Page 6 of Until Forever

“Unbelievable,” I huffed. “Look, Lana. I know you’ve got some kind of old grudge against me from high school, but this is stooping to a new low even for you. My grandfather established this marina. The whole lake and the road around it are named after him. It belongs to our family. How could you do this to us?”

Her icy eyes narrowed and burned into me, not showing a single ounce of remorse. “Maybe you should have taken better care of it.”

I had to step away to keep from going off on her in a way I wouldn’t want to do to anyone, much less a petite woman like her. I paced around in place and ran my hands across the top of my head, staring out over the lake. I didn’t know if my grandfather would be laughing at me or shaking his head from beyond the grave. Here I was being outsmarted by little old Lana Miller, who, last I heard—didn’t even live here anymore.

“What the hell do you want with a marina anyway!?” I asked after a long, tense silence.

She turned to face Tony, going right back to ignoring me. They both did, in fact, going on about all of their plans and arrangements as if I wasn’t standing there.

I thought back on everything George said and felt my motivations shift. If I couldn’t save the marina, the least I could do was keep Lana from getting her way with the place. Considering what it would cost to knock it all down and start from scratch, I figured that shouldn’t have been too hard of a thing to do.

“Listen, I don’t know what kind of nonsense this guy is filling your head with,” I interjected. “But you don’t have the kind of money it takes to pull this off. We’re talking hundreds of thousands just for the bare bones, not to mention all the permits and fees. The wet slips are 50 to 60k a pop…”

“Thanks for the information,” she scowled sarcastically. “But I assure you I am aware of all the costs and every other damn thing I need to know about getting this place up and running again. Which is more than I can say for you. If I do need any advice, you’re the last person I’ll be turning to.”

“Since when are you so well off?” I barked back. I didn’t know every little detail about Lana’s life, but everyone in town knew at least this much: She was an orphan that Clarie Halstead’s folks were kind enough to take in. And she had to work weekends at the grocery store and pull shifts as a lifeguard just to scrape enough change to make it to LA. Everyone assumed she’d come crawling back in no time due to lack of funds.

“I don’t know how you made your way out there in California,” I admitted. “But last I checked, I haven’t seen your face on any movie trailers. So, just how the hell are you going to pull together that kind of money?”

“Keith, that is so far beyond being none of your business that I don’t even know where to start,” she said with a bitter laugh.

“How is it not my business when we’re talking about my land? I’ve got bad news for you, sweetheart. You can tear this place down, but I’m not selling the property.”

That got Lana’s attention. Her eyes lit up, and she stomped her foot on the dock.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, sweetheart,” I smirked. “As you’ve heard, the place is in bad shape, and it might just go falling out from under you. Actually, on second thought…stomp away. That’s a sight that just might cheer me up.”

“You call me ‘sweetheart’ one more time, and they just might find you floating up underneath these docks,” she hissed. “Why wouldn’t you sell it anyway? You left this place to rot for years, and you obviously have no interest in restoring it to what it was. Plus, I’m sure you need the money.”

“You have no idea what I have interest in doing or what I need,” I told her.

We were in a stand off, and if I didn’t hate her so much for what she was doing—I might have gotten lost in how soft her pale pink lips looked or the freckles on her cheeks, blushing from the heat of the sun. Her light blonde hair was shorter now than in high school, but into a blunt bob around her shoulders. She was sexy as hell, but it was hard to dwell on that when she was being such a huge pain in my ass.

“Listen,” Tony said. “Why don’t we all just calm down and…”

“Yeah, for once, I agree with this jerk,” I nodded.

George laughed and pleaded with me, “Come on, Keith.”

“Why don’t we all just calm down and go grab a drink,” I suggested. “And talk this over.”

She barely considered it a half second before barking back, “No, thank you. You can discuss the details of the sale with my broker. But as far as you and I are concerned directly, we have nothing to talk about. And I sure as hell don’t want to have a drink with you.”

I arched a brow. “Even if it means I won’t sell this place to you?”

She flipped her hair and stormed off back down the dock. With every stomp of her foot, I really was wishing the whole thing would go crashing down around her. It would serve her right for what she was doing to us. Sure, I’d feel obligated to go jumping in after her to save her. But it’d be worth it.

Tony made his final attempt to plead reason with me. “Keith, please just check your messages and give me a call.” Then he turned to scurry off after Lana.

George approached me slowly, cautiously. “I really am sorry about all of this, Keith. I didn’t know Tony and Lana were involved.”

“What the hell does she want with a marina?” I murmured under my breath again, racking my brain for an answer. That was obviously what she planned on doing with the place, judging by the kinds of things Tony was saying to her.

“Maybe you can still talk some sense into her?” George offered.

I let out a bitter laugh. “Talk sense into Lana Miller? Yeah right. I’ve known her since high school, and believe me…there’s no talking sense into that one. Once she has her mind set on something, it’s game over. Particularly if it involves how much she hates my guts.”

“Well, what did you do to her?” he asked.

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