Bethany breezed by Elizabeth and placed the food in front of Rosie and her daughters. “Here you go, girls.”
Elizabeth was the kind of woman who made Bethany feel frumpy. Not that she had anything to be ashamed about. Her dark hair was shiny and clean, even if it looked like she had a perpetual perm. No major blemishes marred her olive complexion. Except, Bethany enjoyed a gooddonut now and then. This woman looked like she existed on a daily diet of carrots and celery sticks.
Bethany took a deep breath, crossed her fingers, and turned to find Elizabeth standing behind her. “I haven’t seen him.” Why she lied, Bethany wasn’t sure. Hank hadn’t looked like he’d needed her protection. But there was something about Elizabeth that made Bethany’s skin itch.
She made her way back to the counter, where she placed the cookies on a tray and served and collected money from the other ladies. Elizabeth trailed her.
“Well, that’s just great.” Elizabeth articulated each word as if it tasted nasty on her tongue. “I’ve got a camera crew ready to go, and he’s disappeared again. I don’t know how he expects me to generate the publicity needed to open his new center if he can’t even show up for an interview.”
“Wait a minute.” Bethany turned from the counter, her stomach diving like a bird spotting prey. “What new center?”
“Fitaholics, of course. We’ll open by the end of the year.”
“Where do you plan to open this business?” Bethany struggled to take a breath.
“You mean, you haven’t heard?”
Bethany must have shaken her head because Elizabeth continued speaking. “He’ll open a full-scale fitness center—right here in this spot.”
The room spun and Bethany clung to the counter so she wouldn’t collapse at Elizabeth’s feet. “Oh my God. He’s bought the building from the bank.” She pulled out a stool and fell onto it.
Elizabeth smirked like a cat with a bowl of cream. “Yes, isn’t it amazing?” Her voice sounded like she called from the top of a mountain.“Hank needs to diversify. Afitness center’s the perfect extension of his image. Not to mention the price was right.”
Bethany closed her eyes, as if that would make the whole horrible nightmare that was Elizabeth Fortenay and Hank Haverill vanish. She counted her fingers, but Elizabeth still stood in front of her, a gloating tilt to her lips.
Bethany stood, narrowed her eyes, scrunched her face. Her brother, Travis, called it her I-ain’t-taking-bullshit-from-anyone face. Bethany knew it as the face she made when life threw her a sucker punch, and she needed to grow some balls and fight back. She didn’t much enjoy being sucker punched. She didn’t much enjoy having to fight for justice for herself or others. But quite often, she’d discovered that her life required an uppercut, or in this case, a kick in the fancy pants.
She lowered her voice so Rosie wouldn’t hear. “Listen, my family has had our business in this building for more than seventy years. It’s a neighborhood fixture, and it’s historic. And it’s needed in this working-class community—many people count on it for survival.” She turned her head toward the kitchen. “He can’t just tear it down.”
Elizabeth cocked her head and widened her eyes. “Oh, he won’t tear it down. He plans to do millions of dollars’ worth of renovations. It will be just what this suburb of Cleveland needs to revitalize the neighborhood. Tremont isn’t exactly a thriving metropolis, you know.”
“But,” Bethany said, thankful her skin tone would hide the dull red that had to be flooding her cheeks, “what will happen to Grandma Lou’s?”
Elizabeth shrugged her elegant shoulders. “That’s none of my concern. You’ll have to ask Hank—if I can ever find him. C’mon, girls.” She motioned the other womentoward her. “He’s obviously not here. Let’s go back outside and look around.”
“But I’m not finished. I planned to order a sandwich,” the lady in the yellow polka dot dress said, wiping a bit of whoopie pie from her chin.
“You werenotinvited along to order sandwiches.” Elizabeth’s tone was as frosty as her eyes. “You’re here to be ready for the camera, if I can ever find Hank to start the interview. Now, let’s go.”
Hank’s fans filed out the door, one by one, their shoulders slumped.
When they had vanished, Bethany turned toward the kitchen. “Good thingIknow where the coward’s hiding.”
CHAPTER THREE
Bethany stormed into the kitchen, nostrils flaring, but she didn’t have to look for Hank. He leaned against the freezer, a chocolate-cherry macaron cookie in one hand, his golden hair sticking up in every direction like... Bethany frowned. Had he been napping?
“These are quite good.” He took a massive bite of the cookie. “Did you make them?”
Bethany blinked at the empty spot on the tray of cookies she had frosted earlier. “I did.”
He finished the cookie in another bite and offered her a lazy smile. The afternoon sunlight streaming through the kitchen window caught the blue of his eyes and the blond of his hair, casting him in a glorious glow, like some sort of archangel. Which he wasnot.
“That cookie was delicious. You wouldn’t have a glass of milk, would you?” Hank used the back of his hand to wipe crumbs from his mouth. She couldn’t help noticing how his forest green V-neck T-shirt molded to his chest like a second skin and showed off a generous sprinkling of blond chest hair.
“Not at this moment.” She pressed her lips together. It didn’t matter if half the women in America were after him and he looked like the god of light; he owned her building. Her parents had been forced to mortgage the place after a few lean years, and Bethany had been working to pay it off. But when her scheming ex-fiancé had emptied her savings account and fled, she’d missed the monthly payments, and the bank had pursued foreclosure. Hank was the mysterious investor who had purchased the deed from the bank, making him her landlord. What kind of man would throw out a business that had served the community in a historic neighborhood for decades on some whim to build yet another fitness center?
It was ludicrous. It was outrageous. It was downright arrogant.
