Up To Me (Shore Secrets #1)

Chapter Sixteen

Gray could be patient, when necessary. He didn’t mind sitting through previews before a movie. Understood that the long wait through baseball season made the first football kickoff that much more exciting. But he’d been awake for a seven whole minutes now, and couldn’t wait another second for Ella. Staring at her while she slept far from sucked, as he’d discovered over the past two nights, but it also made him antsy to watch those beautiful green eyes lock onto his. Their time together was limited enough.

So he eased the sheets lower. Took a moment to appreciate the leaf-shaped shadows dancing across Ella’s bare back, thanks to the bright sun battling against the sheers at her window. Then Gray rested his palm on the warm, sweet roundness of her ass. Caressed it while he dropped a kiss at the hollow of her back. Lingered there with a couple more, because it felt so good. Kissed his way up her spine—but only made it halfway before she rolled over.

“You could make millions if you hired yourself out to wake people up like that.” Ella languidly crossed her hands behind his neck. “You know, instead of an alarm clock.”

He didn’t need millions. Gray would happily wake one person up like that every morning. For free. And that particular person was currently stretched out naked beneath him. “Logistics would put a crimp in your scheme. Unless I could time travel. Or teleport. Probably’d need to do both. But I’ll take the compliment.”

“That’d be a fun what-if discussion.”

“What?” he asked, nuzzling at the creamy softness between her breasts.

“Where would you go if you could time travel? Or teleport?”

“Nowhere.”

Ella laughed, shifted her hips to seat him more fully against her. “I think you’re missing the point of the game. You give me a time and place, and then I give you one, and we argue fiercely about who made the cooler choice.”

“There’s no argument. If I could choose to be any day, any year, any century, any place on the globe? It’d be right here with you. Nothing could top this.”

As the words slipped out, Gray realized he sounded like a greeting card. And worried that he’d said the wrong thing. Or said it too soon. Sure, they’d spent the last forty hours together nonstop, and most of that in bed. They’d talked about a million things. But they hadn’t, thank God, had the serious talk . The one where real life and the future came up.

He didn’t regret saying it, aside from the epic cheesiness, because Gray meant every word. While he didn’t so much want to hide his feelings from Ella, he hadn’t necessarily planned to share them until he’d figured out what to do about them. What to do about his life. How to hold on to Ella once he came clean about his real reason for being here. And he’d been far too distracted by her for the last forty hours to come up with a plan.

Hands fisted in his hair, Ella drew him down for a long, drugging kiss. Talk about the perfect way to start the day. “You always know exactly the right thing to say.”

God, she was so wrong it was laughable. Gray didn’t know what to say or how to say it even if he did magically pull a solution out of his ass. On the plus side, Ella was naked. So was he. And they were well on their way to not talking about anything for the next half hour or so.

Ella’s cell phone rang…well, it didn’t ring. It made some gong-like noise that made Gray think of scarlet-robed monks and Tibetan prayer flags whipping in the Himalayan wind. Clearly he’d watched too many classic kung-fu movies. Ella tried to wriggle out from beneath him. Silly girl.

Gray clamped his hands around her wrists, spreading her arms wide to the opposite sides of the bed. And didn’t that visual give him some ideas! “Where do you think you’re going?”

“That’s my phone.”

“It’s got the worst ringtone ever. All soft and peaceful. What good is that?”

“That way it doesn’t disturb the mood of the spa when I’m in the office. Ringtones are personal, Gray. Don’t judge.”

Hard to imagine. The freedom of such a small thing like personalizing a ringtone, instead of making it conform to a business norm. That freedom called to him. It might as well have been a tequila shot at a twenty-first birthday celebration. Irresistible. And ridiculous. That he’d wrap up everything he hated about his job and pin it all on a fucking ringtone.

So Gray probably let a little too much gruffness slip out when he ordered, “Don’t answer it.”

Ella rolled her eyes. “I have to. It might be Brooke, with questions about today’s schedule.”

“So call in sick. Again,” he smirked. Then threw in a leer topped off with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle for good measure. And in case she still hadn’t boarded his train of thought, Gray tilted his hips more solidly into the welcoming warmth between her legs.

“Hey, I never said I was sick. I wouldn’t lie like that. It’d skew the karmic balance. When I told Brooke I wouldn’t be in yesterday, I said I didn’t feel good.” She finished off with a nod that landed some of her hair on his arm. That silky feeling that drove him crazy gave him a flashback to when she’d trailed it down across his stomach.

Yeah, Ella sounded all self-righteous. But her hips circled right back while she railed at him. “What’s the difference?”

“It was the truth. I didn’t feel good.” Her solemn expression relaxed into a gleeful grin. Ella tossed her head back and forth against the pink satin pillowcase. “I felt sensational.”

It surprised a snicker out of him. Diverted his focus enough that she slid from beneath him straight out of bed. “You think karma’s going to give you a pass over semantics?” Gray asked, enjoying the view as she crawled through the tangle of clothes on the floor, patting for her phone.

The clothes weren’t the only mess. Towels heaped in the bathroom from their bubble bath. Room service trays and empty wine bottles piled by the door. The wreck they’d made of her rooms reminded him a lot of similar damage done to a penthouse suite in Atlantic City during a bachelor party that started with strippers and ended with tattoos. The only reason Gray had escaped without something inked or pierced was that he’d passed out an hour too early…or just in time, depending on who you asked.

She bit her lower lip. “I think it’s worth a shot.” Then brandished her phone in triumph. Gray was just glad the stupid, tinny bonging finally stopped. While she talked, Gray lay back. Maybe when Ella went to the bathroom he’d reprogram the ring tone with something better. Something that would make her think of him. When he wasn’t here any more. Crap. Now that he’d started thinking about the future, he couldn’t stop.

Gray crossed his arms beneath his head. Stared at a framed print of a purple sunset over the ocean. Leaving R&M was selfish. Since his mom had put her happiness on hold to provide for him over the years, why couldn’t Gray do the same for her? How could he, in all good conscience, put career satisfaction over his mom’s happiness? Let alone bringing a potential girlfriend into the mix. A girlfriend who might just hate his guts when she learned the secret he’d been keeping.

With a bounce, Ella landed on the bed. To his great disappointment, she’d put on a pink-and-white-striped robe. “Guess what?”

“That was Brooke. All your clients canceled so you can spend the day in bed with me. Again.” He tugged at the sash of her robe.

She swatted his hand away. “Not even close. Besides, the idea of all that lost revenue scares me. Don’t even joke about it.” Ella reached over to knock on the wood of her nightstand. “It was Eugene.”

Gray rolled his head to look at the clock. “At nine on a Sunday morning? You need to have a talk with him about boundaries.” Living at your jobsite could be convenient. But it could also lead to a messy convergence of work upon personal time. Like people who took their smartphones into the bathroom. There had to be a line.

“Not when he’s calling with such good news. We did it.” She bounced again, this time throwing her arms in the air with an interesting shimmy that gaped her robe in all the right places. “We’re sold out for Memorial Day weekend.”

Gray scooted up to a seated position. “Terrific.” He couldn’t be happier for her. And sitting here in her bed, he couldn’t begin to worry about what it meant for his report.

“All the credit goes to you. I was stubborn. Stuck in the past, choked by the weight of tradition. I’m really glad you forced me to reassess the potential upside to moving the party. Plus, you helped with that kid the other day. Jumped in when we had that skirmish between the bellboys. You’ve really got your finger on the pulse of how to make a hotel run smoothly.”

There it was. His opening. His chance to come clean and tell her why he knew how to handle those situations. Gray wanted to do it. While he’d been careful so far not to flat out lie—aside from saying he was on vacation, everything else out of his mouth to her had been true—he hated the weight of this secret. In a little over a week, Ella had become so vital in his life.

God, he’d already taken huge risks by helping the Manor so much. Basically chosen sides. Shucked his R&M jersey and allied himself with Ella’s team. Luckily, Gray was the only one who knew that at this point. Was it so wrong to want to wring out a few extra days of bliss with Ella? To store up the memories against the day she potentially slapped his face and stormed away?

Before he could jump through the open door she’d provided, Ella threw his robe in his face. “Get up.”

“Get back in,” he countered, tugging her towards him.

“No. I mean, not yet. We need fuel before we embark upon round…whatever it is. I’m going to order room service. How does stuffed French toast and bacon sound?”

“Like I should’ve started sleeping with hotel owners a long time ago.”

Ella dove on him, fingers unerringly finding his most ticklish places. “If that’s true, then clearly I should’ve started sleeping with all my handsome guests a long time ago.”

Gasping with laughter, Gray grabbed her wrists. “Please. There’s been no one as good-looking as me,” he teased with a shit-eating grin.

“No.” Everything about her softened. From her splayed thighs straddling him to fluttering eyelashes and solemn smile. “There’s never been anyone quite like you.”

Shaken to the core, Gray let go. And she slid off the bed, out of his reach.

While Ella ordered breakfast, Gray went out to the balcony, flagstones cool beneath his feet. Took a deep breath of the freaking amazing clean air. Let it out slowly, the way she’d taught him in yoga. Repeated it a couple of times as he tied his robe. Leaned a hip and shoulder against the stone wall and gazed out, past the trees at the lake, about ten shades more intense than the sky above it. And wondered what it would be like to be rooted here. To wake up every morning to this peace. To wake up every morning to the peace of Ella next to him.

Why not stay? Say all the stars aligned. He figured out what career to try next, and they didn’t offer him slave wages. Say he could do this mystery job and still provide for his mom. Why couldn’t he do it here? With Ella? Here at Seneca Lake, where he’d already made deeper friendships in nine days, was already more accepted than in all the years he’d been a no-name, drop in the bucket in Manhattan.

A pair of birds landed on the branch near him, drooping it so close he could’ve reached out and touched them. Their chatter blended in with the rustle of tree leaves and the comfortable clink of the patio diners two floors below. Noises that made him feel not alone.

It all came down to Ella. Would she have him? Would she understand the horrible position he’d been in once he started falling ass-over-size-twelves in love with her? Did she care about him enough to overlook the name stamped on the top of his paycheck and just see Graydon Locke?

Not that she’d said the L word. Neither of them had. But if he expected her to do all of that, shouldn’t he? Stop playing it safe and lay it all out for her—including his heart? Gray sat down. Clutched the wide arms of the Adirondack chair and told himself to stop being such a fucking coward. He’d tell her. Now. Everything. Over breakfast. Full of nervous energy, he drummed a beat against the iron railing that sent the birds flapping away with loud squawks.

“Breakfast will be up soon. I’m making coffee to tide us over.”

“Soon, in room-service time, is more than an hour. Maybe we should go back to bed.” It wasn’t desperate to try and squeeze in one more slide between the sheets with her. Just practical. Nah. It was neither. The truth was that he’d always want to steal extra kisses from Ella, grasp at whatever time they had together. Even if they spent the rest of their lives sharing this room. And wasn’t that idea just a kick to the gut?

“Nope.” With a heavy hand on his shoulder, Ella kept him in the chair. “Sleeping with the owner, remember? That food’ll be here before you can untie that robe.”

A hard, staccato knock sounded. Gray’s eyebrows shot up. “No fucking way.”

“I agree,” said Ella with a laugh.

Before she even moved away from him the suite’s main door flew open. In a clash of voices and stomping, Piper, Ward and Casey burst in, pushing each other to cross the living area and pile onto the balcony.

Gray liked them all. A lot. But he didn’t want them intruding on possible sex, definite breakfast, and potential soul baring. So he glared at Ella. “You left the door unlocked?”

“I just put the empty room service trays outside a minute ago. Didn’t think anyone would come stumbling in before our breakfast got here.”

“We can’t wait for breakfast. We have news.” Casey pulled up short at the sight of Gray. “Oh. I guess you do, too.” She turned to Ella. “So you did it. Did him,” she clarified, pointing a wagging finger at Gray.

Ella lifted her chin. Clasped the hand Gray wordlessly offered her. “Yes. My decision. One of the best ones I’ve ever made.”

Hitching one jean-clad leg up to sit on the iron railing, Ward mimed a basketball dunk shot. “Way to score.” Immediately, all three women turned outraged glares on him. “Hey, the guy bagged a hot chick. Am I not supposed to congratulate him?”

“Well, since you called me hot, I’ll let it pass,” Ella said.

Gray raised his hand. “How about we not discuss it at all? Seeing as how Ella and I are both in robes. This just isn’t the time. Our breakfast is on the way up.” Ella and her friends might not have boundaries, but he sure as hell did. Although he did appreciate Ward’s support.

Unzipping her Park Service green windbreaker, Casey hovered in the doorway. “You’re right. I should call down and add to your order. Piper, Ward, what do you want? Cause I could do some serious damage to a Denver omelet and fried potatoes.”

Piper smoothed her gauzy yellow sweater flat over her stomach. It was the most casual thing Gray had seen her in. Until he looked past the hem of her long skirt to the serious, stacked sandals that would’ve looked at home strolling down Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Or walking right over a man. “If you eat that, pretty soon you’ll end up all paunchy and round. Why not get yogurt and fruit?”

“Why not live a little? Besides, I’m probably going to tromp four or five miles today. I’m patrolling the pass, filling in for Mitch while he’s out with that twisted knee. How many calories do you plan to burn standing in one place, trying to keep your balance on those ridiculous stilt shoes?”

“I like ’em,” drawled Ward. He stared down at Piper’s feet with an odd focus. Gray really needed to find out what the hell was the backstory on those two. And then he remembered that no, not right now, he didn’t.

“Look, you guys can argue fashion and fried potatoes somewhere else. Anywhere else. Cause you’re not eating here.” Gray stood, throwing an arm out towards the door. “Will it get all of you out of here if we agree to have dinner with you tonight? My treat?”

“That’s a yes to dinner—I’d never turn down such an obviously heartfelt invitation,” said Piper, every word iced with sarcasm, “but a no to leaving. We’ve got big, bad news to spill.”

What could be so big and bad that dragged all three of them out here on a Sunday morning? Gray scrubbed a hand through what he knew without looking had to be messy bedhead. If they’d run up to tell Ella they’d found a perfect woman for Joel or decided on a new game for the town party, heads were gonna roll.

“This better be bigger than big. If there’s not blood, bodies or jail time involved, I’m booting you all out.” Gray planted his legs wide, remembered he was only wearing a damn robe, and moved to stand behind Ella, hands on her waist.

“Oh, there’s jail time, all right. At a minimum.” Ward punched his fist into his palm. Three times. Hard. “If we ever catch up with them long enough to toss them behind bars, that is.”

Ella shook her head, silky strands teasing across Gray’s chest. “Catch up with who? What’s going on?”

“Pam Flickinger and Larry Paulson disappeared. Together.” Jaw locked tight, Ward spat out the words.

Yeah, Gray had pegged those two as trouble since he first heard the story. Just not the kind of trouble that would interrupt breakfast in bed with Ella. So he tried to down play the news. “The city planner and treasurer who hooked up? What makes you think they aren’t just down the road at a rent-by-the-hump motel, hiding out from her husband?”

Piper’s jaw dropped. “Because she took all her clothes.”

“His house is closed up tighter than a drum. Boat pulled up into dry dock and garage padlocked,” added Ward.

The three of them running around town, looking for clues? To Gray, it sounded like the latest reincarnation of the Scooby-Doo gang. Amazing they hadn’t been arrested for trespassing. Good thing he and Ella had been otherwise occupied. “You cased the joint? Seriously? Just because two people are swapping spit in a shared midlife crisis? Why not ask them when they’re coming back in the damn mailbox journal and wait for a reply?”

“Aha!” Ella sounded smug as she elbowed him in the ribs. “I knew you’d come around to the idea of the journal.”

“Not so much. But if you want to track down crazy people, why not use their own crazy tradition?”

Piper stalked to the opposite side of the balcony. In other words, as far away from Ward as possible. She hugged herself against the damp morning chill. “I hate to say it, but I think this problem’s bigger than what the journal can solve. It isn’t only that they ran away. Together.”

Ella craned her neck up to shoot Gray a worried glance. “What else?”

“Oh, the tiny detail that all the money from the city coffers is gone.” Piper shrugged her shoulders with a tight grimace. “Vanished. Every red cent.”

“We stayed up all night with Dawn, checking and rechecking. Rousted Frank Rogers out of bed at midnight and he checked all the bank’s records. There’s no doubt the money’s gone,” said Ward.

“No,” gasped Ella. “How could they?”

Gray wasn’t too shocked. He knew better than anyone that being a small, scenic town didn’t provide an automatic shield against crime. Passion and greed? They went together like prime rib and a good cabernet. “Pretty easily, I bet. A quick wire transfer. Given their positions, they both probably had signatory power on the account. An amount that large would require two approvals, but they had that covered.”

Ward hopped off the railing. Nodded. “That’s what we’ve cobbled together. We’ve got the how covered. The why— they’re selfish jackasses. What we don’t know is where . If they hotfooted it to an airport and plan to live it up in some Mexican coastal village.”

Pacing, Casey jabbed a thumb over her shoulder and jerked her head the same direction. “Canada’s not too far. They could’ve made it over the border on their own passports before we knew enough to sound an alarm.”

“Or maybe Larry had this whole thing planned from the beginning.” Ella tightened her grip on Gray’s hands. And boy, did that woman have a grip after all the hours of kneading and rubbing she put in on a daily basis. “What if he’s got a little love shack all fixed up someplace warm, like San Diego?”

Gray thought back to his last stint out there two Januarys ago. It had been a solid month of fog and rain. Which seriously curtailed all the running on the beach he’d planned. “It’s not always warm on the coast.”

Casey tugged on the lapels of her jacket. Scowled. “It is compared to upstate New York!”

Holding up a hand in truce, Gray said, “Arguing about weather won’t help us find them any faster. I’m sure the police will be all over those two. FBI, if they cross state lines. We need to worry about damage control.” We? Where had that come from? The automatic assumption that he was so deeply entrenched in this group, that he wanted to be a part of the solution?

Gray didn’t try to deny it. What’d be the point in lying to himself? The words just caught him by surprise as they’d popped out. And even more surprising, nobody else seemed to have noticed. Or they accepted his willingness to help them, to help Ella, as par for the course.

Stripping out of his navy fleece overshirt, Ward draped it around Piper’s shoulders. Then he loped back to the opposite end of the balcony. “Already on it. We’re pulling together a town meeting tomorrow night. Here, in the ballroom, if you’ll let us.”

“Of course,” Ella said.

Gray slipped into business mode as easily as he’d slipped on his robe. “Obviously everyone wants to help. Which is good. Passion equals involvement.” He gave a quick, reassuring caress to Ella’s cheek. Dropped a kiss on top of her head. “But it can’t be a free-for-all. Nothing gets accomplished that way.” As much as it stung, Gray knew that this crisis was more important than sharing French toast naked. He recalibrated the morning from sexy breakfast to hard-core strategy session. “We should start brainstorming right now.”

“Maybe some coffee first? And you could put on some pants,” Ward suggested. “I, for one, will concentrate better once all your bits and pieces are locked down. It’s breezy out here. Frankly, I’m scared to look at you.”

“Already you and I are on the same page,” Gray said with a rueful grin. “While I get paper—and pants—start tossing out some ideas to get that bank balance above zero, and fast. Both out of the box and traditional fundraisers. Everything from celebrity endorsements down to bake sales. Choose the best ten ideas to present at the meeting, and know that the crowd’s going to winnow those down to five.”

“It’s a good plan.” Ella tilted her head up, and whispered a soft, “Thank you.” Then she slipped out of Gray’s embrace to clutch at Casey’s arm. “Oh God, I just thought of Dawn. What a nightmare for her. Not her fault at all, and yet, as mayor, she’ll end up shouldering the blame while we try to fix this.” Tears glistened on the edge of her lashes.

No surprise that Ella’s soft heart would break for her friend. And Ella’s pain rebounded straight at Gray’s gut. That was just one more layer of suckitude. Dawn probably expected to give heartwarming speeches on Memorial Day and help the town’s morale when she ran for office. Not have to single-handedly drag the town back from the brink of bankruptcy. Gray tightened his belt and asked, “How did she take the news?”

“Not well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her quite this shaken.” Casey looked to Piper and Ward, who nodded their agreement. “She called us yesterday, when she figured out something was wrong.”

“I don’t understand,” said Ella. “Why didn’t she call me, too?”

Ward cleared his throat as he shouldered past Gray to go inside. “Dawn said she had a hunch you shouldn’t be interrupted.”

Gray flashed back to Friday afternoon. When he’d stopped at the general store to grab a soda. And ended up buying two boxes of condoms. Just in case things went well with Ella. He supposed he should be embarrassed. Ella would be, if she knew the reason. But all Gray felt was grateful.

“There was a reporter skulking around when we met her at the store. Got a shot of her and got away before we could stop him.” Ward reappeared, brandishing the morning paper Ella had left on the coffee table. “Take a look for yourself.”

Ella grabbed the paper, scanned the photo, and with a pinched look around her eyes, passed it to Gray. He unfolded it to read the whole article below the photo of a stricken Dawn. Grim silence prevailed as he read.

“That’s funny,” said Piper. “Why is Gray’s picture on the back of the paper?”

Shit. Gray didn’t have to flip it over to know the answer. Local papers like this one often carried regional news. Martin had predicted that his dad’s parole hearing would make waves in the local media. After all, Gray’s hometown was less than a two-hour drive from Seneca Lake.

Technically, Gray’s was a Cinderfella story. Local boy escapes poor town and his dad’s sick, twisted legacy of shame to graduate college with honors and land a great job. It didn’t take a publicist to realize that it made great copy. The story was an obvious one. He’d just never expected his cover to be blown, after all these years, like this. Especially not now, when his life had finally turned into something more than just work. Although it made sense, in a horribly ironic way, that yet again, his dad was fucking up Gray’s life.

They all clustered around, reading the back of the paper while Gray gripped it with suddenly bloodless fingers. He couldn’t let it drop. He couldn’t move. Time froze in these last few moments before Ella potentially kicked him in the balls. Or to the door. Probably both.

“Your dad’s in prison?” asked Casey in a low voice.

Gray nodded. Not saying anything. He just waited to see how much the article revealed. Except the only reason for his photo to be on that page was if they’d used his corporate headshot from R&M. Which meant the company had to be mentioned. Waiting for them to hit that point in the article, to put the pieces together, was interminable.

Ward exhaled a hard, fast sigh. “Tough break.”

And then it happened. Ella’s long, thin fingers curled over the top edge of the paper, ripping it out of his hands. “Ruffano & McIntosh? The company that’s digging through the bank records on the Manor? The company that’s probably trying to take us over? Is that who you work for, Gray?”

He closed his eyes. Just for a split second, to avoid the betrayal and accusation in Ella’s green eyes. But she deserved better. She deserved the truth from him. After all, he’d been planning on telling her everything right before her friends arrived. No more deception, or omission or covering up. “Yes.”

“You’re not really on vacation, are you?”

“No. I’m on assignment.”

Piper nudged forward. Jutted her chin and stood hipshot, as if waiting for any excuse to slap him. Gray wondered if he’d be on the receiving end of the cliché of a temperamental redhead. “To do what? And be specific. We want to know exactly what type of lowlife we’re dealing with here.”

Fair enough. Gray took a deep breath. “I’m a corporate realignment specialist. I determine whether or not a particular holding should be acquired, and then maintained or realigned as a different entity. In this particular case, assessing the worth of the town, the general interplay between tourists and locals, whether or not a hotel is most profitable in this spot, versus a high-end condo development, or a full-blown resort.”

Piper waved her hands, shutting him down. “I take it back. All I want’s the nitty-gritty. Are you trying to take down Mayhew Manor?”

“No. Absolutely the opposite.” This was Gray’s chance to clear the air. To make them see that his report might be the Manor’s salvation. To make Ella see that he had her best interest at heart. “My recommendation can stop them from trying to acquire the Manor at all. If I say it’s strongly entrenched in the community and we couldn’t significantly improve the profits by realignment, R&M walks away.”

Ella didn’t look the least bit mollified. She stood there, gaze locked on Gray. He wasn’t even sure if she’d blinked yet. Wasn’t sure if he had, either. “But if you don’t? If you tell them that our manager’s about to leave, and the furnace needs to be replaced and our cash reserves are running on empty? You know, all those things I revealed to you in confidence? Never for a minute thinking that you’d be in a position to use what I said against me?”

Before he could answer, Casey jumped into the fray. “Spun like that, it seems like Mayhew Manor could be ripe for the picking by a greedy corporation. Then what? Everyone loses their jobs while you knock down this beautiful old building to make way for cookie-cutter condos that people live in for one week a year? You turn it into some private, gated enclave?” The accusation spewed from her mouth like a filthy curse.

If Gray kept calm, maybe everyone else would, too. He’d use the facts to buttress his story. Ella was still listening, so he still had a shot. And he’d keep talking as long as she let him. “That’s one scenario R&M explored. Doesn’t mean it will happen. Not with everything I’ve learned since I arrived.”

“What you learned?” Piper shook her head savagely, long red strands of hair whipping about her face. “What you scavenged, is more like it.”

In the strong morning sunlight, Ella paled. “You needed information on the Manor. Inside information. Is that why you…with me…we…”

“No. No, I swear.” Gray grabbed for her arm, desperate to touch her, to connect in some way. How could she think that? Fuck. That awful, pained tightness around her eyes was a punch to his gut. It made it hard to think. Hard to figure out if he should convince her first that he didn’t want to shut down the manor, or that she was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him. What mattered more to her at this moment? Her parents’ legacy? Or her bruised heart? If he picked wrong, it’d be game over.

She twisted out of his grip. “So I was what—convenient?”

It was laughable. Almost. If Gray dared to laugh right now, Ward would probably punt him straight off the balcony. “Hell, no. When we met, when those first sparks lit up between us, I was shocked to discover you owned the place. It didn’t make my job easier, Ella. It complicated everything. If I could’ve stayed away from you, I would’ve. You know I need this job. You know why.”

She swallowed hard. Nodded. Gave him a glimmer of hope that he was getting through to her. Gray forged on. “And despite that, I got sucked in. Against all my instincts, I started helping you. Falling for you. I want Mayhew Manor to thrive. I want you to be happy. I want to do everything in my power to make you happy.”

Ella threw her arms wide, indicating the whole castle. “By helping to take away my parents’ legacy?”

He’d promised to be honest. “Maybe.” When her arms flopped down bonelessly, Gray rushed forward again, almost stumbling over the still cool flagstones to grab her right above the elbows. To make sure she didn’t focus on the dirty looks Piper and Casey were shooting him. To be certain Ella saw only him as he gave her the stark truth. “Think about it. You told me how much you didn’t want to run the place. How it was a millstone around your neck. How much you love being strictly a masseuse. You can do that anywhere. And doing it without a giant castle full of obligations overshadowing you sounded like it might make you a whole lot happier. You’re the one who said that first, Ella, not me.”

Gray paused, looking for some glimmer of remembrance. But her eyes were hard. Unforgiving. He’d given presentations before. Talked his way into places that shouldn’t have allowed him. Talked people out of information they really shouldn’t have given him. But none of it mattered if he couldn’t talk his way through to Ella.

“I thought that if I could give you a fresh start, make you happy and still make my boss happy, then everybody wins. Except then you decided you wanted to fight for the Manor. And so I helped you. I stuck my neck out, closed my eyes to the ethical ramifications and jumped in with both feet. Because of you.”

Her eyes fluttered shut. When they opened again, she stared at the floor. “It’s a nice speech. One you’ve had plenty of time to practice over the last ten days. Where exactly did your ethics get squishy, Gray? When you talked to your boss? Or when you told me I was beautiful and extraordinary?” Now her head snapped up, and she met him dead on. “When you wrote up a report full of facts you compiled by spying on my friends? Or when you put your mouth on me in the pool?”

All of it was right. He couldn’t dispute a single fact she threw at him. Gray dropped his hands and backed up a few steps. Tried to come up with a different angle, a better explanation. Looked up at the sky as if the answer for how to not have this extraordinary woman hate him might fall out of a cloud. Because he didn’t have anything left. “Ella, all I’ve done is try to save you.”

“Guess you’re not so different from everyone in this town after all. As you’ve hammered home to me, time and again, I’m an independent woman. I don’t need the town to save me, and I don’t need you to save me. I can take care of myself.” She crumpled up the newspaper and threw it at his chest.

He deserved that dig. God, how did everything that came out of his mouth make things worse? “I know you can. I’ve always believed that. All I can say is that I’m sorry.”

“As the owner of this hotel, I won’t turn away guaranteed profit. Your room’s paid for through Thursday, and you’re welcome to remain at the Manor as a guest. But as a woman, I can tell you that you’re no longer welcome in my rooms. In my arms. Or in my heart. Now get out.”

Gray took in Ward’s crossed arms and cold stare, the way Piper and Casey had put their arms around Ella. They were a unit, united against him. And there wasn’t a single bit of him that could blame them, or expected any less hostile of a reaction.

“I realize you’ve got no reason to trust me right now. But I have to say this anyway. What happened between us wasn’t planned. It sure as hell wasn’t up to me. I was powerless against falling in love with you, Ella. No matter how much it hurts to walk away, I don’t regret it. I don’t regret a second of our time together. Because I’ll be thinking about it for the rest of my life.”

The rest of his empty life. That’s what it would be without her. That’s what it had been before Ella, only he hadn’t been aware. So Gray drank in a final vision of her, with that shimmering lake as a backdrop, and walked away from his happiness.