Page 3 of The Seascape Between Us

Seventeen years.Seventeen years had passed since I’d last seen Grey, and yet there he was, scowling down at the piles of paperwork littering my desk. He was so close I could reach out and touch him. I wouldn’t, of course, no matter how badly my fingers itched to smooth the vertical groove between his eyebrows. Those days were long gone. Maybe that’s why seeing him here and now, with no warning, was so strangely surreal.

God, he looked good. He’d been twenty the last time I saw him, and the years had definitely been good to him. He’d be thirty-seven now. His dark brown hair, messy and in need of a cut, showed traces of silver, and faint lines creased the skin at the corners of his eyes. Somehow, the combination made him look even hotter than I remembered. He was dressed in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than I made in a month. The top couple of buttons of his white-collared shirt were undone.

I should have showered and changed first before coming here. Instead, I was standing here in my old gray t-shirt and fadedpaint-stained jeans I wore whenever I worked around the hotel. After hours of repairing the cracks on the roof under the glare of the spring sun, sweat left my skin sticky and damp. I probably stunk.

For years, I’d imagined seeing Grey again—what I’d say, how I’d act. In none of those scenarios had I ever imagined looking the way I did now. Hell, all I needed was to be back in high school, naked and late for an exam, for this to be my worst nightmare come to life.

“Are you going to say something?” Grey looked up, pinning me with those dark brown eyes. “Or were you just going to stand there and gape?”

My face stung. The sharpness of his tone caught me off guard. Sure, we hadn’t parted on the best terms, but it had been seventeen years. Surely, we could move past things that happened when we were just kids.

“Let’s start with why are you here?” I asked, trying to keep my tone as neutral as possible.

Grey chuckled without humor. “Why do you think? I gave you a year to get this place making some money.” He waved a hand around the office. “But it’s still leaking cash like a sinking ship, which is a rather apt comparison. I’m getting off before it goes down.”

My heart kicked up in my chest, unease crawling up my back. “What do you mean?”

“Sit.” He gestured to the chairs in front of my desk before dropping intomychair behindmydesk.

I bristled, but fear icing the blood in my veins and knotting my insides kept me silent, and I lowered myself to the edge of the chair he’d indicated.

“So, like I said, it’s been almost a year since dear ol’ Dad kicked it and dropped his questionable business dealings on me. The students renting his house will be out by the end of the month,so I can finally get that on the market. The only property that I’m still neck deep in is this hotel. It’s time to sell.”

“No,” I told him flatly. “I’m not selling.”

“You know the clause in the old man’s estate plan? The one you signed when he was putting together his will and succession plan?”

I knew of the contract he was referencing. I had signed it, but back then, I hadn’t been worried about Oliver’s health, and I sure as hell hadn’t expected him to leave his interest in the hotel to Grey. As far as I knew, they’d had a falling out and hadn’t spoken in years.

“So unless you want to buy me out…” he said.

Grey’s words hung between us. We both knew there was no way in hell I could afford to do that.

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Right, so I’ll need all your current numbers turned over to my accountants for them to review.”

“Don’t do this, Grey. Whatever you think of me—”

His eyes narrowed. “Do you think this ispersonal? Almost twenty years ago, we fucked around for a couple of months. I’ve had food in my fridge longer than we were together. This is business, Daniel. That’s it. Maybe if you understood that more, you wouldn’t be in the situation you’re in now.”

My breath lodged in my shriveling lungs. If he’d hauled off and punched me, it wouldn’t have hurt as much as his words right now. Seventeen years and the guy could still pluck my every fear and insecurity like no time had passed at all.

“You’re not selling all the properties your father owned. You’re holding onto Bailey and Lana’s place.”

“You’re talking about the cafe and bakery place, right? Great coffee, by the way.”

I nodded.

“Yeah,theymake a profit. You don’t. Also, I’m just their landlord. For some inexplicable reason, dear old dad bought into your crumbling empire and partnered with you. I have no idea what he was thinking, and I don’t care. I don’t want to be your partner. I don’t want to own a shitty hotel on the brink of bankruptcy. I’m going to sell. Honestly, you should thank me. I’m doing you a favor by getting you out of this.”

Anger surged inside me, and I leaned closer. “People work here, Grey. They depend on this place to make a living.”

“They’ll find other jobs. Probably better than working here. Besides, maybe whoever buys it will keep your staff or offer them packages. It just won’t be our problem anymore.”

This hotel wasn’t aproblem—okay, sometimes it was—but it was my home and it was all I had. “This hotel is a part of the community. It brings in customers for the businesses in The Square, especially in the busy summer tourist season.”

He smirked and stood. “I’m sure thecommunitywill survive, and if it doesn’t,” he shrugged, “it’s not my problem.”

Chapter Two

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