Page 13 of Stepbrothered by the Mountain Man

Chapter Five

Levi

The moment Beau gets back from his meeting, I corner him in the office.

“You can’t take Maya’s money,” I say before he even sits down.

“What?”

“Maya, she’s gone to some scummy private lender,” I say, reaching for the door to shut behind us. As I do so, I catch Maya heading our way. She must’ve spied Beau’s truck out front. As she sees me though, she stops, her eyes darting from me to Beau in suspicion. I hate to do it, but I close the door and turn the knob, shutting her out.

Beau’s eyebrows shoot up. “Those places are never any good. They just try to take advantage of the desperate.”

“That’s exactly what she is.” I hate to admit it, but it’s true. “She thinks she’s helping both the lodge and herself. She overheard Jaxon mentioning the extension, so she sees this as a win-win all around.”

Beau rubs a hand over his face. “Well, we have another problem besides Maya.”

“What?”

“The buyer. He rejected the other properties. Like Maya, he did a property search and found out I’m the title holder to the one he wants. The one Maya wants. I turned him down flat.”

My admiration for Beau soars at that moment. “Despite the damage?”

“Despite the damage. But then...”

My admiration suddenly comes to a halt. “Then what?”

“He offered me thirty percent over asking.”

Bile rises in my throat as I clutch the armchair in front of his desk and sink into it. Thirty percent more was a lot. Anyone would be tempted. “What did you say?”

“What was right. That I had to talk to my brother first. Listen, Levi, given the estimates to fix the roof and exterior wall, I think Heath and Jaxon have a point. I think this may be an excellent opportunity to get the extension done. But I’m true to my word. The thing is though, I promised you, not Maya. That aside, we both know she’s a few years away from saving up. If you’re sure you don’t want that property, I’ll have to sell it to the client. Maya will be furious with me, but she’ll thank us both later when she isn’t swimming in debt without a life vest for the rest of her life.”

There’s got to be another way. I think back to our conversation, where Maya refused to take my money.

“I bet if you dropped the price for her and I secretly bought off the rest, she’d still refuse. She’s so hung up on doing everything on her own.”

“You’d do that for her?” Beau asks. “Buy the other half?”

“I’d do anything for Maya.”

Beau eyes me carefully. “You know. It doesn’t need to be either or. Either you have it or she does.”

“What?” I snort. “Do you expect us to share?”

“Yes, when you make her your woman.”

My heart thuds to a stop, and my throat grows dry.

“Remember when everyone could see that Grant was in love with Emmy besides Emmy?”

I nod slowly.

“Well, everyone can see you’re in love with Maya, except I think you already know that. You just try to hide it to appease everyone else, namely Dad and Kat, because Grant, Emmy, and I already know. The only person at the lodge who doesn’t is Maya.”

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