Page 54 of Fall for You
Instead, he managed to clear his throat and softly grit out, “You know I can.”
“It’s not just about the business,” his father snapped. “It’s about family. Loyalty. Protecting our name and standing strong against the enemy.”
The enemy? He was making the Kings sound like a terrorist group.
“Dad—” he tried to interject but was immediately cut off.
“I need someone I can trust in the driver’s seat on this one, Eric. And if you can’t deliver the way I’m hoping, then I’ll just need to find someone else. I’m sure your sister could step into the role if it’s too much for you.”
Eric’s nostrils flared, vile words bubbling in his throat as he clenched his jaw and silently seethed. His sister? After all the time and energy he’d poured into this place? Improving it, making it run more efficiently than it ever had? Thanks to him, they were busier than ever. People had to book more than a year in advance to get into this place, and his father thought his sister could just swan in and take over?
His head started to pound, his heart pulsing a deafening beat as he tried to clamp down his emotions. And his father kept barreling on, only amplifying Eric’s torrid anger.
“I’m still the boss, you know? You may be managing that resort and everyone thinks I’m retired, but it’s still my nameon the company paperwork. And I won’t see this family lose a stretch of land that is rightfully ours because you dropped the ball.”
“I haven’t dropped anything,” he bit back before his father could rile him up any further. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Ugh. It felt like he was playing a part onstage. And he’d never been much of an actor, but he sucked in a breath and reminded himself to be cool, detached, in control.
“So what’s this about, then? Why the delay?” his father demanded.
“I’m being strategic.”
His father finally shut up, and Eric felt a flare of triumph.
He might not be a good actor, but he knew his father and could bluff with the best of them. “We could just bulldoze over them with legal paperwork, of course.” Eric’s tone suggested that this was an idiotic plan created by a simpleton. “But that would mean wasting money on our own lawyers and drawing this out.”
“Hmm.”
Eric leaned forward again. He was close to ending this conversation, so he let disdain fill his voice again. “Of course Fred and the others want a legal battle.”
“And I suppose you have a better plan?”
“Of course I do.”
“And I suppose you don’t care to share?” His father’s tone was sarcastic.
“Not yet. I’m still doing my research.”
His mind flew back to the forest and a blonde fairy with wayward curls and a stack of letters clutched in her hand. Love letters, written byhisancestor, Rose Spencer.
His thoughts keep drifting, moving back to the past, trying to piece together the emotions written clear as day. Forbidden emotions that had no place in a raging feud between their families.
He was so distracted, he nearly missed his father’s next comment. “Just so long as that family is taken down, once and for all.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t so much the statement as the vitriol behind it. There his father went again, making the Kings out to be the epitome of evil.
A year ago, it might have made him chuckle, hearing his dad lose his cool over some centuries-old family feud. But lately…
His mind flicked back to Rose’s letters again. To some of the sweet words she penned to her secret love, Charlie. And then, before he could stop it—an image of Willow filled his mind so completely he temporarily forgot everything else.
He swallowed hard and tuned in to his father, still talking. Or…fuming, really. “The Kings have a lot to answer for. Even when we returned and wanted to expand, they’ve thwarted us at every turn. How dare they after all they’ve done? Enough’s enough, Eric. We need to silence that family once and for all and take what is rightfully ours. They owe us.”
Eric frowned. “Owe us?”
“Of course! You know about the fire they set. As if that wasn’t enough, they accused our forefathers of thievery and cattle stealing, and then they went and destroyed our property.”
Eric’s heart sank.
