Page 17 of So Close

“Huh,” Brynn said. “And you’re thinking about selling it to her?”

He didn’t like the mischief in Brynn’s eyes. This wasn’t some kind of joke or game. It was a time-sucking pain-in-the-ass. He was letting the bluff sink in for his grandfather and Auburn. A long legal fight they’d almost certainly lose. He’d be willing to bet they’d talked to their own lawyers by now and were just about ready to back down.

“No. Absolutely not. But I can’t sell it to my developer contact without Carl’s buy-in, and he can’t sell it to Auburn without my buy-in.”

“Interesting,” Brynn said, dragging the word out to a thousand syllables.

He ignored her, pointing at the house. “When you water the lawns, you need to make sure no water hits the house. Or you’ll get more rot.”

His phone rang.

“Can you watch Tyler with the hammer for a sec?” he asked Brynn. “And then make sure he helps Jakey hammer one in, too?” He stepped away to answer the call. “Xavier.”

“Hey, Trey, it’s Doug. Rumor has it things aren’t going as smoothly as you’d like on the Beachcrest front.”

Trey let his head fall back, his eyes closed. “Who’ve you been talking to?”

“Hey, man, I grew up in that town. You know I have ears there. Someone mentioned to someone who mentioned to someone that the woman who’s been running the place for your granddad wants to buy it and your granddad is on board with selling it to her. And also that she hasno fucking money.”

“I’ve got it under control.”

“Jesus, Xav, I hope you do. There are a hundred and fifty employees here who hope you do. We don’t have time to dick around. It’s shit or get off the pot time.”

“I know that,” he said tightly.

“If you’re not going to do the deal, I’ve got to get these severance packages paid out—”

“Iknow.”

The tightness in his voice must have finally gotten through to his chief operating officer, because Doug sighed. “I hope you do. You know a partition suit could take weeks. Months.”

“They don’t know I’m in a hurry. They’re going to lose if it goes to court. Their lawyers will tell them that, and they’ll back down. I give it less than twenty-four hours.”

“What about the woman? Can’t you offer her something that’ll make her go away? Everyone has a price.”

He hadn’t tried to buy her off outright. But he’d seen the conviction in her eyes. Still, Doug was right. If there was a sum he could offer her, he had to try. They could pay it out to her once the Beachcrest deal was done. She had to have a weakness. Maybe her family …

“Don’t worry,” he told Doug. “I’ve got it covered. You sit tight, I’ll take care of business here, and you’ll get your bonus when Home Base sells.”

“Your mouth, God’s ear,” Doug said, but he sounded a lot less certain than Trey would have liked.

He ended the call and stepped back to where Brynn stood.

“Hey,” she said. “Since you have to be here anyway, what if I made you dinner tonight?”

“I, um, have to deal with something at Beachcrest.”

It was always better to have a tricky conversation in person if you could.

What was it Brynn had said to him the other day?

You just keep telling yourself that.

9

“Oh, God, we’re losing South America,” Auburn said. “Deja, can you get down there and do something?”

Chiara, Auburn, and the four romance writer guests were playing the board game Pandemic in the dining room of Beachcrest—cooperatively trying to save the world from four deadly diseases. Between them, the romance writers had brought nearly an extra suitcase’s worth of card and board games with them on their retreat, and they’d roped the sisters into an evening of pizza and play. It was the first time since Carl’s heart attack that Auburn could remember laughing and having fun.

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