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“Sorry,” I yell over the crashing rain. “I thought it’d hold out until much later.”
He tries to shield my head with his hand as we run. “I’ll drive you home,” he says when we get closer to the parking lot.
A wave of shame fills me as I inadvertently glance at my van, tucked away near the storage shed. I’ve never felt one way or another about living in it until now. It was supposed to be temporary, until I got the house rebuilt, but now it seems like it’s the only home I’m going to have for a good long time.
“It’s fine,” I say, wiping rain from my face. My hair is sodden to my scalp and I’m sure I look like a drowned rat. Brian’s t-shirt clings to his muscular chest and impossibly looks even better soaking wet. “It’s not far.”
He starts to drag me to his car. “So let me drive you, then.”
Once again, I can’t help but look at my van. I can’t think of a place to let him drop me off and when I turn back to him, he’s followed my gaze to my little tin can home. Our eyes meet and his narrow. He knows. Just like he knows I showed him the filthy caves on purpose. He knows I live in my van. Well, he doesn’t have to know that it leaks and I hold my chin high.
He shakes his head. “You’re coming to my place.”
“That’s okay,” I say. A wave of longing hits me at the same time as a shiver of doubt. Like jumping into the ocean and the first shock of cold gets you. You love it, but…
Go to his place with him? When all I’ve been thinking about since yesterday is getting my hands back on him? That’sthe part that makes me want to agree. The fact that he’s the reason I won’t even have a place to park my van soon is still very much at the forefront is what’s holding me back. I need to keep hating this guy, not let him show me his good side.
Because then…
Then? I can’t fathom it.
“Clarice, just come have dinner with me at least. I’ll bring you back when the storm passes.” He blows out the water that’s pummeling his face and I feel silly, making such a fuss about this.
Nodding, I follow him to the car, where he reaches into the back and then drapes a suit jacket over my dripping shoulders.
“It’ll get ruined.”
“I’ve got plenty more,” he says. He looks at me for a long moment before turning the engine on.
I can’t figure him out and being so close to him is making me forget my prime objective. I turn away, staring straight ahead. He starts to drive and I start to reformulate my plan. I still need to make him see what a terrible idea building on my beach is. The Hole didn’t seem to work, but I can’t give up yet.
Chapter 6
Brian
I’m furious. Clarice is living on that beach, in a van that’s probably older than she is.
“You’re not a college student trying to make some cash during the summer, are you?” I ask, my voice gruff. The anger isall at myself. I should have known something wasn’t right when I found out that asshole was her uncle.
I glance at her and her shoulders slump. “No,” she sighs. “That beach is all I have.”
I swear under my breath as we pull into the hotel. She gasps and curls her arms around her stomach, a look of anguish in her eyes. “You don’t even live here,” she accuses.
“No, I live mostly in New York.”
“You don’t even live here but you’re ruining it with all your buildings.”
“Clarice, because of the resort alone, four new restaurants have opened in town. The theater was supposed to be torn down last year, wasn’t it?”
She nods, still not looking at me. “So? It wasn’t. The people rallied to refurbish it.”
“Yes, after a new company came in and bought it. Because this town is thriving now. I have to stay in close contact with the city council every time I start a project. New people are moving here because of my condos. People who have money to spend in the shops, who will hire locals for their businesses.” I wait, but she doesn’t answer me. “Come inside and dry off and we’ll discuss it more. I’ll order a nice meal.”
She follows me listlessly inside and my heart is clenching at the broken look on her face. At the door of my suite, she stops, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It’s still not right. The people of Whitecross City have been going to that beach for generations.” She looks up at me with pleading eyes. “And… it’s my home. My only home.”
I look away and swear softly, opening the door. She still refuses to go in and dry off. She looks like a mermaid. Ethereally beautiful and half like she wants to lure me to my doom. “I’ll arrange it so you can have a room in the resort for free as long asyou need it. You’ll have access to the beach, and the spa, the pool—”
