Page 15 of So Close

Running into him had felt like colliding with a solid wall of muscle. He hadn’t been wearing Patrick’s cologne this time. Something else, something spicy and musky that had lowered her IQ by a hundred points. She was so irritated with her monkey self, she could shake it. She was a grown woman with a big brain and plenty of self-control—

Except when he gave her that look. The one she couldn’t read. She’d swear he wanted to throttle her, but the look said he wanted to push her against the wall and kiss her until both of them were breathless.

What was she supposed to do with that?

Nothing. She was supposed to donothing. She was supposed to plant her feet and stand her ground, and ignore her howling, hooting bonobo self.

“You’re going to get the money,” Chiara said. “Do you know what price he’d accept from you?”

“Carl and I are getting a going-concern appraisal on it, so I’ll know soon. But it’s going to be—” She took a breath, because she knew the number would sit with Chiara about as well as it had with her. “Probably three to five million. A down payment of at least several hundred thousand, if not more.”

Chiara drew her own sharp breath, and the sisters sat for a moment with the truth of it.

“So what are your options?”

“Convincing a lender to give me financing with little or no down payment.”

“Yeah,” Chiara said. She didn’t sound any more optimistic about that than Auburn felt.

Auburn speared another tender bite of steak. Lily—the co-owner of the diner—couldcook. “Or. Getting a loan for the down payment. I could ask Levi.”

Chiara nodded. “You should definitely talk to him.”

“There’s Patrick.”

Chiara winced. “Really?”

“No. I just had to put it out there. But no.”

Chiara had been the first person brave enough to tell Auburn she didn’t like or trust Patrick. In the end, Auburn had almost lost Chiara over it, but her sister had been too loving and stubborn to let Auburn slip away.

God, she loved her.

“When I walked away, he said, ‘If you ever need anything money can buy, you know where to find me.’”

“Who the fuck makes those his parting words? I hope you flipped him the bird as you walked out of his life forever and said, ‘Freedom doesn’t cost a thing, motherfucker!’ Even Beachcrest isn’t worth stooping to that level.”

“At the time, I said, ‘I will NEVER ask for your money.’ And that goes double now, especially since he’s still leaving me messages saying he wants totalk.”

They both winced at that, and Auburn looked away. Given what he’d done to her, there was no chance she’d let Patrick back into her life, which meant she couldn’t afford to take his money. Even if he was made of it.

“You could use one of the cloud-sourcing sites, like Bootstrap.”

“Would Bootstrap work for something like this? This is a shit-ton of money we’re talking about, and what kind of stake could I really give people in it?”

“Free one-night stays,” Chiara said. “Plus, that would be a terrific loss-leader, because who wants one night? People would redeem their free stays and then spend a few nights.”

Auburn tilted her head. “It seems like a long shot.”

“It’s worth a try. I can sit down with you and help you figure out how to set it up.”

“That would be amazing. And in the meantime, I’ll talk to Levi and the banks, I guess.”

Chiara leaned over and gave her sister a hug. “If I can help, I want to.”

“You’re helping by listening.” There was no way Auburn would take a penny of her sister’s hard-earned money.

Auburn sucked down a slug of root beer. Another thing Tierney Bay Diner did right—served an amazing locally brewed root beer.

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