Sunday night, Carter could no longer stand not seeing Hannah. She’d dropped Addi off the day before as soon as he’d texted her that he was done with work, then slipped out again before he could ask her to stay to have dinner with them. He knew she’d done it on purpose.
There was no way she hadn’t been as affected by their last kiss as much as he had. They hadn’t just been chasing their desire, they’d been communicating about deeper things, like feelings and hopes and tomorrows. Since Sunday was her day off, he hadn’t seen her for way too long. Because he missed her so much, all he could focus on was plotting ways to see her again.
Addi had actually given him a perfect excuse. She’d given him four grubby dollar bills and asked him to buy one of Hannah’s paintings. “To make her wish come true,” she’d said.
But before he could use it, Hannah texted him. It simply said: Can we talk?
A sense of foreboding chilled him. Those three words were more dangerous than the three words he wanted to say to her so much. But getting a chance to see her couldn’t be rejected. Where are you?
Her reply came quickly: Meet me on the beach in front of the resort.
He stayed only long enough to change out of his business clothes and leave Addi with his mom. Hopefully his mom would take the opportunity to rebuild her relationship with her granddaughter.
The sky was still burnished gold from the sunset when he got outside but was quickly fading to blue as night took over. When he reached the beach, he kicked his shoes off under a light post and walked down toward the surf, keeping a sharp eye open for Hannah in the murky twilight. The beach was almost empty since most people had gone in for the night, but a few people were still outside watching as the dying sun sank into the steel-grey horizon line.
He soon found Hannah, standing alone near the water with the waves just washing over her feet and the stiff gulf breeze whipping her long sundress around her legs. Her arms were crossed, and despite the wind whipping her long hair, there was a tense stillness to her that worried him. The crashing roar of the waves hid the sound of his approach so that he was only a few feet from her before she sensed his presence and turned to face him.
Her expression did not light up when she saw him, and he realized how much that warmth in her eyes had meant to him. Now, she looked as if she’d been dreading his arrival. Confused and tense, he pulled Addi’s money out of his pocket. “I have something for you.”
She looked curious but wary as he reached in his pocket. “What?”
He held out the money. “Addi wants to buy one of your paintings. To make your wish come true, she said.”
Hannah sniffed. He realized she was crying. Her hands trembled as she took the money from him. “Bless her angel heart. Oh, gosh, as if this wasn’t going to be hard enough.”
Carter could barely breathe from the dread building inside him. “What is it, Hannah?”
Hannah wiped her tears and tried to brush the hair out of her face. But the wind was determined to keep it there, so Carter reached out to help.
As his fingers brushed her cheek, she looked up at him. “I should have told you when you hired me, but, well, I enjoyed not telling you then. I had no idea that you would ever be more to me than the powerful billionaire who had bulldozed my neighborhood and wanted to do the same to my home. And now that you are…more…well, it’s time you knew.”
Carter stared down at her, processing her words. He wanted to bulldoze her home? Then, her meaning hit him. He looked up to the sand dunes and realized that they were standing on the border between his property and the beach house he’d been trying to buy for so long. The house that had caused him so much stress and difficulty with his investors. He looked back at Hannah, his throat tight with disbelief. “You own the house?”
She shrugged. “Technically, legally, my sister owns it. My parents left it to her with the understanding that I could live in it for as long as I liked. All along, I’ve been the reason she’s been rejecting your offer.”
“Your sister is Leah Parker?”
She nodded and looked down at the sand. Then, turning away from him, she looked out to the water again. “I didn’t mean for us to get emotionally involved, but now that we have—at least, I have—I couldn’t let this go any further without telling you.”
Carter felt as if he’d been knocked over by a ten-foot wave. He remembered the times they’d talked about how much this resort’s success meant to him. Still, she hadn’t said anything. He’d been lied to before, by Mandy, and now he was facing it again. Maybe not at the same level, but it still hurt.
Even though he could understand her reasons, he hated that he’d trusted so much, so completely, in her integrity, when the whole time she’d been keeping this a secret from him.
And now what? He didn’t know. His heart still ached for her and it was all he could do to not reach out to hold her, but he needed to figure this out. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Hannah turned her head back to him. “I was afraid you’d pressure me into selling you the house. Once I had feelings for you, I was afraid you’d use them against me. I didn’t want to deal with that.”
“You really thought that about me?”
“That you do what it takes to get what you want? Yes. Don’t tell me you would have been happy to just have a fling with me and never once wish that I would sell the house to you. Not with your investors breathing down your neck and your bottom line in jeopardy.”
Carter crossed his arms over his chest. “I never considered this a fling, Hannah.” He slammed his mouth shut when he realized he’d raised his voice. He needed to stay in control but hurt and anger warred for dominance within him. “Why did you finally decide to tell me all this?”
“Because I didn’t want things to go any further between us before I did.”
Carter shook his head. What hurt the most was that she didn’t trust him enough to know he’d never choose profits or some house over her. And apparently, he couldn’t trust her to be honest with him unless she had to be. “I need some time,” he finally managed to say. “I don’t know how to deal with this right now.”
Hannah nodded. “I guessed that would be the case. I can call the agency and have them send someone else over to watch Addi.”
“No. You won’t abandon her just because you and I are …whatever this is. She doesn’t deserve that.”
“I never wanted to. I thought you wouldn’t want to see me.”
“Then I’ll expect you tomorrow.” He turned then, and left, unable to face being around her while so much emotion seethed within him. But as he stopped for his shoes at the light post, he saw her still standing there, looking out to sea. And then he knew, however angry and hurt he was at the moment, he still wanted her.