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“It’s not like that. I swear,” he protested.
“Oh, really? Then what is it like? Because from where I’m standing, it sure looks a lot like you showed up out of nowhere, seduced me, lied to me, and then ruined my life,” I cried.
He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “Listen, can we please just walk down to that coffee shop around the corner and talk?”
I took a step back from him. “Talk? About what? You want to gloat and rub it in some more? Is that it? Your big coup.”
“You know I’m not like that,” he argued.
I rolled my eyes. “Actually, I don’t think I know you at all. Maybe I don’t want to know this new version of you.”
There was a twinge of hurt on his handsome face. “Come on. I need to explain this to you. I need you to understand what’s going on. Please. Let me tell you everything,” he pleaded.
I stared at him, the tears still rolling down my face. “What is there left to explain? Why you slept with me the night before stealing my life away? Why the whole night we spent together you never once mentioned why you were really here?”
“Yes,” he answered fervently. “All of that. And more. Come with me and let’s talk.”
It hit me suddenly that I had nothing better to do. Nowhere to go.
“Fine,” I relented. “You get five minutes. And you’re buying.”
He flashed me a smile, which faded away quickly. “Of course.”
We walked in silence to the cafe and took a table in the corner. Chase bought me a chai latte and sat down across from me. I watched him, refusing to let him wiggle out of this. “You want to talk? Start talking,” I demanded.
“I want to help you,” he professed.
I laughed bitterly. “Sure you do. And I suppose buying my resort is your way of helping me, is it?”
“That was not my choice in the first place. The Peppertree was never on my radar,” he explained. “But it’s part of a larger deal. A very large deal.”
“And?” I prompted, not giving him an inch.
“It’s the last of twelve properties. A massive deal for my company. The bank owns all twelve. They are selling them as one sale. It’s all twelve or nothing. The numbers don’t support the sale any other way. That’s why I had to buy it from you,” he explained.
“All or nothing?” I repeated, frowning.
“Yes
,” he nodded. “I agreed to the deal before reading the fine print. It’s the kind of thing my company handles all the time. But this time… I should have looked more into what exactly the bank was offering. I had no idea you were running it.”
“So you bought my resort even though you knew nothing about it and didn’t care enough to check?” I clarified. Chase’s jaw twitched. I could tell this was hard for him, but damn it, this was hard for me, too.
“My company does this all the time. If I had known… I would never have done this to you on purpose, Haley. You have to believe that,” he persuaded me. There wasn’t even a hint of deception or cruelty in his voice. He was sincere. I could tell.
“Okay,” I sighed. I leaned forward. “You said you wanted to help me. How the hell are you planning to do that?”
Chase gave me a brilliant smile. “All right. This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out.”
13
Chase
I paused, thinking what the best way to approach this proposal would be.
Honestly, it was a spur of the moment thought, but if that was what it was going to take to help either of us out of an otherwise impossible situation, I was not about to let it fall by the wayside.
Besides...it could be the one solution for a problem that had been looming over my head since before this whole episode with the Peppertree even started. It was one hell of a long shot, but...
