Page 92 of Hideaway Heart

“Let me see what I can do.”

After we hung up, I glanced at my screen and noticed today’s date—it rang a bell in my head, like it was significant for some reason. Devlin’s birthday—that was it. I decided to give him a quick call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, brother. Happy birthday.”

“Thanks. How’s everything going with the bar?”

“Okay. Still on track to open next Friday night.”

“Can’t wait to see it. I might be back next month.”

“How did the lunch with Granny go? I never got a chance to ask, you left town so fast. You sweet talk her into accepting your millions?”

“Ah, not exactly.”

I had to grin. “What? I thought this was a done deal.”

“It should have been a done deal. But there was a complication in the shape of a granddaughter who joined us for lunch.”

“Granddaughter?” I pictured a child. “How old?”

“Late twenties, maybe. She grew up there and works there, and she’s totally against selling. She’s got some ridiculous notion she can get investors who will help turn the business around. My offer was much higher than anything else she’d get, but she refuses to listen to reason.”

“You mean there are actually humans alive you can’t sell to?”

“There’sone,” he clarified. “And it’s only because she has the wrong idea about me.”

“Maybe she noticed you were trying to bamboozle her granny over French onion soup.”

“No, she arrived at the table with preconceived notions about my character. She was prejudicial and biased against me from the start.”

“Why?”

Devlin exhaled loudly. “Because we’d met before.”

“Where?”

“Remember that gorgeous brunette I left with the night we all went to The Broken Spoke?”

I started to laugh. “That was the granddaughter?”

“I didn’t know it at the time, okay? We didn’t get into a lot of personal details, we just had a good time. But no matter what I say, she doesn’t believe me. She’s convinced I sought her out and slept with her for nefarious purposes.”

“So now what?”

“Now I have to figure out how to make this deal happen even though she’s working against me at every turn. My boss won’t accept anything less.”

“You’ll be fired if you can’t make it happen?”

“I might not be fired, but instead of the promotion I want, I’d probably be relegated to sales manager in Bumfuck, Nowhere.”

“Well, hang in there. I’m sure you’ll find a way.”

“I better. So how’s everything going with you and Kelly?”

“Fine.”