Page 70 of The Last Resort
He stepped away from Rachel, then turned to face her. “Why?”
She’d been long dreading this conversation. Sensing it would be harder than any ongoing negotiations they might have over the future design of the place. This wasn’t just about plans or architecture—this was personal.
But you owe it to him to be honest. At least about this bit for the moment.
Rachel cleared her throat. “Why? To make you, walk away. The Brocks decided long ago that they didn’t like what you, and your family’s company represented. And until only the past couple of days I probably would have agreed with them on that count.”
Matthew’s hands went to his hips. He was moving into defensive mode, and she couldn’t blame him. As far as the townsfolk were concerned, he’d been tried and found guilty in absentia. “You mean you and the Brocks think that any billionaire developers who might want to take this broken down site to a new level, are by default only interested in money. Rachel, I put my heart and soul into that proposal.”
Tread carefully with your words, or this could end badly.
Rachel nodded. She owed him the truth, but feared what it might cost her. Might cost them. Matthew was going to be hurt. “Can you see things from our side? I remember watching you at the planning meeting. You came here with aNew York City attitude. Your fancy video and that expensive model won over a lot of people at the start. But …”
She paused, waiting with growing dread for Matthew’s response. He closed his eyes. “But what?”
“Matt, Aspen might well be a town of millionaires and billionaires, but it still has a proud history. Once people realized that your fancy new resort would mean the loss of this ski lodge, they changed their minds.”
His brown leather boot kicked at the bits of broken plaster and wood on the floor. She could just imagine how he might now be viewing this place through a different lens. Until a few minutes ago, Matthew had been concerned with the mystery of the building’s rubble, but she’d presented him with a whole different problem. The painful truth as to why the Brocks, had rejected him. And in doing so, they had also rejected his family. That had to sting.
“I knew the Brocks considered me as a bit of a punk-ass kid, but not you Rachel. So what happened? Once you heard the name Royal, did you also judge me based on my family? Should I have just tucked my tail between my legs and gone home, is that it?”
The anger was rising in his voice. The pain. She was losing control of the narrative.
And it’s all my fault.
She tried to come at the conversation from another angle. “No, that’s not what I mean. Well not now anyway. This town values character, and to be brutally honest the Matthew Royal who stood up in the planning meeting and tried to dazzle us with his mega glass and steel monstrosity is a different man to the one I’ve come to know.”
I should be the last person to judge someone based on their family name.
Damn.She still hadn’t got this right. But she wasn’t giving up. Rachel tried one last time.
“Look, your design isn’t completely terrible. It just needs to be different. Can we at least agree on that?”
Anger simmered on his face as he crossed his arms. His whole body was stiff with rage. “Oh, so my design isn’t terrible, it just has to be thrown away. Way to go with the backhanded compliment, Rach. Thank. You. Very. Much.”
Hot tears pricked at her eyes. If she gave up now, she might as well leave town too. Clever words had never been Rachel’s strong point and it frustrated her that without them she was struggling to reach the man who had captured her heart.
“Matt,” she pleaded.
He waved her away. “Leave it. I think you’ve said more than enough. I just wish you’d had the decency to tell me when we first got here what Dan had been doing. Instead you left me to wonder how sound this building was, and to question my abilities as an architect. And you also disrespected my family, who happen to be a wonderful group of people.”
She let him go, watching through unshed tears as an angry Matthew stormed out the front door.
I should have told him sooner.
It was bad enough keeping these sorts of things from Matthew. But the mistrust that she’d created between them would make it impossible for her to tell him about her own family’s checkered past.
The roar of Matthew’s Jeep as it tore out the parking lot a short time later had Rachel giving in to her tears.
Oh, Rachel. You stupid, stupid idiot.
Matthew didn’t get far. He pulled the SUV over in front of the general store at Woody Creek a few miles up the road and turned off the engine. The short drive had been enough to see him go from furious to slowly calming the heck down.
He’d punched the steering wheel in the parking lot before he left, but nothing would quieten the voice that kept talking nonstop in his head.
She lied to you.
She’s working with the enemy.
