Page 5 of The Seascape Between Us (The Men of Saltwater Cove #4)

Chapter Three

Daniel

I ’d spent the better part of my morning in my office, looking through the hotel’s financial records and reviewing paperwork from my accountant. A mix of devastation and hopelessness left me feeling nauseous. I had no idea how to fix any of this.

There’d be no appealing to Grey’s softer side. When it came to me, he didn’t seem to have one. I wasn’t sure what I had ever done to Grey to earn such animosity.

Back when we were kids, I’d thought maybe he’d been extra harsh, so I would get the hint that all I had been to him was a hook-up.

Someone to entertain him while he’d been stuck spending the summer with his father.

I probably should have figured it out sooner, like when he’d stopped calling and returning my calls, but it just didn’t occur to me he was finished with me.

After all, the last time we’d been together, he’d been toying with transferring to Bayside University in Saltwater Cove so he wouldn’t have to leave.

Then, like someone had flipped a switch, he stopped coming around and ignored my calls.

Even when I left messages for him on his father’s landline, he didn’t return my calls.

Looking back, it had been so obvious, but I just didn’t catch on.

Maybe I’d suspected, but I didn’t want to acknowledge what was happening.

After all, by then, doctors had diagnosed Romona’s condition, and my future had been wiped clean.

I was terrified. Grey had been like a life ring in a dark, turbulent sea, and I’d been clinging to him to keep from being dragged into the abyss… until he’d been gone, too.

You’re going nowhere, man. Did you think I would hang around going nowhere with you? I have a future. This is all you’ll ever be.

I hated thinking about the things he’d said to me that day.

My face still burned with humiliation. Worse still, he hadn’t been wrong.

Grey had gone on to start his own business, and he had more money than I’d ever seen in a lifetime, and here I was exactly where he’d left me—struggling to keep this hotel afloat.

The thing was, I had never been able to figure out how we’d gone from nearly two months of talking, laughing and fucking to him staring me down with furious disdain while he’d told me he was going back to school early and whatever we’d been doing with each other was done.

Or why that same animosity remained seventeen years later.

He could say selling off my hotel was just business all he wanted, but it was pretty fucking personal to me.

Maybe if I didn’t give him the numbers he needed right away, I could stall until I figured out a way out of this mess.

Though, outside of winning a lottery, I couldn’t see a way to fix this.

Besides, the way my luck had been running lately, Grey would probably sue me, or more likely, shove his way into my office and do it himself—or pay someone else to shove into my office and do it for him.

Raised voices from outside my closed office door pulled me from dark thoughts.

“What now?” I muttered, standing and crossing the short distance to the opening. I pulled the door open, and my stomach sank. Grey stood on the opposite side of the front desk, poor Carter standing opposite him, eyes wide like a deer in headlights.

What did he want now? Somehow, he looked even better than he did yesterday.

Instead of a suit, he was dressed in a pair of jeans, a dark blue t-shirt and a blazer.

While more casual than yesterday, he still looked expensive and put together, especially compared to my own gray pants and black button-down.

At least I wasn’t covered in sweat and dirt from the roof this time, so that was something.

“There he is,” Grey announced brightly. His dark eyes gleamed, and his hard smile sent a wave of unease rolling through me. “I was asking this delightful but clearly confused young man to summon you.”

“He wants the second-floor suite,” Carter said, turning his panicked gaze to me. “I tried to explain it wasn’t available—”

“How isn’t it available?” Grey cut in. “There are no cars in the lot. Is anyone staying here?”

I was staying in the suite in question. In the off-season, the suites, with their small kitchenettes, were rarely used by guests.

Since I sold the home I’d grown up in with my mother and Ramona, I’d been living in the hotel.

My friend, Brody, had been on me to find an apartment, but I didn’t want to take on the expense.

Of course, I didn’t want Grey to know any of that.

The less he knew about my personal life, the safer I felt.

“That room is having work done,” I lied, then turned to Carter. “You can take your break. I’ll handle this.”

Carter nodded gratefully and hurried away, ducking into the dining room on the opposite side of the lobby. Once he was gone, Grey turned his hard smirk on me.

“You’re going to handle me , are you?” That smirk widened but didn’t touch his hard, gleaming gaze. “Go ahead, handle me .”

After years of dealing with guests of every temperament, I was more than certain I could manage Grey. I turned my most neutral expression on him. “Whatever issues you have with me, I would appreciate it if you didn’t torment my staff while you were here.”

For a split second, I could have sworn his furious smile faltered, but it was back in place so quickly I couldn’t be sure.

“They’re my staff, too.”

“All the more reason not to act like an asshole around them,” I told him mildly.

Grey’s eyes widened theatrically, and he pressed a hand to his chest in faux outrage. “My goodness, is that how you speak to your guests? No wonder you don’t have any.”

A part of me wanted to defend myself and the hotel, explain that we did more business on the weekends than during the week in the off-season, and show him reservations for the summer months.

Starting in July, we were almost booked solid.

But I refused to let myself feel like a child called on the carpet before a disapproving parent.

Instead, I sighed. “What do you want, Grey?”

“I just told you. I’m a paying guest, and I want to stay at your lovely… well, your hotel.”

Sure he did. I rolled my eyes. I liked my hotel and worked hard to offer a cozy and eclectic vibe—at least, that’s what I told myself. However, I was sure the Seascape, even during its heyday, couldn’t meet the five-star service Grey was used to in other hotels. “Seriously, why are you here?”

“I am serious. I’m here as a guest. You claimed this place was important to the community, a sentiment I’ve heard expressed by others. So, I’m here for the whole Seascape experience . I have to be honest with you. So far, I’m not impressed.”

“Fine,” I ground out, giving up on the illusion of neutral passivity. “The second-floor suite isn’t available, but there is a suite on the first floor if that suits you, sir .”

“I’d rather be on the second floor. Better views. I guess any room on the second floor.” He waved his hand dismissively. He’d made his decree, and I was to make it so.

I gritted my teeth while I registered him to room 208, where my less than impressed guests had vacated earlier this morning. The room would be freshly cleaned, and the roof wasn’t in too bad of shape overhead. Once I’d registered him, I handed him his key card.

His brows lifted. “No more keys. I’m impressed. You’re practically modern.”

Personally, I preferred the keys, but the cards had their advantages.

“Room 208. The stairs are just past those doors.” I pointed to the set of double glass doors past the dining room entrance.

“You’re not going to show me to my room?” he asked, with a little more of that fake outrage.

“You know the way,” I ground out. The man was determined to press every button I had.

“I’m a paying customer. Is this how you treat all your paying customers? If you do, I think we might have landed on why you’re having such a tough time retaining guests.”

I swallowed down the curse climbing up the back of my throat and came out from behind the desk, flashing Grey a tight, insincere smile. “This way, sir .”

Rather than follow me to the door, Grey stayed rooted to the floor next to the desk.

I stopped walking and faced him. “What now?”

Wordlessly, he glanced at the suitcase next to him and then back at me.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

He grinned, but without the edge from earlier, softening his expression. Something fluttered in my chest, but I ignored it. It was probably just nerves from having to deal with Grey, anyway.

I rolled my eyes again—I’d rolled my eyes so many times in the last half hour I was surprised they weren’t stuck facing the back of my head—and grabbed his suitcase’s extended plastic handle.

I dragged it behind me on its wheels over the tile floor to the stairs while Grey followed blessedly quietly for once.

I lifted the suitcase and carried it up the set of stairs. The weight pulled on my arm. What the hell did he have in there? Bricks? Honestly, the possibility wouldn’t have surprised me if it was just another way for him to get under my skin.

Once outside his room, I turned and waited for him to open the door with his card, but he didn’t seem to notice.

He looked over the iron rail at the dark waves of the ocean.

The sky was dull and overcast, and the wind sweeping in off the water, sharp and cool.

Aside from a faint frown pinching his brows, his expression was open, thoughtful, and for just a moment, he looked so much like the young man I’d fallen for all those years ago, my breath caught.

I would have given anything to know what he was thinking.

Probably dreaming up new ways to make you miserable.

I shook my head and leaned toward Grey, plucked the keycard from his grip, and opened the door. Pulling Grey’s suitcase with me, I entered first and stood it next to the dresser opposite the queen bed. I gave the room a quick scan. It looked spotless. At least that was something, anyway.

“Your room, Mr. Mackenzie,” I said, setting down the keycard on the dresser.

“I hope you enjoy your stay.” I would have made my escape then, except Grey was standing in the opening, hands gripping the door frame as if he were afraid to let himself enter, his horrified gaze sweeping the room from one side to the other.

Finally, he turned his disgusted gaze to me. “Is that the same bed from when I was here before?”

While Grey had never stayed at the hotel, I used to take the keys to the vacant room so we could fuck undisturbed.

“The frame is the same, but the mattress is new.” Well, newish. I’d replaced all the mattresses with the money Oliver Mackenzie had invested.

Grey finally left the doorway, moving past me to stand in the center of the room, turning slowly and taking it all in.

“I feel like I’m staying in a thrift store.

” He finally faced me. “You have to know you’re never going to save this place.

” I bristled, ready to argue, but Grey pushed on.

“At least if we sell, whoever buys might keep your staff or package them off. You won’t be able to do either once you’re bankrupt. ”

“I’m not going bankrupt. I’ve survived this long.”

“The only reason you made it this long was the cash infusion from my father, and look how that turned out for you. Now, you’re stuck with me.” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

My nostrils flared. “You’re an asshole.”

He chuckled humorlessly. “Did I hurt your feelings?”

“Is that what you need? If you grind me under your heel, will that finally make you happy? What did I ever do to you to make you hate me this much?”

His eyes flashed, and that shit-eating grin finally fell away, leaving his expression stony. “I told you, it’s business.”

Business? Fuck him! My hands squeezed into fists at my sides, and I stormed over to him until my chest was nearly flush with his. His eyes widened, and a thin fissure of satisfaction lit inside me. “It’s business for you. This is my fucking life !”

I loomed over him, taller and broader, but he held his ground.

He stood so close to me, I could smell the spicy scent of his expensive cologne, feel the heat from his body just inches from mine, and despite the anger shimmering through me, bright and furious, I wanted to pull him closer.

I wanted to feel his body heat singe my skin.

I wanted his mouth on mine, so I would know if he tasted as good as I remembered.

I wanted to drop to my knees and swallow him down, feel his hands gripping my hair, his legs trembling as he came.

What the fuck was I doing? I quickly backed away, nearly stumbling over the foot of the bed. Grey watched my every move, brows drawn together in a faint frown as if he were studying me.

“I have to go.” I kept backing away towards the door until I felt the knob jab my butt. “If you need anything, call the desk.”

I practically ran from his room and hurried down the walkway toward the stairs to the lobby.

I didn’t know what had just happened any more than I understood the game Grey was playing.

The only thing I knew for certain was that I needed to stay away from him if I wanted to avoid doing something stupid I'd undoubtedly regret.