Randall called back before he’d driven home.That was quick, just under two hours.That meant either really good news or the opposite.Given his luck of late, it was the latter.
“What’s the word, good man?”
“Word is, there’s more than just farming properties at risk here.Puckman’s buying up businesses that are failing, not to mention the couple places he’s made offers on for way more than they’re worth.Luckily, those folks aren’t all selling, or you’d be living in Puckmantown, not Banberry.”
“You mean to tell me he’s buying places that aren’t anywhere near his original hotel plans?”Jace’s stomach dropped.This didn’t add up.He threw a couple bags in the back of his dad’s truck, glad again for the utility of the beast.There was no way he’d be bringing this payload home in the sports car Cammie had rented on his behalf.
“Nowhere close.I think this asshole’s buying up half the town because hecan.Some of them are smart, and they’ve told him to eff off, but there are a few of them desperate enough to sign on the dotted line.”
“Shit.How many are we talking about?”
“Half a dozen so far, a few more pending.”
“Jesus.”
“From what it looks like, only one has signed, but apparently he’s made more than three other offers that have been declined, and two more that are on the fence.”
“What two?”
Papers rustled; Randall had done his research in the time between calls.“Um, it looks like an art supply store and an auto shop.”
An auto shop?What were the chances this small town boasted two of those?Hopefully good, because otherwise that spelled disaster for Aurelie’s friends.
“Do you have the name of the auto shop?”He crossed his fingers, held his breath.
“Yeah, Steve’s.Looks like the guy accepted an offer, but no final paperwork has been signed.If the deal isn’t stopped, he’ll be Puckman’s most recent victim.”
“Shit.Is it a done deal?”
“The contract looks pretty solid from what I can tell, but nothing’s ever done where money’s concerned, and the final approval from an inspector has to be waived or signed.Why?Anything I can do?”
“Go ahead with the legal ramifications about his purchases bordering on monopoly.That’s our only hope of skinning this guy alive.I’ve got to go see a guy about an auto shop.”
“Sounds good, Jace.And good luck.I hope this all works out in your favor.”
“Me, too.”Jace hung up.He couldn’t even call Aurelie, not without looking like a desperate man in search of a way to keep contact with her.
Shit.What should he do?No doubt Steve was in debt up to his eyeballs paying for fertility treatments to try and have a family, and there Jace was, actively avoiding one of his own.
And Jace may have inadvertently started one anyway.Only another week or so and they’d know.Damned if he hadn’t found himself growing not only used to the idea, thanks to Maddie, but fond of it.Now, he couldn’t imagine not wanting Aurelie and a child of their own to run around, to teach and laugh with.
Any optimism he’d had evaporated like the chill in the spring sun.He plugged Steve’s into his GPS.Aurelie’s shower and closet door would have to wait.Right now, saving Steve’s shop and stymying Puckman was a double win he and the town desperately needed.Not to mention, he found himself pulling for Steve in another way as well.Steve was in the same place his father was thirty years earlier: faced with the prospects of raising a baby alone when the mother was too stubborn to see that her death wasn’t saving a child, it was saddling a father with a responsibility he hadn’t asked for.
He couldn’t do anything to stop that train from crashing into a brick wall, but he did have the resources to help in another way.And, he may have just found a great way to use his money and invest in Banberry, starting with Steve’s shop.
He only hoped he wasn’t too late for them—any of them.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Aurelie shuddered offa wave of nausea as she changed Jackie’s PICC line.There was usually a rule about taking care of family, but Jackie was just removed enough from Aurelie’s inner circle that the hospital didn’t make any noise.
How could they when they were so sorely understaffed?Aurelie was back on regular rotation after a successful interview with the immigration agent, a success she owed to Jace and his elephant-like memory of things he’d noticed about her.
The way she bit the corner of her lip when she was troubled about something, which, judging by the raw patch on the inside of her mouth, was all the time now.How she put three pumps of chai into her lattes in the morning for an extra boost.He had even described her favorite mug.How had he noticed?
But the one that won the agent over had been his description of being aunt and uncle to Maddie.It was also the detail that had cracked Aurelie’s heart in two.She’d fallen so deeply in love with the man that imagining raising their own child was all she could see at the end of the day.That hadn’t changed, even though the two had gone back to not speaking to one another aside from basic pleasantries.
Not true.He saved your asses.
