Sweet as Honey (Aster Valley 2)

“I thought that’s what I was supposed to do,” I said, throwing my hands up. “I was told my whole life that family came first, blood was thicker than water. I was the man of the house after my father was sent up, and it was my responsibility to be there for them.”

Tiller nodded in understanding. “But relationships can’t be one-sided.”

“I know that now. I would never choose my family over Truman. He deserves better than that.”

He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, turning me to face him. “I mean family relationships can’t be one-sided.”

That distinction stopped me in my tracks. “Family relationships can’t be one-sided,” I repeated under my breath, testing the words as they sank in.

Tiller started walking toward the woods again. “You know better than anyone how much effort Mikey put into trying to please his parents. But they always treated him like the runt of their litter. How long should he have kept trying to please them, Sam?”

I thought of Mikey’s asshole of a father. The fact he remained Tiller’s coach and boss couldn’t have been easy on Tiller.

“Any amount of time is too long,” I grunted. “Should have left that bastard years ago.”

Tiller shook his head. “Don’t say that—then I wouldn’t have met Mikey. But I’m sure glad he’s left him now. It’s better for him to take himself out of that disappointment loop, don’t you think?”

“Of course it is.” Why was he stating the obvious?

Tiller turned to me again with another annoying smirk. “Haven’t you been in a disappointment loop of your own?”

God, he was right. I tried so hard to rescue my family time and time again just to find myself right back in a mess one of them had made. Now that Sophie had finally found Ethan, maybe I could stop worrying about her so much. And since I’d decided to cut Kira off, as hard as it was to do, that left my mom.

The queen of the disappointment loop.

I loved her. There was no doubt about it. She’d had a shitty time of it with my father. But it had been years now, and it was time for her to stop treating me like his stand-in.

I noticed Tiller watching me as I made the connections between Mikey’s family’s manipulations and my own.

I thought about punching the cocky footballer in his smug face. “Shut up,” I muttered instead. “You made your point. But it’s not that easy.”

His smile dropped. “No. Certainly not. Mikey spent two hours crying on my shoulder last week because his mother had called to tell him she’d heard an exciting rumor he was writing a cookbook. Never mind the fact he’s told her about the book many times in the past five months. Unless he completely cuts his parents out of his life, he’ll have to deal with her obliviousness and his callousness.”

I sighed and leaned over to pick up a fallen twig to fling it into the woods. “Enough about my family. What do you think about the business owners going after the sheriff over this pension fund? Are we leading these guys into more trouble?”

“No. I pulled Pim and Bill aside and made sure they know I’ll cover Julian’s attorney fees. It’s in our best interest to get this shit sorted out before we even think about opening the resort. We can’t ask new vendors to come into Aster Valley as long as this extortion scheme is in the works.”

“Good point. At least everyone seems to appreciate you and Mikey being here. I know Mikey was afraid of what the people of Aster Valley would think when they found out you wanted to reopen the ski resort.”

“Most everyone is thrilled, actually. They recognize how much new business it will bring to town, and the locals who’ve been around long enough to remember how things were have assured the others that it’s a good thing. For the most part we’re actually being urged to speed up our original plan.”

Tiller turned to me again, and I could tell what the look on his face meant.

“And speeding it up means needing a right-hand man,” I suggested.

“No. It means needing someone to take complete charge of it. I don’t need an assistant. I need a partner.”

“You have Mikey.”

“Of course. But he wants to focus on the lodge. I’d really like you to come on board as a stakeholder and the chief operations officer for the ski resort.” I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t know what the fuck that was, but he stalled me by raising a hand up. “Before you argue, just hear me out. Phase one is getting the pieces and parts in place. Julian is coming on board to handle the legal and financial side. Contracts, investors, real estate holdings, working capital, and a bunch of other shit I don’t know beans about. His dad runs a mining company, and he raised his kids to take it over one day. Julian hates mining, but his sister’s a crack shot at it. So he’s got the business know-how and the money side, right? He’s got the fancy education. Meanwhile, the retired skier I told you about, Rory Pearson, will help us with that side of it.”