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“They didn’t,” he said simply. “It’s my own pet project.” He knew he wouldn’t be able to get the board’s approval for something so out of the ordinary—especially since he didn’t know if it would work. Truth be told, he was terrified it wouldn’twork out. Instead of the company financing it, he’d gotten several different investors.
“If it works out like you’re hoping, then I’m definitely going to have to check it out. What made you decide you wanted to do this?”
“The snow arcade?”
She wrinkled her nose with a laugh. “You’re not calling it that, are you?”
He shrugged. “It’s a work in progress.”
“To answer your question, I was talking about the Christmas village. What changed? You never told me why you wanted to do something different.”
His thoughts immediately drifted to Sarah and her love of the season. He’d seen her joy and enthusiasm bring their little part of town to life. Her heart was the reason he’d decided to make these changes. If it hadn’t been for her, then he would still be stuck with his original plans. They would have worked, but they wouldn’t have been enough to get her back.
“Uh oh. I know that look,” Courtney mused.
“What look?” James forced his gaze to the paperwork, and he gathered up what he could without looking like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Thatlook. The one telling me you did all of this for someone—and that someone is a girl.”
His eyes cut to meet hers. “It doesn’t matter if my choices were because I was influenced by a girl. They’re good ideas.”
“I didn’t say they weren’t. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Courtney laughed. “What I mean is sometimes we do something for someone and in the end, it doesn’t work out. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
It was already too late for that. His heart had been torn out of his chest and stomped on. But he wasn’t going to let it stop him from what he was doing. He had one last shot at showing Sarah he was on her side.
The snow activity center had been funded by enough investors he’d been able to allocate some of the money with their blessing to Sarah’s shop. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure how that bakery would turn out, but he wanted to have the ability to offer her the choice.
James looked up at his secretary once more. “I know what I’m doing. Don’t worry about me.”
“Well, it’s officially Christmas Eve. You should probably head home.”
He glanced at his watch. It was just past midnight. If he left right now, he might be able to find a flight or a bus back to Hollyberry Harbor before morning. He’d be exhausted, but he needed to make sure he saw Sarah before anything else changed.
James’s taxipulled up to Lake Harbor Avenue and the disgruntled driver looked at him through the mirror over the large front window. “Thirty-six dollars.”
James pulled out a fifty and handed it to the man over the back of the seat. “Keep the change.” He pushed the door open and stepped out with the duffle bag he’d thrown together last minute. Then he reached for his satchel that was filled with all the documents he would need to show Sarah. All the work over the last several days had to be worth it. That’s what he kept telling himself as he trudged down the snowy sidewalk toward the shops. The sun was just coming up over the horizon and theonly people on the street were those who ran the businesses on the strip.
He adjusted the strap of his duffle and picked up his pace, only to come to a sudden stop as Sarah exited from her bakery a few paces ahead of him.
She froze much like he did. Her eyes took him in, sweeping over him from his head to his toes. In her hand she held the handle for a small rolling suitcase. “James,” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”
His gaze darted to the suitcase. “Are you going somewhere?” He shook his head. That didn’t matter. What mattered was showing her what he’d put together and doing it before she had a chance to yell at him or tell him to leave. “Never mind. I wanted to show you the new plans for the harbor.”
She held up her hand. “James, I don’t need to?—”
“Just hear me out, okay? I thought a lot about what you’d said when we were planning for the festival. I heard every bit of it. And I came to the realization you were right. Everything you said?—”
“James, it’s fine. I don’t?—”
He dug into his satchel, his duffle slipping from his shoulder and landing on the snowy sidewalk. “No. You have to see this. You were the inspiration for all of it.” His fingers wrapped around the main proposal and he shoved them at her. “You need to see it. All of it.”
She stared at the papers he held in his hand, not moving. He couldn’t tell if she was upset, he was there, or just upset about how everything had ended. Either way, she didn’t look thrilled.
James moved closer to her, his voice lowering. “I hate how we left things. I let my defenses get the better of me. I should have?—”
