Page 72 of So Close

“Nothing he hasn’t said before. I don’t work for him, anyway. He works for me.”

“You can tell me.”

He took a deep breath. “The crux is that he thinks if you don’t have the money by close of business on the West coast today, you should call Carl off.”

Her stomach clenched. “I thought we had till Monday.”

“He doesn’t want to cut it that close. He says nothing’s going to happen over the weekend to change the dynamics of the situation. He wants papers signed Monday morning. Wants you to have your argument with Carl over the weekend, not haggling while the purchase and sale is on the table.”

“The Bootstrapper—” She watched his face and knew. “You don’t think it’s going to work.”

“I think—I think we might be able to tell by the end of today. If it stands a chance. We can do the math.”

“There’s still Diane Cooper. The other lender.”

He nodded. “Did she call?”

For the first time she looked down at her own phone. And shook her head.

“Not yet.”

“Well,” he said. “There’s still time. It’s barely two.”

“I should call her. I told her I needed to know quickly, but I should let her know I’ve got until end of day.”

He nodded.

She made the call, got put through to voicemail. Hung up.

“It’s not the end of the world …” she began.

“Don’t,” he said. “She’s going to call back, and she’s going to do the loan. It’s just good business. Beachcrest is a great investment.”

She smiled at that. “I’ve really won you over, huh?”

He set his phone on the dashboard. Reached out, cupped her cheek in his warm hand. Leaned and kissed her, soft and slick and hungry.

“You could say that.”

36

The call came at 4:39. They were dozing on Trey’s bed together, boneless and sleepy from their various exertions. He woke fully before she did, grabbed her phone from the nightstand, and thrust it into her hand. He saw her eyes go big and worried; then she took the call with, “Auburn Campbell, speaking.”

He watched her face, saw the moment.

“Yes, of course. No, of course—I understand. Any possibility of—even a few percentage points—no, yes, right. Makes sense. Well. Thank you for considering.”

She ended the call and sat with the phone held tight in her hand, not moving.

“No loan,” he said, just so she wouldn’t have to. None of this was her fault. She shouldn’t be in this situation. She would never have been in this situation if it hadn’t been for him.

“Fifteen percent down is the best she can do,” she said. She seemed to wake up then, suddenly snapping to attention and swiping open the phone again. “We should look at the Bootstrapper. And then—well, we should make a call.”

He felt like he was standing on the edge of a very high cliff.

She tapped through the app until she brought up what she was looking for. And then she sighed. He felt the sigh to the bottoms of his feet. She handed her phone to him, and he looked. She’d raised fourteen thousand dollars, which was—

“It’s not a bad haul,” he said feebly.

---