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“But them being similar isn’t the problem. The problem is you having the same expectations in a wildly different scenario. If you don’t care that much about Ellie, if letting her go is no skin off your back, then maybe it’s for the best. But if it’s gutting you, eating at you from the inside out, then perhaps it’s time to figure out what you can do, on your end, to make it work for her.”
My mom’s voice calling from the kitchen interrupted us. “Dinner’s ready!”
“I’d better get in and see if your mother needs any help.” He winked, then reached a hand out. I stood and pulled him to his feet. But before we left the garage, he regarded me seriously. “It’s all about balance, son. There is no right way to have a relationship, every one is different. And not everything has to be done the same way we did it in the past. Perhaps that is the real lesson you need to learn here.”
Long after I was home, and the kids were in bed, my mind continued churning over my dad’s words. It was hard not to see the similarities in Ellie’s position with her father and the business, and her position with me.
Both of us were trying to tell her things had to be done in the waywewanted, and she was pushing back against us both, wanting to do it her own way.
Of course, my dad was right. Why would I pick a woman like Ellie, admire her for all her strength and courage, her ideas and motivation, and then tell her she wasn’t good enough because she wouldn’t give that all up for me?
Ellie hadn’t asked me to give anything up, she’d just asked me to be patient and work through the problems we’d face together. She asked me to understand when things came up, to trust what she said.
And I’d told her to hit the road.
The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt. My dad was a hundred percent right: I was taking a perfectly wonderful opportunity to start over with a whole new life, a brand new outlook, a new trajectory, and I was still stuck in my rigid set of expectations. Everything had changed, except for me.
I was the problem, not Ellie.
It took far less time to come up with a plan than it had for me to understand the problem.
My decision made, I laid down and focused on getting some sleep. In a few short hours, I would lay it all out there. Ellie might accept, or she might not.
But I at least had to try.
Chapter18
Ellie
* * *
“All I’m saying, Izzy-”
“Dad, you know I’m not going to listen to a word you say when you keep calling me by that nickname.” I shuffled some papers on my desk, throwing my annoyance into cleaning up my office. Dad had come in extra early this morning, catching me by surprise. He parked himself in my corner chair with the plants and spent the last half hour trying to convince me to give Zach another chance.
“Fine, Isabelle, Ellie, whatever you want me to call you. All I’m saying is, no one gets you more than Zach—you guys grew up together. There’s a lot of history there. You shouldn’t just throw it all away.”
“Dad, I’m not throwing it away. We’re not teenagers anymore, and we want different things. I like Zach as a friend, but I’m not interested in dating him anymore. Done. Final. Can we please move on?”
“I’m not done, Izz-abelle. I know you’re on a mission to take over Aspen Ridge, but this just isn’t a job you can do on your own. You need someone at your side-”
“Dad, I have all the VPs, the managers, the entire team you’ve built here. I don’t need to have a boyfriend in the wings to tell me how to do my job. Besides, Zach has his own resort to run. He has no interest in being a househusband.”
“All the better,” he insisted. “You and Zach would have each other to bounce ideas off of, compare notes, help each other. He’s an excellent match for you, Isabelle. He’s always been good for your temperament.”
My teeth ground together as I bit back what I was tempted to say. I didn’t want to, but I was dangerously close to telling my dad the truth about Zach, not to mention Brian. If he knew what they had planned, it would kill him; their friendship would never recover.
“It’s not going to happen, Dad. Can we please just let this drop?”
“I just don’t want you to spend the rest of your life alone, honey. This resort is important, but it can’t be your entire life.”
After all of his insisting that I had to focus and really be serious about taking over as CEO, this felt a bit rich. “It’s not, Dad. I have a life, and I kind of resent the implication that you think I don’t.”
“I didn’t say that, honey, but going out to brunch and drinking with Tessa is hardly a life. And you won’t meet someone if you never step foot off of property, either. At least not anyone that’ll make a suitable partner for you.”
At least there we agreed. Jake and I had everything to make a run of it, but I couldn’t be what he wanted. My priority was this resort. If that meant I would never find a man who wanted to be with me long term, then I’d accept that.
I still didn’t buy it yet, though. There had to be someone out there who wanted apartner, not just a wife.
