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“Wait!” Nicole said. “Don’t go yet. I have an announcement.”
Gracie sat back down, linking her hand with Dean’s. Raina watched her friends for a second, before turning her attention to Nicole.
“Okay, so I’m sure that most of you, if not all of you, know my parents suck. My dad more than my mom because he’s kind of been trying to tear down the hotel where Raina’s dad works.”
“Well, I knew the second part,” Blake spoke up. “But continue.”
“Thank you for your permission,” Nicole said dryly. “Anyway, my mother discovered last night that my dad has an ulterior motive for tearing down the hotel. This doesn’t go any further than this table, but he’s been embezzling funds from the hotel management fund for over ten years. Someone found out, and my dad’s solution, instead of blackmail or something completely normal, is to tear down the hotel and turn it into a club or whatever.”
Raina’s mouth dropped open. “How did no one figure this out?”
“My dad’s good at covering his tracks,” Nicole explained. “But for some reason, my mom sent the proof to me. So I’ll be holding that against him in the future, and hopefully he’ll help get your dad another job, Raina. Unfortunately, it’s too late for him to cancel the bulldozers. And by that, I mean he doesn’t want to spend the money to cancel the bulldozers.”
Raina smiled gratefully at her friend. “Thank you, Nicole. That means a lot.”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t raise the money, Raina,” Gracie offered.
“Why didn’t you talk to my dad?” Blake spoke up, causing all eyes to turn to him. “I mean, I know you don’t want anyone paying the money to save the hotel, Blondie—”
“Raina,” nearly everyone at the table said at once.
“Blondie. That’s what I said. Anyway, Dad has a fund for small businesses that need support. It’s one of the decent things he does.”
“Well, he needs at leastone,” Zara muttered.
Blake coughed. “Not disagreeing with you there. I know the hotel isn’t a ‘small business’, but it’s privately owned so it should count.”
Excitement raced through Raina, her eyes lighting up as she turned to Jesse. “Did you know about this? Could it actually work?”
Jesse shrugged. “I’m not involved in the business side of the Ashcrofts, but Blake is, so I would trust him on this. And I don’t say that lightly.” He narrowed his eyes at his cousin. “But considering you have every Ashcroft on your side, I think there’s a good chance of getting the funds.”
“I’m impressed,” Gracie said, her eyes studying Blake. “How did you know this?”
“My dad did a deep dive into some of the businesses the Ashcrofts work with when he took the past few weeks off,” Blake answered. “Something to keep him busy while he wasn’t running the school. And as part of my, er, punishment, I had to help him. He told me about the fund at some point.”
Now practically bouncing in her seat, Raina beamed at her unexpected savior. Maybe he had turned over a new leaf. But even if Blake was helping for the wrong reasons, she couldn’t have been happier. She turned back to Jesse, her grin only matched by his own.
“I told you it would all work out,” Jesse said, his eyes crinkling with happiness. “What did you learn from this?”
“Don’t leave everything up to you,” Raina teased.
Jesse laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Oh, Raina,” he said fondly.
* * *
“Why aren’t you celebrating?”
Raina spun around to see Jesse standing by the dorm door, a curious look on his face. After dinner, she’d gone up to the dorm room for a minute to breathe. She hadn’t expected anyone to come looking for her, but she’d obviously underestimated Jesse.
“You scared me,” she scolded.
“Why aren’t you downstairs with everyone else?” Jesse asked, walking across the room to stand next to her.
Raina shrugged. “I wanted some time by myself. I’m super happy that there’s a real solution for the hotel, it’s just…”
“You wanted time to reflect on it without everyone around.”
If she was a cartoon character, Raina was sure her eyes would have little sparkles in them. Jesse understood her in a way no one else did, and that might be the most attractive thing about him.
