But first, I needed to bust something else.
“What the fuck was that?” I demanded as I stalked toward James in the lobby. He stood by the massive windows, staring out at the ocean stretching toward the horizon. The property sat on a peninsula which gave it nearly a 180-degree view of water. It was one of the few places on the Cape you could watch the sun both rise and set over the ocean which was part of its unique value. Normally a glimpse of that view would calm me, but now it only pissed me off. Bastard was probably calculating just how much that view would be worth to his client and congratulating himself on closing the deal.
At the sound of my voice, James whipped his head toward me. His eyes went wide at the anger I wasn’t bothering to mask.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice low and calm like he hadn’t just exploded my entire life.
I glared at him. “You know what I mean. Last night.”
He glanced past me toward the front desk where I was quite sure Ana Lucia wasn’t bothering to hide her interest in our conversation. The last thing I needed was for her to hear about my almost hookup the night before and blab about it to my uncles.
I grabbed James by the arm and yanked him toward the doors leading to the patio outside. The moment we were alone, I dropped my hand, instantly hating that I’d been so aware of the feel of his muscles jumping under my touch. The solidness of his body.
Even as mad as I was at the man, I still wanted him. Which made me even angrier.
“You lied to me,” I hissed.
“I didn’t lie,” he said.
I started to argue, but he held up a hand. “But I wasn’t honest with you either. I’m sorry.”
The fact that he’d admitted that point took a little bit of the wind out of my sails. I opened my mouth to respond, but I didn’t know what to say. I’d come out here prepared for a fight, and here he was capitulating. “What the hell?” I asked, letting out a loud breath and dropping onto one of the wooden benches overlooking the wide strip of lawn leading to the dunes. The sea was calm today, which didn’t match my mood in the least.
I passed a hand down my face, trying to collect myself and rein in my rage. “Were you specifically keeping it from me in hopes of—”
“No!” He cut me off as if he didn’t want to hear me ask if he’d been using me. He sat next to me, close enough that I could feel his nearness, but far enough away that we weren’t quite touching. “I’m sorry, I… I just…” James’s eyes bounced from me to the green-blue waves in the distance and back. “I’m sorry.” He looked down at his clasped hands in his lap for a moment before chuckling softly and meeting my eyes.
There was an intensity in the way that he looked at me, as if I was the only thing that existed in the world at that moment. “I didn’t know who you were until you said your name at the end. I… I wasn’t expecting you.”
I let out a breath. While the sea was calm, my heart was anything but. It felt like the current was picking up, causing little breakers to crash here and there in my chest. Talk about unexpected.
And I almost fell for it. Almost let myself lean forward, drawn by those eyes and the smell of him that cut through the briny ocean breeze. Something warm and woodsy and inviting.
But he wasn’t here to flirt with me or fall prey to my seduction fantasies, I reminded myself. He was here to rip my family’s legacy out from under me. I didn’t have much time to change my uncles’ minds. There wasn’t a moment to spare, and I sure as hell couldn’t let this lawyer distract me.
I cleared my throat and stood, putting distance between us. Because otherwise I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from reaching for him. From running my fingers up the column of his throat and into his hair and pulling him closer until I could feel his ragged breaths against my lips and—
I took a step back. Then another. Shoved my hands into my pockets for good measure. “Um, same. So… I’ve gotta…” I looked around, desperate to come up with an excuse. I had a million chores on my day’s to-do list, and at the moment I couldn’t think of a single one. “A thing. That I have to do. Now. So… See ya.”
James called out for me, but I straight-up pretended like I didn’t hear him and bolted for the parking lot. It wasn’t until I was in my jeep and halfway to town before I realized that all of my stuff was still back at the inn. I slammed my hand on the steering wheel before turning onto Skaket Way and pulling to the side of the gravelly road. I leaned my forehead onto the steering wheel and blew out a trembling breath.
Focus.
Right now, what mattered most was figuring out how to convince my uncles to let me renovate the inn. I thought through what I needed to make that happen: a money source, a design plan, a business plan, and—if I could find one—a similar story of success. I pulled out my phone and scrolled back through my browser history from the night before when I’d had trouble sleeping and needed to think about something other than James.
There was an old motor inn in West Yarmouth that had undergone a fairly decent revival about ten years ago, but they’d gotten some horrible damage from downed trees when Hurricane Jose came through in 2017. They were still in the process of rebuilding. That definitely wasn’t an example that would put my uncles at ease.
The Chanticleer in Newport, Rhode Island, was also a vintage inn from the sixties that had been completely overhauled successfully, but it was too far away for me to visit today. Maybe I needed to print off photos of the renovation and look up their rooming availability as best I could.
There were also a couple of places up in the Catskills, old motor lodges that had been renovated into trendy off-the-beaten-path destinations. They seemed to have a lot of success with a younger crowd that liked to post pictures of the place on social media. But I wasn’t sure that was an angle my uncles would understand or appreciate. I doubted they even knew what a hashtag was, much less how to use one.
I ran my fingers through my hair, suddenly panicking at how much work it was going to take to get this project pulled together the way I wanted to. At this point, after hearing James’s promises of big money, it felt like an impossible task.
Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat.
My grandfather’s voice had been gruff from decades of smoking, but every time he’d said those old lines to me, he’d winked at me.
Ain’t nothing but a thing.
I turned the jeep around and headed back to the Sea Sprite. When I passed the By the Way parking lot and recognized James’s rental car, I couldn’t help but glance at the apartment windows upstairs, wondering if I could catch a glimpse of the man inside. Which made me feel like a moody teen, mooning after a crush. I cursed myself and forced my eyes straight ahead. I didn’t have time for Mr. Beautiful But Lies By Omission.
I had an inn to save.
When I pulled up to the front of the Sea Sprite, Ana Lucia was hustling out of the front door and down the walkway toward the east-wing rooms like her ass was on fire. I threw the jeep into park and hopped out to join her.
“What’s wrong?”
She flapped her arm which was her universal gesture for “what the hell else is new?”
“Flood in room 109 again. That motherfucking uncle of yours keeps giving us shit work on the faucet because he thinks this place isn’t worth his time,” she snapped. “I ought to siphon out this water and put it in that old truck of his to see how he likes it. Damned good-for-nothing plumber ain’t worth… Oh, hello Mr. and Mrs. Rivens!” she said, instantly brightening, her fire-engine-red lips stretching into a smile as she changed course toward an older couple shuffling toward us down the sidewalk.