Page 83 of No One Wants That (Blitzen Bay)

KIT

“It’s all my fault!”

When we pulled into Sam’s driveway, Elle was already running over from Nash’s house. She whipped open Sam’s car door and pulled him into a hug.

“It’s not your fault, Noelle,” Sam says, hugging her tightly. “Not even one little part of it.”

“Then it’s probably my fault.” Alex closes in on us with Nash on his heels. “I’m sorry, Sam. My attorney should have done a better job vetting the buyer. I have him working on nullifying the letter of intent.”

“It’s not your fault, either,” Sam says, wrapping his arms around Elle and me as we pull him between us. “It’s not my fault and I’m not even sure it’s Mr. Walker’s fault. For whatever his reasons are, it’s a business deal. He doesn’t need to tell me his entire life background. I wish he would have, but he wasn’t required to—”

“How can you say that?” Elle asks. “He’s not buying the town in good faith. I know he’ll want to turn it into a high-end ski resort. He’ll change it completely.”

“Yes, he lied to me about that. I’ll make him write that into the final deal if I can’t find another buyer, but unfortunately, I’m not sure if I can get out of the deal entirely at this point.”

Alex motions to Nash’s house. “Let’s go inside and call Stan. We can see where he’s gotten on nullifying the letter and then take it from there.”

“Nash,” Sam says, looking back at him. “Will you join us? You’re going to live in this town for many more years than I am. I want you to be a part of this.”

“Of course.” Nash looks down at Elle. “Will you go into town and pick up the food we ordered?”

“Yep.” Elle grabs Sam and hugs him one more time. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

“I know it will be,” Sam says, kissing her cheek. “We’ll see you when you get back. Drive safely.”

After we watch them disappear into Nash’s house, Elle turns to me. “Do you want to ride into town with me? We, uh, need to catch up.”

“I’ll ride with Butch,” I say, looking at her—my eyes wide. “We can catch up later.”

“Okay,” she says, quickly getting into her car. “I’ll see you at Izzy’s.”

I turn back to Butch. “I’m still starving. Let’s go back into town and get some lunch.”

His face is tight again. He nods and opens my car door. “What does Elle want to talk to you about? Mateo?”

“Yeah, probably.” I put my hand on his arm. “I’m not getting back together with him. I don’t want him to move here. I’ll tell him when I get to Spain in a few days. I think that has to be a face-to-face discussion.”

“Okay,” he says. I can tell he’s trying to control the tension in his voice. “Let’s get something to eat. We can talk about it later.”

When he parks in front of Izzy’s, I stay in the car and let him come around and open my door. He seems to like that kind of stuff. It’s not something I’m used to or even need, but honestly, when Butch is the one doing it, I kind of like it, too.

“Thank you,” I say as he helps me out. I squeeze his hand and keep ahold of it.

“You’re welcome.” He pulls me into a hug. “I’m sorry I’m being like this. I’m just worried I’m going to get in too deeply with you and then you’re going to disappear.”

“I’m not disappearing. If anything, you’re going to get tired of having me around.

“Never,” he says, pulling my chin up and kissing me.

“Oh my bad.” I look up to see Mason shielding his eyes as he walks across the street. “Just trying to get to the restaurant. I didn’t see anything.”

“We’re headed there, too,” I say, smiling as Butch wraps his arm around my waist. “I’m so hungry. We just got done hiking.”

“Oh yeah?” Mason uncovers his eyes. “Millie and I are headed out for a hike after lunch. There’s supposed to be a natural spring and waterfall up there. Did you see it?”

“I think it’s to the east of where we were,” Butch says. “It was little too cold for swimming this morning. Maybe we’ll head up there later. What do you think, Kit?”

“Sure. Can we skinny dip?”

---