Page 11 of One Quick Obsession

If we wanted to, we would continue going in circles, and there would be no coming out of it. I ignored the little voice in my head telling me that my sister was right. That I probably should talk about it more. But it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

I quickly gathered my things, slid my feet into my heels that I knew Hudson hated, then made my way back into the kitchen. Everything was cleaned up, the lone glass in the dishwasher, and the kitchen looked sparkling. A note lay on the counter, and I swallowed hard, heart thudding.

S—

Love you. I’ll see you soon.

Remember, you are the light as well.

You deserve happiness.

L

I closed my eyes tightly, willing myself not to cry, before setting the note back on the counter. I patted the paper with two fingers, feeling lighter , and left any worries that I probably should focus on behind.

Luna hadn’t left for good—she’d probably only left the house to give me a moment. She would be back to gather her things and then head to Denver for work.

She didn’t teach on Mondays, at least not this semester, so she had been flexible in her down time. I was grateful for it because even though The Pantry, our local grocery store, and other places delivered, our mother still needed help.

I pulled out onto the road that surrounded the lake, passing the small houses of local residents that I had known for years. Airbnbs and other types of short-term rentals weren’t allowed inside town limits. There were town homes, cabins, and the resort for vacationers.

In order to stay in one of the homes in Cage Lake proper, you had to be a resident. Or call it a vacation home and use it as a vacation home personally. There were rentals within the community, but those were long-term rentals. For those Cage Lake residents just starting out or not wanting to own a home and all the issues that came with that responsibility.

I didn’t have many neighbors, however. Unlike some. I lived around the lake, where most of the Cages had homes of their own.

I also ignored my actual neighbor. Because it wasn’t as if I ever saw him these days. We had both made our stance firm. There was no need to be near one another or acknowledge each other’s existence. It was much better that way.

While I could have driven through town, down Main Street, or even to Aspen Creek and Champagne Peak, I went east, towards the resort.

Whenever the original Cages had founded the place, not that I wanted to know too much about that family history, they had taken the environment into consideration. Much like the current Cages, to be fair. The resort was off to the east and was the main draw of tourists to the area. There were homes along the resort where many of our employees lived, and it was surrounded by forests, and the large mountain of Champagne Peak. The place was known for its rolling hills and great skiing and snowboarding. I didn’t do either one of those often anymore. Mostly because I didn’t think my knees could handle it.

But there was a spa, and enough conference space that people could have weddings, events, and other types of conferences. And if I had my way, the Cages would allow me to do even more with it.

Hikers could go through any one of the numerous trails that began and ended at the resort, and we worked with the local authorities and rangers to keep everybody safe. I loved my job. I loved the views, the history, and working with countless little pieces to ensure that everything did what it was supposed to do.

Life didn’t work out the way it needed to. And my personal life clearly didn’t. So having my professional life succeed was the only thing that mattered, which meant I needed to get the Cages on board.

As manager, I wanted to upgrade Cage Resort. People loved the place already and came out in droves. However, I thought we could do better. There were a few upgrades that I wanted to do on the structure itself, a few housekeeping items, and I wanted to do a decent social media push for weddings and other high class events.

I had been working on a plan for months, and I knew if I just asked, they would probably let me. The Cages were nice, at least some of them, and they wanted the place to succeed.

I just knew that the family was going through its own issues recently, with the whole secret family thing, so asking them before hadn’t seen prudent.

I pulled into my parking space and made my way into the resort offices, speaking with my night crew team members one by one, as I said the goodbyes for the day. I was usually the first one there for my shift, and the last one to leave. But I was the boss, at least right below the Cages, so that was what I was supposed to do.

While I was the manager of the resort, I didn’t have the final say in things. That was Cage Enterprises. Flynn used to be the one who would come to town to work on any businesses that the Cages owned, which happened to be the majority of them.

Hence why they even had their name in most of the businesses.

The coffee place was named The Cage Bean. The bakery, Rise and Cage. The diner, Cage Free. And my favorite, the Italian restaurant, Cage Italiano. The latter made zero sense, and the recent crop of Cages hadn’t named any of them, but it still made my eyes roll to the back of my head.

When Hudson had moved to town after getting out of the military, or whatever else he had done, everybody thought he would be the one to take over for Flynn so they wouldn’t have to continually drive through the mountain pass.

Only that hadn’t happened.

Hudson wanted nothing to do with us. Fine by me. Dealing with that bearded growly man near my home and around town was enough. But then he’d stepped in a few times for Flynn, until Isabella had taken over. She had married Weston, a local, and now lived here half of the year. Meaning when Isabella was down in Denver, and Flynn couldn’t make it up, we still had to deal with Hudson.

That was fine. I’m an adult. And I didn’t need to think of him. I hated the fact that I kept thinking of him however. I refused to be weak. I refused to let anyone see that I could be.