Her Summer with the Marine: A Donovan Brothers Novel (Entangled Bliss) (4 page)

She peered over at him with a long, cool look that totally perplexed him. “You want me to lie?”

“It wouldn’t be a lie. It would be more like a charade.”

“A charade is a lie.”

“What difference does it make? You’re trying to get some cash and keep your dad happy. My deal gives you the chance to do both.”

“You might think lying is an acceptable way to get what you want, but my father and I have never lied to each other. If I sell this place, it will be with his knowledge. Maybe not his consent, since he’s not always mentally here, but he made his wishes known today, and I won’t lie to him.”

He sucked in a breath, closed his eyes, then popped them open again. “So what you’re saying is that your dad wouldn’t give you consent when you visited him today?”

“This isn’t just about consent. It’s about him being comfortable.”

“So what do we have to do to make him comfortable?”

“
You
don’t have to do anything. I have to keep the place running and visit him.”

He rubbed his hand across his chin. “Okay, let’s go at this one more time. This is all about your needing to be in town. I’ve offered you the apartment upstairs for as long as you want. This morning I all but told you that you won’t get even half the town’s business. You’re going to fail.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Of course I know that.” Those damned hormones started to hum again. “I’m a businessman. I’ve been here for six months. I’ve been working a strategy to get the locals to come to me for funeral services.” She caught his gaze with brown eyes that had filled with fire, and heat saturated his blood. “I’ve already got half. The other half are coming around. How do you expect to compete with someone who’s already got a six-month jump on you?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“Really?” Anger replaced a desire to negotiate. Why was it the more she argued, the hotter she looked? “And how do you propose to do that?”

“I don’t know.” She passed her tongue along her lips. “But I’m not dumb and I’ve got a team.”

“A team that’s going to cost you at least half the money you’ll make! Don’t you see what a losing proposition this is for you?”

“Are you calling me stupid?”

He pulled back, stopped his anger. He wasn’t mad at her as much as he was furious with his hormones—
their
hormones. She was sending off as many signals that she was fighting an attraction as he was. So how much of this argument was about business and how much of it was about denial? He couldn’t answer that, but it might be wise to step away from the negotiations until they both cooled down.

He counted to ten, relaxed his muscles, and smiled. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get excited.” He smiled again. “All I’m doing here is sharing facts.” He rose and pointed at the envelope on her desk. “That’s my offer. You do whatever you want to do. Set up shop again for your dad. Visit your dad. Whatever.”

He started for the door but stopped abruptly. It might sound good to give her time, but he didn’t have six weeks to wait for her to make up her mind. He needed her company and he needed it now. She might have a dad to consider, but he had a mother to care for. He couldn’t let wayward hormones dictate how he negotiated.

Or could he?

Like it or not, sex was part of who they were now. Once a couple had “gone there” they couldn’t just pretend it hadn’t happened.

And they were hot for each other.

Always had been.

Maybe it was time to stop ignoring the elephant in the room, forget about the deal for a few hours, and let nature take its course and work this attraction out of their systems, so they could both get their wits back?

He turned and faced her again. “What do you say we go out for a drink? No business talk. No pressure from me. Just a nice beer between friends.”

“I’m not dressed to go out.”

He smiled the devastating smile he knew had melted a few female hearts in the past. “Are you kidding? This is Harmony Hills. In a tank top and jeans, you’ll fit in at any bar.”

“I don’t know.”

“You can’t say you’re tired. You went to bed before eight o’clock last night.”

“I’m not tired, but—”

“What? You don’t want a beer?” He ambled back to her desk. “I can get you a glass of wine, if you’ve gotten snooty in the big city.”

She laughed and toyed with a pencil.

“Come on. You look like a woman who could use a drink.” And both of them needed to put an end to this tension. If all they had was drinks that would be fine, but if they ended up in bed that would probably be better. For both of them.

“C’mon. It’ll be fun.”

Chapter Five

Finn opened the door to the American Legion—the only bar open on Sunday—and stepped aside to let a pretty blond girl enter before him. She gave him a look that could only be interpreted as a come-on, but he barely noticed.

Ellie had turned him down. Not just for the funeral home, but for a drink.

Man, he couldn’t believe it.

Strolling up to the bar, he went over everything he’d said and done in their little meeting, and came up empty. He got it that she’d already made up her mind not to sell before he’d arrived. But she’d made that decision based on bad intel. And both of their hormones were raging. So how could either one of them function properly? He’d come up with the perfect solution. Yet he’d struck out royally. She wouldn’t even have a drink with him.

He must be losing his touch.

Brent Tulowitski ambled over. A year or so older than Finn, with thinning dark hair that he craftily disguised by keeping it cut close to the scalp, he ran a cloth over the strip of bar in front of Finn and set down a paper coaster.

“What’ll it be?”

“Draft.”

“Coming right up. We don’t keep our war heroes waiting around here.”

And that was another thing. Everybody in town knew he’d served in Afghanistan, and everybody respected him. Not just because he was a former football hero, but because he’d grown up. He’d served his country. He was taking care of his mother.

Sheesh…what the hell did Ellie want from him?

Brent set the beer on the coaster just as Devon slid onto the stool beside his. “So, when exactly were you coming home to play poker and save me from
General Hospital
?”

He winced. “Sorry. I got a bit involved with the McDermott deal.”

“She’s busting your balls again, isn’t she?” Devon asked, then ordered a draft from Brent.

Brent poured Devon’s beer and set it on the bar. “She who?”

“Ellie McDermott.”

Brent’s eyes brightened. “She’s home?”

Something flickered in Finn’s gut. He did not like the look in Brent’s eyes.

“Yeah, and she thinks she needs to run the funeral home to make enough money to support her dad.”

Brent walked away to ring up the tab, but Devon laughed. “So the competition begins again.”

“Not really. I’ve been siphoning business from her dad for six months. With Mark in the hospital, people are going to think she’s closed.”

Devon took a swig of his beer. “That’s tough for her.”

“I tried to do the decent thing and buy her out. She turned me down.”

Devon laughed.

“This is not funny.”

“Sure it is. Especially since I know you don’t get turned down a lot.”

“This is business, not personal.” Even as the words spilled from his lips, he thought of Ellie and her puritanical need to split hairs about things like lying and charades, and his blood supercharged again. Okay, so there was a personal aspect to this business. But he didn’t have to admit that to Devon.

Devon cast a long, cool look at him before he said, “If this really is just business between you two, then make it business. If you think she’s going to fail, let her. I know you probably feel sorry about her dad, but if this is really just business, let it go.”

Devon rose from his seat and tossed a ten-dollar bill on the bar. “I should stay here and force you to go home and watch the last two hours of soaps, but you need to think this through.” He patted Finn’s back. “You’ll owe me. Big-time.”

Finn grunted. Devon only laughed and left the bar.

Finn took a swallow of beer. The pretty blonde he’d held the door for strolled over. “Hey, Finn.”

“Hey…” Shoot. He’d met her. He knew he’d met her. But he couldn’t remember her name. Unlike Ellie, whose every move seemed to be seared in his brain. He remembered her cute and toothless in first grade. Beating him in the geography bee in fifth grade. Goading him when she took first place in the science fair. Smiling cockily when she snatched the number one class ranking away from him in tenth grade because she was just a little bit better in history…

“You got plans for tonight?”

He pulled himself out of his reverie. Though any other day of the week he’d happily join in on a pretty girl’s plans, he’d expected to be with Ellie tonight, and for some reason or another he couldn’t switch gears.

The woman was going to be the death of him.

He smiled ruefully at the blonde. “Actually, I’m trying to think through a little bit of a work problem.”

Her eyelashes fluttered. “Maybe I can help?”

He took a quick glance at her very short denim shorts and very tight top and sighed, annoyed with himself. This could qualify as the best offer he’d had all year, and he was turning her down. Why? Because he wanted to hook up with a redhead he’d had sex with once? Nine years ago?

He was insane.

He finished his beer. “Thanks, but I do my best thinking alone, in front of my computer.”

As he turned to go, she caught his arm. “Are you sure?”

He expected to feel a tingle of excitement, the rush of pure male need. None came.

Damn Ellie. “No thanks.”

In the Range Rover, he forced his thoughts off sleeping with Ellie, and put them on their business. Or maybe he should say fighting over business. Their competition might be old news, but this time they weren’t evenly matched. He felt like a Rottweiler fighting a poodle. He was going to destroy her, and she couldn’t see it. Wouldn’t even consider it.

He frowned.

Maybe Devon was right. With the way things were going lately, he wouldn’t have to lift a finger to beat her. But he wasn’t going to win.
She
was going to lose. And maybe he should just let her. He’d offered her a very good deal, and she’d refused it. Maybe it was simply time to let the chips fall where they may.

After all, this
was
business.

…

Monday morning, Ellie called Nicole as she dressed to visit her dad.

“I can’t come into the office today.”

“Oh?”

“Nic, I’m going to have to run the funeral home. My dad wants me to. He needs me here so we can have all the time possible together before he totally loses it.”

Nicole’s next “Oh” was sympathetic. “So you’re bugging out on Tidy Whitiez?”

“That’s just it. I need that money too. I’d like to be able to work on it from Harmony Hills.”

“As project leader, that might be hard.”

“I’ll figure something out.”

Nicole sighed. “And I could help you, since I mentored you through the campaign’s development.”

“I appreciate that, but…”

“No. Stop. This isn’t you wanting to go to Harmony Hills for a party. Your dad is sick. And you’re my friend. When friends are in trouble they help each other out.”

Warmth tightened her chest. Maybe there wasn’t as much professional distance between her and Nic as she always believed. “Thanks. But, seriously, I can do the bulk of the supervising. I can even be in the office a few days a week. I’ll make this work.”

“I know you will.”

She left for the hospital buoyed with enthusiasm. Not only had she turned down Finn’s offer to buy McDermott’s, but she’d turned down drinks. Hadn’t succumbed to that smile, or the tingle of something that breezed across her skin every time he was within ten feet. Or those pretty blue eyes. The strength she’d displayed saturated her with a pleasure so strong it should have been against the law. But it also filled her with confidence.

When she got to her dad’s room, he was sitting up, holding the television remote, flipping through the morning news.

“Ever since they fired that Ann girl from
Today
, I can’t stand to watch that show.”

She kissed his cheek. “Me neither.”

“So what’s up?”

She took a seat on the chair by his bed. “I told Finn last night I wouldn’t sell McDermott’s to him.”

His dark brown eyes filled with happiness. “Really? Finn wanted to buy it, but you’re going to run it instead?”

She ignored the fact that he seemed to have forgotten she’d told him about Finn’s offer, and that he’d been the one who desperately wanted her to run McDermott’s. “Yes. But I have no illusions that it’s going to be easy. Finn says he’s been stealing your customers for six months. With you being sick, especially with you in a personal care facility, people are going to think we’re closed. We have to do something to let them know that’s not true, and we have to do it as soon as we can.”

“Okay. So what you’re saying is we need to get the word out that you’re running the place?”

“No.” She winced. “Dad, I’m in advertising. Trust me when I tell you that no one wants to hear about me. Everybody wants to hear about
you
. How you’re doing, that sort of thing. And once we tell them you’re not running the place, they may reject me.”

He gaped at her. “Seriously? You think that?”

She didn’t bother reminding him she’d left Harmony Hills because she’d been insulted and hurt by the way the church ladies gossiped about her mom, and that she’d made those feelings known—a few times. If Alzheimer’s made him forget things, those were two good things to forget.

She rose and plumped his pillows. “We have to take the focus off me.”

“You mean put it on the staff?”

Oh, yeah. She could just see how promoting beautician Barbara Beth would draw in the customers.

“No. We have to think of something else. Something that will draw customers to us. And a venue to get our message out—like a newspaper ad.”

He winced. “I don’t like ads. I think they’re crass.”

“We’ve got to do something.”

“I have brochures.”

“You do?”

“Sure. But no one ever gets one until they come in with a loved one who needs our services.”

She gave herself a second to interpret the Dad-speak. “Oh, you mean after the fact. After they’re already hiring you because a loved one has died.”

“Yes.”

“So we have to figure out a way to get the brochures into the hands of—”

“Everybody. Where can we give them to everybody?”

Her first thought was O’Riley’s grocery store, but that wouldn’t work. Half of Harmony Hills didn’t shop at O’Riley’s. Ever since Richard Hyatt, Finn’s maternal grandfather, won the grocery store from Sean O’Riley in a poker game, O’Riley friends and family wouldn’t even walk on the same side of the street with Conrad Hyatt. Finn’s family had avoided the backlash from that just by being Donovans. Jeb Donovan’s perfect little unit…

Which Finn had told her wasn’t so perfect.

She shook her head to clear it. That was irrelevant…and a lie. Told by a seventeen-year-old kid who’d used sex to psych her out.

“What if you gave them out with subs when the Catholic church has its monthly sub sale?”

Glad to be drawn away from thinking about Finn, she didn’t even try to swallow her giggle. “You believe a newspaper ad is crass, but you want to give out brochures for a funeral home with lunch?” But as she said those words, another idea dawned. “What if we put those brochures on car windshields at church
services
?”

Her dad brightened. “That’s perfect. There are five churches in town. Almost everybody goes to one of them.”

She tucked in his blankets, knowing sliding brochures on car windshields was a good idea but far from perfect. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

He beamed at her. “You’re gonna nail this.” He yawned. “In another few months, McDermott’s will be back to full throttle. Hey, did I tell you that Finn Donovan tried to buy the place from me once?”

She took a step back. His doctor had told her that he’d forget things and repeat himself. She’d succeeded in not reacting to most of the comments he made that weren’t quite right, but that one had been so obvious it threw her. Reminded her that her dad was sick—really sick—with something most of the medical community barely understood. And it underscored the fact that she had to support him. Now. Not six months from now, but
now
. She had to get business flowing to McDermott’s immediately.

Mary Kiel walked in with that morning’s meds. “Hey, Ellie.” She faced Ellie’s dad and smiled affectionately. “And good morning to you, Mark.”

A resident of Harmony Hills, Mary knew Ellie’s dad very well. Actually, nearly everybody knew her dad well. And most of them would be kind to him the way Mary was.

“Is this my daily poison?”

She laughed. “This is the stuff that makes it so that you can keep talking to your daughter.”

He glanced lovingly at Ellie. “Then I take it happily.” He swallowed his meds and gave back the little plastic cup.

Mary patted his arm. “We’re going to be sorry to see you leave us at the end of the week.” She looked at Ellie. “Have you made arrangements with a personal care facility?”

“I have an appointment today to check out Harmony Hills Hideaway.”

Mary gasped. “Fancy.”

“Nothing but the best for my dad.”

She gave Mark another fond smile. “Exactly.”

And that’s when the lightbulb lit in Ellie’s head.

Her father might already have brochures printed for the funeral home, but the best-selling point for her father’s business wasn’t the business. It was her father. He’d devoted his life to making the worst time in everyone else’s lives as stress-free as possible. Now he needed them, and she’d bet her career that if she did this right, they’d rally behind him and support him.

She spent the afternoon with the director for Harmony Hills Hideaway, a stupid name for a beautiful facility tucked in a forest just outside of town. Tidy suites had big windows, flat-screen TVs, and seating areas to visit with company. She saw the dining hall, walked through the clean kitchen, read the qualifications of the nursing staff and on-call doctors, and, without qualm or hesitation, signed the contract for them to care for her dad.

When she returned to McDermott’s, she went straight to the office to look for the brochures. Eventually, she found a box of them in the closet. The glossy flyer showed McDermott’s in the glory days back in the nineties—sunny yellow with white shutters and a warm, welcoming front porch. Beneath the pictures were bullet points and paragraphs meant to give comfort.