Page 20 of That Kind of Guy

Regarding Isaac Anderson, he had a point. Isaac didn’t seem to do much as mayor. The town hosted a million tourists a year and yet there was never enough money for things the town desperately needed. Business owners often resorted to crowdfunding or paying out of pocket to fix fallen trees near their property or crumbling sidewalks.

How immoral was it for Emmett to lie to the town if he was doing it for a good reason?

No, I told myself. Absolutely not. I wouldnotempathize with someone like Emmett Rhodes. Blegh.

That still left me at square one regarding the restaurant. I picked up the sticky note and studied it. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

A spike of determination hit me, and I laughed out loud. No way. No freaking way. I was going to figure this out. I just didn’t know how yet, and that’s exactly what I would tell Keiko.

I dialed her number.

“Hi, sweetie,” she answered.

I took a deep breath. “Keiko. Hi. I’m sure you’ve heard already—”

“That Emmett Rhodes is running for mayor? I know. Interesting.”

I frowned. “No. I mean, yes, he is, I don’t know who he thinks he’s fooling, but it’ll be entertaining to watch him try.”

Keiko laughed. “You’ll have to keep me updated once I’m in Vancouver. I put the offer in on the townhome yesterday, and it was accepted.”

My eyes widened. “Wow. You put the offer in before selling the restaurant?”

“The real estate agent put a couple conditions in the contract, ‘subject to purchase of existing assets’,” she told me. “So, I won’t be bound to fulfill the contract unless I sell my house here and the restaurant. Standard real estate stuff. I put my house up for sale today, and I already have three offers! Can you believe that?”

“Wow,” I repeated. This was moving forward, and it was very, very real. Keiko hadn’t mentioned anything about my bank loan rejection. Was it possible that she hadn’t heard?

“All that’s left is for you and I to meet at the bank, and I’m good to go,” she said.

She definitely hadn’t heard about me getting rejected.

“I was asking them about it this morning when I transferred the deposit for the townhouse,” she continued. “The paperwork to sell you the business will be simple.”

“Deposit? You put money down on the townhouse?” My stomach turned, and it was as if it was full of rocks. I swallowed.

“It’s standard to put down five percent of the purchase price when making an offer. If the deal falls through, the owners keep the deposit. The deal almost never falls through, though. Everyone wants to get paid. I have two months to get everything in order, which is less time than usual but I want to get moving on everything.”

My knee bounced up and down and my stomach twisted again. With purchase prices in Vancouver, five percent was a significant amount of money. Keiko would lose that money if she couldn’t sell the restaurant in two months.

I didn’t have a lot of time to figure things out.

“That’s great,” I croaked. “So great, Keiko.”

“I’m a bit busy this week with the townhouse, but can we set up a meeting at the bank sometime next week?”

“Mhm. That sounds great.” I pictured walking back into the bank and them chasing me out, yellingshoo! Get out of here! We already said no!

“Wonderful. Talk to you soon, honey.”

“Bye, Keiko.” I smiled tightly and hung up the phone before tossing it onto my desk and putting my head in my hands.

Keiko was selling the restaurant, and she was selling it fast. If I didn’t figure out a solution soon, she would have no choice but to sell it to someone else.

Emmett’s cocky grin flashed into my head, and I groaned.

* * *

“There’s my sweetheart,”Emmett grinned as he opened his front door that evening.

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