Chapter 15 #2
“Sittin’ here, having a coffee,” I said, lifting my paper cup.
“You can go home now, Rhett.”
“I know I can, but then who will drive you back?”
“I’m perfectly capable of driving myself.”
“You’ve had a shock. It’ll be the middle of the night by the time you’re done here, and you’ll have two tired kids. I’m not letting you get yourself killed on the roads. That’s a little too much even for my conscience.”
“Your conscience seems to pick and choose when it wants to fire up.”
“This coming from Little Miss Principles, is it?”
The boys’ faces bounced between us like they were watching a tennis match.
Piper stood, her face hard. “I’d like to speak to you in private, Mr. Baldwin,” she said, then marched across the lobby without waiting to see if I’d follow.
I did follow. How could I not, when it felt like she’d speared a big metal hook in my guts and took great pleasure in tugging me along?
But when she whirled, her back to the coffee and snack machine, her face betrayed no joy. “What’s your game?” she demanded. “What are you trying to do here? Trying to get me to forget about the house because you sat in a hospital waiting room with me?”
“Is it so hard to believe that I’m not going to leave a mother with two young boys here on her own to fend for herself?”
“This might come as a shock, but I’m capable of caring for myself and my boys without your help.”
“That’s never been in doubt.”
“So leave.”
“No.”
She inhaled. “If you think I’m going to give up my claim on that house—”
“This hasn’t got anything to do with the house, Piper! Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes!” She clamped her lips shut, glancing around the side of me. I turned to follow her gaze and saw two little brown-haired heads peering over the hard plastic backs of their chairs at us.
When I turned back to Piper, she’d calmed herself slightly. But before she could speak up and tell me to leave again, I opened my mouth and spoke first. “What if we both got the house?”
Her mouth clicked shut. Soft pink lips pressed into a line as her brows drew together. “What?”
“We both have a claim to it. Let’s work together on this.”
She looked at me like I was insane. And truthfully, I had no idea what I was saying. The words just kept coming out of me, and I didn’t know where they’d end up. But as the idea formed, it made sense.
She’d been right when she’d said I didn’t want the negative press that would come from snatching the house out from under a single mother’s fingertips.
I’d worked hard to build my image in this town, and I knew that it wouldn’t take much for old histories to bubble back up to the surface.
What if people saw the kind of man I really was?
The petty, angry, bitter man who didn’t trust easily?
I knew, on some level, that the best thing for my reputation would be to bow out and let her have the house. I didn’t need it. I had more than enough money.
But as much as I cared about my reputation, I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t just roll over and let her have it, because that felt too much like how I used to act with my ex.
She’d demand something, and I’d bend over backward to make it happen for her.
I worked myself nearly to death to provide for her, absorbing all her demands, her anger, her rage, her capriciousness, just to have it all thrown back in my face.
I could acknowledge that Piper had surprised me tonight. She’d cared for her boys in a way that I respected. I didn’t want to be vindictive. I didn’t want to fight her. I didn’t want to tarnish the reputation that I’d buffed to a high shine.
But I didn’t want to fall into old patterns the moment an attractive woman batted her eyelashes at me and asked me to hand her the moon.
And there was something else. Something that made me want to share this with Piper, so that I’d have another excuse to spend time with her.
So—compromise. We’d split the house. We’d both win.
Or maybe we’d both lose.
“You want to work together?” Piper asked. The doubt was clear on her face and in her tone.
“I think it’s the cleanest solution.” I spread my palms. “No lawyer’s fees.
No mess. Just a clean split down the middle.
We can get the place appraised when we take possession, and I’ll give you the chance to buy me out of my half.
Or I’ll buy you out, and you can walk away with a tidy bit of cash. ”
She chewed her lower lip, eyes drifting back to check on her sons. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Look. I don’t want to fight you. I like the work you’ve done on the lodge so far, and I see how well you’ve integrated with the team.”
Piper’s eyes lifted to meet mine, and for the briefest of moments, I saw the impact of my praise written in the clear blue of her irises.
Maybe she was like me: not used to hearing the praise she so desperately wanted.
Then she shuttered her gaze, and I questioned whether I’d seen that expression at all. “Right,” she said.
“There’s more at stake than the house. If we get in a legal fight, I can’t keep you on the team. It’s a conflict of interest. So I’d have to let you go. You’d have no job, and I’d have no hope of getting the lodge open before the end of the ski season this year.”
“You need me, and I need you. Again.”
“The way I see it, this is the only way we avoid a disaster. We have to work together.”
“So you won’t fire me, even after everything that happened today?”
“Not if you don’t force my hand.”
The laugh that fell from her lips was all bitterness. “I’m starting to see how you’ve built your empire. You’re ruthless.”
“Just pragmatic.”
“Give me a day to think about it. And, Rhett?”
“Yeah?”
“Go home.”