Page 27 of So Close

Fuck him.

And yet for one brilliant second, after she’d told him the story about the fishermen, there had been something in his face. He was listening. He wasn’t a block of ice to the core.

Maybe her chances of making him fall in love with Beachcrest were near nil, but they weren’t absolute zero.

She couldn’t guarantee she could change Trey’s mind, but she could make sure she was ready to take action if she did.

And to do that, she needed money.

The closer she got, though, the more she dragged her feet. It wasn’t that she wasafraidto ask Levi for money; it was that she wasn’t sure she should be asking him at all.

She had to hike up the hill to Cape House. It was one of the biggest hotels in Tierney Bay—twenty times more rooms than Beachcrest. It also drew a different clientele, one seeking luxury and amenities rather than “cozy comfort,” which was nice because it meant that Carl—and by extension she—and Levi weren’t really in competition.

She found him in his usual spot—behind his desk in the administrative office. He didn’t look up when she came in. He had a spreadsheet open—par for the course—and was tweaking the rows and columns. “Give me a sec,” he said.

It wasn’t a request. Levi didn’t make requests.

She settled herself in his guest chair and prepared to wait.

Levi owned Cape House, and had since their parents died in a boating accident when Auburn was a teenager. For a while, Levi had hired managers to run the hotel, but he’d turned out to be incapable of taking a hands-off approach. Now he worked with two assistant managers who tolerated his control freak tendencies, one with amusement, one with barely suppressed irritation. He was always busy, but he also always had time for his siblings, and Auburn knew if she waited patiently, he would give her his undivided attention.

When he finally looked up, his first words were, “We need more weddings.”

Auburn was used to her brother leaping into the heart of a business conversation. “If you want more weddings, you’re going to have to start kissing up to Grace.” Grace Utrecht was the town’s best wedding planner and one of Levi’s least favorite people. The feeling was mutual, which hadn’t helped Levi book weddings, since Grace’s referrals carried a lot of weight.

“So be it,” he said grimly. “I didn’t put all that money into this place to watch it spiral down the drain because Grace and I butt heads.”

Auburn thought “butt heads” was putting it lightly—Levi and Grace’s battles were more like the overture to World War III, but she left it alone. “How are things going with the improvements?”

Levi had borrowed against the hotel a couple years ago to upgrade Cape House from “just” a tourist hotel into an event center. The last of the renovations were finishing up now, just in time for the hotel’s first big event, which happened to be Chiara’s ten-year high school reunion.

Levi sighed. “There’ve been a few unexpected setbacks,” he said. “I made the mistake of going with the cheaper bid on the pool, and I’m paying the price. I thought we’d be on a better footing by now than we are. I had to borrow deeper than I’d meant to. We’ll be okay, we are getting bookings finally, but—it’s going to take more time than I thought before I can pay off the loans.”

“Levi,no,” Auburn said, alarmed. “You should have said something.”

“What would you have done about it?”

“Between us, Chiara and Mason and I could have—”

Even as she said it, she knew how ridiculous it was. None of the siblings had the kind of money Levi would have needed.

It was Levi’s turn to grind the word out. “No.Chiara’s just finished paying off her loans. Mason’s saving for a place of his own, and God knows how longthat’lltake him at his current rate. And you—” His eyes softened as he took her in. “You’ve had a tough enough year without worrying about me. I’d be shocked if you had two nickels to rub together. No offense.”

It was nearer to the truth than she’d like to admit, and hit too close to home. “I’mfine.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it, but like I said, it was my problem to solve. You’ve got Carl’s illness on top of everything else.”

The mention of Carl was the perfect segue into her own request.Speaking of Carl, speaking of Beachcrest, speaking of money, speaking of my tough year, speaking of what I want, what I need, what I love—

She opened her mouth.

And closed it again.

“Did you—did you come here to ask me something?” Levi asked, his eyes suddenly sharp on hers.

If she asked Levi for money, he would find a way to give it to her. He’d borrow against the last scrap of equity in the hotel for her; she knew it. Just like he’d left behind his own life to come home to take care of his siblings. He’d given up medical school and his dreams of becoming a doctor to run a business he’d never shown the slightest interest in. And he’d done it all so the family could stay together, in the only home they’d ever known.

Meanwhile, he’d postponed saving for his own future so one day he could pick up where he had left off.

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