Authors: Delia Delaney
He seemed surprised and asked, “Why?”
“You just want the compliments?” I teased.
He light
ly laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. But i
t’d be nice to know what works with you so I can do it again.”
With a smile I shook my head. “You make a lo
t of things work.
Thank you.
And I do mean it when I say you’re an incredible guy. And don’t get me wrong with this—because this trip and the flight and everything you’ve planned for us is great, and I’m really excited—but I don’t really care about ‘stuff,’ you know? It’s
you
that I’m excited to be experiencing this with. And it’s what you’ve done for Maggie that makes me happy. We’re very lucky to have you.
”
Zack and I weren’t usually too “mushy” with each other, and for me, that was being a little more expressive than I normally was. He was aware of that and just chose to accept my physical appreciation when I kissed him.
He smiled and said, “Mmm, very worth it,” and then we continued on how we were when I laid my head against him. We talked quietly with each other until Maggie woke up when the captain announced our descent.
Utah was beautiful. And all Maggie and I had to do was enjoy the sights around us because Zack had everything else taken care of. The guy that picked us up from the airport was
named
Rusty, and apparently he was pretty familiar with Zack; picking him up from the airport was standard.
Snowbird was gorgeous too, and
I was impressed right along with Maggie
.
I grew up in
San Francisco, so I didn’t get to witness too much snow during my life. I’d been to a few mountains over the years, and after moving to Washington I’d seen a few more during the summertime
—Maggie and I had even had a picnic at Mount Rainier one day—b
ut I’d never seen anything like the mountains of Utah, or the immensity of snow.
“I’ll see you in a few hours,” Rusty told Zack as two different men took our luggage out of the SUV. “Everything arrived last night and it’s all ready to go.”
Zack picked up Maggie and asked her what she thought of
the l
odge
, and after she said it was “A
wesome,” he took my hand with a smile. When we were following our luggage
inside
I asked, “What’s in a few hours?”
“Oh, uh, I just have a meeting.”
He didn’t even have to give his name at the check-in desk; the lady smiled and greeted him with, “Welcome back, Mr. McClain.” In fact, he didn’t even have to check in and we just headed to the elevator with our luggage.
Even the bellhop
knew him by name, and one of the maids obviously recognized him when she said hello.
“How often do you actually come here?” I had to ask when we’d arrived at our
room.
The bellhop unlocked the door and led us inside, and as I gaped at the beautiful room we were in
—complete with a fully stocked kitchen—
Zack replied, “Uh,
probably
eight
times a year
.
”
That really didn’t sound like a lot, but I guess it could be considered once a month for the ski season, and for a resort stay, I suppose that was significant.
“But that’s to Utah in general. It’s not always this resort.”
“
Oh
,” I only said. By then
he’d tipped the bellhop and he was standing at the window with Maggie, looking out
at
the mountains.
“So what do you guys want to do first?” he asked, turning around to face me.
“Uh, what do
you
usually do first?” I asked.
He chuckled and replied, “Uh, work. But this is a special weekend, so I want you
girls
to take full advantage of anything you want. And I booked
you
a spa treatment for whenever you want,” he told me.
“A spa treatment? What does that even mean? I’ve never been to a spa.”
“Then it will be quite the experience,” he smiled.
“Zack, I don’t need a—”
“
Nuh
,” he said, holding his hand up to stop me. “No objections.”
“But Maggie—”
“Maggie and I can take care of ourselves. There are plenty of ways we can get in trouble—
er
, I mean have fun,” he grinned.
I shook my head with a smile, but I wasn’t so sure about going to a spa. I guess I could g
et out of it when the time came
because by then Zack was asking Maggie what she wanted to do.
“Swim,” she told him.
“Swim, huh?” I noticed him glance at the clock briefly, but he said, “I’m sure we could do that. What do you say, Taryn? You ready to teach us to swim?”
I knew fitting in a swim session before whatever meeting he had was going to be tough, so to Maggie I said, “Hmm, why don’t we have Zack give us a tour of the lodge first. Then we can see everything, know how to get there, and make a plan. Does that sound okay?”
She nodded her head and was ready to go that instant.
“Thanks,” Zack said quietly on our way out. “I’m
sure I could have made it work
but…”
“No problem. Quit letting a five-year-old run your life,” I teased.
He smiled and kissed me while Maggie was heading for the door. “I’ll give you the same advice then,” he said. “If you trust that Maggie will be in good hands, you and I can ha
ve some time alone this weekend. I
f you want.”
I did like the sound of that.
Chapter Thirteen
Maggie loved exploring the lodge, and of course when we took a tour of the swimming area, she wanted to try it right then. I was a little surprised that she was being so outgoing, but it pleased me. I didn’t like seeing her become so reserved over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t want her childhood to be
defined
by the death of her mother.
When Zack left for his meeting, Maggie wanted to know where he was going
and what he was doing
. I was curious too, so once we figured out
he was on level C, we made our way to the
meeting rooms, just to see what it looked like. We didn’t see Zack of course, but there was a hotel staff member that looked like she was attending to a meeting, and she was about to take some coffee into a room.
“Is there something I can help you with?” she politely asked.
“Oh, no thank you,” I smiled. “We were just kind of exploring.”
Just then there was a huge eruption of laughter that came out of the room she was about to enter, and then I heard Zack’s voice just as Maggie exclaimed, “He’s in
there
!”
“Are you looking for someone?” the woman asked.
“No, we’re just—”
“Zack!” Maggie informed her. “I heard him!”
It was an awkward moment, for me at least, and the hotel employee said, “Do you need to speak with him? I can just let him know—”
“No, it’s okay,” I told her. “Like I said, we were just looking around
and… Well, I’m his, uh…”
“I think I know who you are,” she smiled. “It’s Taryn, right? And you must be Maggie,” she said, lightly touching her head.
I wasn’t sure why she would know that, but I just said, “Uh, yes. Well, we’re just going to—”
“I’m Sophie, by the way,” she told us. “And I’m sure Mr. McClain would like to know you’re here. Let me just deliver this coffee
to his guests
and I’ll quietly let him know that he has—”
“No, I don’t want you to bother him,” I told her. I had no idea what kind of meeting he had, but there was no way I wanted to affect his job somehow. What if his boss got upset with him, or the people that were meeting with him?
“He really wouldn’t mind,” she said.
“But I would, so I don’t want to interrupt his meeting. Thank you anyways. We’re just going to continue exploring the lodge.”
She slightly nodded her head. “Okay,” she smiled. “It was very nice to meet you.”
“Um, thank you. You too.”
I took Maggie’s hand and we retreated to whence when came.
“Aw, I wanna see what he’s doing,” she pouted.
“He’s in a meeting. They sit around and talk about things. It’s boring.”
“They were having fun,” she challenged me.
“No, they weren’t. They were just laughing about something to make the boring meeting go by faster.”
She didn’t respond after that, but as we were headed down the hall, I heard Zack say, “Taryn, wait.”
I was embarrassed that he saw us there, snooping on his activities or whatever it was that he was up to. Maggie went right to him, but I took my time. This made him curious as he said hello to Maggie and picked her up, and I think he could tell I wasn’t happy that Sophie had told him we were there.
“I’m
glad
to see you,” he said
mainly to Maggie, but he glanced at me too. “Come on in; I’ll introduce you to some people—”
“Zack, I’m sorry to interrupt your meeting. I really wasn’t expecting to see you. We were touring the area and—”
“You’re not interrupting. Come on in.” He was already headed for the door with Maggie in his arms.
“I don’t want to go in there,” I told him firmly.
“Why not? There’s actually something you can help me with, if you don’t mind.”
“Help you with? Like what?” I asked suspiciously.
“Like come in and see,” he chuckled.
“Can I help?” Maggie asked excitedly.
“Well, yeah,” he replied, like it was totally obvious.
“
Yay
!” she cheered. “What do I get to do?”
“You like to dress up, right?”
“Yes!”
“You wanna be my little snowboarding princess?”
Her mouth gaped open for a second,
which
was funny, and then she answered, “Okay!”
“Okay, then,” he said, opening the door to the meeting room. “Let’s get to work. Come on, Taryn,” he had to coax from the doorway.
By then I knew his meeting attendees were aware of my presence, and I felt very insecure.
“Ladies and Gentlemen
, let me introduce you to my little model for today. This is Maggie,” he said, sitting her on his lap as he sat down at the head of the table. He smiled at me still standing in the doorway and motioned me into the room. “And this is Taryn. She’s my model’s assistant.”
That got a chuckle from the
eight
faces that surrounded the conference table.
Zack offered me a seat that was next to him (actually
Rusty
got up from it and slid down a seat so I could have it), and then he seemed to continue on where he’d left off. He had a lot of merchandise in the room, from snowboards and equipment to clothing and other gear
, and it seemed to fit right in with the large windows that displayed the snowy playground outside
.
It was actually kind of funny to watch him talk to a bunch of
business
men
and women. And I say that because he didn’t do it in a way that was any different than how he conversed on any other given day. I suppose it made
sense
, being that he was marketing products that were supposed to be fun and recreational, but it was also just his everyday personality. Maggie would interrupt and I’d be tempted to parent her, but I decided to let Zack take care of it since he was the one that dragged us into the meeting. It didn’t even faze him, and it didn’t seem to bother the other participants in the room either.
I guess Zack must have known that when he invited us in.
“When do I get to be your snow princess?” Maggie eventually asked.
Zack had to stop in mid-sentence, but Maggie’s question got a few chuckles.
“Uh, r
ight now, actually,”
Zack
told her. “Let’s just get to it, huh?”
He got up with Maggie and picked up a pair of snow bibs that looked about her size. “Y
ou’re cool with purple
, right?” he asked. He pretended to pray silently for her answer and we all smiled.
She just took the pants and said, “Do we get to go outside?”
“If that’s what you want to do, then sure. Uh, you gotta ask the boss though,” he added, nodding to me.
“I thought I was only the assistant?” I smirked. I felt comfortable joking with him since the room seemed to be pretty light-hearted.
“Well, I meant that you’re
my
boss.”
Maggie only glanced at me
while everyone else was entertained
, but she was totally into putting on snow clothes for some reason and went right to work sticking her
feet
into
the pants.