Page 5 of Taming the Boss

“Why?”

“I really don’t know why. I guess I just like talking to someone that’s not going to gossip all over this damn town ten minutes after I tell them something.”

“Definitely not. I don’t know anyone here.” I was just related to a few, but that didn’t really apply to this. “Also, you seem to just like to talk.”

“Man, you are ripe with the zingers today. I’m a Gemini—I live to talk.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Me neither, but a girlfriend told me that once.” He grinned. “I just sold some shares from a little startup I invested in last year. I have a chunk of change and I’m looking for something to do with it. I used to come out here to make out during high school.”

“Nostalgia?”

“Good as anything, right? But I do remember camping out on the beach down there. There’s nothing like this strip of beach. A lot of Crescent Lake is rocky and no good for hanging by the water. Now, in the water—it’s perfect. Just down the way is a rental place for watercrafts and boats. I was thinking this could be a great place for adults. There are tons of parks for the kids, but no real areas for date nights, nightlife, and that kind of thing.”

So he wasn’t just an airhead with money to burn.

He actually had been thinking about the future of owning a spot of land like this. Interesting.

“Small towns have a nightlife?”

“No. And I’m not talking a club. We’d never get that approved by the town hall, but a nice restaurant and maybe some bougie apartments, now that could be something.”

“We?”

He laughed. “Sorry. Not sure why I said that. It’s too easy to bounce stuff off of you.”

“Strangely, I agree.”

“To which part?”

“Both. I was thinking this would be a good area for the summer. Picnic tables and or umbrella-type tables. Maybe a patio to extend off the ancient eatery that used to be.”

“Brantley’s. Used to be the best sub shop in town until Jersey Angel’s opened up ten years back. Location, location—it’s right in the heart of Main Street. People stopped coming out here. Why the whole place started crumbling, to be honest. Wouldn’t be an easy move to get people out here when they can get everything in town.”

“Unless there were people living out here, as you said. Market to the young professionals with a little extra money to burn but who don’t want to own a home yet.”

He snapped his fingers. “Good thinking there. We are known for being a baby town and made for families, but there is an untapped potential here for the people not quite ready to settle down.”

“Like you’ll ever be ready to settle down, Hastings.” Gavin Forrester climbed the hill toward us.

“Not in this lifetime,” Xavier agreed amicably. “Gavin, meet Jude. He’s interested in the property, as well. We were just future-casting for what we wanted to do with the beach and the old Brantley’s eatery.”

“Is that right?” Gavin nodded to me. “Are you from Turnbull or Laurel? Syracuse, maybe?” He glanced at the black overcoat I was wearing against the biting wind.

“Seattle.”

His green eyes were quietly assessing. “Bit out of the way for you, isn’t it?”

It might be, but maybe not forever. The town had an uncanny pull. And there was family here if I wanted to pursue it.

“I was in the area for work. It was just happenstance that I saw the auction announcement on Main Street.”

“Happenstance?”

I shrugged. “Maybe it was serendipity.”

“All right, gentlemen!” The bank auctioneer clapped from beside Maitland. “Shall we?”

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