautiful, the four sons were unruly—a fact Mrs. Foster refused to
permit injure her standing in the community. It was one of the
reasons Gerald Foster was so anti-drinking today. Zero tolerance
was his motto, for his boys and his staff.

Although Annie had grown up with Cal,
knew him from high school, knew his family through church, she had
never thought of him romantically. He was nice-looking enough, but
back then she’d only had eyes for Jeremiah. A year after she became
pregnant with Casey, Cal had moved to Arizona and she hadn’t seen
or heard from him until her godmother’s big Memorial Day party this
past summer. When Ashley Fulmer through a party, everyone attended,
giving Cal the perfect opportunity to reacclimate himself back into
the community. Annie had definitely noticed him at the barbecue,
the two dancing and chatting, erasing the passage of time between
them as they began a new path forward together.

Candi pulled a sip from her coke, her
cheeks hollowing. “I bet he could come up with an idea to help you
earn some money with this woman. Cal is smart that way.”

That’s where Annie begged to differ.
Yes, he was smart, but Cal had become friendly with Malcolm, a man
equally invested in Nick’s hotel development. If Cal let on to
Malcolm or Nick that Annie was even considering a discussion with
Ms. Devane, Annie had no doubt the men would be angry. Lacy had
given Annie a blow by blow on the history between Nick and Jillian,
how Harris Hotels and Eco-Domani were in constant competition and
how six months ago Jillian Devane had paid a visit to Fran’s Diner,
putting Nick on notice she intended to build in Tennessee as well.
If Annie worked with Ms. Devane in any way, it would be seen as
crossing enemy lines, something you didn’t do around here unless
you packed two barrels and were prepared to fire them. “Why don’t
you ask him?” Candi asked.

“
I think Lacy and Malcolm
would have something to say about it,” Annie replied. “Any
involvement with this Devane woman will be seen as a
betrayal.”

“
Well, Lacy and Malcolm
don’t have a say in what you do. They’re not helping you make ends
meet, are they?” Candi vehemently shook her head and said, “No,
ma’am. It’s your decision. Yours and Casey’s, I mean.”

Yes, Casey. Casey was the named owner,
but Annie was the designated trustee. When Delaney had Felicity
sign over half of the land, she’d stipulated Casey was not to
receive control over the property until she turned thirty years of
age, or she wouldn’t receive the first acre. Because Casey was too
young and not ready for that kind of responsibility. Because Casey
had a history of instability.

But Annie was ready. Seemed
responsibility was all she knew, like it was her whole life.
Expelling a sigh, she smacked the business card onto the table. “I
don’t know what to do, Candi. I only know I wish it wasn’t so
damned hard.”

Annie had finally won the battle—Ladd
family recognition for her daughter and the procurement of her
rightful inheritance—yet she had no way to keep it. Sure, Cal had
helped her secure a loan to pay the back taxes but there would be a
new tax bill this fall. In another month, she’d be facing the same
dilemma all over again. Her eyes went quickly to the hills out the
window. A panicky need to escape weaved through her soul. As it
was, she was stretching her last dollar bill to pay the current
loan for the taxes. How was she ever going to afford another
payment?

Candi scooted close and wrapped an arm
around Annie’s shoulders. She hugged her close and Annie was
grateful for the connection. It was warm, reassuring. Solid. “I
know it’s hard, honey, but you’ll think of something. You always
do,” she added, eyes shining with encouragement. “You got that
paternity test out of Jeremiah, didn’t you?”

“
I did.”

“
And the property out of
Delaney.”

“
Yes.”

“
Well, you can get some
money going, too.” Candi hugged Annie to her side, a draft of her
perfume rising between them. “I know you can.”

Leave it to Candi to see the
positive in her situation. It was her nature, always had been.
Candi was the one who’d encouraged Annie in high school, convinced
her to try out for the lead role in a school play, acted as
cheerleader when Annie earned straight A’s two semesters in a row,
even encouraged her to chase after the boy she dreamed impossible
to get. Her stomach tightened. Well, she couldn’t hold that against
her. Annie couldn’t see past Jeremiah at the time and he was all
she wanted. Now she wanted money. Income. As trustee, it was her
job to not only pay the taxes but to ensure her daughter’s future.
She was entitled to a percentage of earnings for her time and
trouble, but they were earnings Annie had to
earn
first. If she couldn’t, all she’d
be handing over to her thirty-year-old daughter would be a big fat
tax bill.

“
I’ll talk to Cal,” Annie
said. “He’s looking into some logging possibilities for me. We’ll
see what he’s come up with.”

“
Logging? You mean to tell
me you’re going to cut down all the trees?”

Mildly amused by the look of horror
pasted on Candi’s face, Annie shook her head. “No, only a hundred
acres or so. According to Cal, it might be all we need, until I can
figure something else out, that is.”

“
Like how to rent the land
to a hotel developer, same as Delaney?”

Annie suppressed a grin.
Candi knew her better than anyone. Whether Lacy and Malcolm and
Delaney and Nick cared or not, Annie was a survivor first, a group
player second. She had to look out for Casey’s future, same way
Delaney had looked after Felicity’s. Now in college, Felicity was
set, her future carved in stone.
Gold
stone, Annie mused, a tinge of
resentment curling her heart. Delaney included the section with the
gold find in Felicity’s half, enabling her daughter to not only
earn income from Nick’s hotel deal but from selling the gold
discovered in a rock, deep in the forest.

Gold. On Ladd Springs. So far, the vein
had yielded more than anyone expected and Nick and Delaney were
taking full advantage. They were having a local jeweler design a
pendant in the shape of a wishing well, a pendant they intended to
sell in a hotel boutique store. It was supposed to represent the
natural springs on the property, a symbol of eternal hope and
spiritual fulfillment. To Annie it represented yet again how she
and her daughter were left to fend for themselves.

Annie snatched the business card and
glared at the telephone number. “I’m going to call her.”

“
You are?”

“
Yes. There’s no reason I
shouldn’t explore my options.”

“
That’s right,” Candi
agreed, faithfully manning her imaginary pom-poms as she encouraged
her friend. “No reason at all.”

“
Why can’t I lease our
property to Jillian? How would that hurt anything?”

“
Exactly.”

“
I mean, if Nick and Malcolm
are afraid of a little competition, how good can they
be?”

“
Now you’re talking!” Candi
bounced on the cushion beside her. “Why should they have all the
profits from a hotel business and not you?”

While Annie couldn’t quite share
Candi’s level of exuberance, a tinge of misgiving squiggling
through her belly, she did share her viewpoint. Why shouldn’t she
be able to use her property any way she saw fit? Would they rather
she destroy acres and acres of trees? After all, Nick’s claim to
fame was his sensitivity to the environment. Wouldn’t that make him
a hypocrite if he advised someone to log the land instead of build
something in tune with Mother Nature?

Gaining steam, Annie decided it was the
right thing to do. Casey was stuck in a dead-end job waiting tables
at Fran’s Diner, and if Annie could give her daughter something
better to look forward to, wasn’t that what she should do? Her Aunt
Fran was sweet to give Casey a job, but that didn’t mean she had to
keep it for the rest of her life.

“
When are you going to call
her?” Candi asked.

“
Tomorrow.” Annie twisted
the card in hand. “I’m going to call her tomorrow.”

Chapter Two

A prickle of concern irritated Calvin
Foster’s calm as he took in the woman before him. Annie was
agitated. Pensive, impatient but more, she was cagey, her pretty
blue eyes dodging him at every turn. In Cal’s experience, the
combination spelled trouble. When a woman withheld information, it
was because she planned to use it against you, or planned to use it
without you. Either way, it was a lesson he’d learned the hard way
but learned it just the same. Cal rolled his shoulders to ease the
tension from them. She had invited him over to discuss logging
options for the property, but as they discussed the issue, it felt
like she was stonewalling. Did she want his help or not?

“
Are you alright, Annie?” he
asked softly, knowing it was best not to push. Corner a woman and
she’s likely to strike with an aim to kill.

Sitting on the opposite end of the
couch, Annie stiffened. “I’d be better if I had a surefire plan, if
I was certain this logging could work.”

She gave a quick shake to her glossy
black hair, hair that fell straight and thick to her shoulders.
Despite the late hour and a full day’s work behind her, Annie’s
skin was ivory perfection against the black turtleneck she wore,
her makeup masterfully applied, black eye-liner underscoring the
allure of her big blue eyes. Visibly trim in snug-fitting jeans,
Annie was the kind of woman you wouldn’t miss walking down a
sidewalk. She was a striking beauty, one he was coming to
adore.

If only she’d let him help her. “You
can be as certain as you’re willing to be.”

She paused, taken aback by the blunt
comment. “This isn’t easy for me, Cal.”

“
Never said it was. But
you’re fightin’ harder than a cat pawin’ molasses and I’m not sure
why.”

“
Why?” She looked at him
with a thinly veiled anger—or was it desperation? “How about I’m
financially strapped? How about we’re not even sure if we can find
a forester interested in logging the property? And if we do,
Delaney will most certainly have something to say about it,
probably fight me every branch of the way.”

“
Naw, she won’t.”

Annie stared at him, her big blue eyes
dismissive. “You don’t know Delaney anymore. She’s not the same
girl from high school. She’s changed. Hardened.”