by Cathryn Fox
“What is going on here?” Bill asks.
“Kira, my last name is Montgomery. It’s Montgomery-Lancaster, and I dropped the Lancaster. I kept Montgomery, because of some weird, fucked-up reason that has to do with my mother. And you never wanted to know what I did. I tried to explain a few times, and then it no longer seemed to matter. Why does it matter now?”
“Because it matters,” I say. I glance at William. “Ask Linda Andrews.” I use my mother’s maiden name and glare at William, waiting for recognition to flicker in his eyes. His gaze narrows in on me. “Believe me, it matters,” I huff out.
“Who are you?” William demands.
I stand a little straighter and square my shoulders as I work to portray calm and collected, despite the storm going on inside of me. “I’m Linda’s daughter.”
Nate rakes his hands through his hair. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is your dad dated my mother,” I say. “She worked part-time at the plant, and he used her to get insider information, so he could streamline, cut jobs, and increase his profit.” Just like the new processing plant will do. Incredulous, I take a quick breath, unable to believe that all this time Nate has been using me to get Gram’s studio. I thought he was different. I thought he was one of the good guys.
“Then, when he got what he wanted, he moved on without so much as a backward glance.” I give a very unladylike snort. “I guess you really are a chip off the old block, Nate, and that you thought you had me under control. I was stupid to think what was between us was special, not that you were getting close to get your hands on the studio, and to think I almost told you I lo—” The word sits on the tip of my tongue, but I bite it down. He doesn’t deserve to hear how I feel.
“Ah, I get it,” William says. “You’ve been fucking her to get what you want. Maybe you are a Lancaster after all.”
“Kira, wait. Is that what you think? After everything we’ve done and shared, you think this is something I would do. You think that little of me?” Anger flares in his eyes as he rakes a restless hand through his hair. “Jesus Christ, I thought you were different from the other women in my life, too. I thought you believed in me, in us. I guess I was wrong about you.”
“What’s it going to take for you to sign this crumbling piece of shit over to us?” William asks.
I shake my head. “Don’t come near me. Ever again. And tell your lawyers to stop messaging me. I will never, ever sell Gram’s studio for any price. Especially not to you.” Nate’s eyes go wide, and he falters backward like I’d punched him in the face. Good. “Don’t come back to the B&B. I’ll have your stuff boxed and shipped to your office.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nate
Even though my place is still under construction, I spent last night sleeping on a cot in one of the empty bedrooms—no way could I go back to the B&B—but I never got a wink of sleep. I laid in bed all night, trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Gram’s studio and the cottage we’d been trying to buy, are one and the same.
Apparently, Delroy Becker was Kira’s great grandfather, and it was only after Gram’s passing the title changed and it became Kira’s. I also tried to wrap my brain around the things Kira said to me. I can’t believe she thinks so little of me, would accuse me of doing something so vile. I scoff and shake my head. She might as well have reached into my chest and torn out my fucking heart. I guess it’s better to know that now, before I told her I loved her and asked her to stay.
I pace around the office, caught between a rock and a hard place. No way, no way in hell would I ask Kira to sell, and no way was I getting close to her to get my hands on the studio. But the fact remains—if I don’t secure the land, I can’t build the process plant and boost this town’s economy. After all the shit Hooked had done in the past, these people deserve that much from me.
My father left after the run-in with Kira, warning I needed to get this shit done or else. I guess “or else” meant losing my job. But if I get fired, everything goes down the drain—the business, the jobs…everything. He told me not to bother calling him until I had this fixed.
His lack of belief in me would have bothered me in the past. Now I don’t give two fucks what he says or thinks. What he did to Kira’s mother is unspeakable, and no fucking way am I a chip off the old block. I don’t want to be anything like the men in my family.
I’d always told Kira I was no different from the guys in my family, that I had no staying power, and the truth is, her not knowing my real position and then finding me at the studio must have looked pretty damn suspicious. I take a second and put myself in her shoes, and my stomach instantly clenches.
Goddammit. She’d been hurt in the past by men using her for one thing or another. Is it any wonder she jumped to conclusions, especially after what my father had done to her mother? She struck out from fear, from past hurts. Like me, Kira has always been afraid to put herself out there, to let someone in. But she let me in, and I let her in. I cringe to think of the way I shot back at her, but it gutted me to hear her say I was using her to get the studio.
Fuck me.
I grab my phone. Christ, man, we need to talk, but we need to do it face-to-face. If Kira would just hear me out, let me explain that I had no idea she was the owner of the cottage, it might smooth things over for us, but words are simply words. I somehow have to show her what she means to me, prove I would never hurt her.
The gut-wrenching sadness on her face when she walked away, killed me. I fucking let her go when I should have gone after her, because I was too goddamn stupid to understand where the crushing sense of betrayal was coming from.
Fuck, what can I do to get her to give me a chance?
What if she never gives me one?
My stomach squeezes, and the toast I choked down this morning threatens to make a second appearance. I take a drink of my cold coffee to wash down the thickness coating my throat. My phone pings, and I snatch it off my desk, but it’s Oliver telling me Kira keeps refusing the offers. I shake my head, and a garbled sound comes out of my throat. Of course she has. Some things are more important than money, and Kira has proven that over and over again. I text him back and tell him to stop the offers.
Someone kicks my door, and it burst open, hits the wall with a loud thud. I glance up and find Izzy, Jason, Sam, and Cody storming into my office, fists clenched, eyes enraged. Cody steps up to my desk and drops a box onto it.
“We’ll ship the rest to your place,” he says. “We only brought this because we needed to see you.”
I climb from my chair for the shit-kicking I’m about to receive.
“You hurt her, and you said you wouldn’t,” Izzy says.
“I never meant to. I’m in love with her, Izzy.”
“You have a strange way of showing it,” Sam says, his eyes dark and murderous. He takes a step toward me, and I hold my ground.
“You’ve been sneaking around buying up cottages to build a new processing plant. Did you think word wouldn’t eventually get out?” Sam asks.
“I wanted it to get out when I was ready for it to get out.”
Jason snorts. “Fucking liar. We thought you were different, but you’re nothing but an asshole.” He slams his fist into his left hand. “Now, let’s go outside so we can get this over with.”
When they circle me, I grab my coat, pull it on, and follow them outside. Right now, they’re not going to hear anything I say. Perhaps after taking out their anger with a few punches, they’ll listen.
Out in the cold, at the back of the building, a crowd gathers. No doubt the whole town hates me right now, siding with Kira. I’m glad to see them rally around her, even though they don’t have all the facts yet.
I square off against Jason, who’s obviously ready to tear me a new one. “Do you really want to do this?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’m going to mess up tha
t pretty boy face of yours,” he says.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Jason.”
He laughs and throws a punch. I easily dodge it and slam my fist into his gut. Not hard enough to really hurt him. I just want to slow him down, so he’ll listen to me. He lets loose a loud oomph, and I hold him against me. “Let’s not do this,” I say.
“Fuck you,” he says.
“Jason, come on. Let’s talk. I love you guys like brothers.”
“A brother wouldn’t do what you did to Kira,” he says and pushes off me. He throws another punch but misses. Once again, I hit him in the gut. He bends forward, and Izzy rushes to him.
I throw my arms out. “I love her, you guys. I fucking love her. I had no idea the cottage we were trying to buy belonged to her or Gram. No idea. You have to believe me.”
“Why should we believe anything you say?” Cody asks.
“Because it’s fucking true.”
“Why didn’t you mention the plant? Didn’t want to start a riot before you cut jobs?” Jason asks.
“This is a small town, and rumors can get out of hand. You kicking the shit out of me is a perfect example.”
“What are you talking about?” Jason pulls himself up to his full height.
“You’re acting on misinformation. Kira doesn’t have her facts right.”
At the mention of Kira, Jason comes at me again, and as much as I don’t want to hit him, I dodge his fist and punch his side to slow him down.
He goes to his knees. “Stay down, Jason,” I say.
“Where the fuck did you learn to fight?” he asks.
“My brothers,” I say. “Can you give me a minute, listen to what I have to say?”
“You’ve got one minute, and then Sam’s going to have his turn with you,” Jason says.
I shake my head. “I know you’ve all been fucked over by Hooked before. If not you, then your grandparents. But that’s not what I’m trying to do here.”
Someone in the gathering crowd calls bullshit.
“Look, we’re putting in a state-of-the-art processing plant—not to streamline jobs, but to increase them. The plant will be huge, able to handle more product, and more product means more workers. I was going to have a town hall meeting and explain all at once. I avoided telling anyone before it was a done deal because I didn’t want it to incite fear of losing jobs. Like I said, we all know how Hooked has fucked you in the past.”
Grumbles come from the crowd, but as I look around, I think my message is getting through. Thank God. I really don’t want to go one-on-one with Sam or any of the others. Izzy was out for blood when she stepped into my office. She looks a little calmer now, though.
“I’m not going to ask Kira to sell. I wasn’t using her or sleeping with her to get the cottage. I was sleeping with her because I love her and want to be the kind of man she respects.”
“So, no new plant?” Izzy asks.
“I’m guessing not, Izzy,” I exhale a pained breath. “I would never ask Kira to sell the studio. I know what Gram means to her, and I told the lawyer to stop with the offers.”
Izzy nods. “Kira’s leaving. I don’t even think she’s going to wait until she gets an offer on the B&B. She said she’d fly back to finalize when an offer does come through.”
I nod. “I need to talk to her.”
“I don’t think she’ll listen. You didn’t even tell her who you were, or your real last name, and after what your father did to her mother…” She shakes her head. “She was warned about the Lancaster boys.”
“I need to talk to her. I’m going to make this right. Somehow, someway, I’m going to make this right,” I say, even though I have no fucking idea how.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kira
My heart sits heavy against my ribs as I drop another log into the fire and head back to the kitchen for a cup of tea. I can’t believe I have an offer on the place. It came through twenty minutes ago. The buyer had already been to the real estate office to sign the papers, and then Phillip emailed them to me. I electronically signed the contract and sent it back, which means nothing is keeping me here anymore.
While I hate to sell the B&B after everyone had tried so hard to save it, I can’t stay here. Not anymore. Tears blur my vision as I boil the kettle and drop in a teabag. No matter how hard I try not to think about what happened yesterday, the betrayal, I can’t push it from my brain, and my damn heart breaks just a little bit more every second.
Nate was using me to get the cottage.
I pour a dash of milk into the mug and go back to the fire. From the other room, the kitchen door opens, and I’m surprised to hear everyone voices. I glance at the clock. It’s only eleven in the morning—what are they all doing back so soon? I turn, and one by one, my friends—family—meet me in the living room and drop down into the cushiony chairs.
“What’s going on?” I ask. I turn to Jason, who looks like he’s been roughed up. My hand goes to my chest, and I gasp. “Jason, what happened to you?”
“Your boyfriend beat me up,” he says with a smirk. “To be fair, I went after him first.”
My pulse jumps in my throat. “What are you talking about?”
“Sit down, Kira. We have to talk,” Izzy says, her voice so serious, every muscle in my body tenses.
I lower myself into Gram’s old rocking chair, and with a shaky hand, I set my tea on the small table beside me, being careful not to spill it on the sun-yellowed doily.
“We were pretty pissed off at Nate, as you can imagine, and we went to his office this morning to show him exactly how pissed off we were,” Izzy begins.
Shock rockets through me. This is my battle, not theirs. “You shouldn’t—”
Izzy holds her hand up to stop me. “I’m not here to patch things up between you two. You’re both adults and need to have a conversation.”
“Won’t happen,” I say.
“Fine, that’s your choice, and one you need to think about, but there is something you need to know, and what you do with the information is your business. We won’t judge you, either way.”
I sit up a little straighter, having no idea what she’s talking about. “What information?”
“The plant Nate was building. It wasn’t about cutting jobs and streamlining. It was about increasing them and investing in the community,” she says. “Yes, of course, it will be higher profits for Hooked, but that’s not Nate’s final goal.”
After everything I’ve ever heard about Hooked, about what the men in the family did and said to increase profits, I’m having a hard time digesting that as truth. “You believe that?”
“Actually, yeah, we do.” Everyone nods. “He was pretty sincere. But he would never, ever ask you to sell the cottage, now that he knows you own it.”
“Are you suggesting he didn’t know?”
If he didn’t know, why didn’t he ever mention it to me, why go by a different last name, why not tell me what he really did for a living? I roll that around in my brain for a second. I never mentioned the studio to him, either, and he did explain the last name. And when it came to what he did for a living, I sort of always cut him off, not wanting him to feel or think his job as a fisherman was beneath mine as an academic.
Is it possible that he didn’t really know?
“That’s what he says, and that’s for you two to figure out, but the bottom line, Kira, is he is not trying to buy it anymore. He told his lawyer to take the offers off the table.”
My heart jumps into my throat. Could I have been so wrong about him? I briefly close my eyes. If I was wrong… God, the cruel things I said.
The cruel things he said back.
Then again, can I blame him for striking out? I’d hurt him, and if I am wrong, I’m not sure there is anything I can ever do to fix things. I just assumed he was like every other man in my l
ife and didn’t even give him time to explain. God, I don’t even deserve his forgiveness if he was sincerely trying to boost the economy.
The man put himself in danger to save me from a horse, for God’s sake, and we had a month of fun, of getting to know one another. He’d always been honest and open, sincere. A man with integrity. He always treated me, and others…even Bridgette, with care. Would a man with a secret agenda stop the offers, or push harder?
Oh God, what have I done?
I pinch the bridge of my nose, and my throat tightens. I should just drive to Halifax right now, get on a plane—even though I hate flying, but the sooner I’m gone, the better—and let him move on with his life. He deserves better.
I glance around the room and take in Jason, Cody, and Sam’s somber expressions. “Guys?” I ask. “What do I do?”
“It’s like this,” Sam begins. “Maybe he’s not such an asshole. Maybe he really was trying to do something good for this town. Jason kind of beat that truth out of him.”
“I think it was the other way around,” Jason says and winces when he touches his stomach.
“If I don’t sell, I’ll be the one responsible for stopping the building of something that could really help the economy and people.” I stop and swallow. Hard. “But if I do…” I push from my chair and take a few deep breaths as I stand before the fire, the room quiet behind me like everyone is holding their breaths.
“Gram asked one thing of me before she died, and that was to take her studio, turn it into a Heritage Home, and open it to the community. I guess she planned to run it like she did the B&B, on the honor system. I would never have believed it possible before.”
At the mention of the B&B, I turn back around. “The place sold this morning,” I say quietly to soften the blow. “I’m so sorry. But I accepted because I can’t stay now.” Izzy shoots Sam a glance, and then the crew eye each other. Are they upset with me? “I really am sorry. I appreciate what you’ve all done for me.” Heart aching in my chest, I glance back at the fire. “Gram,” I say out loud, my voice as shaky as my hands. “What do I do?”
