“It needed to happen.” He shrugged like he hadn’t just blown up a multimillion-dollar deal. “Now I’m going to see where the dominoes fall. There are a few investors who were already having doubts. If I can convince enough of them to pull out, the whole thing crumbles. Judd can’t fund it alone.”
Hope bloomed in my chest, but I knew better than to get my hopes up too high. “You really think you can do it?”
“I’m going to try.” His hand found mine in the sand, our fingers lacing together. “I made a mess. I need to clean it up.”
I squeezed his hand. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing.”
“It’s worth a lot, actually.”
We sat there in comfortable silence while I finished my lunch. The adults for my next class were starting to gather, checking their watches and looking around for me. I should get up. Should start organizing boards and going over safety protocols. But I didn’t want to move from this spot.
“Five o’clock,” I reminded him as I finally stood and brushed sand off my shorts. “Don’t be late. Dad’s a stickler about punctuality.”
“I’ll be there at four fifty-five,” he promised.
I watched him jog back up the beach toward his house, shirt tucked into his waistband like a tail. I felt that dangerous flutter in my chest again. The one that whispered maybe this time would be different. Maybe this time he’d stay.
I shook my head and turned toward my waiting students. I couldn’t let myself go there. Not yet. He’d done one good thing this morning, but that didn’t mean he was staying in Surfside. It didn’t mean he was staying with me.
But damn if it didn’t feel good to hope.
The afternoon class went smoothly, which was good because my mind was only half present. The other half was busy panicking about having Colt over for family dinner. What had I been thinking?
Dad was going to have questions. Becca was going to be insufferable. The kids were going to be chaos incarnate. They would ask about the big house next door.
Deep down, I knew exactly what I was doing.
Stay, Colt. Please, stay.
CHAPTER 28
COLT
It was deja vu. I stood in front of the mirror for what had to be the fifth time in twenty minutes, tugging at the collar of my shirt. Too formal. I yanked it off and tossed it onto the bed where it joined the growing pile of rejected options.
“Good God, you’re worse than a teenager getting ready for prom,” Cody said from where he was sprawled across the chair in the corner of my room, clearly enjoying the show.
“Shut up.”
“I’m just saying, it’s dinner with the neighbors. You’ve been there before.”
“That was different,” I muttered, reaching for a navy button-down. I held it up, considered it, then tossed it aside. “That was sneaking through windows and meeting her on the beach at two in the morning.”
“Right, so this should be easier. You’re using the front door like a civilized human being.”
I shot him a look in the mirror. He grinned back at me, completely unbothered.
“What about the light blue one?” he suggested, pointing at a shirt I’d already rejected twice.
“Too casual.”
“The gray?”
“Too dressy.”
“The white?”
“Makes me look like I’m going to a yacht club.”
