Chapter 2
Brock
I knew this would happen. I had done this with the intention of triggering a violent, angry response, but now that I was faced with the reality of my choices, I was nervous. Nervous and excited and furious, if it was possible to feel all those things at once. This deal was the culmination of years of hard work fueled by the need to seek revenge. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I didn’t care.
Ashley was coming home. It had been six years since she’d left me standing at the altar like a jackass. Six years since I had seen her or even spoken with her. I had tried to contact her those first few weeks after she disappeared, further adding to my humiliation. I was sure she’d gotten a good laugh at my expense. Once I figured out she was gone for good, I gave up. She left me an empty, bitter man—a man I didn’t like most days.
Now I knew she was going to blow into town just like she’d blown out. Would she even bother to reach out? Would she be too ashamed to look me up? Or maybe she thought she was too good for me now that she’d made a life in the big city. I wasn’t sure if she kept tabs on what happened back here, but I hoped she knew how successful I’d become.
I smiled. If she didn’t, she would soon enough. That was a given. I expected her to reach out with her claws fully extended and try to rip my head off. Good. That was exactly the reaction I was hoping for. I wanted to make her miserable. I wanted her to suffer like she had made me suffer. When the opportunity to hurt her arose, I had jumped at the chance. She owed me. I owed her for taking off and leaving me like she did.
It was petty, but I didn’t care. I was still pissed. My last girlfriend had accused me of still being hung up on Ashley Parks. I’d vehemently denied it, but she hadn’t believed me. According to her, you could only hate someone the way I hated Ashley if there were still feelings there. I scoffed. Oh, there were feelings all right, but love wasn’t one of them.
For too long, I had been known as the guy who had snagged the youngest Parks girl. Back in the day, that had been a big deal. The Parks were somebodies. They had a big farm and each of the kids was gorgeous and knew it. They had been all high and mighty, but now look at them.
I ignored the twinge of guilt that crept in. I would not feel guilty for what I was going to do.
Times had changed, and I was the big guy in town now. I had scraped my way to the top and now Ashley would have to deal with me. I liked Tanner Parks, but I liked the idea of making money and sticking it to Ashley even better.
As I paced my large office, I glanced down at the drawings before me. The plans—plans that would transform Ashley’s family farm into high-priced condos—were spread across the solid oak desk. I smiled, imagining the look on her face when she saw the bulldozers roll onto the property and flatten the family home. The fields of corn and tomatoes would be razed.
I would not feel guilty. The housing was needed. Our small town was growing and people needed somewhere to live. I was only doing my civic duty by providing homes for our newcomers. I didn’t think any of us locals had ever imagined our small West Virginia town becoming the place people wanted to live. People who were fleeing cities in the hopes of finding the idyllic small-town life with big-city amenities would be flocking to my new condos.
“Helen?” I called out my open office door.
Yes, I was one of the biggest real estate sellers in the county, but I kept a small office. There was no need for a big, fancy office to eat up profits, taking money directly out of my pocket.
“You called?” Helen said, popping her head in the doorway, her notepad in hand.
“Yes. Can you get the developer on the phone and set up a time to go over numbers within the next couple days?”
She jotted the request down on her notepad and looked up. “Anything else?”
I shook my head. “Just let him know we need to get this deal firmed up right away. I expect to have some challenges, and I want as much detail as we can get so we’re in a position to move forward quickly.”
She gave me that look. It was a look of condemnation, but I knew she would never say the words. I paid her too well.
“I can do that. Why the rush?” she asked. “In case the developer asks,” she quickly added.
I raise an eyebrow. She wasn’t asking for the developer. We both knew that.
“I expect his family will put up a bit of a stink over this whole deal. It’s a fight they can’t win. It’s only going to waste time. I don’t want the developer thinking I can’t uphold my end of the bargain and get that land secured,” I said.
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“Nothing. I’ll go make the call.”
I watched as she walked out of my office. She was trying to make me feel guilty. Helen was a good woman. She had lived in the area most of her life and was fond of the Parks. Everyone was. I knew I was making myself a bit of an enemy of the state with this deal, but people would forget eventually. They wanted the growth, and for that to happen, we needed housing.
The deal had to be close to done before Ashley got into town. I just knew she would throw a wrench in my plans. That was what she did. She came in, ruined my life, and then ran away. Not this time. This time I was going to be the one who ruined her life. I wanted to hurt her as badly as she had hurt me. This was the only way I knew how to get it done.
It was probably wrong, immature, and a little nasty, but I didn’t care. My heart still had a hole in it—a hole she had bored into it. She didn’t get to run away, start a new life in New York, and forget all about me and our time together.
A sound at the door grabbed my attention. It was Helen.
“Yes?”
“I spoke with the secretary. She says you can meet him at his office tomorrow. His schedule is full, but he can squeeze you in for about fifteen minutes. I took the appointment. Is that going to work for you?”
I nodded. “I’ll make it work.”
“Do you need me to put anything together for the meeting?”
“No. I can take care of it. Do I have any appointments today?” I asked, hoping she would say no even though that meant I was hoping not to get paid.
“Your schedule is clear. I did have one person call and ask about that one old house at the edge of town, the one you’re trying to sell as a commercial property. The woman asked a lot of questions but didn’t want to see it.”
“Okay. If she calls again, try to get her to meet me out there. That house is an eyesore. The sooner someone buys it and fixes it up, the better it will be for my other deal. People will have to drive by that place to get to the condos that will be built,” I said, thinking about new ways to market the property.
She rolled her eyes. “It would just be a shame for them to have to look at something that wasn’t pretty and perfect.”
I laughed. “We are selling a dream. That place can go either small commercial or residential. It would be great if someone bought it and turned it into a market or something that would help attract residents to the condos. They want the convenience of everything close by but still want country living,” I said, shaking my head.
“I wish they’d see they are ruining the country by making it the city. Wonder when they’ll figure that out,” she said with disgust.
“Hopefully not until the deal is done and we get paid.” I winked.
She waved a hand at me. “You’re terrible.”
I laughed. “Terribly rich.”
Another eye roll, then she turned to leave.
“Thank you, Helen.”
“You’re welcome,” she said in a voice that made it clear she was not happy to be a part of this deal.
She’d get over it when she got a fat bonus when we closed the deal. I knew I was looking forward to a windfall of cash and building up my nest egg. Helen was a good woman, and I knew I was pushing her moral compass a little beyond what she was comfortable with, but she also knew the Parks’ farm was going under. Either I bought it or someone else did. I didn’t give Tanner cancer. I didn’t ruin his farm. That had been his children, a series of bad choices, and some shitty luck.
I sat down and got to work crunching numbers and doing what I could to gather all the information the developer would need. The more legwork I did, the less he would need to do. I started to pull water records, zoning laws, and every other bit of information he would need to complete the deal.
It was all so close I could taste it. I just needed the ink on the paper. I thought of Ashley’s face when she saw her family home taken away. Would she cry?
Ouch.
Okay, I couldn’t be that mean. But I wasn’t going to feel that bad about the house being sold either. It wasn’t like she needed the house anyway. She hadn’t been back home since she’d left me standing in her daddy’s field underneath that stupid white arch wrapped with sunflowers. I had felt like such a fool. Her family had tried to make excuses, but they were just as surprised as I was that she’d chosen to cut and run at the last minute.
Ashley hadn’t shown her face in town since that day. Her sisters and brother all had their own houses. It was only Tanner rambling around that big old house, saddled with a farm he couldn’t take care of. I felt bad about the cancer but had no doubt in my mind he would pull through. The guy was a tough son of a bitch. It would take more than cancer to take him out.
The money from the sale of the house would help Tanner out. That was what I focused on. I was helping out a man who was in bad financial shape. The money would help pay for his rising medical costs. His kids would be fine.
Watching the farm disappear would be like watching the end of an era, but I hoped it would bring me closure. No longer would I think about the day I stood there waiting and hoping she had just gotten the jitters and would join me under the arch. I didn’t want to have to look at that house and think about the kisses stolen in the shed or sneaking into her bedroom window when I just had to see her. I could erase the past.
Erasing the past would erase the pain—I hoped. It had to. I had to find a way to forget the day I ever met Ashley Parks.