Page 47 of #Resort Love (Lakeview Harbor #1)

“I have no excuse for my behavior. I listened to what I was being told by someone who I never had a reason to doubt. However, I realized after we first met that you weren’t anything like my grandmother described, and I’m ashamed that I fell for it again with the property.”

And another step.

“You may not have liked what I had planned for the resort, but over time, you were nothing but supportive of me and the entire team. You’ve offered help and suggestions; you know everyone in this town and haven’t steered me wrong whenever I needed advice or a recommendation.”

“And yet, as soon as your grandmother tells you to jump, you say how high,” she said wearily. “Honestly, Walker, I can’t do this with you anymore. You’re clearly only out for yourself. The rest of us are collateral damage. That’s not what I want or deserve.”

Now he completely closed the distance between them.

“I know. You deserve the world, Harlow. You deserve to be loved and cherished and praised for everything that you are. And what you are is amazing. Just the way you are. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone.

You are enough.” He reached out and gently touched her hand. “You’re everything.”

Dammit.

Tears stung her eyes and she didn’t want to listen to him—didn’t want to believe him—but it was hard to pretend that she still wasn’t in love with him.

“Walker, I can’t…”

“Please,” he said, boldly resting his forehead against hers.

“Tell me what I need to do to make this right. I’ll do everything you say at the resort.

I’ll let you handle all the artwork—which you can paint yourself—for all the cabins.

I’ll make sure all the guys buy houses from you so you can make all the commissions. ”

“Walker…”

“I’ll convince my family to buy up the rest of the available land around the resort—except the one your grandparents own—so you can earn the commissions.

Hell, I’ll publicly shame your grandparents by making sure no one will want the land and they’ll be stuck with it.

I’ll…I’ll…” he paused, breathless as she was a minute ago.

“I will love you with everything I am and everything I have until my last breath. I love you, Harlow St. James. I love you, and I’m so sorry for not being the man you deserve. ”

Double dammit.

How could she possibly say no to any of that?

“Tell me it’s not too late,” he murmured, his lips dangerously close to hers. “Tell me you’re going to give me another chance and that you’re going to let me love you and cherish you forever.”

Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands. “Don’t make me regret this,” she quietly stated. “Because the next time you pull a stunt like that, we’re done.”

“Never again.” He mimicked her move, his large hands gently cupping her face. “Never. Just tell me you love me and that we’re going to be okay.”

Tears streamed down her face. “I love you, Walker. I didn’t want to—not anymore—but I do.”

“Thank God.” Then he claimed her lips in an exquisitely tender kiss until all the tension left her body. His arms went around her as they slowly maneuvered until they were wrapped in each other’s arms, and then he took the kiss deeper.

She missed this. Even when she told herself she shouldn’t, she did. From that very first night, she loved the way he kissed, and right now, she was pretty stinking happy that she wouldn’t have to miss it anymore.

There was no rushing, no urgency, just a sweet time of getting reacquainted. By the time they broke apart, Harlow had no idea how much time had passed.

“Can I take you home?” he asked. “Maybe we can order some takeout and enjoy a quiet night in?”

“I like the sound of that. I just need to get a few things.” Walking around, she found her belongings. “Um…are you going to follow me home? I really don’t want to leave my car here.”

Walker shook his head. “I drove here with Gram, so I don’t have a car.”

They were walking out the door when she had a little bit of regret. It didn’t matter that Peggy had essentially behaved like a total witch; the fact was that she was Walker’s grandmother.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but…I feel bad that I’m keeping you from spending time with Peggy. I don’t know how long she’s in town for, but…”

He took her hand as they walked over to her car. “Axel’s taking her out for dinner, and she’s got a flight home tomorrow afternoon. Besides, being with you is the most important thing right now, and she knows it.”

Inwardly she loved that, but she still felt a little guilty.

“I hope you’re going to drive her to the airport, then.”

He shook his head. “She rented a car. But maybe you can join us for brunch tomorrow before she leaves. But only if you want to. No pressure.”

Her immediate reaction was to say good riddance, but again, she was Walker’s grandmother and they were going to need to get properly acquainted with each other.

“That sounds nice. Is Connor cooking it, or are we going somewhere?”

He grinned as they climbed into her car. “Connor’s cooking. Gram wanted a meal at the resort and he’s testing out some menu options on her.”

“Aww…I love that! Very cool.”

She pulled away, but Walker kept her hand in his. “Thank you.”

Glancing over, she asked, “For what?”

“For giving us another chance and for being so gracious. You could have easily said that you didn’t want to have anything to do with brunch tomorrow, but you didn’t.”

“I was tempted.”

He grinned. “That’s my girl. But you put it aside, and I appreciate that. If it helps, all the guys were on your side. So if anyone gets out of line with you, just know you’ve got not only the entire town, but a group of found family in the form of Lakeview Harbor Resort’s investors behind you.”

“Found family,” she repeated softly. “I like that. No…I love it.”

“And I love you, Harlow. Forever.”

And she loved that even more.

“Oh my goodness, Connor! What is all this?”

As promised, the next morning Harlow joined Walker, Peggy, and all the guys up at the resort for breakfast. And from the amount of food in front of them, Connor had clearly outdone himself.

Standing at the head of the table, he proudly stood in his chef’s coat with a large mug of coffee in his hand.

“Each of you has a sample platter with eggs Benedict, sweet potato home fries, a slice of blueberry French toast casserole, a small cup of apple yogurt parfaits, and the platters in the middle have bananas foster Belgian waffles. A little something for everyone, I hope,” he said as he took his seat.

“No chocolate chip muffins?” Axel asked with a boyish grin. “Or maybe some Pop-Tarts?”

Connor shot him a look. “You can go back to eating like an eight-year-old boy tomorrow. Today, you’ll eat like an adult or I’ll let Peggy smack the back of your head for being disrespectful.”

“She’d never do that,” Axel said with confidence. “Peggy’s my girl! My surrogate Gram, right?”

“Yes, I am,” Peggy said sweetly. She took a sip of her coffee as everyone started to eat and then mentioned that she had something to say.

“Gram, why don’t you eat first?” Walker suggested. “All this looks too delicious to let get cold.”

She agreed, and for the next twenty minutes, everyone ate and gushed at how delicious everything was.

“Connor, you’re spoiling us,” Harlow said. “How am I supposed to wake up tomorrow and eat a plain old cup of yogurt after this?”

“I guess you’ll just have to come for breakfast more often once the kitchen is officially operational,” he said with a wink. “Maybe you can even convince Walker to stick around a little longer.”

After she and Walker went back to her place yesterday, they had a very long talk about everything—her life, her family, where she saw herself in five years, and he shared the same about his life.

She knew he enjoyed what he did for a living, and running the Lakeview Harbor Resort was never his dream.

However, he knew being a part of it once it opened was something that was part of the plan.

So that opened a whole discussion about their future. Being with Walker meant leaving Harbortown and everything she’d ever known. It was slightly terrifying, but also kind of exciting. The real issue was it left her with no way of having a stable career because he traveled so much between resorts.

If she left with him, she had to give up her career. If he stayed with her, he had to give up his.

Not the greatest start to their forever.

They’d ordered takeout and talked until well after midnight without coming up with a solution. Fortunately, they knew they didn’t have to decide right away. They knew that as long as they were together, they’d make it work.

The other topic that came up was the expansion and property. Walker had agreed to let it go because it wasn’t necessary. He was embracing everything that made this place unique, and she was seriously impressed with him for putting everything he had wanted aside for the greater good.

At that point, they’d gone to bed and made love until neither could stay awake and had only gotten a handful of hours of sleep before coming up here to join everyone for brunch.

Peggy tapped her spoon to her coffee cup.

“I’d like to say something,” she said, just loud enough to get everyone’s attention.

“You boys have done an incredible job with the resort. I know you’re essentially just getting started, but I can see how much has been done already and it just makes me even more excited to see what comes next.

In my heart, I always wanted to see the next generation take over, and nothing could have pleased me more than seeing this group be the ones to do it.

I wish Milo, Jayce, and Kelsey were here so I could tell them too, but I know you’ll share that with them. ”

Walker held her hand and kissed it. “We will, Gram. I promise.”

“Good. I want you all to know that I appreciate everything you’re doing to keep the dream my husband and I created alive. And I hear that Harlow’s introduced you to several designers to help with all the interiors.” She smiled at Harlow. “Make sure they make good choices,” she added with a wink.

“I will,” she assured her. “Don’t worry.”

“Excellent.” She raised her mug. “To the Lakeview Harbor Resort and all the wonderful years of guests to come!”

“I’ll drink to that!” Walker said as they all raised their glasses.

They finished eating and everyone helped with the cleanup, and by that time, Peggy needed to leave for the airport. She hugged each of them goodbye, but gave Harlow a little extra love.

Pulling back, she gently grasped Harlow’s hands. “You’re good for him,” she said. “And you’re good for this project. Thank you for being so gracious and be sure to keep these boys in line.” She kissed Harlow’s cheek one last time before getting into her car and driving away.

Walker came up beside her, wrapping his arm around her waist. “She’s like a whirlwind.”

She had to agree.

“So what’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Do you need to go to the office?”

“Not really. I texted Charlene and let her know I was coming up here, but I don’t have anything on the schedule that I need to deal with.”

He turned so they were facing each other. “Maybe you’d like to come and spend some time in my cabin with me? I thought maybe we could…look at houses.”

She frowned, confused. “Houses? For who? I thought you weren’t going to deal with that right now and the guys haven’t been ready to commit yet either.”

Now both his arms wrapped around her waist. “Even though you exhausted the hell out of me last night, I couldn’t fall asleep, so I spent a long time lying there in the dark, staring at the ceiling.”

“Oh?”

“And I thought about my career. I love it. I really do. And my bosses have been great to me.” He paused, placing a kiss on the tip of her nose.

“But…I’m tired of bouncing around from one resort to the other.

So I’m thinking maybe we pick one that will be my only resort.

We could make that our home, and either keep a house here in Harbortown for whenever we need to come here, or have a cabin that’s just for us. Sort of like my family did for years.”

“Walker, I…if you stopped traveling, that would be like…being demoted, wouldn’t it?”

He shook his head. “It would honestly be a promotion and it’s something I wasn’t ready to commit to until now.

I’d be working on a corporate level. I don’t have all the details yet or anything, but I emailed my bosses this morning and asked about it.

They told me they’d let me know by the end of the week.

But if that’s not what you want—if you want to stay here in Harbortown—then we’ll do some research for that too.

I was thinking maybe we can look at the new houses being built over in Pineview. ”

Her eyes went wide. “Oh my goodness! You really have been busy! Where the heck was I?”

He grinned. “Sound asleep beside me, making the cutest little snoring sounds.”

She pulled back. “I do not snore.”

“Um…trust me, you do, and it’s adorable.”

Somehow, she wasn’t quite so sure. “So…which location do you want?”

“Why don’t we go down to our cabin and look at them all and talk about it?”

“Our cabin?”

His smile grew. “What’s mine is yours, Harlow. Always.” He took her hand and started leading her toward the cabin path. “Let’s go find our new home.”

Home.

She liked the sound of that.