by Meier, Susan
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She flattened out the papers for Finn’s appraisal and started reading. Twenty minutes later, she picked up her phone and called the cell number on the business card Finn had attached. She didn’t like his estimate, but she did want a deal.
Negotiations started now.
Chapter Three
“Finn Donovan.”
“I just read your appraisal.”
“And?”
“And it’s not an offer.”
“I can be in your office in ten minutes.”
“Good.”
She hung up the phone and turned off the computer monitor. There was no reason for Finn to see her dad’s list. Glancing down at all the papers on the desk, she decided there was no reason for Finn to see any of that either. Stack by stack, she removed the papers and envelopes from the desk and stored them in a plastic bin she found in the office closet.
By the time Finn arrived, the desk was clean.
He glanced at it with a grin. “I see you’ve done some work.”
He wore creased trousers and a white oxford shirt, no tie, and the shirt was open at his throat—which was tan. His sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows as if he were ready to get to work, but also highlighting two more tattoos—some sort of elaborate symbols—on both muscled forearms. If that didn’t make an already sexy man sexier, she didn’t know what did. Thank God she refused to be attracted to him.
She pointed to the chair in front of the desk. “Have a seat.”
As he lowered himself to the chair, his body flowed with fluid grace that caused muscles to flex and bunch, and her mouth to water.
She licked her lips. Okay. So a woman couldn’t refuse to be attracted to a man. But Ellie wasn’t staying in Harmony Hills. Her shallow breathing didn’t matter. Neither did the tingly feelings in her tummy.
She sat up straight, the way she would when meeting with a client. “I reviewed the appraisal and I think your numbers are low. I know my dad made more than this per month ten years ago. With inflation, I expected the forecasted revenue to be much higher.”
“Your dad’s not the only funeral home in town anymore.”
She leaned back in her chair. “I see. You’re estimating that you’re going to get half the town’s business.”
He leaned back, too, and put his ankle on his knee, revealing black motorcycle boots. Rich black leather. Silver buckles.
Her eyebrows rose and she caught his gaze. His smile went from professional to devastating so quickly her heart sambaed.
“I’m already getting most of the business. Now that everyone knows your dad is sick, I actually anticipate getting all of it.”
“You don’t think I’ll get sympathy business, once people find out I’m keeping the place open so he can stay in a decent personal care home?”
“Maybe. Or maybe they won’t trust a stranger with their loved ones.”
He drifted closer, dropped his voice to a husky whisper. “But why risk it?” He came a little closer. Their gazes locked. His blue eyes warmed. “Why is it that we’re always in competition?”
“We’re not in competition. You’re trying to buy my business.”
“I know. But I feel like the past—our constant competing—is making you do things out of habit, and you’re holding out when I know this is what you want.”
Her face warmed and the muscles in her chest bunched. Didn’t that sound like the line he’d used to…well, to get her panties off that fateful night they’d gone all the way?
She thought about that and her lips thinned. It was exactly the line.
“Do you have a script you created to talk women into things?”
He chuckled. “What?”
“That’s the line you used to—to talk me out of my underwear.” Oh, geez! Underwear? Really?
This time he out-and-out laughed. “Verbatim?”
“Not verbatim, but pretty damn close.” She sniffed in the air, hoping to repair her dignity.
“I remember that night.” He caught her gaze. “Clearly.”
Her blood rushed through her body in a long, warm whoosh. She remembered it, too. Also clearly. And it wasn’t just because she’d lost her virginity. It was because he’d been sweet, and so sad no seventeen-year-old girl could have resisted him. His dad had kicked him out, and he’d come to her for comfort.
The next day, she hadn’t seen him until after she’d nervously made her way through the calculus exam, but suddenly there he was, looking clean and refreshed, not like a kid who had trouble at home and who’d slept in his car. And he wouldn’t talk to her. Didn’t even say hello, and she’d known what every naive idiot had to face when she’d fallen victim to the charms of a gorgeous man…
He’d lied. Tricked her.
Of course, he wouldn’t be the first seventeen-year-old boy to lie to a girl for sex.
Plus, she wasn’t seventeen anymore. And they weren’t bargaining for sex.
“Look, save the charm for some bimbo. I have to make a deal. It can be with you or it can be with somebody else.”
He rose. “If you sell to somebody else, you lose the sympathy vote.”
She rose. “That will be the buyer’s problem.”
“And if you lose all your clients, exactly how do you expect to persuade someone to buy McDermott’s? The living area upstairs needs to be remodeled. Right now, you’ve got a lot of staff as overhead.” He leaned across the desk. “If I’m getting all the business, you have nothing to offer a prospective buyer.”
She leaned toward him. “If you don’t make me a good enough offer and we’re forced to run our funeral homes side-by-side, I guess we’ll see if you get all the business.”
Anger and confusion sharpened his silver-blue eyes. And was that a flicker of hurt?
Her tongue darted out to moisten her suddenly dry lips. His eyes followed the movement, then met hers again.
I remember that night. Clearly.
She had to work to stifle a shudder. Dear God, he was sexy. She could totally understand how her seventeen-year-old self hadn’t been able to resist him.
“I’ll come up with another offer.”
Muscles bunching, dragging her gaze to his tattoos, he pulled back.
“Okay.” Her breathy whisper should have shamed her. Except—damn it—he was gorgeous, and she was a normal woman who liked gorgeous men. And as gorgeous men went, he was in the top ten. Maybe top five. Counting movie stars.
He walked out of her office, and she fell to her chair. Even knowing he must have lied about his dad kicking him out, even knowing his kindness was probably fake, she turned to jelly when he was within ten feet.
She should have asked him to send his next offer via e-mail.
She shouldn’t have agreed to another meeting.
She should just go to the hospital, check on her dad one more time, and get the hell out of this town.
…
Finn left Ellie’s office with red-hot lava riding his blood. How the hell…why the hell…did their competition always get his juices flowing? And not just the I-can-beat-you-in-business juices, but the good ones, too. The ones that revved his engines and sent his blood flow screaming in one direction.
His phone pinged with a text. He glanced down and saw it was from his oldest brother, Devon.
I’m home.
He frowned and typed, Why?
Mom should be filing for divorce.
Devon, we’ve gotten her out of the house…
With a sigh, he stopped typing and hit the button to call Devon.
“Yeah?”
“Is that the way a big-time lawyer answers the phone?”
“I’m on your couch, drinking your beer. You get what you get.”
Forgetting all about Ellie, Finn shifted his weight. A corporate lawyer with a reputation for being a shark, Devon didn’t float through life as easily as he pretended. And unless Finn got a hold of his oldest brother now
, Devon would jump ahead of their mom’s wishes.
“We can’t interfere in Mom’s decisions about Dad.”
“The hell we can’t.”
“Look, we finally got her to the point that she agreed to move out. We can’t push. These have to be her choices.”
Devon snorted. “Sure. Fine, Dr. Phil.”
Finn laughed. “Make fun if you want, but it took us years to talk her into leaving him. I don’t understand it, but I know figuring this out is above our pay grade.”
“So what the hell am I supposed to do here if I’m not allowed to talk her into filing for divorce?”
“I’m not even sure why you came home.”
Devon sighed. “I need to help. Physically. I need to do something. I’m not a person who stands around. I want some action.”
Yeah, Finn got that. Now that they had their mom out of their abusive father’s house, the three Donovan brothers would like to see her sever all ties and stay the hell away from him. But these weren’t their choices.
Still, it was hard for Marines, even three ex-Marines, to fall back when they wanted to attack.
“I’ll be home in a couple of hours and we can grill steaks, maybe play some poker with Mom.”
“A couple of hours?”
“I need some time to revise the offer I made on McDermott’s.”
“You’re buying your competition?”
“Mark’s got Alzheimer’s. He’s not coming home. Ellie’s running the show.”
Devon laughed. “The little redhead you used to torment in high school?”
“I didn’t torment her. We had a competition thing going.” A really hot competition that seemed to be turning nuclear now that they were adults.
“Right. Either way, you’re screwed.”
Finn laughed and climbed into his Range Rover. “I can handle this.”
“Whatever. Just get home. Mom’s got four days of soap operas taped. I can’t say no to her, but I am not watching four days’ worth of General Hospital.”
Finn disconnected the call with a laugh, but as he drove away from McDermott’s, he thought of Ellie in the little tank top and jeans and liquid heat flooded his system again.
Damn, but that woman made him hot.
Chapter Four
Ellie’s phone chirped and she grabbed it off the desk. “Hello?”
“Ellie! Honestly? Your text said you were home. Do you mean home, as in here in Harmony Hills?” The voice belonged to Ashley Smith, now Ashley Lashinsky, Ellie’s absolute BFF in high school. The one friend she’d retained after she’d left town.
“I am literally home…in the office downstairs.”
“I heard about your dad.”
“Ash, you can’t believe how shocked I was.”
“I was shocked right with you, though my mother-in-law said your dad had seemed a little off to her lately. Look, it’s almost lunchtime. Why don’t we grab something to eat at the diner so we can talk?”
Ellie would rather be shot than go to the gossip pit that was the diner. The day her mom was killed, everybody had been too shocked to say anything. Through the funeral, everybody had been too sad. But after the funeral? Her mother quickly became the town’s whipping girl. Nothing to talk about? Speculate on why Amanda McDermott had left her older husband. Make guesses about how and when she’d started up with Bill Jenkins. Was he her first affair? Had they slept in his bed or hers? Had his wife suspected? Had Mark known?
She sucked in a breath. Thinking about the diner burst the bubble of sexual feelings talking to Finn had awakened. Gossip and Finn. Two pieces of proof that she did not belong in this town.
Still, there was no reason to tell Ashley any of that. “I have to go to the hospital. I haven’t been yet today.”
“Want me to come along for moral support?”
Moral support. Wow. How long had it been since anybody had supported her? Sure, she had Nicole in Pittsburgh. But Nicole was her boss. Though she’d spilled her secrets about Finn one night when they’d had a bit too much wine, she maintained a professional distance. Maybe if she had someone to lean on, she’d be less susceptible to Finn’s fake kindness.
“I’d love that.”
“Great.”
Ashley gave her the address of the house she shared with her husband, Tom, and their three kids. Ellie picked her up in the shabby red car she would have liked to replace with part of her bonus, if it didn’t have better places to go.
The second Ash stepped inside, Ellie apologized. “I’m sorry. The car’s a mess—” Tears unexpectedly filled her eyes. She fanned her face. “Oh, Lord, what the hell is this? I never cry.”
“Hey, you came home to a gravely ill dad, and probably a bunch of problems at the funeral home.” Ashley pulled her into a hug. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you. Do you want to go inside for a few minutes? The family is at my in-laws’ for Sunday brunch. I could make some coffee and we could talk.”
Sucking in a long breath to calm herself, Ellie shifted away. “No. I’ve had enough coffee to sink a battleship today. I’d spend the whole visit with my dad peeing.” She yanked her gearshift out of park. “Let’s just go.”
The drive to the hospital took twenty minutes. As she’d suspected, she’d missed the doctor, but she was told she could call him that evening.
She tiptoed into her dad’s room and, to her surprise, he was sitting up.
He held out his arms. “Ellie.”
He knows me. When she’d left him the night before, he hadn’t. Fresh tears erupted as she raced into his embrace.
“And who is this?” He reached over Ellie’s shoulders to get his glasses from his bedside table. “Ashley Lashinsky, is that you? How’s the baby?”
Ashley tiptoed closer. “She’s fine, Mr. McDermott.”
“Babies make the world go round.”
At her father’s comment, Ellie pulled out of his hug. “You’re so good today, Dad.”
“Don’t get used to it. Two seconds from now, I could be lost.” He patted the bed. “That’s why we need to talk.”
She sat as Ashley said, “I saw a coffee shop on the way in. I think I’ll get a muffin.”
Ellie smiled and said, “Okay. See you in a bit.” When she turned back to her dad he was staring it her.
“It kills me that I sometimes forget your face.”
Her tears returned full force. One fell off her eyelid and rolled down her cheek.
“Have you met Dan?”
She nodded.
“He’s a good guy. He’ll be a big help running McDermott’s.”
“Actually, Dad, Finn Donovan made an offer to buy the place.”
He chuckled. “He’s made two offers in the past six months, and I haven’t taken either of them.”
Her breath caught. “You don’t want me to sell to him?”
“He’d be as good a person to sell to as any, if I wanted to sell. But I don’t.”
She swallowed. Fear filled her. How could she explain to him that the doctors had told her he would need care for the rest of his life? That he wouldn’t be able to leave a hospital, let alone manage a business?
“I know what you’re thinking. I won’t be back to run the place. But I don’t want to run it. I want you to.”
“Oh, Dad, I can’t! I don’t have a license.”
“You make the embalmer the front person and manager. You do the books, deal with families, call yourself a secretary, and keep an eye on everything. I have it all set up. I’ve hired a great staff for you.”
“I can’t quit my job. Yesterday, I agreed to head up a huge project. Biggest I’ve ever had.”
He smiled. “You don’t have to quit your job. You know there’s lots of downtime in the funeral business. You can spend it writing your ad campaigns. You can even go to your office in Pittsburgh a couple times a week if you need to. You’d just have to live in Harmony Hills, so people can see we’re still open, and be there to supervise when we have a new arrival.”
She almost smiled at the way he said “new arrival.” That always reminded her of a new baby. Someone who needed care and a gentle hand, because that’s how he saw his people, his customers.
His voice softened. “Besides, I don’t want you to go back to Pittsburgh permanently.” He raised his hand to her hair and stroked softly as if mystified by her. “I may only recognize you ten more times, but I want those ten times.”
“Oh.” His love always humbled her. After her mother died, he would always say he was baffled by single parenting, then he’d do something sweet or wonderful, like come to a dance recital with six of his friends. They’d clap and cheer louder than anyone, and she’d be on top of the world.
She swallowed. She could tell him that she’d drive home every week to see him, but that was a stupid suggestion. There was no guarantee she’d hit his good times. And she’d miss out on his last coherent days.
Tears flooded her eyes again. This was so unfair.
“And I don’t want to desert my people.” He squeezed her hand. “I want to be there for them…even if I can’t be physically. Finn’s a good businessman, but I’m not sure he has the heart for this job, or the ability to be kind to people on the worst days of their lives.”
She agreed. Finn always seemed kind, but deep down he was a player, a guy out for only what he wanted. “Yeah. I get it.”
He closed his eyes. After a few minutes she realized he’d fallen asleep. For the next two hours, she and Ashley sat in his room, watching television, watching him. When he awoke, he didn’t know her.
She kissed his cheek, told him she’d be back the next day, and left with Ashley on her heels. They said nothing until they got into the car.
Then Ellie burst into tears.
“I heard what he said about running McDermott’s,” Ashley said, patting her back reassuringly. “This time tomorrow, he might forget he said it.”
She sniffed. “He wants me to run the business so I can visit, and we can make the most of the last few times he’ll remember me.”
“Oh.”
She pulled away from Ashley and pounded the steering wheel. “In a few days, he’s lost everything. His dignity. His health. His memories. I can’t take myself away from him too. I have to be here.”
