“I’ll have company. Brielle and Willow and maybe Marina.”
“I meant male company.”
“I’m pretty sure there will be men there.”
“I meant my company.”
“Really, Jack? You want to go salsa dancing?”
“Not particularly,” I say honestly. “But it sounds like fun.”
“Well, I’ll let you know if we need your presence. Why were you calling?”
“I got your email.”
“Oh. Did you want to talk about that now? I thought we’d talk about it Monday morning. It’s after work, and I’m off for the weekend.”
“You do know that when you work at Heathcliff Enterprises, you’re never really off work.”
“You’re not paying me the big bucks, Jack. I don’t think it’s in my contract to work all hours of the day.”
“But if you owned your own bed and breakfast, Katherine, don’t you think you’d have to?”
“Is this when you tell me I can’t go dancing tonight because you need me to work?”
“No. I just had a question. I noticed you didn’t put the Coconut Beach property at the top of the list.”
“That’s because you haven’t done good enough research and I want to check out some of the stats in the files,” she says quickly. “The files say Coconut Beach is booming. Tourism is up three thousand percent and projected to increase another thirty-three hundred percent in the next two years. And yet I’ve never even heard of the island.”
“Do you know most islands?”
“Well, no, but I was just curious where you got this information?
“From the owner Mr. Johnson and his attorneys. He’s a very successful hotelier.”
“Is that a fact?”
“We have the paperwork. It’s an amazing deal.”
“If it’s so great, why is he selling?”
“He wants to invest in commercial real estate. Malls. The profit from this sale helps him do that.”
“Okay. It sounds like you’ve already made up your mind.”
“I haven’t. That’s why I had you do more research. Which properties do you like?”
“The Purple Hotel in Myrtle Beach looks good. And the one in Maui, even though it needs significant restoration.”
“That’s true.”
“I’m coming, girls!” she calls out. “Sorry, I have to go now.”
I frown. “I guess you’re heading out.”
“Yeah. Can we talk about this on Monday?”
“Sure. If you do me one favor.”
