Ben watched Maggie carefully, wondering what was going on behind those sharp green eyes. She seemed fierce, determined even, and that surprised Ben.

His mother jerked her head around and glared up at him, her shoulder-length, silvery blonde hair whipping around her face. The look that met Ben’s could have melted the snow-capped mountain outside. “Well?” she asked, hand on hip.

Oh yeah. There was no doubt, Ben was on his mother’s shit list for sure. Screw it. He was already there. Might as well get out what had to be said. “I’ve looked at the loan papers and your financial situation, Mom.”

This earned him a raised brow. “My financial situation?” She said slowly. Too slowly.

His brothers stepped back.

“Pansies,” he muttered under his breath. “Mom, this is important. There are covenants. Conditions you need to meet.” Ben needed Maggie and his mom to understand the loan wasn’t simply an issue of paying back the money over time.

“Ben, I appreciate your concern,” his mother began, “but we only need to pay the interest on the loan at the moment. We’re fine.”

“No, Mom—”

Maggie cut in, her voice cold and eyes flashing. “Do you mean the fixed coverage charge ratio, Ben?”

Ben blinked and turned to Maggie. “Uh…” What the hell? Now he felt like some high school idiot. Like the idiot he used to be in high school.

Maggie stood tall, shoulders thrown back, suddenly all business. “Meeting the covenants will be more of a challenge now without your father, but we’re prepared for that.”

As Maggie spoke, Ben could see his mother’s arm tighten around the small woman. It was clear who his mother was relying on now. Today was his father’s funeral and he was being an ass.

At the thought of his father, Ben quieted, staring down at the wooden floor. His father was gone. His strong, hard-working, stubborn father was dead at only fifty-five. The news had stunned Ben when he’d received the call, and the reminder was doing it again now. His emotions ricocheted all over the map. His feelings for his dad were…complicated.

Ben’s mother stepped closer. “Maggie and I will handle this.” Her blue eyes bored into his. “Maggie has been by our side while your father and I ran the bed and breakfast, and all throughout the expansion. More than that, she’s been a good friend to your father and me, and she’s been there for me the last few days when I needed her.”

What his mother didn’t say was that her own sons hadn’t. They’d all gotten there as quickly as possible, but the first day after their father’s collapse, it had been Maggie by their mother’s side.

Ben stared at Maggie’s green eyes, noting they were glassy with tears. Someone called her name from the other room and Maggie excused herself, rushing off like she’d been injured. And he’d been the one to hurt her. His chest tightened with remorse and regret.

Valerie Sumner stood tall and studied each of his brothers. “I will not tolerate any of you disrespecting Maggie.” Her tone was low and authoritative.

“What does that mean?” Ben asked.

“Maggie feels threatened by the Sumner name,” his mother said. “When she came to work here, she was afraid to speak up, afraid to let her ideas be heard. We were lucky she got over that, because it turns out Maggie has a lot to contribute.”

His mother stepped closer.

Ben inched back.

Had she always been so tall?

His mother stood mere inches from him. “I won’t have any of you proving to her that what her father taught her about the Sumners was right. And you in particular.” His mother stared at Ben, her index finger in his face. “I won’t have you treating her like her place here means nothing.”

“Why are you singling me out?” Ben asked, throwing his hands in the air.

“You’ve acted like you’ve had a stick up your ass since you got here two days ago,” Grant answered.

Asshole.

Ben turned on his brother. “Well excuse the hell out of me for giving a shit about what happens to this lodge.”

“Language,” his mother scolded.

“We need to talk, Mom.” Ben slipped his hand around his mother’s elbow and pulled her down the hall toward the conference room. “About the lodge.”

“Don’t, man,” Aaron said, “not now. We can talk about it tomorrow.”

His mother squared her shoulders. “I told you. I know exactly the state of the lodge and its finances, Ben.”

Ben laughed sarcastically. “Mom, if you know about the lodge’s finances, then you know it’s leveraged to the hilt. You and dad had a good thing going with the bed and breakfast. You’d had five years of success and the note on the original building almost paid off. This expansion,” he waved his hand around them, “could destroy all of that. You borrowed too much and you gave the bank a lot of control to do it.”

He was somewhat mollified by the fact Maggie had known about the terms of the loan. In fact, he was stunned as hell, but he found some relief in the fact she at least seemed aware of the covenants.

“Stop, Ben.” Jake stepped forward. “We don’t need to do this right now.”

His mother raised a hand to Jake, cutting off his words, as she steeled her gaze. “Despite what you might think, Ben, I am not a frail flower. Believe it or not I’ve learned a thing or two over the past few years while you boys have been away. Maggie and your father have been wonderful, helping me learn the business.”

Ben frowned. Maggie hadn’t gone to college and had hardly been a stellar student in high school. She might be a very nice girl, but he doubted she was a business genius.

Valerie laughed. “As it turns out, Maggie knows a lot about hospitality and hotel management.” She stared Ben down. “More than you, I would bet. And despite what you think, Benjamin, you don’t always know what’s best for me and for this family.”

Oh, God, she’d pulled out his full name. “Look, Mom, I didn’t mean—”

“I know, sweetie.” She sighed, cupping his cheek. “I know you’re only trying to fix this, like your father would.”

He stiffened at the mention that he was like his father, but softened when he saw tears well in his mother’s eyes.

As if feeling his distress, her hand fell away.

“I’m not leaving for a while,” Ben said.

His mother’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

“Emmett and I plan to stick around for a few weeks just to get things settled.” Ben glanced over at his brother.

Emmett nodded, his expression neither pained nor excited, but at least he didn’t argue.

Ben turned back to his mother, gently resting a hand on her shoulder. “You were used to having dad around as another set of hands here. We’ll pick up the slack so you guys don’t get behind.”

“We’ll all be back to help you, Ma,” Max said. “We just have to clear our schedules and stuff, right guys?” Max glanced around the room but Aaron, Jake and Grant remained silent.

His mother backed up, hands on hips, throwing them the kind of look she did when they were young and in trouble. Her expression flickered from sadness to anger in a second. “I don’t need that,” she said. “Maggie and I will be fine.”

“Mom,” Ben pleaded. “It’s just for a few weeks.” If he could get her to agree to a few weeks, the rest would come. He knew it would take longer to settle this financial mess, but his brothers were right. Now wasn’t the time to sort this out. His mother was still in shock. His father’s passing had caught them all by surprise.

What man falls down dead from a heart attack at fifty-five? A man who’d been a workaholic, like his father, that’s who. His family should have seen this coming all along.

Ben was one to talk. Despite trying to become the opposite of his father, he often pulled eighty-hour work weeks. He’d always said he’d slow down once his fledgling company got up and running. Sumner Integrated Software Solutions had been “up and running” and very successful for over ten years now. If Ben were being honest, he’d admit he’d been trying to prove something to someone. Someone who was nothing more than a ghost now.

The kick of pride he always felt when he thought about his company felt hollow at the moment.

“Fine,” his mother relented, rolling her eyes. She stepped closer to Ben. “But let me make one thing clear. You’ll be working under Maggie.”

“Under,” Grant laughed.

Ben froze. Work under Maggie? Never mind that he hadn’t worked under anyone since high school, his mother’s phrasing had sent his mind on a wholly different path. Visions of Maggie under him had his body reacting in ways he didn’t need his mother or brothers seeing. Shit.

His mother glanced at her youngest. “What did you say, Grant?”

“Uh, nothing, Ma” Grant mumbled.

His mother raised a brow and glared at Grant before returning her menacing gaze on Ben. “Maggie runs this lodge by my side, she knows the business inside and out. I won’t have you bulldozing over her, thinking you know what’s best. This time you don’t, Ben.”

Ben studied his mother. When had she become so strong, so sure of herself in business?

“Nor will I have you upsetting her,” his mother continued. “Maggie is like a daughter to me and she’s been with me for a long time.”

The insinuation wasn’t lost on Ben. Maggie had been here when he and his brothers hadn’t. He bristled at the idea of working under Maggie’s supervision.

Whether she knew it or not, his mother needed someone who could do some serious assessing of the business. The lodge needed someone who wasn’t emotionally invested, someone who could tear apart the books, make hard decisions about down-sizing personnel and possibly halting construction on further expansion. Maggie Lawrence wasn’t that person.

Ben would assess the figures in the morning and see what could be cut. The cabin build-outs and barn renovations weren’t too far along in construction. He’d need to decide if they were truly necessary. Maybe it wasn’t too late to stop some of his parents’ ludicrous pipedreams. If that meant sucking it up and working with Maggie for a few months, he could do it.

Ben sighed. “I’ll make it right with Maggie, Ma.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I promise.”

His mother glanced around at his brothers, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Your father was so proud of all you boys. I know he didn’t always show it but—” Her voice broke and she covered her mouth.

Ben wasn’t one hundred percent convinced her words were true, but it didn’t matter. His mother was hurting and there was nothing he and his brothers wouldn’t do to protect her. Even if it meant facing his past and coming home.