Built and Bearded: Bearded Bros Series Page 2

  I’d thought about moving to the city, but I knew that I’d eventually regret it. I wasn’t an every day, hustle and bustle kind of girl. I liked the quiet and coziness of a small town.

  But this resort had a beautiful setting. I could see why the bride and groom chose it. Pine trees and snow-covered mountain peaks loomed in every direction. From the pictures, I could see a blue, shimmering river in the valley below.

  I clicked on the “About Us” button and looked at the family photo that took up most of the page. Wow! What a good-looking family, I thought. A big one too. It looked like the resort was run by four brothers and their mother.

  There was a link to a short bio for each family member. I clicked through each of the brothers and read.

  God, what hunks! I thought as I studied the pictures of the four brothers.

  Big, handsome, muscular mountain men!

  If that doesn’t say enough. And real mountain men, not the imposter models that you see on Pinterest.

  I had noted that the first two, Brad and Cole Hunter, were married with children. Harley Hunter was the next bio that read. A striking specimen of a man. Not married it appeared, but not my type exactly either.

  Next, I took a look at Dax Hunter. Now, this is a man! Strong. Built. Gorgeous. Just my type. I felt a tingle in my groin.

  Stop it, Oakley. I wasn’t going on a blind date! This was a job; a very serious job. In fact, the most important gig of my career. The press was going to be there! I nearly jumped up and down and squealed just thinking of what the publicity was going to do for my business!

  Again, a huge wave of excitement washed over me. I couldn’t wait. I needed this event to go perfectly, and I promised myself that it would.

  Taking a notepad and pen out of my desk drawer, I clicked out of the Hunter Mountain Ski Resort website and opened the spreadsheet that Congresswoman Stone’s secretary had sent me.

  Time to get serious.

  Dax

  Yesterday, my day had been filled with talking with reporters who had called up the resort for interviews. It seemed that as soon as Brad had agreed to host the event, the Congresswoman’s office had released the date and location to the press.

  Today, I had an early morning meeting with the local news channel. They wanted an in-person interview and to get some shots of the venue and scenery. This wedding was really turning out to be a big deal.

  Apparently, I had missed the popular TV show starring our bride and groom. The first reporter was appalled to hear that I didn’t know a thing about the show. What did she think that I did all day, anyway? So, I began to lie and told the other reporters that I was, of course, a big fan.

  My phone rang well into the evening, and with the early morning meeting, I was pretty tired. But there was no time to rest. I had to get our own message out to our followers. This was a big deal for the resort and I had to brag about it on social media. Plus, I needed to write up a decent article for our blog. I was hoping to send one over to the local newspapers as well. The more coverage, the better.

  My first task was to figure out who these people were. Lying to the reporters was one thing, but to write my posts, I had to know who I was writing about.

  First, I watched an episode of Bethany and Jackson’s reality TV show. How stupid! But it gave me a glimpse of who they were, and why the fans liked them so much. Next, I looked up Noel Stone and her husband, Peter Stone. Cooper Stone was the groom’s younger brother. I made notes of likes and dislikes as well as personalities based on other articles on the family.

  But what about that wedding planner who I was stuck working with? What was her name again? I had to glance at my notebook.

  Oakley Padin. I imagined her to be somewhat of a hag. A no-nonsense, knit-picking, old woman who would be bossing me around all damn week. To tell you the truth, I was dreading her arrival.

  I decided that I should include some details about her in my article anyway. She must be a good wedding planner if the family chose her. I was sure they had tons of options to choose from.

  I Googled Oakley Padin Wedding Planning and the page popped up. The main page showed a lot of wedding pictures of the brides mostly. Walking down the aisles, cutting the cakes, dancing with the grooms. The guests were all smiles. They were nice pictures, really.

  I searched for the “About Us” button. All businesses should have one. The page loaded and I was shocked.

  The woman who stared back at me was not only young, but hot as hell.

  She was wearing a dark business suit that was stylish and sexy. The suit hugged her luscious curves perfectly. Her intense copper colored hair was up in a stylish bun and r radiant blue eyes stared back at me.

  Not my type at all, but still hotter than I’d seen in a long time. My usual good-time girl had teased blonde hair and wore miniskirts and halter tops that showed off their big fake tits.

  As I read her information, her story intrigued me. She had built her business from the ground up. That was impressive.

  There was something about this woman that struck a chord in me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but her image was burned into my brain.

  I can work with this, I thought.

  That night, I had a date with Traci. She liked to call herself my girlfriend despite how many times I told her she wasn’t.

  I was nowhere near ready to settle down yet or anything.

  But Traci was fun to hang out with. She liked to party, just like me, and she was down to fuck as often as I wanted to. Which was a lot.

  I met Traci at Blue Haven’s local watering hole and we had a few beers. For some reason though, I couldn’t get my mind off of the wedding planner.

  “You wanna play some pool?” Traci was asking me.

  My mind was elsewhere. On Oakley Padin to be exact.

  “Earth to Dax.” Traci waved her hand in front of my face.

  “Oh, sorry, what?” I asked, blinking back into the present.

  “A game of pool?” she repeated, getting annoyed with me.

  I kind of just stared at her. Not on purpose. I didn’t know what was wrong with me.

  “Where is your mind tonight, Dax?” Traci asked me, frowning. “I know what you need; a shot of tequila.” She put up her arm to get the bartender’s attention.

  “No. To tell you the truth, I’m not feeling too good tonight,” I lied. “I think that I’m going to hit the road. I’ll give you a call and we can do this another night.”

  In reality, I just wanted to get the hell out of there and go look up Oakley Padin’s social media profiles. I was wondering who she was outside of her wedding planning business.

  Did she let her hair down? How long was it? In my mind, I saw her in a tight-fitting party dress. I imagined her copper-toned hair falling over her exposed cleavage. My dick got hard instantly.

  Traci’s frown got bigger as she watched my face. I hoped that she didn’t notice my boner.

  I grimaced.

  Traci raised an eyebrow at me in question but cooed, “Oookaay. I’ll take a rain check.” She caressed my bicep. “I know that you will make it up to me,” giving me her sexiest look.

  “Sure,” I said and put on my jacket. “See you later.”

  Traci leaned in for a kiss, but I pretended to not notice and turned and walked out of the bar.

  Once outside, I hurried to my truck, hoping that Traci wouldn’t follow me to the parking lot. I was sure that she was pissed off. I was not being my usual self.

  Oh, well. All I wanted to do was to get home and find out if Oakley Padin was single or not. What the hell had gotten into me?

  Oakley

  Today was the day. I’d been nervous all week about this event. It was, for sure, the biggest wedding of my career. If it went well, my career would be written in stone. If it didn’t, well let’s just say that the negative publicity would destroy all the years of my success in just one day.

  No, don’t think like that, I thought, taking one last look at my checklist. I had everything
that I needed. I’d asked again and again for the family’s wants and desires. I’d doubled checked with the bride and groom. Then I triple checked.

  I had this.

  I glanced out of the window, looking for Hailey’s car. She was picking me up for the airport. When I saw her white Honda pulling to the curb in the front of my house, I picked up my suitcase and travel bag and headed out to meet her.

  Hailey was grinning from ear to ear. Her long, dark-brown hair shined in the early day sunlight. Lovely green eyes beamed up at me.

  “Morning sweets,” I greeted her.

  “Morning, yourself,” she answered, waiting for me to throw in my bags and put on my seatbelt. Then, we were off to the airport.

  “You look nervous,” Hailey observed, smiling over at me.

  “I am,” I replied.

  “You have no reason to be nervous,” she said soothingly. “This might be the biggest wedding of your career, but you’ve handled some pretty epic ones already, you know?”

  “I do. I’ve planned weddings three times as big as this one. But you know I’m Nervous Nelly. I’ll be okay once we get there and get the ball rolling.”

  “Yep,” Hailey nodded in agreement. “And, I got your back, Oakley. You have nothing to worry about,” she insisted.

  “I know. Thanks, Hailey. I’m so glad that we work together,” I said, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves.

  The plane left as scheduled and so far, so good. I still had some worries and I guess that it showed because I looked over to catch Hailey watching me.

  She smiled. “What is it?”

  “I was just thinking about the family who runs the resort. A lot of times, family-run businesses are stuck in their ways. They’ve hosted lots of weddings that they’ve set up and maybe even planned themselves. What if they’re difficult to work with or won’t listen to me?” I expressed my concerns to Hailey.

  “I don’t think that you have to worry about that,” Hailey replied, pulling out her laptop. “Have you checked out the resort’s social media pages and blog recently?” she asked me.

  “No,” I admitted. “I’ve been focused on making sure that I got down what the family wants. I mean, I did look up their website the first night to check them and their place out. But not since then. They have a blog?”

  “Yes, a well-written blog. And social media pages with lots of followers. They are very active with it,” Hailey stated.

  She pulled up their blog page and I read it over. I was relieved to read only positive comments about the upcoming event. They even mentioned me in a positive light. All of my credentials were listed as well, making me look extremely professional.

  One statement read, “Oakley Padin, a popular up and coming wedding planner, who specializes in outdoor weddings, events, and activities, is sure to make this one of our most successful weddings to date.”

  I smiled.

  “See?” Hailey asked.

  “Yeah, I’m so relieved. Who wrote that?” I wondered.

  “It says that all of the posts are written and posted by Dax Hunter. He’s the resort’s Social Media and Advertising Manager.

  “Dax Hunter, eh?” I repeated, surprised to hear his name.

  “Yeah, why? You know who I’m talking about?” Hailey asked.

  “I remember looking up his bio. Well, I looked up all their bios, haven’t you?” I asked her.

  I’d be surprised if she said no.

  “Yes, I have to admit that I did. And what did you think of the Hunter brothers?” she asked me, grinning.

  “They’re hot. Sexy mountain man hot. That’s why I didn’t go back to the webpage. And, the crazy thing is, I thought that Dax Hunter was the sexiest man that I’ve ever seen.”

  There, I said it. Might as well get it off of my chest.

  Hailey chuckled. “Ever? Oh, boy. We’re in for a ride.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Too bad, it has to be all work and no play.”

  Hailey raised an eyebrow at me. She turned her face to the window and I saw her smile to herself.

  We arrived at the Colorado airport as scheduled. After retrieving our bags, we went toward the exit to look for our ride.

  As promised, a man was standing there holding up a sign which read “Padin” on it.

  “There’s our ride,” I informed Hailey, pointing at the man.

  “Oh, yeah. And look who it is.”

  I hadn’t noticed at first glance; I was too worried about finding our sign. But when I looked at the man’s face, instantly recognized him as Dax Hunter.

  I gasped. Oh no. I wasn’t prepared to meet him right away like this.

  I saw Hailey beaming at me before she strode off in his direction. I took a deep breath and followed in pursuit.

  Just act normal, Oakley, I told myself. All work and no play, I reminded my tingling naughty parts.

  We reached Dax and he put out his hand in a greeting. We both took turns shaking his hand. His grasp was warm and sturdy; soft to the touch. His ocean blue eyes were as clear as crystals and I couldn’t look away.

  Our hands remained clasped for longer than a normal handshake, but neither of us noticed as we gazed into each other’s eyes.

  “Hi, I’m Dax Hunter,” he introduced himself to me. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Oakley Padin. Likewise,” I answered.

  He released his strong grip and offered to take our bags, his eyes still on mine. We agreed, and I forced myself to look away to head toward the door.

  Dax led us to his car parked in the airport’s front parking area. He fumbled with the keys as if he wasn’t sure which button unlocked the doors.

  Beep, Beep. “There we go. Sorry ladies, I borrowed my sister-in-law’s car to pick you up. My truck would be too uncomfortable.”

  Hailey and I politely smiled and waited as Dax put our suitcases and bags into the trunk of the car and then came around to open the doors for us. Once we were situated, we began the scenic drive back to the resort.

  I sat in the front seat beside Dax and couldn’t help but to glance over at him. He was much more handsome in person. And those biceps! Even though he had on a jacket, his huge arms were almost bulging through the fabric.

  If his biceps were that toned, I tried to imagine what the rest of his body looked like. Rock hard, I was certain. He turned his head in my direction to make a turn and I quickly looked away. I didn’t want him to catch me checking him out.

  When I looked back, his eye caught mine and he grinned at me. When he smiled, his entire face lit up and his sexy blue eyes seemed to look right into my soul.

  I inhaled sharply and tried to recover by offering a return smile. I was going to be in trouble if I kept this up. I needed to keep in mind that I wasn’t here to socialize. Even with the hottest man on the planet giving me the eye.

  I was relieved when we finally arrived at the resort. The only solution that I could see was to keep my distance from Dax. I would need to avoid him at all costs. Or I was going to end up jumping his bones.

  “Here you go,” Dax said, pulling the car up in front of a lovely rustic cabin. “This cabin is where you two will be staying. There are other guests here for the weekend, but starting next Wednesday, the Stones have this entire row of cabins rented for their family.

  “Okay, thanks. This is great,” I replied, happily.

  Even though the cabin was situated along a road with another four cabins, each one was surrounded by thick pine trees and had their own small lot, making them each a secluded retreat.

  “We have a dinner buffet every evening from four to seven in the main building that we passed on the way here. It’s just a short walk, but if you want a ride, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I’ll be your main contact this week. Whatever help you need, I’m your man,” Dax informed us, flashing his sexy grin.

  Oh, for fuck sake. There went my plan of staying away from him all week.

  I’m sure my face expressed my concern because Dax’s smile faded and was replaced with his
own concerned look.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  I quickly recovered, embarrassed that I’d shown any emotion at all. I was supposed to be a professional who could work with anyone.

  “Yes, I’m sorry. I was just thinking that I might have forgotten something. Everything is great,” I lied, forcing my best, most professional smile.

  “Okay,” Dax said, wrinkling his brow. He reached into his pocket and handed me his business card. “This is my cell number. Call anytime, day or night.”

  “Thank you,” I said on a positive note. “It’s a nice afternoon. I think we can walk over to dinner.”

  “Nice to take in the scenery,” Dax added. “I’m not sure if you will have time for any recreation, but we have several nice hiking trails and skiing, of course.”

  “Cool. Maybe we will have some time after we get all the arrangements taken care of,” I answered, glancing back at Hailey. She nodded. “We need to get started in the morning, though. We have to order the flowers and plan the menu first thing,” I informed Dax.

  “Sure thing,” Dax agreed. “Give me a call in the morning and we’ll get started. There are several local flower shops that we’ve used to order fresh flower arrangements from for our other events. We’ve never been disappointed. And our Head Chef, Michael Monroe, is award-winning. Satisfaction guaranteed,” he replied.

  “Sounds great. And, yes, the Stones want to use your chef for all of the catering. He has so many raving reviews,” I said, relaxing some now.

  Talking with Dax was easy enough, so that was a good thing. I could have ended up with some hard-headed old man. I figured that Dax would work with me, not against me.

  I can do this, I told myself. I just needed to stay focused. If I remembered the task at hand, there wouldn’t be any issues to worry about.

  Dax helped Hailey and me carry our bags inside the cabin. Before leaving us, he turned back and gave me a broad grin. I smiled and nodded back. When he closed the door behind him, I noticed that I was twirling my hair.