Trails Merge Read online

  After Parker left, Campbell and Sammy slowly started up the hill, settling into an easy silence that came from spending so much of their lives together. When they reached their cabin, they both kicked off their softball cleats and dropped their gear just inside the doorway. Sammy grabbed a can of soda from the fridge, cracking it open as he flopped on the couch.

  Campbell ran her hand through her shoulder-length golden brown hair, matted down from the ball cap she’d worn, and glanced down at her shirt and pants, covered in the red clay of the softball diamond. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  “Hey, Cam,” Sammy called as she started to climb the stairs to her loft.

  “What?”

  “You think Parker plays for your team or mine?”

  Campbell shrugged, slightly uncomfortable with the implications of his question. The possibility that Parker would be dating material uncovered that old hurt she had worked so hard to bury. “What difference does it make? I’m sure a woman like that wouldn’t be interested in ski bums like us.”

  “Speak for yourself. I’m quite a catch.”

  Campbell wondered if Sammy had heard her slight bitterness. She was a little disconcerted to detect it herself. Something about Parker had sparked it. What was more, the guarded new marketing director was responsible for an even more unsettling response. For the first time in six months, Campbell’s pulse was racing.

  Chapter Three

  Parker was the first one to arrive for her meeting with the entire resort management staff. She had been at Bear Run for just over two weeks and completely immersed herself in her work. She pored over the disorganized records of season-pass holders and spent days sifting through the names of anyone who had skied here for the past few seasons. After inputting the names into a simple spreadsheet, then adding the ages, or approximate ages, of the pass holders, she ran some correlations and created a few graphs. Once she compiled the data, she spotted a trend immediately. She wanted to talk about it during today’s meeting.

  “Good morning, Parker,” Emery Carson said with his warm smile as he shrugged off his light denim jacket and tossed it over the back of his chair.

  “Hi, Emery.” Parker returned his smile. They had virtually nothing in common, but she was finding it hard not to like him. He was easygoing but steady, in or out of the office, and his gentle presence made her feel at ease. He had checked on her daily and provided helpful information on incorrect registration forms of several of the season-pass holders. Apparently few people came and went around the resort without Emery knowing them or their mother or their brother.

  “How’s the season-pass work coming along?”

  “Finished it last night. I’m moving on the conference ledgers today.”

  “Great. Our bookkeeper should be a big help. She’s got a memory like you wouldn’t believe. She can tell you not only what happened when and where, but how polite or messy people were while doing it.” He chuckled.

  “She’s been wonderful so far. I’m sure I’ll depend on her expertise a lot during this first season,” Parker admitted, thinking of the resort secretary. She wasn’t the most meticulous bookkeeper in the world, but she would do anything for you. Almost everyone at Bear Run was like that, though part of Parker was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “Hey, you two.” Irene and Greg walked in together and both hugged Emery before taking their seats, though Parker sensed a slight reserve in Greg’s greeting.

  “Are you settled in, Parker?” Irene asked.

  “I’m almost completely unpacked.”

  Irene had dropped by the apartment one evening with a loaf of fresh-baked bread and a chicken casserole. It was the first home-cooked food Parker had eaten since she’d arrived, and she lived off it for days. Judging by their few interactions, Irene was the mother of the entire mountain, always cooking for, or cleaning up after, or checking in on someone.

  Parker could hear Sammy and Campbell bickering all the way down the hall, as they usually were. Not an angry argument, more like good-natured sibling rivalry. They seemed inseparable, though Campbell seemed more elusive, even mysterious, than her forthright brother. Parker wondered if she ever tired of spending all her time with this perpetual adolescent.

  “Hi, Parker. How’s it going?” Sammy said, plopping down next to her.

  “Good. How are you?”

  “Great,” he replied, with his usual grin.

  “What about you, Campbell?” she asked. The woman had barely spoken to her since she arrived, and Parker had yet to decide if she was shy, uninterested, or distrustful.

  Campbell had slipped out of her jacket and was taking off her baseball cap. When she turned to face Parker, she smiled politely. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

  Parker noticed again how naturally attractive Campbell was, in an unrefined way. Her wavy, sand-colored hair curled back behind her ears and hung just above her shoulders. Her deeply tanned face and arms set off her bright blue eyes, and her smile was contagious when she let it show in full force. But those occasions were usually reserved for family members.

  Would she ever receive such a smile? The thought surprised her. Why would she care whether Campbell smiled at her? The woman had barely spoken since she arrived.

  “I’m back. Did you all miss me?” An energetic woman who appeared to be just a few years older than Parker’s own twenty-nine years bustled through the door. Everyone jumped up to greet her with more hugs all around.

  What a huggy group this was. They seemed to embrace each other for no apparent reason, even if they’d seen one another the day before. No one had tried to hug her yet, but she was beginning to wonder if it was simply a matter of time before they did. She didn’t know how comfortable she was with that possibility.

  “You must be Parker,” the latest arrival said. “I’m Janelle, Greg and Emery’s baby sister.”

  Parker shook the outstretched hand firmly. Janelle was obviously a Carson. She had sandy hair like the rest, with a natural muscle tone, slightly thrown off by a bit of extra girth around her waist, though she was in better shape than Greg, who appeared to be fifteen years her senior.

  “I’ve been on maternity leave, hence the leftover baby weight. But I can’t miss another ski season, so I took one final vacation with the hubby and the kids last week before starting back to work.”

  “Did you enjoy the beach?” Irene asked.

  “It was heaven, warm and sunny the whole time. The kids loved the waves and the sand. I could hardly drag them away.”

  “What about your husband?” Greg asked with a smile. “Was it hard to drag him away from all the bikinis?”

  “You know it.” Janelle laughed loudly. “He was drooling as much as the baby half the time we were there. I told him to keep dreaming. Can you imagine? Him and his pasty white beer belly in his ten-year-old swim trunks.”

  The whole family laughed along with her. Parker shifted in her seat, slightly uncomfortable. She’d heard people talk like this, but usually those conversations took place in a bar, not a business meeting.

  Janelle settled into her seat. “Greg, I saw one of the lifts running this morning. That’s a good sign.”

  “Oh yeah, I know it runs, which is a step up on last year. We’ll start inspecting them this week before it gets too cold.”

  “What about you, Irene?” Emery asked. “How’s the licensing renewal coming for the daycare?”

  “So far so good. We’re up to code and three sitters are returning, so we know they’ll clear background checks. I’ve got some good applicants from the community college to fill the other slots. We’ll start bringing them in for interviews shortly.”

  Parker listened absently to the casual exchange between the older siblings of the Carson family for several minutes before she realized they weren’t just chatting. They had begun the actual meeting. She immediately put her pen to work, taking notes and trying to recall what had already been said. The tone of the conversation didn’t change whether they were t
alking about their brother-in-law on the beach or the renewal of their childcare license. Parker was more than a little disconcerted. She was good at her job, but she wasn’t the most adept at all this family-oriented banter, and the two seemed completely interwoven here.

  Janelle added, “My two shift managers are back in the kitchen, and I need to start reviewing applications for servers and cleanup staff. I plan to drop by the college and the high school later this week and put ads in the newspaper.”

  “What about the county food inspectors?”

  “Oh, I’ll call Don in a week or two and have him come out after I’ve given the kitchen a good scrub.”

  “Have Dahlia and Juan help. I don’t want you doing it all by yourself,” Emery said, sounding more like a brother than a boss.

  Parker had no idea who Don, Dahlia, or Juan was, but everyone else seemed to, so she didn’t want to interrupt. She was successful in any job because she learned as much as she could about every aspect of the business, not just the parts she was directly responsible for. She would have to approach this resort as a student would a textbook.

  “What about you, Uncle Emery, how’s the lodge looking?” Campbell asked. Her uncle oversaw all of the lodging, including the conference facilities, the housekeeping staff, and the general upkeep of the main lodge and cabins. It was the first time she had spoken since the meeting started, and the sound of her voice almost startled Parker.

  “Well, I guess since everyone else is hiring, I’d better get a jump on the cleaning staff. We’ll start getting reservations for Christmas anytime now, so I’ll start working on the rentals, checking fireplaces and plumbing and whatnot.”

  “Cam and I are in the same boat,” Sammy added. “We have to get in touch with lift staff and ski instructors, but we won’t be able to start training for a while.”

  “Sounds good,” Emery said. “Anything else?”

  Everyone stared at Parker expectantly, and she froze. It wasn’t that she didn’t have anything to say. She had too much to say, and her brain jammed with the weight of the presentation she had worked on for days. She had prepared charts and graphs and projections and a formal speech. She wore a business suit and low heels. Now she had to quickly reassess the formality of the situation while they all stared at her.

  “You need more women,” she blurted.

  Everyone chuckled.

  “I’ve been telling them that for years,” Sammy said. “Whatever you have planned, count me and Campbell in.”

  Campbell scowled at her brother, and Parker’s heart beat faster. Campbell and Sammy were interested in getting more women to the mountain? Did that mean Campbell was gay? Why hadn’t she picked up on that possibility sooner? Campbell had been playing softball the first time she saw her, and she was so sexy in those tight white baseball pants. Surely that was a sign. She grinned in spite of herself at the stereotype she had just used.

  Quickly she realized she had lost her train of thought and shifted her attention to the situation at hand. As she passed around the packet of graphs and charts she had printed for everyone, she tried not to pay attention to their bemused expressions.

  “I could go through each of these, but basically your local demographics show that only children, college students, and men in the twenty to forty-five age and thirty-five to fifty-five thousand dollar income range buy season passes. You’re missing a major portion of the population—adult women.”

  Parker paused. “You could boost your pass holders by as much as twenty percent if you find a way to tap into that market.”

  Emery pulled his reading glasses from the front pocket of his flannel shirt and slipped them on. He flipped through the packet of information. “Well, don’t stop now. You’re on a roll.”

  “Women stop coming to the resort when they start having children. Obviously women stop skiing because they don’t have the time or resources.”

  Irene and Janelle both nodded, seeming to immediately understand where she was going.

  “We ought to offer a women’s special one day a week.” Parker paused again and studied the expressions of the people around her.

  “We’d offer free childcare for any woman who has a lift ticket,” Irene said.

  “And maybe a discount for lessons,” Campbell added.

  Parker smiled. They might be casual business people, but they were still business people.

  Greg cleared his throat. “This is a pretty major decision to make so soon.”

  Parker regarded him carefully. “It’s all in the numbers here. You’re maxed out on men and children. If you want to increase your business, you need to target women.”

  “I hear what you’re saying, but it’ll take a lot of work and money to try a program like this. We’ll have to advertise heavily and hire extra employees on your ladies’ days in hopes that housewives really have some hidden desire to be downhill skiers.” Greg sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “That’s a lot of time, money, and manpower for something I doubt local gals would even be interested in.”

  “I assume you took all this into account in your cost-benefit analysis?” Emery asked.

  “Absolutely. The bulk of your net income comes from lift tickets. Childcare, lodging, and food sales just have to break even.”

  “And having mothers and children on the mountain for an extra day will keep the concessions busy,” Janelle said.

  Greg shook his head. “I have a hard time believing all these women want to ski and we haven’t heard anything about it until now.”

  “Maybe that’s because no one ever thought to ask them,” Parker said, trying to force a smile. “That’s what you’re paying me for.”

  Emery offered a compromise. “I think it’s worth looking into. Let’s give it a shot on a trial basis, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll cut it.”

  Greg threw up his hands. “Fine, just so long as it doesn’t come out of my budget.”

  “Point taken,” Emery said, then turned to Parker. “This is your baby. Get the word out and make it fit into the budget, and you can do whatever you want.”

  With that, everyone began to get up and leave. Parker was packing her briefcase, and when she finished, she and Emery were the only ones left.

  “Good job today,” he said.

  “Thanks. I’m glad you approve, but I don’t think everyone shares your opinion.”

  Emery chuckled. “Don’t mind Greg. He’s the oldest and the most stuck in his ways. He wasn’t quite sold on hiring a marketing person, so he’ll probably be slow to agree to new marketing ideas. But he’ll come around when we show him your idea is good for the mountain. We’re a big family. Have you ever met a family that agrees on everything all the time?”

  “I’ll just have to let the results prove me right on this one,” Parker replied resolutely. She might not know much about skiing, but she trusted the numbers.

  “Good. Now, is everything else okay?” Emery asked, switching gears. “Are you getting to know folks around here?”

  “Everyone has been wonderful. The lack of bookkeeping has been frustrating, but the staff has been helping me fill in the blanks.”

  “Glad to hear it.” Emery nodded in approval. “But there’s more to life than work. Are you enjoying yourself at all?”

  They started walking down the hallway toward Parker’s office, continuing their conversation.

  “I’ve been so busy with work and unpacking that I haven’t had time for much else, but I am enjoying the job. You don’t have to worry about me.” Parker didn’t feel ready to discuss her social life, or lack thereof, with her boss, even if she did feel connected to him in ways she couldn’t quite put into words.

  “Well, all the same, maybe you should call Sammy or Campbell and go out this weekend. You deserve a break.”

  Parker paused at the mention of Campbell, reflecting on the meeting and Sammy’s comments. Campbell hadn’t seemed pleased at being outed, but she had remained silent, as she always did.

  P
arker decided to take a chance and probe deeper. “Sammy’s been great about checking up on me. Campbell is a lot quieter, though. She doesn’t talk much, does she?”

  Emery stopped, his quizzical gaze a little unsettling as he seemed to hear more to the question than she had spoken. “She certainly was quiet today, now that you mention it, but usually, no. She’s only been back on the mountain six months, but she’s always been outgoing. Hell, when she was little, you couldn’t get her to shut up.”

  Parker forced a smile as she reached her office door. “Okay, I was just wondering.”

  “Well, like I said, have some fun this weekend.” And with that he was gone.

  Parker walked over to the window. She should be thrilled. Her first proposal had just been approved, even if only on a trial basis. This new project would be a challenge, which she usually thrived on. She had so much to do, so many details to bring into focus. So why was she thinking about Campbell, who was apparently an outgoing lesbian? How had she missed that?

  Chapter Four

  Campbell’s skis cut through the fresh powder so deep in places that she could make out only the tips of her old Rossignols as they parted the surface. Occasionally she saw her breath, a translucent cloud blowing back into her face as she sliced down the side of the mountain. She didn’t feel the cold, just an overwhelming sense of invigoration. Slowly the image faded, along with the feeling of movement, and finally when all sense of the experience was gone, she opened her eyes.

  She had been back at Bear Run for half a year now, though it hardly seemed that long. The first few months had passed in a haze, days spent rehashing her decision to leave and replaying every fight she and Lynn had ever had. Almost from the very beginning of their relationship a pattern had emerged. Their core values had always been different. Lynn was driven, self-possessed, and thrived in go-it-alone battles. Campbell, on the other hand, needed to feel connected, wanted to be tied to something outside herself, and loved being part of a family. She hoped Lynn would come to appreciate those connections as well. She knew Lynn didn’t see herself as a mother, but deep down Campbell hoped she would embrace the idea as she settled down and aged. Now she realized she had always wanted Lynn to grow into someone she wasn’t. It had been as unfair to try and change Lynn as it had been for Lynn to try to keep her away from the people and places she loved.