Page 22 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

His grandfather also left him a few rental properties on Amore Island.

He was a freaking landlord and hotelier and didn’t know the first thing about it.

Not even how this all started, other than the legal documents showed that Kyle Raymond had invested in the hotels years ago when Kelsey might have been just a child.

Maybe his grandfather was down on his luck or Kyle was there to take over?

It felt it now because his grandfather’s attorney had said that Kyle wanted to buy him out.

He could easily take the money and just live comfortably here for the rest of his life. His share was worth more millions than he’d ever dreamt of having. But he had that in the bank and investments now too.

He could move anywhere he wanted and sell all the properties.

Before he made a decision though, he needed more information. He didn’t want to lead Kelsey on either.

His mother had instilled that code of honor in him.

He’d go on one more date. See if the chemistry was as strong as he remembered, then he’d seek out Kyle Raymond and explain himself.

A second date wouldn’t hurt.

His toast popped so he pulled it out and spread the peanut butter on it, then grabbed his plate and went with his black coffee to sit at the small table by the big bay window.

He didn’t know what to do with all this space. He had exercise equipment he’d bought and set up down in the finished basement that he didn’t know if he’d ever use other than that.

There were four bedrooms and two full bathrooms upstairs and he was positive he could count on one hand how many times he climbed those stairs. His primary was on the main floor.

The downstairs of the house was two thousand square feet alone, which was more than double his last apartment.

It felt as if he spent most of his time just cleaning.

He grabbed the remote and turned the TV on in the kitchen to the news. Nothing caught his eye, but the silence was getting to him.

It was barely seven in the morning and not late enough to reach out to Kelsey and see if she wanted to get together tonight.

Then he realized not everyone had their phone next to their bed. Or they shut notifications off at night and in the morning.

He picked his phone up and shot her a quick text asking if she had plans today, then put his phone down and went about doing laundry and other chores for the day.

When he came back an hour later, he checked his phone and noticed the text with a grumpy face emoji and opened the message.

Do you always wake people up on Saturday morning?

Now he felt like shit.

He knew she hated chatting or texting so to be ornery he hit the button to call her.

It rang three times and then a sleepy, “Lo,” answered.

“I thought you were up,” he said. “Or was that just sarcasm in your text?”

“I was up and when you didn’t reply I fell back to sleep. It was good timing though because then Frankie let me know he had to go out when I moved. He did his business and then he and I fell face-first back into bed.”

“Your dog sleeps with you?” he asked.

“It’s the only male that has been in my bed in...I don’t know. I can’t think that far back this early. Over a year. Could be two. Urgh, that is a depressing thought.”

He smiled and was surprised that he did.

---