An Unexpected Love Story (Love Story Book Two) (22 page)

“Your mom and I can retire, Brooke. We can get a place and be comfortable. That’s a blessing.”

I shook my head. Of course I wanted that for them, but I couldn’t believe my dad would ever be happy without the inn. And then there was me…

“You’ll be okay, too, Brooke,” my mom said, as if she was reading my mind. “I know you never wanted to come back here. This is your chance to do something different with your life, don’t you think? You’ll be getting half the money.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? No. That’s not right, I couldn’t—”

“Yes, you will,” my dad said firmly. “We wouldn’t have an inn to sell if it wasn’t for you. Besides, I had always intended for this place to be your…your inheritance...” Suddenly my dad was sobbing, big, wracking sobs that shook his whole body. I stared at him in horror. I had never seen him lose it like this.

“Daddy—”

“Brooke, why don’t you go out for a while,” my mom said softly, taking my dad’s hand. “Give your dad some privacy.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

“Too bad,” my mom said, a rare burst of temper flashing through. “This is heartbreaking for your father. You have no idea the shame we’re feeling—”

She put a hand to her mouth, and I was afraid she was going to start crying too. I didn’t think I could handle that.

“Just go, sweetie, please.”

I jumped up from the table, suddenly desperate to get out of there, to get away from them, from the inn.

Paul tried to catch me as I rushed by the bar. “Brooke? Are you okay?”

I shook him off. There was only one person I wanted to see right now, only one person I could trust to help me make sense of this.

I didn’t stop running until I reached John’s house.

* * *

“Brooke? What’s wrong?”

I stood on John’s front porch, panting. I had started crying at some point on the run over, and I was sure my hair and face were a mess. But just seeing his face helped me to feel calmer somehow. I wiped my eyes. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” he opened the door for me and led me into the living room. The first thing I saw was Lainey. She was lying on the carpet in the middle of the room, a pile of coloring books and crayons surrounding her. When I walked in, she looked up.

“Lainey, this is my friend, Brooke,” John said. “You met her at the hotel.”

“Hello,” she said, hanging her head a little to look at me from under her lashes—long and dark, just like her dad. She struck me as shy, but maybe she was just afraid of me in my current disheveled state. I probably looked like a crazy person.

“Sweetie, Brooke and I need to talk about grown-up stuff. Can you take your coloring books up to your room for a little while?”

“Okay,” she said, bending to gather her things. When she got to the stairs she turned suddenly. “I like your boots,” she said, then ran up the stairs before I could even say thank you.

“She’s a little shy,” John said. He led me to the couch and we sat. “What’s going on? You look like hell—are you alright?”

I took a shaky breath, afraid that the tears would start again. “My parents sold the inn.”

John looked stricken for a moment, but then his face smoothed out until I thought I might have imagined it. “I’m sorry, Brooke,” he said. “When did they tell you?”

He seemed less surprised than I would have expected, but I pushed the thought away. “Just now, over dinner. They said…” I felt my voice start to tremble. “Apparently they have some debt, stuff I never knew about, and the developers are pretty much forcing them. They say they’ll be able to retire now.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

I stared at him, feeling confused. Why wasn’t he more upset for me? “John, you don’t understand. The inn is going to be torn down. It will be gone. Just like that. Everything I’ve worked for.”

“I’m sorry, Brooke,” he said, taking my hand. He looked down at our joined fingers for a moment. “But couldn’t you think of this as an opportunity?” he finally asked, looking up at me. “A chance to go after something that makes you really happy?” He smiled briefly. “Maybe you could buy your own hotel, like you wanted. Plant your rose bushes.”

“Lilacs,” I said, stung, for some reason, that he hadn’t remembered properly. It was such a minor thing, in the middle of all this, to be upset about.

“Sorry,” he said, shrugging. I watched his face closely. Something was going on here. John was acting weird. Why was he underplaying this so much?

“But it also means I’m about to lose one of the most important things in my life, and I didn’t have any say in it.”

“I’m sure your parents did what they thought was best,” he said, releasing my hand and going to stand by the front window. He peered out into the gathering darkness. “And if they got a good price for it, I’m sure they’ll be able to be very comfortable.”

“How do you know what price they got for it?” I asked, suddenly feeling chilled. I hadn’t said anything about the deal’s specifics. John turned to look at me. There was something in his eyes, something that made my stomach drop for some reason. “You already knew, didn’t you?”

He sighed, and walked back to the couch. “Yes. I knew.”

“What—how?”

“Brooke, I wanted to tell you this last week but I couldn’t seem to find a good time…”

“Tell me
what
?”

“My firm is representing the developers.”

I stared at him, feeling like the room was spinning. How could this be true? How could he be working for the people that were after my parents’ inn? How could he have kept it from me?

“All this time?” I asked, my voice a whisper.

“No,” he said firmly, sitting next to me again. He tried to take my hand, but I pulled it out of his grasp. Instead, he ran a hand through his hair. I had a sudden image of him in my office, doing the same thing as he told me about Lainey.

“I knew Duggan Development was a client, but I wasn’t on their account. I never knew who they were, or what their plans were, just that they were acquiring property in town. But last week they made an offer on a home goods store in town—”

“Betty’s,” I said.

“Yeah,” John said, swallowing. “Anyhow, the partners brought me in to handle that sale. It was my first contact with them. That’s when I found out who they were…and what they were after.” John sighed. “In all honesty, this is probably why they hired me, why they were so aggressive with their offer. They must have known they were going to need more manpower once this thing with Duggan’s got going.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” I asked, staring at him in horror. I couldn’t believe this.

“I wanted to, Brooke, I swear,” he said. “But I didn’t know what to say. I knew you would be upset. And when they found the debt, well, the deal was too far gone by then. There was nothing I could do.”

“You could have told me,” I said, clenching my fists to try and contain my anger. “So I wouldn’t have been so blindsided. So I could have been there for my parents when they found out.” I had a sudden image of my dad’s face crumpling at dinner, of the way his body had shook with sobs. “I should have been with them,” I whispered.

“I’m sorry,” John said, shaking his head. “I didn’t know what to do. But you’re right, I should have told you.”

“Yeah, you should have,” I stood, my mind reeling. How could I have misjudged this situation so much? “I have to get out of here.”

“Brooke, no,” John said, standing and reaching out for me. I took a step back. “Don’t go like this, not when you’re upset.”

“This is a fucking joke,” I whispered, feelings tears start to prick my eyes once again. “I can’t believe I was this stupid.”

“Brooke, it’s not your fault—”

“Not about the sale, you ass. About you. About us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about this, John,” I said, waving my hand to indicate the space between us. “Here I was, thinking this was something special. Thinking we were falling in love. And I meant nothing to you!”

“That’s not true,” he said, sounding angry. “That’s not true at all, Brooke.”

“Oh, give me a break, John. You do everything you can think of to keep me out. You don’t want me around your family. You only see me when no one else is around. And then you find out information that will change my entire
life
and you can’t even be bothered to tell me.”

“It’s not like that,” he said, coming toward me again. I held up my hands.

“Don’t touch me, okay? I’m not interested in being that for you anymore—the girl you can touch but keep at an arm’s length. I’m done.”

“Brooke, you have this all wrong. I know I was wrong about the deal. As soon as I heard it was going through, I was going to tell you. I had no idea your parents had agreed already, I swear.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better,” I snapped. I was angrier than I had ever been in my life.

“Brooke, I’m sorry.” John was looking aggravated now, as if he wanted the whole thing to just go away. “It was stupid, and chicken-shit of me, I know that. I just…the last time I saw you, it was so great.” I closed my eyes, assaulted by an image of the two of us snatching a half hour in my bedroom when my parents were over at the inn. I forced it away. I couldn’t think about that now.

John was still talking. “I didn’t want to ruin it. We barely get any time together as it is.”

“And whose fault is that?” I asked, throwing up my arms. “You’re the one that limits our time, John.”

“I have a daughter, Brooke. She’s my priority. I thought you understood that.”

“Of course I do! She should be your priority. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be in your life. Why do you think it would be such a bad thing for her to know me? Even a little?”

A shadow seemed to cross his face at my words, and a thought suddenly occurred to me, so terrible it made my stomach hurt. “Oh my God,” I whispered. “You don’t want her around me, do you? You think I’d be a bad influence on her.”

There was a split-second before he responded that I saw the truth in his eyes. It was a look I had seen in the face of so many people who had judged me over the years. He thought I was dirty, not good enough to be around his kid. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, but I could hear the doubt in his voice.

“I can’t believe this,” I said, pulling on my hair, wanting to rip it out, to scream, anything to make this feeling go away. “You think I’d be bad for her.”

He grimaced suddenly, and his voice was angry and defensive when he replied. “What do you want me to say, Brooke? What would I tell her if she asked where we met, huh? ‘Lainey, this is the woman I had a one-night stand with.’”

I reeled back as if he had slapped me. Somehow I hadn’t expected him to admit it.

“It wasn’t one night,” I said, my voice shaking. “Not for me.”

John shook his head. “Don’t make it like that, okay? I’m not judging you—”

“Oh, sure you’re not!”

“I’m not, Brooke! I don’t care about your history, or all the guys you’ve been with. But when it comes to my daughter…” he trailed off, and I swallowed hard, feeling like I might be sick.

“When it comes to your daughter you can’t take any chances.”

“Yes,” he said, his face brightening with relief that I had understood. “Exactly.”

“And exposing her to the town slut would be too big a chance, right?”

“I didn’t say—”

“I’m done here,” I said, turning for the door. “I’m done.”

“Don’t do this,” he said grabbing my arm and spinning me around to face him. “There’s no reason to get so worked up. Please.”

“Then tell me it will be different,” I said, looking into his eyes for any hint of what I felt for him. “Maybe I can forgive what you kept from me, but not if you want things to continue the way they have been. Not if you don’t want me in your life.”

“You can’t force it like this, Brooke. I have Lainey to think of.”

“And you think I’d cause her harm.”

“No, of course—”

“But you don’t want me around her. You don’t want me to be a part of your lives.”

He stared at me, helplessly, not responding. “Okay, then,” I said, feeling pain rip through me. “That’s okay. You have to do what you think is best.” I remembered what Emily had said back in Traverse City. “But I deserve more, John. I want more. If you can’t give it to me, what’re we doing here?”

I thought I saw tears in his eyes, but he didn’t respond. He had nothing else to say to me. I gazed at him for only a moment, trying to memorize his face, before turning to go for the last time. “Goodbye, John.”

Chapter Twenty-five

The next week was one of the worst I’d ever had in my life. The news of the sale was now public knowledge, as was the fact that John was representing the developers. The staff at work didn’t even try to lower their voices when they gossiped about it. I got the sense that some of them blamed me, maybe thinking that I had let John use me to get to the inn. I couldn’t blame them—they were about to be out of their jobs.

“I’m sorry about this, Brooke,” Paul said to me one day as I sat dejectedly at the bar.

“What are you sorry for?” I asked. “You’re going to be looking for work because of my family.”