Divided Interests

by Kelly Elliott

  Paige looked confused. “William didn’t tell you about the storage unit that has a lot of furniture in it?”

  My granddad hadn’t mentioned anything about a storage unit. When I opened his letter in the study, I had expected there to be an explanation for why he left the house to both me and Paige. There wasn’t. All that was inside was two items: a picture of me and Paige the night of our senior prom and a key. The letter simply said, “To my beloved grandson, Lucas. Find the chest and you’ll find the answers. Always follow your heart, son. It will lead you home.”

  I wasn’t in the fucking mood to play games. I needed to buy Paige out before Bianca got wind of all of this. She was not going to handle the news well about Paige co-owning this house with me. For Bianca, Paige was a sore subject. It probably had to do with the fact that I had accidentally called her Paige once…while having sex. Yeah. Not one of my finer moments. And my mother purposefully slipped up every now and then and called her Paige. Didn’t help that my parents didn’t really care for Bianca. Hell, if I was being honest with myself, even I was at the point where I didn’t care for her.

  That thought made me pause for a moment. I’d almost broken up with her before this stupid trip.

  “No, he didn’t mention that in his letter.”

  “Really?” she honestly looked confused.

  “What was in your letter?”

  Paige pulled out a folded piece of paper from her back pocket and stared at it. She chewed on her lip, then handed it to me.

  “You can read it.”

  I looked down at it. The fact that Paige carried my granddad’s letter in her pocket made my chest tighten. I knew how much she loved him, and he loved her. In the last few years, their relationship had grown, while mine had faltered. Regret and guilt felt like they were swallowing me whole. Bianca had hated coming to Johnson City, so I had made the trip less and less. My voice cracked slightly as I asked, “Are you sure?”

  She nodded.

  My hands shook as I reached for the letter. I wasn’t sure why I was nervous. Was it because I didn’t want to be upset that Granddad had left Paige a better letter than me? Maybe it was because I was an asshole and was checking out her body when I had a freaking girlfriend back at the bed and breakfast. Or was it simply because this was Paige, the woman I had wanted to marry and raise a family within this very house? We hadn’t wanted the same things, and I had been too stubborn to listen to her reasons. I pushed all that aside; I couldn’t go back and change the past. Our past.

  Truth be told, I wasn’t angry at Paige for following her own dreams, I was pissed that I had forced her to pick. Her life, or mine. And when she did pick, it wasn’t the choice I wanted to hear. I was hurt she hadn’t picked me. Why should she have, though? I had acted like a stupid fool. I was jealous. Scared to death she’d meet someone who would offer her more. I was angry she didn’t want to start the life we had talked about as quickly as I did. Over the years, I realized what a fool I had been. It wouldn’t have hurt us to spend time together before moving back home. All the times I had seen her posts on Instagram, in a distant country, exploring it by herself, I realized I should have been with her. Maybe I had truly feared that she would end up loving her career more than me.

  Opening the letter, I dragged in a breath and started to read it. Out loud.

  “My Dearest Paige,

  You are probably wondering what in the world I was thinking when I gave you fifty percent of the house you have always loved. Well, that is part of the reason, because you love it and it is part of who you are. I’m sure you know by now that Lucas owns the other half.

  I have a storage unit at 4547 Ranch Road 175, that is solely yours to do with as you please. Once my beloved passed away, I put all of her furniture in there. It was too painful to look at. The pieces were all professionally stored, and the unit is climate controlled. There are a few other things in there, as well, for you. It is all yours, Paige. Do with it as you see fit.

  As for everything else, you’ll figure it out, but destiny is a funny thing. She tends to take us down some very big detours, but she eventually gets you back to where you belong.

  Now, I give you this house for you to find the answers. You can’t find the answers without the key, and Lucas holds it.

  Love always,

  William.

  P.S. Paige, please remember to follow your heart. It is the most important rule of the game.”

  Glancing back up at Paige, I said, “Game?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know if by key he means metaphorically or literally a key. And what answers is he talking about?”

  I handed her the letter back and then took the key out of my pocket. “I think he means this key, which he left to me in my letter.”

  Paige narrowed her eyes on it. “Looks old.”

  “He said I have to find a chest, and I’ll find the answers. Hopefully it’s an updated will giving me the whole house.”

  “Ha ha,” she snapped. “Lucas, how is this going to work? I’m not selling you my portion of the house.”

  “I’m not selling you mine.”

  She let out a sigh.

  My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to see it was Bianca calling. Perfect.

  “Hey, babe.” I cringed when Paige looked away at my words. Yep. Fucking asshole.

  “Okay, enough is enough, Lucas. I want to go home,” Bianca said.

  I walked out of the room and into the hallway.

  “Like I said before, you’re more than welcome to go back home.”

  “Why do you insist on staying in this dreadful little town?”

  “My family is here, and my granddad just died. I’m pretty sure my mother would be pissed if I left. I did miss my grandfather’s funeral, if you remember, because of your conveniently misplaced passport.”

  She sighed, overlooking my anger. “What did you get from your granddad? That house? Are we selling it? We could put the money into this cute little house I saw on Lake Travis. We would be downsizing to only eight-thousand square feet, but I think it would feel cozy. Maybe get someone in the mood of popping the Big Question.”

  “We?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “You asked if ‘we’ were selling it. Who told you about Paige?”

  The silence on the other end of the line made me realize she was talking about her and me, not me and Paige. So stupid. Why would that mean Paige? Good Lord. I’m not good at this game, and I don’t want to be.

  “Paige? What about Paige? Is that little tramp in town? Is she trying to put the moves on you?”

  “What?” I said, a little too loudly. “Why in the hell would you call her a tramp?”

  “Come back to this hell hole now, Lucas. We obviously need to talk.”

  Instead of telling Bianca my plans over the phone, I decided it needed to be done in person.

  “I’m finishing up a meeting, then I’ll head that way.”

  “Is she in the meeting?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes.”

  More silence.

  “Right, I’ll be there soon.”

  Before she could say anything, I hung up.

  When I turned around, Paige was standing there.

  “Did she really call me a tramp?”

  “Did you really stand there and listen to my phone call?”

  She smiled. “I really did. She sounds like a real winner. Good job, Lucas.”

  Paige started to walk away, so I followed. “You don’t know anything about her, Paige.”

  “She obviously has been told lies about me if she thinks I’m a tramp, and she appears to have you wrapped around her little finger, not to mention she caused you to miss your grandfather’s funeral. So yeah, I know plenty about her, and that’s just what I’ve learned in the past couple of days.”

  Paige turned back to face me, causing me to bump right into her. My hands reached out to steady her. I quickly let her go when I felt the zap of electricity rush between us.

  “D
id I miss anything that would give someone a different impression of exactly the type of woman she is?” she asked, a smug smile on her beautiful face.

  “You missed a lot. She’s a really nice person who does a lot of things for different charities.”

  Did I really just say that?

  Her brows raised. “With or without camera crews?”

  “Excuse me?”

  She rolled her eyes like I had said the stupidest thing. “These charities…are there camera crews around when she helps them?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “As a matter of fact, there are.”

  She smirked. “Then she’s doing it for PR. Doesn’t count, sorry.”

  Spinning on her heels, she walked away, and I balled my fists up and followed her into the kitchen.

  “I need to leave, so I need you to tell me the magical number that will get you out of here, Paige. You name it, I’ll pay it.”

  Her head tilted as she regarded me. Finally, we were getting somewhere. If I had known all it was going to take was money, I’d have done this when I first walked in.

  “Let me get this straight, I can throw any number out at you, and you’ll agree to pay me if I sign over my half?”

  “Yes! If I knew money was your driving motive, Paige, we could have done this without all the drama.”

  Something in her eyes flashed. Either she was angry, or she was coming up with a number. I decided to help her.

  “One-point-one million for you to walk away from this house.”

  Holy hell, why did I throw that number out there? I didn’t have that kind of money. Bianca did, but I didn’t.

  Her chin wobbled, and I felt like the biggest asshole on the planet. She wasn’t interested in money. That wasn’t who Paige was. It was like she said when I first got here. Her motivation for wanting to live in this house was the memories.

  Paige looked away for a moment, then cleared her throat.

  “I don’t want your money.” Her voice shook. “None of it. I’m not selling. And if you honestly think you can throw some crazy number out there and I’ll bite, then you never knew me at all, Lucas.”

  “Paige, wait.”

  She pushed past me and grabbed her purse. “Lock our door when you leave.”

  “Wait, Paige. Please stop.”

  I could hardly keep up with her as she rushed through the house and walked out the front door.

  Pulling the door shut, I quickly pulled out the house key and locked it.

  “Wait a freaking second! You set me up for that.”

  I watched as she climbed into a Toyota 4-Runner. That made me pause. I had initially wondered who that car belonged to, but it never crossed my mind it was Paige’s. I knew she had a successful job, she made six figures and lived in a swanky downtown loft in Austin, which wasn’t cheap. Not that I stalked her or anything. I may have asked Jen, who was more than happy to fill me in on what Paige was up to in her life. I had figured she would be in a little sports car. But then, that wasn’t Paige Miller.

  Shit, I had messed all of this up from the get-go.

  Paige peeled out down the driveway, kicking up dirt and rocks in her wake.

  I groaned and dropped my head back, staring at the sky. “Good going, Lucas. You’re watching her leave one more time.”

  Lucas

  AFTER LEAVING GRANDDAD’S house, I went to my parents’ and spent some time with them. I needed the sense of normalcy that my family gave me before I faced Bianca.

  My father wasn’t handling his dad’s death very well, and it broke my heart. They had been so close. They ran Foster Construction full-time together, at least up until a few years ago when Granddad finally retired.

  When I walked out to the car, my mother took my hand. “Lucas, I hope you can stay a few days. Your father mentioned something about going fishing, and I know he could use some help here on the ranch.”

  I smiled. “I’d like that.”

  “Does that mean you’ll stay? When I talked to Bianca earlier today, she said you were leaving after your meeting.”

  Anger pulsed through my veins. “Did you call her?”

  “No, she called before you got here and asked if Paige was in town, which I thought was strange. She didn’t have very nice things to say about Paige, and truth be told, I told her not to speak about someone she clearly didn’t know. She didn’t appreciate my tone, I don’t think.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “They’ve not met, and they never will.”

  Her brows rose. “Well, she sure doesn’t like her for someone who doesn’t know her.”

  “It’s because I dated Paige, and Bianca found a ring once, thought I bought it for her and I had to explain it had been for Paige. So, yeah, she’s a bit of a sore subject.”

  My mother’s eyes lit up. “You bought Paige a ring? When?”

  “I was going to give it to her Christmas of our freshman year of college, but we all know how that turned out.”

  “Lucas.”

  “Mom, please. Not now. I’ve had a really shitty day, and I’m dealing with two very different women who are pissed off at me for two very different reasons.”

  She nodded. “Please don’t let her talk you into leaving.”

  I kissed her forehead. “I won’t. I’m going to tell Bianca to head back to Austin. She’ll understand my need to stay. Actually I’m not going to be giving her a choice.”

  My mother smiled but attempted to hide it. “Will you be staying here after Bianca leaves?”

  With a smile on my face, I shook my head. “No, I’ll be staying at Granddad’s place.”

  The second I walked into the large suite at the bed and breakfast, Bianca was all over my ass.

  “What is going on, Lucas? Why is Paige involved with your granddad’s house? Did you see her? Speak to her?”

  “Jesus, Bianca, can I at least get in the door and make myself a drink before you hit me with a million questions?”

  “Well, I need answers. I’ve been down at the pool all afternoon waiting for you to meet with the lawyer, then you don’t come back for hours.”

  “I went over to my folks’ house. You knew I was going over there, remember? I asked you to come and pay your respects to them?”

  She sighed and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m sorry, baby, but you know how much your mother dislikes me.”

  I stared at her in disbelief.

  With a purr in her voice, she said, “Let me make it up to you.”

  Her hand moved down my chest and rubbed against my dick. She actually expected me to get hard after the day I’d had, and I was limp as a fucking noodle.

  With a frown, she stepped back. “Okay, you’re stressed. Let’s talk about what happened.”

  This was not going to be fun. “My granddad left me the house and property, but he only left me fifty percent of it.”

  Her brows drew in tight. “Okay, well buy your parents out of the other half so we can sell it and be done with this place.”

  “He didn’t leave it to them, and there is no we on this.”

  Why it was taking her so long to put two and two together was beyond me.

  “Just buy out the other person, Lucas,” she said, frustrated.

  “She doesn’t want to sell.”

  A fire burned in her eyes. The light bulb finally clicking on.

  “He left the house to her? To your ex-girlfriend?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  I walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on, pushing it all the way to hot.

  “I don’t know.”

  “And she is refusing to sell?”

  “She’s always loved the house, and my granddad knew that. He wanted her to have it because she mentioned to him a few times about how she’d love the opportunity to restore it.”

  “That little bitch. She worked her way in.”

  I sighed. “Paige isn’t that way, Bianca.”

  “How do you know how she is? The last time you saw her was
how many years ago?”

  The irony of this conversation wasn’t lost on me.

  “Four years ago, her mother’s funeral. Bianca, I offered her a large sum of money to buy her out, she didn’t want it. She wants the house.”

  Bianca sighed. “Okay, I’ll get my best lawyer, and we’ll contest the will. Say that you’re blood and your grandfather was clearly manipulated. We can make her look like a gold digger.”

  Facing her, I laughed. “I’m not doing that.”

  “Why not?” Her perfect eyebrow went up. Were those even real, or had she had them painted on or something? Why was I just noticing how fake they looked? “Do you still care for this girl?”

  I gave her a humorless laugh. “I’m not doing that because I’m not going to make it look like my Granddad lost his mind in the end. He wanted Paige to have the house, so I have to figure out a way to make Paige not want the house.”

  Her hands went to her hips. “No. I am not moving into that dumpy little house.”

  “It’s not a dumpy little house, Bianca.”

  “Whatever, I’m not living here in the middle of bum-fucking-Egypt.”

  “I’m not asking you to move here. I’m moving in with her.”

  Her face dropped, then she started to laugh. “That’s rich, Lucas. You really had me there for a minute.”

  Stripping out of my clothes, I stepped into the hot water. “I’m not kidding. I’m going to move in and make her life miserable. Maybe I can hire someone to make her think the house is haunted or something.”

  When I didn’t hear Bianca, I pulled the shower curtain back. She was no longer in the bathroom. I breathed a sigh of relief. Leaning my hand against the tile, I pulled in a deep breath. What was going on here?

  I wanted to be away from Bianca. Truth be told, I had known long before Granddad’s death that this needed to end. I just hadn’t wanted to see another relationship fail. The last nail was hammered when she pretended to lose her passport. She hadn’t cared about me or my family. She never had.

  “This isn’t working,” I whispered, closing my eyes.

  I shut off the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist and headed into the other room.