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“All right. I had a call from Hattman and Jones. They need your final approval on their schedule. Once you sign the contract, everything will get rolling at the site.”
I sighed. I was stalling. I had to trust that we could find a solution before the equipment rolled into town. I had the best team. I had to trust they could do it.
“All right. I’ll sign it today and have it over-nighted. But, Mark, find a piece of land I can convert. Call before the end of the day.”
“Yes, sir.”
He was hanging on the line, but I cut the call short. I pulled open the manila envelope and stared at the contract.
I knew what this meant. It wasn’t only bad for Lachlan Corporation to go back on the deal, it was going to be bad for me. But the alternative was losing millions. I could afford to do a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them. With my new venture in the gas and oil market and three properties waiting to be sold, I couldn’t leave Beach Combers Cove undeveloped. I was in a corner.
This could go one of two ways. Knowing the kind of man I was, I knew which option I would choose. The one I always chose. Decisions like this one came to me naturally. At least they used to. They should. I wasn’t the type to get bogged down in ethics—or consequences. Not the emotional kind anyway. I analyzed the black and the red of a deal. Nothing else mattered.
I prided myself on the size of my bank account, not the number of friends I had. I could spot a liar a mile away. A swindler even farther. Call it natural instincts. Call it growing up with a liar as a father.
Some people say I’m calculated or cold. Some say I’m heartless and ruthless for what I do. I shrugged it off. Other people’s opinions never meant anything to me.
I’m the one who weighed the outcomes. I’m the one who saved the deal. Everything else is only collateral damage as far as I’m concerned. At the end of the day, there can only be one winner. And that winner, better be me.
The contract sat on the table. I reached for the pen. She wouldn’t forgive me, but she knew what she was getting into when we started this.
There was only one way this was going to go from the beginning.
22
Sydney
Mason had decided the drive to Dallas was going to be too long. I didn’t argue. Eight hours one-way in the car wasn’t how I wanted to spend the day with him. Although, I was on his payroll now. He decided how I worked. We boarded a plane in Brownsville for a quick flight to Dallas Thursday morning.
I watched the brown fields whiz past us as we glided through the air.
“You know thi
s is my first trip to Dallas,” I mentioned.
Mason’s head was buried in his tablet. I bit back the nausea when I saw he was reading the News & Record. He still had to get his news somewhere.
“It’s going to be a quick trip,” he mumbled. “We fly back tonight.”
I scrunched my nose. He was preoccupied. That seemed to be his condition during the workday. I couldn’t complain at night though. His focus was solely on me.
“Why so short?” I asked.
He turned the tablet off and took my hand. “I need to show my face. That’s important sometimes.” He smiled. “You can meet everyone. I have to pick up a few things at my apartment.”
“Like what? More white shirts?”
He scowled. “White goes with everything.”
I giggled. “It does. But have you thought about branching out at all? I’ve only seen you in a blue shirt once.”
“You’re not going to be one of those girlfriends are you?” His eyes darted back and forth, studying my lips.
“Girlfriend. That’s what I am?”
“Syd.” He squeezed my hand. “What do you think this is? We moved past the casual and the fun about two days in don’t you think?”
I wondered if the passengers around us were listening to our conversation. Girlfriend. He had said it. It came out of nowhere, but now that it was here I wanted to hear the word on his lips a hundred times.
