Ty groaned. “You don’t have savings because you send it all to your sisters.”
She turned. “What am I supposed to do, Ty? I’m the oldest. My brothers send back everything they can to me and I buy things for the girls. If I send it to my dad…”
“He’ll buy whatever will get him the highest,” Ty finished.
“The girls have two years of high school left,” she explained. She’d thought a lot about this. Her sisters were fraternal twins and the last of her siblings. Her dad wasn’t known for being responsible, but at least his girlfriend the last several years hadn’t gotten pregnant and didn’t hurt the girls. Mandy wasn’t the nicest of women, but she made sure the girls had dinner at night and got to school on time.
“And then you’ll worry about how to pay for college.” Ty’s jaw clenched. “You didn’t get to go to college, Luce.”
She wasn’t sure what his point was. “So they shouldn’t go either?” She stopped because she wasn’t sure why they were having this fight. “Look, hopefully this job at the resort works out. It’s a supervisor role and a lot more money.”
“And you can live on property,” Ty pointed out.
She wasn’t sure about that. Ty lived on property. He had one of the single units that housed part of the resort’s staff. Though calling it a single unit didn’t mean only Ty was there. She’d heard he had lots of visitors. Women. Women he slept with. Yeah, she wasn’t sure she was ready to see that. It was screwed up because she’d given up on Ty romantically long ago, but she worried it would still hurt to see him with all those women. “We’ll see.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. I worry about you.” Ty unzipped his jacket and set it on the counter next to the deep freeze. “I don’t want to fight. I hate fighting with you. Please let me know if your sisters need anything. I want to help. And you know my mom stops by out there. She dropped off a casserole the other day.”
Because his mom was one of the wonderful people in the world. “I’ll thank her when I see her next. So you want to surprise River and Jax with a welcome home party? I think that might be fun. But I’m not letting you order the cake or you’ll spell his name J-e-x or J-u-x.”
“Or S-u-x.” Ty’s grin lit up the room. “I’m joking. I like him. He’s a good guy. I’m happy he’s coming back and we can get Mountain Adventures up and running again. I missed having a third job. But I was kind of hoping the idea was my main contribution. You know I really would screw up ordering the cake. This is one of those things I was hoping you would run with. I am very good at following your instructions.”
She’d been joking about the cake. Ty had many skills. Party planning wasn’t one of them. “I can do that. You deal with making a great playlist and helping me make sure the cabin’s ready for them when they finally get home.”
She’d been staying in River’s cabin the whole time River had been gone, making sure everything was maintained properly. It had been a godsend since it happened around the time her old roommate had upped her rent and her sisters had wanted to join the marching band. She’d saved a lot of money by staying at River’s. Ty had come over to help with maintenance more than once. He’d helped her make sure the place was ready for winter and often brought by one of his mom’s casseroles since he couldn’t eat it all by himself. He had no idea how those shared meals often were the only dinner or lunch she had.
Had she sat with him and pretended they were in their own cabin? That would be ridiculous.
Only once or twice.
Ty nodded. “Will do.” He glanced back toward the dining room. “Are you sure you should be alone with that guy? What do we know about him?”
He was so careful when it came to her. Sometimes she wondered if he thought she couldn’t take care of herself. Of course she’d been the one to go out with the crazy cult leader, so he might have a point. “Van is cool. You haven’t worked with him? He’s got a job at the lodge, too.”
“I don’t hang out in the bar much,” he admitted. “He’s only been around for six weeks. I was surprised Zane hired him. He’s usually more careful.”
“I think he’s got ties to Henry’s old friends, and that means he’s been thoroughly vetted.” Henry’s old friends had turned out to be ex-CIA, so they ranked high on the paranoid scale. They also had resources by which to vet people that didn’t involve beets, so she thought she could trust them.