Page 64 of Never Finished

I smiled at her fondly. "I'm excited about it, too. You and Caroline will hit it off with his sisters and," I drew out the word, "that means you would have even more friends if you were to, you know… move to Silverpine permanently."

Abby rolled her eyes. "Not this again, Emma. Look, I know this is your home, and it's lovely to visit, but you’re talking to a hard-core SoCal girl. Are you seriously trying to convince me that snowy winters are a good thing? How am I supposed to acclimate to this?"

"Easy. One Christmas in the snowy mountains, and you'll be hooked, believe me. Call me selfish, but I want you here and you both have been saying you need a fresh start. Plus, it will give you some much space you've been saying you need from your mother."

Abby growled. "Don't even get me started with her. She's hard to deal with on a good day, and now that it’s election season… she’s damn near unbearable. If you think she's going to let me go anywhere during an election year, you’re out of your mind."

"Okay," I said, "I’ll pester you again in six months."

She rolled her eyes. "Why don't you focus on Caroline? You have a better shot at getting her to move out here."

I wasn't sure about that. Caroline had gone back to her soul sucking job in LA. She insisted she valued the security of being an employee over the uncertainty of starting her own firm.

But she has been waffling since. She toyed with the idea of opening her own consulting firm, but something was holding her back. I felt like I was wearing her down to come work for Pine Crest, but I could tell there was a part of her that didn’t like the appearance of nepotism, even though she was the most qualified candidate I knew for the job.

Besides, the current CFO of Pine Crest was an old pal of my father. He'd been grumbling about retirement, and I would be happy to get him out of here. It was time for a new guard in the C-suite, one that stood a more ethical ground.

"Where is Caroline anyway? She knows we have to leave soon," Abby grumbled, checking her watch.

"She told me a couple of hours ago she was going for a walk."

Abby stopped, looking at me with wide eyes. "A walk? Our Caroline?"

I laughed. "She said she wanted to check out the park after seeing all the improvements we made after the ribbon-cutting yesterday. Plus, I suggested it was a good way to clear her head."

Abby nodded. "I wonder how many walks it's going to take for her to figure out she needs to quit that job."

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head, "but I hope she comes to that conclusion soon. I hate seeing her so unhappy."

"Seeing who unhappy?" Caroline said, breezing back through the hotel door.

She was slightly out of breath and her hair was disheveled and… "Caroline? Are those twigs in your hair?"

She looked at me, startled. "Uh, maybe. Why?"

"Did you get into it with a bear out there or something?" Abby teased.

A smile overtook Caroline's lips. "You could say that," she said, picking twigs out of her hair. "I apologize for being late. Let me go clean up and then we can be on our way, ladies."

"Caroline? Why do you look like you just took a tumble in the hay?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I don't know what you're talking about… now taking a tumble in the dirt… maybe against a tree? That’s a whole other matter."

"Wait. What? With who?" Abby gasped.

Caroline grinned at us. "That's the beauty of it. I have no clue. He was big, he was hot, and it was amazing."

Abby and I had a plethora of questions, namely how Caroline went for a walk in the woods and ended up getting fucked against a tree.

"Look, before you guys start mothering me, I can assure you I was safe and no plant life was harmed," she said, pointing to me. "We might've traumatized a few squirrels that were watching but it's nature, so it's natural, right? "

Abby and I looked at each other in shock. This was Caroline, our buttoned-up Caroline admitting to having sex in the woods.

We followed her into the bathroom as she fixed her hair.

"I have so many questions," Abby said, as we helped Caroline put herself back together to get ready for dinner.

On the ride to Maria's house, we got quite the story.