Page 58 of You're the Reason

Jon hesitated then nodded. “Me too. I should have been here for you instead of off in Europe.”

Something tightened around Seth’s heart. “It wasn’t?—”

“I know. But I should have been here. And I am determined to be here for other kids. So”—Jon sat forward and locked eyes with Seth—“I want to personally invest in this. I’ll use my money, not company money. And I want you to run it. And if that’s as Seth and not The Storm, I’ll take it.”

Was he serious? He couldn’t be serious.

This was what he wanted. Everything he wanted. “Are you?—”

“Sure? Absolutely. I’ll fund it, you run it.” Jon stood and stuck out his hand. “What do you say, partner?”

Seth stood and shook Jon’s hand and resisted every urge to whoop and yell. “Partner.”

“I am proud of you. It’s a good plan.” Jon dropped his hand and lifted his coat from the back of the chair. “And just so you know, once it’s up and running, I want you to be working there, full time. At the rate you’re moving the properties, you’ll have worked yourself out of a job before the year is up. That will be about the time it’ll take to get this build-out done.”

“But I ...” Why was his throat so tight?

“Wanted to be out of town by the end of the summer? Do you really?” Jon walked out of the conference room and paused in the door to look back. “And take the rest of the day off. You look like you were up all night working on this.”

He had been, but he’d hoped he’d hidden it better than that.

His phone buzzed with an incoming text.

GRACE

I know I said only two weeks, but what do you think about continuing to help me?

He couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he tapped back a reply.

SETH

Training or dancing?

It honestly didn’t matter. He’d do both.

GRACE

Yes. Yes. And something else.

SETH

?

GRACE

You have to wait and see.

He set the phone aside as an uneasiness settled in his chest and seemed to build with every text. As much as he wanted to see her, they also had to talk.

Because the more he’d let his conversations from Saturday with Grace roll around in his mind, the more the pieces just didn’t add up. The fact she seemed surprised he wasn’t friends anymore with Gabe. Her confusion about the way Officer Hammond had questioned him, and then there was the fact she didn’t know what she was walking into with his mother.

Before this weekend, she had never given any indication that she didn’t know how he was connected to her family. It didn’t make sense, everyone in town knew. But she had been in Europe at the time. Maybe her parents hadn’t told her. But surely it would have come up. Then again, beyond their initial greeting, most of their conversations revolved around her knee or her dance. And he’d been happy to keep it that way.

He shook his head. It had been these yo-yo thoughts that had kept him up into the wee hours of the morning working on that presentation instead of sleeping.

But with the way things were continuing to develop with their... friendship, there was no denying all cards had to be on the table.

And that meant risking everything. There was no telling how Grace would react when she found out he was implicated in her brother’s death. But he couldn’t afford to wait and risk having her find out from her mom. Who knew what kind of poisonous spin she would put on it. The truth was bad enough as it was. It needed to be now. He lifted his phone again.

---