Paige wheeled on Jace.“Tell me what the hell is going on.Right now.If it’s not you, would you sell to this…this stranger?”Owen’s fists clenched, as did Brad’s jaw.
“I’ll make whatever deal I need to so I can close this out,” he said.“You know me.I value this land and what y’all are trying to do here, but I can’t afford to be picky if it means being stuck up here for months.My home is in California now.”
The room filled with tension, and Aurelie should have felt pride with the win.She’d saved the day, hadn’t she?So, why did this feel wrong?
Jace, serious again, put a hand on her arm, and she didn’t have the willpower to remove it.His hand was both rough and tender.
“Again, I’m sorry about earlier.I’ve already called the studio that loaned me the car—it was a surprise to me, by the way—and told them to trade it for a truck.”He chuckled, his voice wavering, then squeezed Aurelie’s arm as he said the last part.Her body erupted in flames that would burn her if she allowed herself to indulge in them too long.What did that mean?What was he trying to tell her that he couldn’t just say?“And I’m sorry to all of you that someone seems to have their sights set on Banberry.This place is special and doesn’t deserve the same fate as Yellowstone.”
Anotherbuthung between them.
“I should go,” he said.
He put his drink down so softly it didn’t make a sound in the otherwise vacuum of a room that all the air had been sucked out of.The only noise was that of his boots on the wood floors echoing off the vaulted ceilings as he made his way to the door, opened it, and shut it as quietly as if it were made of fleece.A sharp, cool breeze that slapped Aurelie square across the face was the only evidence that the door had even opened, that Jace had ever been there.That and the half-empty bottle that sat sweating a ring of moisture on the dining room counter, a talisman left behind.
The room remained frozen until Aurelie coughed, something invisible stuck in her throat.
“I think we should cancel dinner,” Paige said.“Give Owen and me time to think this through.”
“I’d like to stay, figure out if we can afford to pool our income and buy the ranch before he sells it to that asshole in the paper,” Brad said.
They all looked at Aurelie, who took a beat too long to figure out what they meant.They wanted her to leave.
“Oh,” was all she got out.That’s what she got for bringing this to their attention: being shown the door along with the other interloper to Banberry.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Paige said.“Sorry, Aurelie.This will just be easier if we have the stakeholders to figure out a plan.”
Aurelie nodded, stunned silent for the first time in her life.She left the same way Jace had, as shocked by the turn of events as he likely was.She’d never felt like such an outsider, and anger mixed with grief swirled in her stomach, making her feel ill.
She made her way up the stairs to the welcome warmth of her apartment and stood in her small living room, breathing in the memories that littered her walls in frames.Paige and her on the beach, mid-laugh, arms wrapped around each other, drinks in coconuts in their hands.She, Paige, and Owen at their wedding, him gazing at his bride with a smile that proved how deeply he felt for her.There was one from Maddie’s birth, the small newborn naked on her mother’s bare chest, Aurelie looking on from behind them, Owen and Brad smiling at the whole group at the edge of the photo.
Every one of the moments that had meant something to Aurelie in the past four years involved Paige and her family.She’d been hurt by them tonight—Paige the most—in their rejection.Worse was the knowledge that she might not be given the time to make things right before she was shoved out of Banberry and back to the island she’d fled.
She stripped where she was, left her clothes in a pile at her feet—a deviation from her usual strict attention to cleanliness and care for her well-loved fashion—and went to her room, climbed under the down comforter, put her head to the pillow, and sobbed.
Tomorrow usually hung on the horizon as a beacon, a chance to start over, but tonight, as her brain replayed each crappy moment since coming home from shopping that afternoon, she wasn’t looking forward to whatever awaited her when the sun rose again.
She slept soundly, dreams of floating back on the tide to her island soothing her aching heart, calling her home.Maybe she’d left prematurely, her dream-self thought, guiding her through the cerulean waters and white sand littered with conch and starfish, a path to her childhood home spread before her like a bounty of love and welcoming.Maybe she was made for the sea, for the cleansing salt waters that surrounded her, not the rugged peaks that called out her flaws, made her feel looked down upon.
These thoughts guided Aurelie toward the next day, her mind made up.She was heading home to face her father, no matter what Dr.Roberts had to say.She’d face her father and her fate with the strength she’d built in Banberry.
The question remained, though, would they even notice if she left?
CHAPTER FOUR
Jace awoke andgroaned.His body felt like it’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight, not a woman he probably outweighed by sixty pounds.And to that end, all he’d done is go verbal blow-for-blow with her about an epic misunderstanding that he still wasn’t clear about.
Shit, from what he’d gathered the night before, she thought he was some big real estate tycoon, which couldn’t be further from the truth.Unlike the rest of Hollywood, who divided their time between their three or more homes and a few apartments scattered around Hollywood for their various flings, this land was the only property Jace outright owned.
Even that wasn’t by choice but circumstance.
He got out of bed and stretched, then got dressed for the day.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t appreciative of the place that had raised him.Especially now that he was an adult, able to enjoy the crisp, spring morning air on his skin as he walked the property, the way it snaked up around his thighs, leaving a trail of pimpled flesh in its wake.Being up early had its perks in the country.Another of those perks was the pale-orange and pink-laced sky that seemed to emanate from the core of the azure mountains beneath it.
For the briefest of moments, he couldn’t recall what he liked about LA.The smog, the noise, the traffic… All of it slipped away as he let himself imagine walking out on this porch—hisporch—every morning.It wasn’t a stretch of imagination to picture his life here.He’d be the only crazy one without a coat so he could feel the air press against him, as comforting as it was cold.He’d have a cup of actual cowboy coffee, the stuff that put hair on his chest instead of the vegan soy watered-down crap he’d been drinking in California.
He squatted down and ran a handful of dirt through his hands.Was anything authentic about his life outside Montana?He’d thought so.He’d worked hard to get to where he was: an award-winning actor with a damn impressive resumé.He’d given back to charities, cultivated real friendships, and even started writing a screenplay on the side.
