“I was just thinking it’d be nice to give to Cami along with the painting. Whoever buys the inn won’t have any emotional attachment to it or the painting.”
But he still had an emotional attachment to the inn and Cami. Following his heart would cost him his career. His future.
“I’ll keep a lookout for it.” Ray walked with Ben to the barn. Inside, Ray made his way to the box fan in the corner and turned it on, the air flow a welcome relief.
“I take it you’re still heading to Sydney,” Ray said.
“Sooner rather than later.” Ben started walking between the shelves. “I’m getting a promotion out of this project if everything goes well.”
“And the inn?”
“Cami actually might have a buyer. Not anyone connected to the inn, which would’ve been nice, but they won’t knock it down.”
“That’s a heap of tomorrow’s worries, ain’t it? The fate of the inn, your job.”
“Life comes with worry, Ray. To get ahead, you have to work hard, do things you don’t often want to do, but in the end, your effort, your choice plays out.”
“Even so, you still got to trust the One who clothed the lilies.”
There it was. The Sunday school lesson. Talk to God. Trust God.
Ray wandered toward the wooden workbench and returned with a new flapper.
“Just like I knew we’d need this flapper, God knows your needs. He knows your tomorrows. Talk to Him, Ben. Let Him have your tomorrows.”
Sure, okay, but it was way easier said than done.
12
Cami’s Dior slingbacks clicked against the wooden floor on the top story of the Akron Development building, echoing along the quiet hall of the executive offices on Thursday morning. The normally active and busy office was quiet. Did the entire office know she was going to confront the boss and had hightailed it somewhere safe?
She wore her eggplant-colored power suit and had slicked back her hair into a businesslike chignon. Her makeup was bright but not overdone. Pink lips, not red.
After telling Ben she couldn’t buy the inn, after carrying her father’s gentle please around in her heart for two weeks, she’d done what Dad had asked.
So what did she find out as she tried to clear the inn from the project board? Brant Jackson had locked it with his codes, and she could not undo them without his permission. What was supposed to have been a single conversation in one day had dragged on all week. But today she was going to send Ben a message to let him know the contract was dissolved.
The inn was still technically under contract.
Stepping off the elevator, she walked down the hall past Jeremy before he could stop her.
Cami marched into Brant’s office with every ounce of experience and courage she could muster. “We need to talk.”
Dad stood, gestured to his earpiece, then motioned for Cami to have a seat in one of the tan leather chairs by his desk.
She remained standing. She wanted to be ready for him the moment he ended his call.
“Not what I was looking for, Marv?—”
Cami focused her eyes on her dad. He leaned forward. His shoulders drooped. Frustration deepened the lines around his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Cami glanced at his walls. Still blank. She’d told him she could get some artwork for him to hang last time she’d been here.
She looked back at her father, and for a moment, she saw the fun, sweet, loving dad of her childhood. The one that had splashed in the pool with her at the inn.
The longing to escape to the inn whispered across her heart again. But next time she visited, a new owner would greet her—once she could get the project unlocked from Akron’s systems. The notion made her uneasy.
“Good. Today.” Dad was ending his call. “Yes, Hearts Bend.”
