Page 35 of Blame It on the Bikini (Ocean Shores #4)

Chapter Eighteen

Grayson walked into his father's office on Monday morning.

He'd spent Saturday night and Sunday in his LA apartment trying to salvage his deal and also remember who he was and what he wanted, because after three weeks in Ocean Shores and his whirlwind relationship with Lexie, he wasn't sure if he'd really changed or if he'd just gotten caught up in a moment.

By the time Monday morning rolled around, he was only sure of one thing, and that was that he needed to speak to his father.

Emerson Holt's corner office overlooked downtown Los Angeles from a commanding view on the thirty-second floor of the Cromwell Building.

It was the kind of space meant to inspire those who stepped into the office suite.

It was also the kind of space he had always aspired to inherit, and that day was coming soon, but standing here now, he didn't feel the same sense of anticipation he once had.

Instead, he was filled with a restless energy.

His father leaned back in his chair, giving him a thoughtful look. "What are you doing here, Grayson? You still have a week left at Ocean Shores."

"The Singapore deal isn't going to happen," he said, taking a seat in the leather chair facing his father's massive desk.

"I had a feeling. It's disappointing but not catastrophic. We can recover from this."

"Not without taking a loss."

"It not the first; it won't be the last. I'm actually impressed you decided to pull the plug."

His father's words reminded him of what Frank had said. "Well, I don't want to spend the next few years trying to plug up the leaky holes in that sinking ship."

"Sometimes, you have to cut your losses," Emerson agreed.

"But I know you're disappointed. Your vision for the property was excellent.

Hopefully, you can find something similar somewhere else to develop.

But we could have had this conversation on the phone.

I already read the report you sent last night to the executive team.

Why are you here and not where I asked you to be? "

"I can't stay there anymore. You have to let me out of the agreement."

"Why? And don't give me some bullshit reason about how Singapore is an example of why you shouldn't be working from Ocean Shores, because your location didn't affect this at all."

"I'm not sure that's true. I took my eye off the ball. I was distracted. I wasn't working ten hours a day. I was fixing up an old car and exploring caves and a park with crazy ass trees in it."

His father smiled. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but it doesn't sound like you've been having a horrible time. Tell me about the cave. Is it where you can only get in during certain tidal patterns?"

"That's exactly how it works. How did you know that? And don't you give me some bullshit answer about how you read about the cave. You spent time at Ocean Shores, didn't you? You were in that cave."

"I was," his father admitted. "Thirty-five years ago, six months before I married your mother."

"And that's when you bought the Ocean Shores property. Why didn't you tell me you'd been there?"

He shrugged. "I had my reasons."

"What reasons? It's time to stop being so mysterious and tell me why the hell you sent me there."

"I wanted you to experience a different way of life."

"What does that mean?"

"The last few years, I've been very proud of the man you've become, Grayson. I've been honored to work alongside you, impressed with your intelligence, your business savvy…"

"You taught me everything I know."

"But I didn't teach you how to have a balanced life. I didn't teach you about prioritizing your happiness over your work."

"Why can't they be the same thing? They were for you. Right?"

"Most of the time. Actually, no. Not most of the time.

" He paused. "Thirty-five years ago, I attended a business conference in San Diego.

After it ended, I decided to take two weeks off work.

I was feeling so stressed and pressured, I was actually having heart palpitations.

It was all too much, and I had to take a break.

" He took a breath. "It wasn't just work that was making me tense; it was also your mother.

We'd been dating for a year, and she wanted to get married.

She wanted to merge her father's company with mine.

She thought we could be a power couple, and I thought so, too.

But I wasn't sure I was ready to get married. "

"Why didn't you just tell her that?"

"Oh, I did. And she always said there was no rush, but her words and actions didn't match.

And her father's company was a tantalizing offer.

He wanted me to be the son he'd never had.

He wanted to give me a chance to really grow my business that I had spent ten years of insanely long hours working on. "

"You're making your relationship sound like a business deal," he said with a frown.

"I didn't mean it like that," his father said.

"I really cared about your mother. But she was as driven as I was.

She wanted a lifestyle like the one she'd grown up in.

She wanted a man like her father." He paused.

"It's hard to explain, but I felt conflicted about everything.

And then I met this woman on the beach, this free-spirited, red-haired, quirky woman who had a smile as bright as the sun and an energy for life that felt unmatched.

We started spending time together. I came to find out she had left a bad marriage, a poor work environment, and was starting all over.

She seemed so brave to me, so determined to live life on her terms, and I was captivated. "

"Was her name Josie?" he asked, confident he already knew the answer.

"Yes. And she lived in this apartment building by the beach.

My two-week vacation lasted four weeks. We had a passionate love affair.

It was wrong. I knew it, and I couldn't stop myself.

When I was with her, I felt more like myself than I had in years.

But I knew it wasn't my real life. I had a business to get back to.

Your mother was calling me all the time.

I felt guilty and horrible about it all. "

"So you ended it?"

"Josie ended it right after I told her I loved her. She said I loved my life in Los Angeles more, and we would never last. She was right. I went home, and a few weeks later, I asked your mother to marry me. I never saw Josie again."

"But you bought the building she was living in."

"I did. It came up for sale, and I didn't want to see her lose her home because she'd finally found her happy place after a harrowing year, and I wanted her to be happy. After I bought it, I had an associate ask her if she would be the manager."

"Did she know you were the owner?"

"She did. She told Steve she would love the job as long as she could work directly with him, and he had been instructed to say that was what was going to happen."

"And you never talked to her in thirty-five years?"

"Not until the week before you went there. I told her that my son needed to see a different life to make sure he knew what he really wanted. Four weeks had been just the right amount of time for me. I thought it would be for you as well."

He stared at his father. "Do you think you made the wrong choice in going home and marrying Mom?"

His dad didn't answer right away, then said, "Sometimes, I do."

Even though he'd known for most of his life that his parents weren't that in love with each other, he was still surprised to hear his dad admit that. "If you were unhappy, you could have gotten a divorce. You could have gone back to Ocean Shores and been with Josie."

"No, I couldn't. We'd said our goodbyes. And I didn't want to disrupt her life."

Everything finally clicked into place. "You don't want me to sell Ocean Shores because of Josie. Why didn't you just say that? Why the charade? The promise to live there for four weeks?" He felt a burst of anger. "Did you just want to mess with my life?"

"No," his father said sharply. "And I told you I would give you the choice to sell it or not. I just wanted you to go there. I wanted you to have time away from all this so you could make the best decision for what you wanted to do in your life."

"If I sell the property, then Josie ends up homeless. I can't believe that doesn't bother you. It's why you hung on to it all these years, isn't it?"

"Yes, but if you want to sell, we'll make sure that the tenants have enough money to go wherever they want to go. The amount of money we would make off the deal would more than cover that."

"Did Josie beg you not to sell when you talked to her?"

"No. She said things would work out the way they were meant to, and she would always be grateful for the past thirty-five years."

"That sounds like her," he said with a sigh. "But I still don't get your reasoning."

"I'm going to release you from the agreement," his father said. "You can make the decision right now as to what you want to do. It's your call, Grayson. But before you tell me your answer, I want to know something: Did you have fun while you were there? Did you learn anything about yourself?"

He hated to give his father the satisfaction of being right, but he had no choice. "Yes. I had a great time, and I learned a lot about myself, about what I want."

"Which is what?"

"I've always wanted you to feel like I was a worthy successor, that you would be proud to turn your company over to me."

"I do feel that way, Grayson."

"I'm glad. But I can't run the company the way you did. I'm not you. And there will be changes going forward because I don't want to live a life that isn't authentically mine. I don't want to ever feel trapped in a web of my own making, which is basically the way you've described your life to me."