Page 4 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

“I’m not selling. Period. I don’t need to listen to anyone for ten minutes. My answer was, is, and always will beno.Especially to a Gallagher.”

She moved to the bottom of his stairs, pleasant smile never leaving her face. “Please, call me Dinah. I understand that you’ve put a lot of work into this place.” She gestured around them. “It’s lovely.”

“Yeah, and you guys want to make it into a parking lot.”

“Not a parking lot. No, a farmers’ market.” She glanced back at the other redhead still standing near the entrance. Carter didn’t understand the look, the slight slant of confusion to her eyebrows. The other redhead shrugged, the frown of worry never leaving her face.

“Just what did Craig Gallagher tell you?” the Dinah person asked, some of that easy pleasantness leaving her voice.

“I don’t know what your game is, but you all work together, so why the hell don’t you know what he told me?”

Another exchanged look between the two women. “We’d like to get your side of things. We want to make things beneficial for everyone.”

Carter snorted. Yeah, he’d heard that line before. “We must have very different definitions of mutually beneficial. Rich people usually do.”

She pursed her lips. “I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.”

“I heard all I need to hear. Your boss, or dad, or whoever, wants to buy me out and pave this place over for some kind of extra parking for Gallagher’s Tap Room. Well, even if that wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever heard, I’d still be saying no. This place is mine, and I’m not selling.”

Let the rest of his family turn tail and leave, this Trask was standing his ground.

“Dinah, come on, let’s head out. We’ll reevaluate.”

Dinah glanced behind her, then back at him, the frown line never leaving her forehead. Something wasn’t right, not with the way the first guy had acted, not with the way these two were acting, but that wasn’t his concern.

His only concern was to say no.

But Dinah Gallagher stepped forward, holding out a card. “Please, take this.” She forced a smile, but it barely curved the edges of her pink tinted, full lips. “If you find you have ten minutes—that’s all—I’m sure we can clear up this misunderstanding.”

Yeah, right. But she took his hand, pressed the little business card to his palm, her pale skin with dark pink nails looking out of place against his tanned, dirty hands. When her fingers brushed his palm, the electric current of attraction didn’t surprise him. But it did irritate him.

A Gallagher with a “misunderstanding.” Yeah, not on his life.

“Don’t come here again.” His voice didn’t sound nearly as forceful as he wanted it to.

She gave him a small, sad smile and a wave and walked back to her colleague. Together, they exited the yard, and he couldn’t see them beyond the arches and rows of plants.

Which was good. He didn’t want to see them, and he wouldn’t ever again if he could help it.

Chapter 2

When Dinah stepped inside her apartment at the end of the day, she hurled her bag across the living room. It landed with a satisfying thud against the couch.

She’d fumed all day, tried to magically transform anger into work, but all she could do was boil and pace and throw things.

Uncle Craig was setting her up for failure. He wasn’t a dumb man, especially when it came to business. The only reason he’d riled up Trask was to sabotage her. They weren’t planning on building aparking lot. They were planning on building afarmers’ market. And yes, that might mean paving over the little farm this guy already had going, but what was going to be more lucrative for this area? Some loner farmer growing things in his yard, or a whole area devoted to people selling their local produce?

Telling Trask it was for a parking lot undermined everything they were really trying to do, and it was personal. She couldn’t believe Craig had slipped up and picked the wrong words to win this guy over. Craig wanted her to fail. All because her dad had run off with his wife.

He hated her fatherthatmuch. To take it out on her. To take it out onGallagher’s.As if she or their plans had anything to do with it. She hadn’t told her father to sleep with Aunt Linda. Certainly hadn’t condoned their running off together and leaving the rest of the family with the aftermath. Not that Mom had stuck around for the aftermath. She’d disappeared just as Dad had. Leaving Dinah with angry, hurting family members.

Why on earth was Craig punishingher? She’d never particularly cared for her uncle. He was cold and ruthless—even his own daughter thought so—but still . . . Gallagher’s was a family affair.

And he wanted her out. It was the only explanation for telling Trask a parking lot was in the plans. Thatwasn’tthe plan.

She screamed in frustration. Then she flopped onto her couch. She knew life wasn’t fair, that was a given, but there had to be some way she could fix this. Why couldn’t she find the fix?

My answer was, is, and always will be no.

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