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Dante shrugs. “It's easy. Come on, I’ll teach you.”
I follow him into the house and soon we are having a blast. We end up playing video games the rest of the afternoon.
That is, until Knox and their dad get home. Dante’s fun mood instantly changes and he turns solemn. The next thing I know, he’s gone.
“There you are! We’ve been looking all over for you.”
I blink, a bit startled by Sam’s voice. She and Madi had come into the garage studio without me even realizing it. Madi looks at me, then her gaze drops to the painting I’m holding.
“You know what?” I say, sniffing. “This is a terrible painting.” I pick up a container of gesso to whitewash over it. Madi snatches it away from me before I can.
“Oh no you don't! You’re not destroying my fantasy painting.”
“What’s going on, Kylie?” Sam asks softly.
They know I was in New York and they know something happened to upset me, but they don’t know what. I shake my head, not sure I’m ready to dig at those wounds quite yet.
“I know what will make you feel better,” Samantha says with a smile. She takes the painting from my hand and sets it aside, then pulls me out of the garage. Madi follows right behind us.
I laugh when I see that Sam is leading us right to the treehouse. We climb up and get settled in, just like back in the old days when we were young, carefree, and had no idea what it was like to have our hearts broken.
This was our safe space. These walls have heard a lot of secrets throughout the years. Just being here with Sam and Madi helps me relax.
“What happened with Dante?” Sam asks, and suddenly it just all seems too much and I burst into tears.
“Kylie loves him,” Madi says solemnly. “She loves the cold-hearted bastard. Only heartache can make someone cry like this.”
Hiccupping, I start to tell them just what an asshole Dante is when I hear someone else coming up the treehouse ladder. The treehouse creeks slightly and I wonder if it’s going to hold the extra weight. Sam looks downright nervous and chews her fingernail as we wait to see who is intruding on our girl time.
A couple of moments later, Knox’s head becomes visible through the trap door. He looks around at the three of us, grins, then climbs in the rest of the way.
“I’m so proud of you!” Knox says to me. He looks at Sam and then Madi. “Did Kylie tell you how she stood up for herself, and us, against Dante?”
Both women look at me with surprise.
Madi raises her eyebrows. “Oh? No, she didn’t.”
“I haven’t had a chance,” I say defensively. “Besides, I didn’t really do that much.”
Knox crawls on his hands and knees over to where I’m sitting, then sits down next to me. “Is that what you think?” He chuckles and shakes his head.
“My brother tore up the plans for the condo development,” he continues. Knox nods when he sees my surprised expression. “It’s true.”
“Really?” I can’t help the hopeful tone of my voice.
He nods again, this time with a wide smile. “And that’s not all. He’s going to put his real estate law knowledge and finesse to good use and put Mrs. Kendall’s house and property into its own holding company. This way,” he explains, “should anything ever happen, no one can sue us personally.”
“That’s great news,” Madi exclaims. “I never even thought of that. We’ve been so focused on renovating the house and land for the kids, I don’t know that any of us thought about any legal issues that might happen.”
“Or how we would protect ourselves if they did,” Sam adds.
“I still can’t believe it,” I say, shaking my head. “I saw the plans myself. He had blueprints delivered the day I left and they showed how the forest area was going to be taken out to make room for the condos. There was to be a parking lot, right here where our treehouse is.”
“All that’s changed,” Knox says. “Those survey plans you saw, Kylie, are going to be used to make sure every acre is accounted for and that we get the appropriate insurance for the property. Not for development.”
There’s a moment of stunned silence as we look at each other. Who would have thought Dante Lewis would come through for us like this? Especially after he’s been bugging us since the reading of Mrs. Kendall’s will to sell.
Could it be that he really did keep his promise, and simply forgot to cancel the plans?
