Page 55 of Butterfly Sisters
A knock on the outside door got her up. She opened it to find an arm holding a bundle of red roses. The owner of the arm peeked around from the side of the door with a ridiculous grin on his face.
“I couldn’t help myself,” Colton said, handing them to her. “I saw them at a road stand and thought you and your family might love them.”
She couldn’t deny the zinging electricity that shot through her when she took the flowers from him, smelling the aromatic fragrance of the roses. “These are beautiful.” She shut the door after he came inside.
“I’m glad you like them.” He sat down at the kitchen table and put his hands on his knees, all his attention on her while Leigh pulled a vase from the cabinet and filled it with water, arranging the flowers. “So, what did you want to tell me?”
Leigh placed the vase on the table and sat down across from him. “I wanted to talk about Jimbo.”
His eyes suddenly focused on hers, zeroed in like lasers, his breath seeming to linger on his lips. “What about him?” he asked cautiously.
“Look, he’s not the easiest to like, I get it.”
He stared at her unblinking, his jaw now set.
“But one thing I know how to do is land clients, so I’ve been working with him…”
Colton’s face turned as white as a ghost.
“Listen, I already know what you’re going to say, but this isn’t necessarily going to draw more tourists to your area. It’s agoodthing. Bringing retail to the lake is genius, actually. If it’s done right, development will create revenue for the county and—I think I even heard Jimbo tell you—it’ll raise your property value.”
His mouth hung open. “You were there when he was on the phone with me?” he asked disbelievingly. “You know what he wants to do and you’re actuallyworkingwith him…” His words trailed off to a whisper, his complete surprise etched across his face.
“Yes,” she said, the word withering on her lips as she took in the sight of him. He looked like a volcano about to erupt. “It’s what I do best,” she said, in a feeble attempt to convince him, his demeanor becoming more and more menacing.
“How could you spend all this time with me and not tell me?” But then he drew back in his chair, his gaze moving around her face as if he were assessing her. “You were hoping to convince me, weren’t you? Is that the real reason you’ve been coming around?”
She’d never seen him with a single feather ruffled before. He was visibly furious.
“Well, yes, I would like to convince you, but that isn’t the reason—”
He pushed away from the table, the chair protesting in an angry moan. “You are exactly who I thought you were, helping him,” he spat, standing up and heading to the door. He twisted the knob and opened it.
“Wait,” she said, scrambling to her feet and grabbing his arm to stop him. “What do you mean?”
He kept his gaze on the door. “You don’t care about anything but the rush of power you get doing that job of yours. You don’t even care about who you hurt…” He trailed off, refusing to look at her, clearly not planning to stay any longer.
“That’s not true,” she said desperately.
He opened the door and stepped outside without responding.
“Didn’t you say yourself that sometimes the best parts of our lives come out of the things that make us feel the most uncomfortable? This is agoodthing!” she repeated from the doorway. Tears swelled in her eyes at the sight of Colton walking away from her. It all felt so wrong, like she was losing the one thing she’d been looking for her whole life. “Talk to me!” she called to him.
“There is nothing good about this,” he said. “And out of everybody,youshould know that.” He turned around, and the relief she felt at meeting his gaze faded with the sight of his raging face.
She clambered onto the porch.
“When you think about the things that I want in my life, youknowthis is all wrong. And you did it anyway,” he said through his teeth.
“Can’t you just hear me out? I’ve got some great clients set up! It will all be fine!” Was it really that big of a deal if there was one retail establishment on the lake? A swell of insecurity overtook her the same way it had when Phillip had let her go, and again when her best friend Julie had turned on her. Was she missing something about herself that everyone else was seeing?
“I can’t look at you right now.” He got into his truck, pulling the door shut loudly behind him, leaving her stunned and completely confused.
“He just walked out?” Mama asked, kicking off her work shoes by the door after Leigh had told her about the bizarre conversation she’d had with Colton.
“Yes,” she said as she stood beside Mama by the table, letting her eyes fall on the roses, that moment of sweetness now seeming like a faraway dream. “He was so angry with me for helping Jimbo. It’s a well-done development. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Mama put her hands on her lower back and stretched. “He likes to keep things the same.”
