Page 26 of Meet Me at the Grand

Wait, what? “This is the first I’m hearing about anything more than the hotel rebuild.”

Dani shook her head. “This would have been so much easier if Seb had just gotten on the phone with you ahead of time. But he thought…”

“He thought what?”

A gull called somewhere in the distance.

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t need all the details. Suffice it to say that when the hotel burned, it started a snowball effect that led to a depressed, nearly non-existent economy. The hotel redevelopment is the first step in our plan.”

“And what comes after that?”

“Does it matter? You won’t be around anyway.”

“True. But I’d still like to know.”

Dani finally started walking along the path again, toward the town. “We have a whole plan to bring people back to the island by offering low-cost houses and storefront rent. But none of that matters if we don’t restore the hotel to its former glory. It needs to be what it always was to this place—a symbol of Jonathon Island, of what life here is like. A bastion of history, of glory, of strength. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it does.” But wow. No pressure or anything. It was one thing to renovate a hotel. Another completely to bring an island back to life.

But he was up to the challenge. Dad wouldn’t have sent him if he wasn’t.

“Liam…” Dani stopped walking and turned to face him. “This plan means everything to Jonathon Island. To me personally.”

Liam studied her, pretty in a small-town sort of way—and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it wasn’t her petite figure or the clothes she wore that got his attention. It was those big blue eyes, the way they were open, vulnerable. Not fully trusting, not yet, but needing him. Needing this.

Because this projectwasmore than work to her.

This was about her home. Her life.

He swallowed, nodded. “I won’t let you down. I promise.”

And that was one promise he intended to keep.

ChapterFive

Agirl could only be patient for so long.

And if Liam wouldn’t give her a glimpse of his plans after three days of working on them, then Dani wasn’t above trying to sneak a peek when he wasn’t around. Because if he didn’t get this right, the council would never approve the plans. Nothing would change on Jonathon Island.

And her family would never come home.

She stepped from her office and peered down the hallway toward the lobby. All was quiet—not surprising, given the fact it was a Saturday evening. The only one who would be here at this time was Liam, who had taken to holing himself up in the conference room to spread out his plans and work ever since their tentative truce on Wednesday morning. And she knew for a fact he wasn’t here, because from her office window, she’d seen him head into Kelley’s Bar & Grill next door about ten minutes ago.

The only sound was the weak buzzing of the fluorescent light panels above her. Now was her chance.

She winced as the wooden floorboards beneath her feet creaked. “Stop it, Dani. You’re alone.” Holding her head high, she hurried the short way down the hall and pushed into the conference room. Eyes quickly scanning the space, she could see Liam had made himself quite at home—empty takeout containers in the trash, an open can of Coke, his leather messenger bag briefcase strewn over one of the chairs.

And there, in the middle of the table, alongside a dozen or so drafting tools and pencils, sat several large pieces of tracing paper.

After another glance over her shoulder, Dani approached the papers, which were upside down. Almost like Liam knew she’d be coming. Like he knew Uncle Seb had texted her at least once a day asking if she’d gotten a peek yet.

Well, today was the day. Trusting someone she barely knew could only take her so far. There was too much riding on this project to not know if Liam was truly up to the task.

Fisting her fingers tight, she unfurled them and started to reach for the papers.

“Whatcha doing there?”

With a yelp, she jumped back and pressed her hand to her chest.

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