Page 31 of Colton's Last Resort

“What good’s a vote when you’re all prejudiced against me?” Clive demanded.

“In this room, we’re not your sons or your daughter,” Adam pointed out. “In this room, we’re owners and directors of Mariposa Resort & Spa, and we’ll vote accordingly. All in favor of loaning Clive Colton half a million dollars to save Colton Textiles, say ‘aye.’”

Neither Laura nor Joshua spoke up.

Adam raised a brow. “The nays have it.”

Clive leaned back. In a jerky motion, he pulled down the front of his vest. “Very well.” Climbing to his feet, he took turns frowning at each of them. “I should have expected as much. You chose your side years ago.”

“Right around the time you made it clear you wanted nothing to do with us,” Joshua returned. “How does that feel, by the way?”

Laura crossed to her father, keeping her voice low. “If you had come to us as soon as the trouble started, we would have helped you. We could have saved the company together.”

“You can’t dress betrayal up with excuses, Laura,” Clive said. “Didn’t your mother teach you that?”

She felt the breath go out of her. “No. But she did teach us common decency.”

“Then why not throw the company a lifeline?”

Joshua stepped up behind Laura, supportive. “You can’t save a man from drowning when history tells you he won’t hesitate to hold you under water to save himself.”

“Or bring down the entire ship,” Adam chimed in as he stacked papers on his end of the table.

“Andhe insults your mother,” Joshua added. He made a face. “I mean, come on. That’s just wrong.”

Laura couldn’t look away from Clive’s angry face. “I’ve been trying to forgive you for over a decade. She taught us to forgive. She forgave you—more times than any other woman would have had the grace to do so. And it didn’t stop you. Still, I thought I could—one day—offer my forgiveness. And maybe I will. But not today.”

“You know what I learned from your mother?” he asked. “Beauty can be all ice. She must’ve taught you that, too. Cold suits you.”

Heat flooded her face. She felt it in the tips of her ears. “Please, leave.”

Clive held her gaze for several seconds before his eyes cut over her shoulder and locked on Joshua. He glanced to the head of the table at Adam. Without saying another word, Clive stepped toward the door.

Laura didn’t breathe easily again until he was gone.

Joshua echoed her thoughts. “He’ll be back.”

“Maybe,” Adam granted. “He’s wrong, Laura. You’re not cold, any more than Mom was.”

“Of course not,” Greg chimed in.

But the cold had seeped into every part of her, and she couldn’t think how to comfort herself with Clive’s accusations loud in her ears.

Chapter 7

Laura woke the next day with her father’s words still echoing. Would they bother her so much if they didn’t correlate with Quentin Randolph’s remarks when she had broken off their engagement a year ago?

She switched on the kitchen light and went straight to the coffeepot to wake it up, too. She left it running before bending down to scoop up the mass at her feet. Her long-haired tabby, Sebastian, cried out as she dropped kisses to the back of his head. She cradled him against her. His purring reverberated into her chest, easing the dregs of another terrible night of sleep.

She closed her eyes for a moment, pressing her cheek to his soft fur. “Good morning, handsome,” she whispered.

Feeling generous, Sebastian let her cuddle him, only growing restless when the coffee maker hissed as it percolated. When he wiggled, she set him on his feet and followed him to his food bowl. “Breakfast,” she agreed and set about preparing his morning noms.

Her mother had adored big hairballs like Sebastian. When it had come time to leave the house in LA, her brothers had agreed that Laura should take the cats. She had cared for her mother’s felines for the rest of their natural lives.

Sebastian was the first cat she’d brought home after burying the last of her mother’s. While shopping in Sedona one afternoon on her own, she’d stopped at the animal shelter. It hadn’t been the plan, but two hours later, she’d returned home with Sebastian in her arms.

After the relationship with Quentin had blown up in her face, her failures regarding marriage and starting her own family had trapped themselves in an echo chamber in her mind. The humiliation of learning Quentin’s true intentions had almost been too much. If not for Sebastian, work and her brothers...she’d still be living in that echo chamber.

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