She swallowed back tears, her throat aching with them, her eyes closing against them. She wished she could stay here forever, in his arms, in his home, in his heart. But maybe she’d never really been in his heart to begin with. He’d already left her, after all. Now it was time for her to leave him.
She should’ve done it first. Then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much.
The horn honked again.
Mia gathered her fortitude to say a final good-bye and reluctantly pulled away. A smile in place. Not a trace of tears. All her barriers up, all those years of training allowing her to pretend, once again, that she was fine. She was just fine.
forty-three
Levi was not fine. Mia was gone, and she’d taken his heart with her. He’d never in a million years dreamed he was capable of such a Molly-like thought, but there it was.
For the past hour, while the plumber worked to restore water on the main level, he’d sorted through soggy items on the porch. The mundane task gave him plenty of time to review their good-bye. So brief. So heartbreaking. But Mia had seemed just fine as she’d shouldered her purse and walked out his door for the last time. Maybe that’s what was most heartbreaking of all.
He was getting nowhere but down with that line of thinking. He had to put Mia aside and focus on the problems at hand. That was why he’d broken things off with her, after all.
He threw the last soggy towel into the pile of items to be washed and looked through the window. His sisters would be up and moving around by now. It was time for a family meeting.
Levi was seated across from his sisters in the inn’s library. The house had taken on a musty smell that he hoped would soon dissipate. This whole thing seemed like a nightmare. And it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
Molly returned his gaze, her eyes not quite as stormy as last night, but not exactly oozing warmth either.
Grace’s arms were folded across her chest, regarding him with a familiarWell...?look.
“Shouldn’t we be doing something upstairs?” Molly asked.
“It’s still drying out,” Levi said. “There’ll be plenty to do later. Right now I think we need to have a heart-to-heart about the business. Among other things.”
“We just had the Huddle of Horror.” Leave it to Grace to be firing on all cylinders, despite so little sleep.
“We’re not going over financials today.”
“Thank God,” Grace said.
“The flood changes things. A lot of things, and... I haven’t exactly been honest with you about our financial situation.”
Molly’s eyes sharpened on him. “What do you mean you haven’t been honest?”
“Things aren’t as... stable with the inn... as I’ve led you to believe.”
“But we see the spreadsheet every month,” Grace said. “Even I can read the bottom line.”
Levi’s face heated. Only now did he realize how wrong his actions had been. It was time to face up to his misdeeds.
“I manipulated the numbers. Things weren’t going well, and I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily.”
Molly gave him a withering look. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“How bad is it? And how long has this been going on?”
May as well lay it all out there. “Pretty much from the beginning. I’ve got two credit cards—in my name—at their limit. It just kind of spiraled out of control. At first I just used one to keep us in the black on paper. I thought I’d be able to pay the balance off after our first season. But we needed that money to get us through the winter. Then I realized we were going to have to step up the marketing. But that costs money, so I opened another credit card, and now it’s maxed too.”
“Levi!” Molly said.
“The good news is that the plan’s working. Our reservations are up, and the rate increase is already paying off. We’re in a much better position than we were at this point last year. But then the flood...”
Molly leaned forward. “I can’t believe you’ve been hiding all this from us, Levi. We’re supposed to be partners, and you’re making unilateral decisions. This inn doesn’t belong to just you.”
“I know that—”
