Only a Secret: A grumpy/sunshine, age gap romantic comedy

Contents Cover Title Page Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Epilogue Also by Delancey Stewart Copyright Cover Title Page Beginning Also by Delancey Stewart Copyright 
 
 
 
 
 Only a Secret
 
 Kasper Ridge, Book 3
 
 
 
 
 Delancey Stewart
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter One
 
 Leaving Sasquatch in the Lurch
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HARRISON
 
 
 “Sasquatch, hit that thing again for me.” I dropped the walkie-talkie to my side and watched with satisfaction as the chair lift in front of me hummed back to life, the four-man chairs gliding smoothly through the bottom station, pausing where riders would get on, and then swooping away up the hill toward the top, where Sasquatch stood at the other set of controls.
 “Looking good, man.” His voice came through the speaker at my side and I picked it up to respond.
 “It better. Cost a fortune and the tramway inspector’s coming sometime this week.” We’d ended up putting in a new ski lift with the help of a couple installation engineers. The old ski lift I’d been trying to bring back to life for the opening winter season at the Kasper Ridge Resort was an antique.
 I’d finally convinced Ghost, the resort owner and my old Navy buddy, that springing for a modern system would pay off in the long run. A tough call, since the Resort was running completely in the red after a speedy renovation and ahead of its first real season, but it did give us two operational lifts—this one, and another at a halfway point that opened up another few runs from the top.
 The construction crews had cleared and graded runs below the lift lines. All in all, it had not been cheap, but there’d be skiing when the place opened in November, and in Colorado, that meant people and money.
 “I’m coming down.” Sass’s voice held a familiar note of joviality, one that typically meant trouble.
 “Sass, no, do not jump on one of those—” I didn’t have to finish the warning. Sasquatch had clearly hurled all two-hundred-plus pounds of himself onto a chair at the top of the lift, and I could hear his victory cry echoing down the mountainside.
 He’d better not do that shit when the inspector was here.
 As he came into view about ten minutes later, I watched him approach the station. The guy was always pulling pranks, making jokes. Even when we’d flown together back in the Navy, he often took things a bit too lightly for my liking. Flying a jet was life and death. Maybe a ski lift wasn’t quite as high stakes as the F-18, but it still paid to follow the rules.
 My oversized friend was still hooting and hollering as the chair brought him closer to the ground, and I decided I’d better give him a quick talking to. We’d be operating for real soon, with guests and impromptu inspections. There was no room for this bullshit. I switched off the motor and watched him swing to a stop, still a decent height in the air.
 “Hey!” He called down. “Brainiac, your lift quit.”
 “Yeah, I stopped it,” I yelled back up. Then I walked closer, so I didn’t have to raise my voice. “Listen up, Sass.”
 “Oh shit, I’m in trouble with the professor.” Sasquatch laughed to himself.
 “Just listen,” I suggested, looking up at his huge form, dangling overhead. “We’re about to bring on staff up here, and you need to be setting the right example. No one rides without an operator at each end. Not us, not the college kids who are gonna be working here this winter, not anyone. It’s dangerous, and pretty soon we’ll be subject to pop inspections.”
 “Right, right.” I didn’t think Sasquatch was really taking this seriously, given the grin he still wore.
 “Ghost is counting on this.” It was a low blow, but I knew it would wipe that grin off Sasquatch’s face.
 He immediately looked regretful. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. He needs this to work.”
 “He does. We all do. But especially Ghost.” I didn’t have to say more. Sasquatch knew the story. We’d all been looking out for our friend a little bit since he’d lost his flight status and been discharged after the investigation into the mishap that ended his military career. It had shaken him. Hell, it would have shaken anyone.
 “I get the message, man,” Sasquatch called as I turned and headed back to the lift station.
 “Good.” I called back, grabbing my walkie-talkie from the console and securing the station for the night. It was time for dinner, and I was starving. I headed toward the big patio at the back of the resort, the others were lighting the big fire pit.
 “Hey!” Sass called from behind me.
 The weather was good, and I figured he could jump from there if he got really desperate. He wasn’t more than ten feet up.
 “Hey!”
 “You gonna leave him there?” Aubrey, Ghost’s sister, asked, glancing past me at the hulking figure on the bottom of the chair lift.
 “Till he learns his lesson.” I gave her a grin and headed inside to get dinner.
 When I returned to the fire pit, a plate full of smoked ribs in my hand and my stomach growling in anticipation, Sasquatch was ambling across the patio, grinning.
 “Thanks a lot for that, man. Nothing like a little parkour before dinner.” He poked me in the side, hard, but I held