Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [45]
“Sage.”
“Gabe. How are you?”
He shrugged, taking the chair across from her. “That depends on you. I understand you met with John Landmark this morning and suggested an idea that may cause a delay in the completion of Eden.”
Sage swallowed. Gabe hadn’t wasted any time and had gone directly into the reason for their meeting. For that she should have been grateful and not feeling an unexplainable loss. “Yes,” she said, trying to put a level of excitement into her voice, although she definitely sensed his displeasure. “Did he tell you about it?”
Gabe nodded, not taking his gaze off hers. “Yes, he told me about the dinner theater.”
She smiled wryly, hoping some of her seemingly good mood would rub off on him. “So, what do you think?”
“I think your company dropped the ball, and now they’ve picked a hell of a fine time to decide that this is what Eden needs. Something like that should have been discussed in the planning stages and not after my men have laid the foundation to begin work.”
Sage nodded, knowing he was partly right. The individuals who had been part of the Denmark marketing team to submit the original proposal hadn’t necessarily dropped the ball by not coming up with the idea of the dinner theater, but they had lacked the vision she had for Eden. As a way to put her troubles behind her, she had immediately become enmeshed in the project as soon as she’d been selected to come to Anchorage. The key was to not make Eden comparable to the other resorts she had visited, but to make it better. There were many other ideas she and her team had come up with, but the one involving the theater was the only one that entailed major structural changes.
“Does it matter at this point, Gabe? I think the most important thing is to do whatever it will take to make Eden the ski resort all of us want it to be. I’m not willing to settle for second best. I want the best. And I think that you do, too. I’ve visited other ski resorts and seen some of the things they lack. Those are the things I want for Eden.”
Sage stopped talking when a waiter came up to see if Gabe wanted something to drink. He declined anything. When the waiter walked off, Gabe leaned back in his chair. “That’s all well and good, Sage, but did you give any consideration to my work crew?”
Sage lifted a brow bemusedly. “Your work crew?”
“Yes. What your company is proposing will result in my men staying in Anchorage longer than scheduled, possibly four to six weeks longer. Some, but not all, brought their families with them. What about those that didn’t? They are as anxious to get back to their loved ones as the next person … except maybe for you.”
Sage flinched. “What are you trying to say?” she asked in quiet anger, knowing she’d been a target and his words a direct hit.
Gabe leaned in close so only she could hear his words. “I don’t know what happened between you and your fiancé, and frankly, I don’t give a damn, since chances are the two of you will eventually kiss and make up. But I do care that you are using your move to Anchorage to give the guy a chance to miss you and straighten up and fly right. My men didn’t come to Anchorage to escape their problems. They have a job to do, and they also have people they’re eager to return home to. I personally don’t appreciate you not considering them with your whim to make your fiancé suffer by deliberately finding ways to extend your stay in Anchorage.”
Sage struggled to fight back the tears that weighed heavily in the back of her eyes. How dare he say such things to her. How dare he question her work ethics! “You think you have me and my situation all figured out, don’t you? Well, you’re so totally wrong about the situation involving my ex-fiancé and me, especially the notion of us getting back together, that it’s pathetic. It’s also none of your business.” She stood after throwing enough money on the table to cover the cost of the two cups of coffee she’d consumed.
“But then, I should have expected something