fact that I can.
She pushed the automatic answer away. She didn’t have to justify her choices to him. He didn’t need to know how she’d had a narrow escape, how it could have turned out so very differently years earlier.
“This isn’t about me, it’s about what’s going to happen to this hotel. Paul Verbeek resigned when you bought the hotel. How much more is going to change? Staff is already upset at the possibility of change and insecurity. If I start handing out pink slips, morale’s going to take a serious dip.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve said that I agree with.”
She bristled. He waltzed in here and after what, four hours? decided she was wrong about just about everything. She knew how to do her job and she did it well, despite being new at it. This was going to be another case of owners sending in an emissary, turning everything upside down, then leaving the mess for local management to clean up. She sighed. Everything had been going fine. Why did this have to happen now?
“I don’t know what to say. We obviously have differing opinions yet I have no wish to cause any discord. You’re the boss.” She folded her hands. One of them had to keep a logical head.
“Describe the Cascade in three words.”
She squeezed her left fingers in her right hand. “Are you serious?”
“Perfectly. What are the first three words you think of when you think of this hotel?”
“Efficient. Class. Profitable.” She shot the words out confidently. She prided herself—and the hotel—on them. It was the image she tried to portray every day.
He stopped pacing and sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“What’s wrong with that? We have an efficient staff, an elegant establishment and we make a profit. You should be happy with all those things.”
“Come here.” He went to the balcony door again and slid it open. She followed, bringing the wine with her and cradling her glass in her hands. What on earth was he doing now?
“Look out over there.”
The afternoon was waning and the sun’s rays filtered through trees and shadows. Goose bumps rose on her skin at the chill in the air and she shivered.
“Just a minute,” he murmured, disappearing back inside.
When he returned he draped a soft blanket over her shoulders and took the glass out of her hands. She tensed at his casual touch.
“Now look. And tell me, what do you see?”
“The valley, poplar trees, the river.”
“No, Mari.”
His body was close, too close and she fought against the panic rising instinctively in her chest. Please don’t touch me, she prayed, torn between fear and an unfamiliar longing that he’d disobey her silent wishes. What would it feel like to have him cradle her body between his arms? Torture, or heaven? The way her heart was pounding, she recognized the sensation for what it was—fear.
As if he sensed her tension, he stepped to the side and gripped the iron railing. He breathed deeply, closed his eyes. When he opened them again he gazed over the vista before them.
“Freedom. Right now, what I’m feeling is freedom.” His smile was wide and relaxed. “Look at this place. Look at where we are. There’s no place in the world like this place. The Cascade can be a jewel in a beautiful kingdom. Wild and free on the outside. And inside…a place to rest, rejuvenate, to fall in love. Can’t you feel it seducing you, Mari?”
Tears pricked her eyes but she blinked them away, gripping the edges of the blanket closely around her in a protective embrace.
Freedom. Rest. Rejuvenation. All the things she had spent years searching for, and exactly how she felt about her new life in this tiny resort town.
And with his good intentions, Luca Fiori was about to ruin it all.
CHAPTER TWO
“I DON’T understand.”
Mari stepped back from the railing, away from the whispering trees and Luca’s warm voice. He was talking castles and falling in love? She’d stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago. “How exactly do you intend on accomplishing this?”
Before he could answer she scuttled back inside, removed the blanket from her shoulders and kept her hands busy by folding it. Having it around her shoulders had felt too much like an embrace and that didn’t sit well. It was becoming increasingly clear that she and Luca were two very different people. She was firmly grounded in reality. Full stop.
He followed her, watching her from the glass door until she put the blanket down and then he stepped forward, giving her back the wine.
“I’m just working on impressions, for now.”
“I prefer to work with facts, and so far all I’ve heard from you are nebulous statements of…of grandeur,” she finished, faltering a little. Her heart pounded in her ears as she fought back the feeling that she was crossing an invisible line.
It was beginning to feel like an argument and she forced herself to relax, taking slow breaths and picturing the stress leaving through the soles of her feet. She hated conflict. With a passion. She’d learned to stick up for herself over the last few years but it didn’t mean it came easily to her. If it weren’t for the rest of the employees looking to her for leadership, she’d be tempted to back away and let him have a go at it rather than argue.
But she was the manager and if she wanted to keep that job, she needed to fight the battles that needed to be fought. People were depending on her. People who had been there for her since she’d made this her home, whether they knew it or not. She steeled her spine and made herself look up again.
“That’s the problem with the Cascade,” Luca explained. He poured a little more wine in his glass, took a sip and smiled a little. “Everything’s been compartmentalized. One room says cool elegance and another is modern and another is rustic comfort…all admirable designs and styles, but without unity.”
Unity?
His hand spread wide. “We need to decide what the Cascade is. What it means…what we want to achieve…and then work around that. If we work on one area at a time, it means less disturbance to everyone. The goal is to make everything exemplify Fiori Cascade.”
Mari’s eyes widened. “That will cost a fortune.”
“Fiori has deep pockets.”
“Of course…I’m just…weighing the cost versus the benefit. The Bow Val…I mean the Cascade is already doing well. Look at the numbers—we have excellent capacity even for this time of year.”
“That’s not remotely the point.”
And there was where they differed. She realized that they did not see anything the same way. Maybe it was having money and security that made the difference. Luca didn’t have to worry where his next meal was coming from, or where he’d sleep, or what the future held because his was there waiting for him. It always had been. But her life wasn’t that way. It was planning and dollars and cents and making the most out of less, rocking the boat as little as possible. It was staying in the background, out of notice, causing little trouble. And there was nothing wrong with that. It had gotten her where she was. She worked quietly but effectively and she’d been rewarded for it through steady promotion.
“If you implement all these great ideas, when can we expect the memo from head office telling us to downsize our staff?”
“That won’t happen.”
“Will you guarantee that in writing? Because I’ve seen it happen, the expenditures are too great to sustain staffing and layoffs occur. Are you planning on closing us down during renovations? What are these people to do then? They count on their pay to put food on the table.