Page 30 of Tempting Me (The Asher Family #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

SHAY

The tears are uncontrollable as I race back into The Marina.

“Shay, what the fuck has been going on here this summer?”

“No!” I point to the door. “You don’t get to walk in here and ask questions. Not right now.”

“You can't trust him,” Leo argues quickly. “He?—”

“He said he didn’t do it, and I believe him,, and I … I …”

I glance back at the door, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“I have to go find him.”

“I thought you said it was just fun for you.”

“I lied, okay?”

“Jesus, Shay, why?”

“Because! I knew what might happen if Mom and Dad found out that I hired him. They’ll take this family business away from me without asking for the full story, just like you didn’t moments ago. So I lied, and now I have to fix this.”

I grab my purse from behind the bar and rush out of The Marina. I know my brother is behind me, but I don’t care. He can watch if he wants. I made a poor choice for a split second, and everything ignited from there.

“I’m heading out,” I tell Carl and rush out the door.

I break into a jog as I head into town.

The first place I stop is Hudson’s Bar. It hasn’t been long since Luca left our job site, and there are only a few places he would go.

I swing the door open with more force than normal, causing everyone to look at me. I can’t imagine what they see. A woman with mascara running down her face, all sweaty from her run.

“Have you seen Luca?” I ask Hudson the moment I see him behind the bar.

“Shay, wait,” I hear my brother behind me. I glance back to see him getting out of his truck.

I ignore him and look at Hudson again.

“Luca. Is he here?” I ask with more desperation.

Hudson’s eyes widen as he glances between me and my brother.

With his hands on his hips, he drops his chin to his chest and shakes his head.

“He’s not here.”

“Do you know where he might be?” I ask, moving closer.

Hudson looks up, and I can see the worry in his eyes.

“No, but I’ll help you look for him.”

“Thank you. Please have him call me when you find him.”

Hudson nods and gives me a smile filled with sympathy. “I’ll tell him.”

“Shay.” My brother grabs my arm gently. “We need to talk. ”

“I don't want to talk to you,” I say sharply and then rush out the door.

The only person I want to talk to is Luca.

I spend the next hour checking his shop, his house, the bar again, Brooke’s bakery, and I even go by his dad’s and Ruby’s, but he isn’t there. I call him no less than a dozen times, filling his voice mailbox to capacity.

But none of it works. He doesn't answer, he doesn’t reply to my texts, and he doesn’t call me back.

Defeated, I start my walk home. I’ve made it as clear as I can that I'm sorry and that what I did was wrong. Now I need to give him time to decide what he wants to do next.

I hope it’s to come find me.

By the time I make it back to my house, my parents are sitting out on my patio, waiting for me.

I don’t think it’s possible for me to cry more today than I already have today.

Which is probably a good thing, because as soon as I hit my front door, I know my parents are going to tell me how disappointed they are in me and no matter how hard I worked this summer, they still plan to sell The Marina.

It just seems like such a load of crap to me that their grown daughter is asking them to wait and sell her The Marina, and they won’t do it. If anyone gets to be mad right now, it should be me.

“Shay, honey, how is your day going?”

My mom’s voice is calm, but the concern laced in each word is a dead giveaway that she’s already talked to Leo.

“That’s the opening question you have for me?”

My mother grins softly, her green eyes shining as she smiles .

“What else am I supposed to say? I can already see on your face that today has not been good to you.”

“Not to mention your brother has already called and given us a little rundown of how your summer’s been going,” my father adds with the smallest smirk.

It’s not the reaction I’m expecting.

“I know exactly what you’re going to say.”

“Do you?” my mother asks.

“Yes. You’re going to tell me that I’ve done the absolute unthinkable to this family and betrayed everyone by hiring Luca.

You’re going to tell me, once again, that you’re not going to sell me The Marina because of the choices I made while you were gone.

Well, I don’t need you to tell me something I already know. ”

My father crosses his arms and gets that scowl in his eyes that he used to give Leo and me as kids when we did something we weren’t supposed to do.

“You might be a grown woman, but you could cool the tone when you’re talking to your mother.”

I take a deep breath. He’s right. I’m mad, and speaking this way isn’t going to change it.

“All right then, tell me what you came here to say.” I move past my parents to sit on the swinging chair. They both study me as I sit, my arms crossed, ready to argue with whatever they want to say to me. Mom’s eyes gloss over while Dad’s scream with concern.

I knew it.

I don’t know why they think it’s important that they have to actually say the words to me. I just said them.

“We already spoke with a realtor prior to us finding out that you hired Luca to help you with the remodel, so I just need you to know that your choices had nothing to do with our choice.”

Turns out, I do have more tears for the day.

My mother moves quickly to join me on the swing. She grabs my hand then she hooks me.

“We want you to know that this has nothing to do with our trust in you and the way you could run The Marina. It’s a lot to take in—it took a lot away from us, caused a lot of fights, and stole family trips we could have taken. We don’t want the same thing for you.”

“But isn’t that for me to decide? Don’t I get to be the one who decides my future? That place holds so many memories for me. I want to make more.”

My father nods slowly. “Honey, we hear you, but we’ve already made up our minds, and the money from the sale will help us fulfill our retirement plans.”

I hear them, and I understand that they earned the right to do what they want for retirement. I just … this is my dream, and I can't accept that no matter how much love and heart and time I gave it, it’s not going to come true.

“Please, please just wait until I can figure something out.”

My mom starts to cry as she hugs me.

“I wish we could, but it’s time for someone else to love that place.”

They let me cry for a good ten minutes, and when I’m done, my mother asks, “Do you want to tell us what’s going on with Luca?”

I glance between them. Neither of them look upset, which, again, is not what I expected.

“I … I think I'm in love with him,” I admit, getting right to the point .

“Think or know?” my dad asks.

“Know.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I hurt him. I lied to Leo about our relationship, thinking you’d all be disappointed in me and sell The Marina because of it, but I guess it didn’t matter, because you’re selling it anyway. Now I’ve lost The Marina and Luca.”

My head drops back as the realization hits me.

My heart feels like it’s being squeezed, and I break into tears again.

“You go ahead and cry, honey, but my advice is that when you’re done, you start making a plan to make it up to him. If he loves you even an ounce of how much you love him, you won’t be apart for very long.”

“But you hate him.”

My mom gasps.

“We do not.”

“You do, too. You told me not to hire him.”

Dad winces. “And we were wrong.”

“So wrong. He didn’t steal that money, and we treated him horribly.”

“I know,” Dad says and I jerk back.

“You knew?”

He nods. “As of about an hour ago when your brother came to find us.”

“But, how, what … and you just believe him now? And not Luca back then.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because Leo told us the truth. It was him who stole the money and not Luca. ”

My eyes go so wide I swear they might fall out, but like I have all afternoon, that emotion quickly reverts back to crying.

No wonder Luca is so upset.

My family has been betraying him for more than a decade.

And after today, I’m no different.