Page 22 of All Mine

“You’re the one who showed up, uninvited, and pulled me out of bed, and now you complain about what I sleep in?” I grumbled, picking up my jeans and shoving them on. The least she could do was get in bed with me.

“I can’t talk to you like that.”

“Are you gonna tell me why the hell you ended our date like that?”

She stiffened even more, tightening those arms around her midsection. “That’s not why I’m here.”

Now that the fog of sleep had worn off, I guessed she’d heard about someone trying to buy the land and pieced it together. That was quick. There were no secrets in small towns.

“Well, if you’re not here to apologize and get naked, then why are you here?”

Her mouth hung open. “Apologize?” she scoffed. “Why on earth would I apologize to you?”

“Because one minute we were having a nice time, and the next you clam up and end it without an explanation. That’s why.”

“Oh my god. You were feeling out how much power I have in this town to stop you from buying the land.”

“What? No…” That was a good idea. She was giving me too much credit. “That’s not it at all.”

“Oh, come on. I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. “You just showed up in the nick of time to help me, flirt, and be all charming. Then you secretly started asking questions about my name. I was right to leave.”

“I still don’t get that, by the way. Oh, and it was a coincidence to meet you at Lou’s. I wasn’t staking you out.”

Lauren rolled her eyes and paced in the small entryway to my hotel room. She wasn’t coming past the linoleum onto the carpet.

“I don’t buy that. You show up with some story about boat shopping.”

“I couldn’t very well announce it in the most popular bar in town before meeting with the landowners, could I?

“What do you want with my store?”

“I don’t want anything with it, sweetheart. It’s for a client. We’re working on plans for a new building that will be a great shopping center for yours and the other businesses, instead of the eyesore it is now.”

Lauren let out a sharp breath, like she’d taken a punch to the gut. She didn’t have an attachment to that piece of shit house she had to deal with, did she?

“That is historic Hart Valley you’re talking about, the first homes ever built here. And you’re going to bulldoze it for some gaudy monstrosity where us local business owners can’t afford to rent, let alone shop at. All high-end outsiders will move in there and take it over.”

“My buildings are not gaudy monstrosities.”

“I thought you were a developer.”

“I’m an architect-developer.”

“A true one-man show, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Next thing you’ll tell me is that you’re out there with a hammer and nail building it yourself.”

“Lauren, come on,” I snap.

“You can’t change the fabric of our town.” If she were a toddler, she’d be stomping her foot.

“Look, sweetheart, it’s for a client. If I don’t take the job, someone else will. Then, I don’t get the paycheck.”

“And that’s all this is to you,” she whispered, her pretty face turned somber. I hated the expression, and the revelation came as a surprise.

“Yes. See, it’s nothing personal.”

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