Her nose was bright pink from the cold and emotion. She wiped her cheeks with the sleeves of her sweater in a way that suggested this wasn’t just a momentary upset. This was the kind of crying that came from deep, soul-crushing disappointment.
Concern rippled through me as I approached her. “Sylvie? What’s wrong?”
She started when she saw me, immediately trying to wipe away the evidence of her tears, but it was too late. I’d already seen the devastation written all over her face.
“I didn’t think you were coming back,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
“Why are you crying?” I asked, stepping closer. “What happened? Are you okay?”
Those simple questions seemed to break whatever composure she’d been trying to maintain. She crumpled before my eyes, the words pouring out of her in a rush of anguish.
“Dad’s closing the lodge. After New Year’s Day, it’s over. We’re going to sell off pieces of land to developers, and I’m going to have to find somewhere to live. I’m going to have to watch strangers build strip malls and subdivisions on land that used to be mine. We’re going to witness everything my family built get eroded away piece by piece until there’s nothing left. It’s over. My world. It’s done.”
I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. She was crying because her family was losing everything, and here I was with paperwork that would make that loss total and immediate instead of gradual and partial.
I should have felt vindicated. This made my job easier. They were already desperate, already facing the inevitable loss of their property. All I had to do was offer them a way to get paid handsomely for what they were going to lose anyway.
Instead, I felt guilty for not being here when she needed me. For leaving her to face this devastating news alone while I was in New York plotting to make things even worse.
“Come with me,” I said.
“I can’t. And I don’t want to.”
“I have something that might help,” I heard myself saying, pulling out the paperwork from inside my jacket pocket. I had planned to present it a little differently, but this was a glimmer of hope for her. Not the hope she was expecting, but it was far better than being broke with nothing. She might not have her family property, but she would have money. She could buy a house. Plant a thousand Christmas trees if she wanted.
It just couldn’t be here in the soil her family had worked for generations.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“It’s what I went back to the city to deal with,” I said.
“Your family is going to invest in the property?”
I winced. “Not exactly.”
I handed the paperwork to her and watched as she devoured the information. Her eyes went wide as she read the offer page. I watched her face cycle through disbelief, shock, and something that might have been hope.
“Two hundred million dollars?!” she gasped.
“Hush,” I said quickly, looking around to make sure no one had overheard. The last thing we needed was word of this kind of money getting around before we had a chance to present it properly. She was looking at the numbers and not quite understanding what it meant. “That’s not the kind of thing you want to say out loud. But yes. One million for every acre.”
“This… this…” She stared at the papers like they might disappear if she looked away.
I waited for reality to sink in. Waited for her to read the fine print and realize what this offer actually meant. Waited for her to lash out at me, to be angry that I was trying to take everything away from her family.
But she looked up at me with the biggest grin I’d ever seen on her face.
“This changes everything!” she said, and before I could process what was happening, she was on her tiptoes kissing me like I was some kind of hero instead of the villain in her story.
She kissed me like she’d been waiting for me to come back. I wanted to believe she wanted me as much as I wanted her because of who I was. I wished I wasn’t about to destroy her entire world for my family’s profit.
I found myself gathering her up and kissing her back, overwhelmed by how right it felt to hold her again. I was going to take advantage of her ignorance about the deal for just a little bit longer. That was the kind of jackass I was.
“I missed you while I was gone,” I said against her lips, the words slipping out before I could stop them.
“I missed you too,” she whispered. “I wasn’t sure you’d come back after… after the way you left.”
“That was never a possibility,” I told her, and I meant it. Whatever happened with this deal, whatever consequences I faced with my family, I couldn’t have stayed away from her.
