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Elise nodded. Wayne shrugged and said something else to his employee, who breathed a sigh of relief.
Elise yanked open her laptop and set to work, typing up the events of the previous few days, her initial thoughts and feelings, along with a few lines of poetry that sprung to mind. Creativity bubbled through her and flung itself through her fingers in such a way that she hardly noticed when, nearly two hours later, Wayne appeared over her, removed his apron, and asked if she was ready to go. She blinked up at him, mesmerized.
“Sure. Yes.”
“You look like you just woke up.”
“It’s kind of like that when the writing’s going well,” she said.
“I’m surprised you can focus with all this chaos going on,” he said as he folded his apron.
Elise shrugged as she closed the laptop. “Somehow, it’s made everything a little clearer. That probably sounds nuts.”
“Everything sounds nuts if you think about it too much,” he said.
Wayne led Elise out of the coffee shop, then cut back away from Main Street and back toward the Grand. They walked quickly, with Elise’s eyes scanning the crowds on either side. She was conscious that, anywhere she looked, that man might be watching. She had the strangest inclination to reach out and grab Wayne’s hand, yet held back. She couldn’t give herself away like that.
They reached a little red-brick cottage with a cute front porch and gorgeous lilac bushes lining the garden. The place didn’t suit him, exactly; it looked like something a woman had put together. Again, this gave Elise pause about him. Was he divorced? Had something happened?
Wayne slid his key through the front door and pushed it open. Immediately, Elise was struck with the cleanliness of the place. Shoes were lined in orderly fashion near the front door; the countertops gleamed. A spice rack hung near the sink, and pots and pans were cleaned up and stacked on the drying rack. Toward the far end of the kitchen was the living area, where a single blue couch—well worn but still lovely—faced a large TV. A painting of a sailboat next to the Mackinac Bridge hung on the wall to the right of the couch. Beyond that, a dark hallway probably led to the bathroom and bedroom.
“Wow. This place is beautiful,” Elise said, forgetting her problems for a moment.
“Thanks. It’s small, but perfect for me,” he said. “Can I grab you something? A beer?”
“A beer sounds perfect,” she said.
Elise watched as he pulled open the lids of the locally-brewed beers, an act that made his large muscles spasm just slightly. It was clear he lifted heavy weights. Was this something Elise liked in a man? Well, regardless of all that, it worked for him.
“So.” Wayne heaved a sigh and clacked his nails across the countertop. He made no request to sit. “First of all, now that we’re in private, I want to say—I’m so sorry this happened to you. Nobody deserves that. I can’t believe he tried to scare you. It’s disgusting, and it makes me so upset. But if I’m right—and I think I am—then there’s probably nothing we can do about it. Was the man tall? A bit lanky? Dark-haired?”
Elise nodded and sipped her beer. “That’s him.”
“Then it was Alex. Alex Swartz. His dad, Dean, made him partial owner of all the BnBs he owns. Which means he owns the one you’re staying in and can probably state some kind of reason for being in your room. Anything else you say about the situation can’t be proven,” Wayne said.
Elise’s jaw dropped. “Are you suggesting that that man...”
Wayne shrugged.
“I mean, he could be my half-brother?” Elise whispered.
“He could be. Heck, I have no reason not to believe you, so I have to say he is,” Wayne said. “I’ve known the guy almost my whole life. He’s brash. Arrogant. Difficult. But I never imagined he would go this far.”
Elise took this information and turned it over and over in her mind. She felt a bit outside of herself.
All her life, she had thought she was an only child.
All her life, she’d thought it had just been Allison and Elise, Elise and Allison.
She had marched directly into a past, a life she hadn’t known existed.
And it wanted to spit her out.
“I won’t let this Alex guy push me around,” Elise said, her nostrils flared. “I’ve never been the kind of woman to allow that to happen. And I won’t start now, even if he is my half-brother.”
