“Great,” she muttered, then softened. “And thanks. I'll head out your way soon.”
“Hey, I'm sorry about Devin.”
If her jaw tightened any further, her teeth would snap. She shot me the coldest of glares, but I ignored it. Ellie was just like my dad, all bluster.
“Did you want something to drink?” she asked frostily. I headed for the hallway and called over my shoulder as I slipped to the back.
“Not today, thanks!”
The short hallway led to a pair of winding spiral stairs that the fire hadn't touched. From the loft came the low murmur of male voices. While I climbed, I forced my heart to slow and my mind to calm. If I wanted to take this opportunity, I had to be very careful, and very casual. I grabbed the newspaper that I'd balled up in my back pocket as I took the last few stairs.
When I reached the top, an open door into a brand new loft greeted me. Two brothers, equal in height, stood with their backs to me. Maverick, the one with the half-metal leg, stood on the right side of the room and studied paint cans with a tilted head. Benjamin, his younger brother, held a roller in his hands. Ben was tighter and more bound, like a fighter. His hair was cropped close to his face these days, but I'd seen it in between fights, when it was occasionally longer.
“Mav, you suck at colors,” Benjamin said. “What is fuschia anyway?”
“Shut up.”
The walls were half painted with primer already when I knocked on the door frame. “Interrupting anything?” I asked.
Mav glanced back and grinned. “Hey! Wondered where you've been.” Benjamin looked back when Mav smacked him in the arm. “Ben, this is Mark. He's the one that owns that summer camp I was telling you about.”
Ben nodded with a jerk of his head. “Good to meet you.” I returned it. Then I gestured to the loft and whistled low.
“Looking good, Mav.”
What had been a tiny attic room that Bethany and Lizbeth barely managed to live in had grown with the coffee shop. They'd renovated the Frolicking Moose to the side, adding a larger dining area as well as a back room for client meetings, parties, or book clubs. The attic followed suit, large enough they could rent it one day. Once Ellie moved out, I had no doubt they would.
“Thanks.” Mav set a hand on his waist. “Feels glacially slow getting it all finalized, but we'll get there. The plumbing up here has given us some issues, but I think I've gotten it all worked out now.”
“Now that you've got competent help, you mean.” I gestured to Ben with a tilt of my head. Ben snorted.
“How are things?” Mav asked. I didn't miss the undercurrent in his voice, but I did ignore it. Instead, I tossed the newspaper on the wooden floor and it hit with a satisfying slap.
“Just came to see if you needed some help.”
Benjamin shifted back a step and glanced at the newspaper, then me. No doubt he'd already seen the front page article of the county newspaper, but I did love an unforgettable entrance to make my point. Benjamin regarded the image of his face on the front cover, then looked at me in silent question.
“There are four women in the parking lot, by the way.” I gestured with my thumb. “They're pretending to be looking for a place to eat but I think they're waiting for you to come out. If you look closer to the hair salon, I recognize a reporter from Jackson City waiting in his car.”
Benjamin swore under his breath, shot Maverick a sharp glare, and turned back to the roller brush sticky with primer. Maverick sighed.
“I failed you, brother.” Maverick clapped Ben on the shoulder. “To be fair, you're the jackass that had to get famous. I really thought you'd be left alone here.”
Maverick confirmed my suspicions. Benjamin, three months away from his next fight, needed a place to train and prep. He needed a camp away from the distractions of life because he had sponsors to satisfy. No doubt he'd run to Pineville to hide away, but it wasn't working out so great.
“Maybe you can be left alone,” I drawled.
Maverick tensed slightly, no doubt anticipating my coming pitch. Like recognized like. While Maverick was years ahead of me in the business build-up, maintenance, and follow-through, I recognized myself in him all the same. In a near-perfect impression of his brother, Maverick half turned to me with a silent question on his face.
“You have a fight coming up,” I said to Benjamin. “But there's no place to really train here and there's certainly no privacy. Not with the space you need, anyway, because this fight is the career maker. You're either on top, or you're down, and your focus has to be absolute.”
“Tell it to me already,” Benjamin said, but he'd turned my way and crossed his arms across his chest. Like a freaking cobra, those arms. Perhaps my idea would be beneficial for everyone right now. Stella included.
“Adventura is out of the way, has space for you to train and fight that's winter proofed, and cabins for you to live in if you don't want to make the drive. The wifi is better than in town and there's no through road. I own, with my investor,” I quickly added when Maverick cleared his throat, “all the land around it except for what backs up to National Forest. No one comes out there.”
“You want me to move my entire camp out here to train before the fight?”
My heart hammered like a wild thing now because I at least had the instinct to know that this could close one of the biggest deals of my life. Not just in sheer timing—because it could save everything—but in reputation. Having Benjamin in my world would
