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“Just go get your bags and I’ll take you to your room. You don’t even have to come out for the rest of the day if you don’t want to.”
Her request was actually very tempting. She should just get her suitcase and go inside. Out of sight, out of mind. On the one hand, she could let Daniel deal with this on his own and with his folks, or she could make him deal with this head-on. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m going to stay put.”
She’d never seen her cousin so surprised.
Megan nodded resolutely even though Gabby didn’t ask her anything. “I’m not going to run from a fight. I have every right to be here, and it wasn’t my decision to keep this information from Bo’s family. If they want to hash things out, they can do so with me standing here.” She shot her eyes briefly to Daniel again, shaking her head as she muttered, “And to think he called me psychotic.”
“Megan—”
“No. It’s fine. It’s not like I’m going to be staying longer than a month, right? Your house will for sure be ready to move in by then?”
“Itshould…” Gabby hedged. “I mean, sometimes things can go sideways when you least expect them to, right? You’ve had to deal with that in the past.”
She was right. And Megan had known better than to bring it up. “Whatever. If thirty days goes by and we’re still waiting, I’ll just find a place to stay in town. I’m not going to make him suffer any more than necessary.” A quick look in her cousin’s direction confirmed that Gabby was grinning at her. “What?” she bit out.
“You’re so nice. I don’t think I realized just how sweet you can be.”
Megan rolled her eyes then a thought came to her. She leaned forward and whispered, “Can you tell me something?”
“Sure. What do you want to know?”
“Does Daniel… have you ever gotten the feeling that he…”
Gabby cocked her head to the side and her eyes shifted to the table where Daniel was still arguing with his folks. “What about him?”
Megan just needed to spit it out. “Does he seem like the type to sabotage my business?”
“Daniel?” Gabby laughed, again loud enough to draw his attention.
Megan could feel his eyes burning holes into the back of her head. Dang it! Why couldn’t Gabby just keep her voice down. “Well?” she hissed. “Would he?”
“Of course not. This is Daniel we’re talking about. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Something tells me he would rather live with a swarm of flies than me.”
Gabby snorted. “Okay, enough of that. Like I said, you don’t have to worry. It’s all gonna work out.”
“I hope you’re right,” Megan murmured, turning to face the table. Her eyes immediately locked with Daniel’s under that black hat of his. Those warm brown eyes would have made her melt if they weren’t shooting fire at her in this very moment. Too bad his disarming smile had been put to rest, because she didn’t think she’d be seeing it any time soon, which was a crying shame.
CHAPTERTHREE
Daniel draggeda ragged hand down his face and heaved a sigh.
“I can’t believe you slept in your office on that loveseat. Doesn’t your back hurt?”
He didn’t have the energy to lift his gaze to his assistant manager. Corbin was the kind of guy who didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, he was the one who opened today, and he’d been the one to see the light on in the office and find him there.
“I didn’t actually sleep on the love seat. I’ve been working.”
“All night?” Corbin frowned and looked at Daniel like he didn’t quite believe him.
“Yes. I got started working on some strategy last night and just kept working.” Daniel couldn’t believe he was having this conversation.
“Seems odd you didn’t just take stuff home.”
“Well, what isn’t odd is that I’m here at work and we have to come up with a plan to keep that bookstore from driving us out of business.” Even to himself, his voice sounded exhausted. Corbin was right. He should have taken this work home where he could have actually slept instead of taking a short nap on the love seat.
The problem was that he’d made it clear he wouldn’t back down and let anyone take his business from him. Megan had heard most of it and she’d certainly seen his anger. After that, he had to follow through with a plan or she’d have had a front row seat to him being a flake.
