Page 39 of #Resort Love (Lakeview Harbor #1)

Chapter Thirteen

It had taken every ounce of self-control he possessed to not confront her about this extremely detailed list he saw on her desk before now.

And he wasn’t prone to snooping, but it was literally right there on her desk, smack dab in front of him.

The only way he could have missed it was if he had sat there with his eyes closed!

He watched all the color drain from her face as she sat there looking horrified. He just knew she was going to apologize or tell him it’s not what it looks like, so he’d wait her out.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she hissed.

Um…what?

“You brought me to the same restaurant to ambush me again? Seriously, Walker, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Me?” he asked incredulously. “You’re the one selling property out from under me! You know I want extra land, but you’re not going to let that happen, are you?”

Her eyes went wide right before she ripped his phone from his hand.

“You see this lot right here?” she asked, angrily pointing to the top right part of the screen.

“It’s way more land than you want or can afford and the owner didn’t want to split it up.

And this one right here? This is the one you put an offer in on, and you were outbid.

Wildly outbid, might I add. I get that you and I are dating, but this is my job and I’m not about to compromise anything and cheat a client out of getting the best deal possible. ”

“Which means you…” he began to accuse, but she cut him off.

“Which means I made a nice commission on it. So sue me. I need to make a living.” She snorted with disgust. “And that third piece? It was more acreage than you wanted, more money, and they also didn’t want to split it up.

So what exactly did I do wrong, huh? Please, explain it to me how I’m doing anything to you?

” She slid his phone back toward him before sitting back, crossing her arms over her chest, and essentially shooting daggers at him with those dark, angry eyes.

He realized his mistake immediately.

He just didn’t know how to backpedal.

Carefully, he picked up his phone and tapped the image he took before deciding to throw himself on her mercy. Again. “Okay, try to look at this from my point of view…”

“Oh, I have,” she snapped quietly. “I’ve dreaded telling you any of this because I didn’t want you to be discouraged or upset. You’ve been so focused on how things are going and how you’re not getting your way on all the details that I hated to be one more person to let you down.”

Shit.

“I can’t force anyone to sell their property,” she said, and then made a derisive sound. “I think we’re both well aware of that. But this is out of my hands, Walker. So if you want to hold that against me, then that’s on you.”

For several long moments, neither spoke. Their server brought out their appetizers, and while Walker thanked him, Harlow said nothing.

So they ate in silence too.

Honestly, he had no idea how to make things right and cursed himself for the way he approached the subject with her. Any time he felt wronged, he went into attack mode first without gathering any kind of information.

When will I learn?

There was no way he could enjoy his food, and for some reason, he looked at the picture again, zooming in on it a bit.

That’s when he saw it.

The names.

Alan and Betty St. James.

It could be a coincidence, but Harbortown was a small town and he highly doubted there were two families with the same last name. St. James wasn’t all that common, so…

For a brief moment, he was going to turn the phone around in another “”Aha!” moment, but quickly decided against it. Instead, he gently cleared his throat to get her attention.

“Um…this plot here,” he began gruffly. “Alan and Betty St. James. Any relation to you?”

And that’s when he saw it.

Regret.

Guilt.

Maybe a little of both.

“Harlow?”

She primly straightened in her seat. “My paternal grandparents,” she replied. “And I’m sorry, but I cannot reach out to them.”

“Why not?”

Her eyes went wide again, but instead of rage, there was sadness there. It almost made him feel guilty for asking.

“After my father was arrested for…you know…murder, my mother was obsessed with keeping me away from anything and anyone who was related to him.”

“Like your grandparents,” he murmured.

“Exactly. So we were estranged for years. I don’t know how my mother let them know or if there was any kind of fight about it. All I know is that one day I had grandparents I used to see all the time, to having no one but my mother.”

What the hell was he supposed to say to that?

“After my mom took off, I decided that I wanted to see them. Without her around, I didn’t have to worry about what she thought.

Plus, I was completely alone.” Pausing, she took a sip of her wine.

“Anyway, I went to see them. I brought flowers for my grandmother—lilies, because those were her favorite—and the newest James Patterson book for my grandfather. I remembered how much he loved those books and the newest one had just come out.”

“So what happened?”

“I showed up at their house thinking this was going to be an awesome surprise and a big emotional thing, but it was a lackluster greeting at best. I was invited in and it was like going into a stranger’s house.

There were no hugs, no laughter, and certainly no sign that I was missed.

” She shrugged. “I stayed for an hour and my grandmother said she needed some time to adjust to the thought of us being a family again, but…” This time, she sighed and shrugged.

“After three attempts to reconnect, I got the hint.”

“Damn, I’m sorry, Harlow. Really.”

She mumbled, “Thanks,” but there was no actual feeling behind it.

The thing was, he understood why she didn’t want to reach out to them, but…

they had a piece of land that might help him achieve his goal.

Would it be wrong to ask if maybe one of her colleagues could reach out?

Would that be awkward? Should he go to another real estate office outside of Harbortown?

There were probably several of them in Pineview.

If he did this right, Harlow wouldn’t even have to know.

Well, until he expanded the resort and she figured out where the land came from. But by then, would she really be holding a grudge?

“Can I ask you something?”

Her question interrupted his thoughts, and he simply nodded.

“Do I mean anything to you?”

He didn’t even need to think about it. “Of course you do. Why would you even ask that?”

“For starters, because you keep accusing me of things and then picking the absolute worst times to do it. I mean, this is the second dinner at this place that you’ve ruined!”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry. I didn’t think about it like that. I saw that paper and it freaked me out.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been going through the papers on my desk,” she murmured.

“It was right there, Harlow,” he explained wearily. “On top of everything!”

“You obviously looked at it long enough to get a picture!” She looked ready to say something else, but reconsidered, shaking her head.

“Back to my original question. You say I mean something to you, but what? Am I a casual girlfriend? A convenient hook-up? Do you see yourself getting serious with me?”

“I’m crazy about you,” he admitted, boldly reaching for one of her hands.

“I hate that we have this…this whole business thing between us. I wish we didn’t.

I’m already hating the thought of leaving here in a few months and going back to my job.

I know I’ll be coming back, but…I don’t know what that’s going to look like for us. ”

When she went to gently pull her hand back, Walker held on.

“Everything about this relationship has been challenging, but that’s mostly because of outside influences.

When it’s just the two of us, it’s the greatest thing in the world.

So if you want to know how I feel or where I see us, I see us in this for the long haul, Harlow. I see me loving you and you loving me.”

Holy shit! Did I really just say that?

He did.

Do I mean it?

He did.

Her expression softened and hoped he didn’t ruin this for them.

“I see me loving you and you loving me too, Walker,” she whispered, her eyes welling with tears. “How did we get here? And how do you keep redeeming yourself at this restaurant?”

He knew she was teasing, but he also knew he needed to stop being such a dick sometimes.

“Have I redeemed myself?” he asked carefully. “Are we good? You’re not going to call for a car and leave?”

She shook her head. “I’m not calling for a ride. It just…it hurt that you would think that I was trying to sabotage you. It was my idea for you to buy the property!”

“I know, and there was a tiny part of me that thought you were getting some sort of thrill out of dangling the carrot and taking it away. You know…like I did to you.”

A loud sigh was her initial response. “You only dangled the carrot to get me to go to dinner. Once we were there, you were brutally honest.”

“Okay, but…”

“I think we need to agree right now that neither of us was the best version of ourselves when we first met. Well…after that first night. That night we were awesome, but our first meeting at the resort, we weren’t great.”

He grinned. “I fully agree.”

Their server was back to trade out their appetizer for their salads, and it felt like the night was back on track.

“Here’s the thing,” she went on, surprising him. “I promise to keep looking for land for you. I do. There aren’t a ton of options, but I will keep looking and try to find the perfect lot for you. There are a few smaller parcels where I haven’t been able to locate the owners.”

“Okay. Great!” He didn’t understand why she was sounding so serious. Cautious. Until…