Page 67 of Falling For You

Jessie looked up, her brow furrowed. “Owen? Oh, you mean that hot guy you’ve been spending time with?” She gave me a wink. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning. Is everything alright?”

My heart sank. “He hasn’t answered my texts. I hoped to catch him here, but if you haven’t seen him…” I twisted my mouth into a frown, knowing what I was about to ask wasn’t exactly the best question to bring up for privacy’s sake. “He hasn’t checked out yet, has he?”

Jessie pursed her lips, tapping her pen against the desk. “You know we aren’t supposed to answer that stuff.”

I chuckled. “But, you know… we have a history.”

She grinned and nodded. “I know, and the answer is that he’s still here.”

“You’re the best.” I looked around the lobby and brought my gaze back to hers. “Did everything seem okay when you last saw him?”

“Now that you mention it, he did seem a little distracted when I saw him last. Kept checking his phone like he was waiting for bad news. He’d reserved one of our conference rooms. He went in looking uneasy and came out looking sick.”

That didn’t help my nerves at all. “Did he say where he was going?”

She shook her head. “Not a word. But while you’re here, I’ve meant to ask you something.” Jessie leaned forward, lowering her voice as if she had a secret. “Have you heard anything about the property next to your family’s lodge?”

I blinked, caught off guard by the sudden change in conversation. “The property next door? No, what about it?”

Jessie leaned in closer. “I overheard some talk when he wason that call. Something about it being sold or developed. Big changes coming, or so they say.” She frowned. “I don’t know what’s happening, but it piqued my interest.”

“Yeah. I can see why.” A strange sense of unease crept over me. “I haven’t heard anything about that,” I said slowly. “Are you sure it was about a development project at Mr. Medowski’s?”

She shrugged. “I could have misheard.”

I nodded, though my mind was already spinning.

The property next door?

Going up for sale?

Developed?

None of that sounded right.

My parents had agreed years ago that Honey Leaf Lodge would have first dibs on the property if Vern ever wanted to sell it. Vern had never mentioned it to my parents, right?

Or had they kept it from me?

After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Jessie, I left the hotel, but her words clung to me like a heavy fog.

I climbed back into my carand sat for a minute, trying to process what she had said.

Is the acreage next door being developed?

What would that mean for my family’s business? My parents had worked so hard to keep our lodge running. The idea of some colossal development moving in next door made me sick.

I clenched my eyes shut.

Or maybe this could be a good thing. Perhaps it was shopping to bring people to our town, an amusement park, or… I blinked my eyes open and sighed.

And then there was Owen.

Could he really be involved?

No, that didn’t make sense. Owen wouldn’t keep something like that from me… would he? The doubt gnawed at me, and before I knew it, I was driving again, searching for answers.

I stopped at the bakery first. If gossip floated around town, someone there would know about it, or at Abby’s coffee shop.

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