Chapter 26
Following his conversation with Thandie and compiling his report, Grant took his time walking up to the barn. He gripped his report in his hand, even though he was still unsure whether he was doing the right thing. Never, in all of his years as a consultant, had he been in as much turmoil over a final judgment as he was now. He was good at his job, but his heart was tugging him in two opposite directions?
The long walk to the barn did nothing to ease his mind. He knew this retreat was a special place, and a few hours ago he was planning on giving the project a green light. But he knew Davis, or at least he knew many people just like him. Davis was a self-serving and ruthless venture capitalist who didn’t care about the heart of a project, only the bottom line, and he had said as much earlier.
If Grant gave the investment a glowing review, would the firm’s money mean that the retreat would become just like every other resort, where the life of it is quickly replaced by a spreadsheet? He didn’t want that to happen. Not because of Thandie, or Leo, or any of the community that had all pitched in to clean up after the storm, but because his pain from the past was gone. This place, with its rolling hills and wildflower fields, had replaced his grief with hope in love.
Grant was still unsure as he walked inside and found Davis sitting at one of the square bistro tables. His head was buried in a computer screen, and a hands-free receiver covered one ear, the kind with the little mic part extending down his cheek. He looked like a prick. Davis had that confident swagger of a successful man and the good looks to top it off. Grant was certain that Thandie knew how handsome the man was too.
Guilt twisted Grant’s stomach. He had spent much of the last decade striving to be more like the Davises of the world. Doing his job and doing it well with no apology. Spreadsheets and calculations had been his best friends, but during his recent consultations, he had failed to look at the heart of the project. Instead, he had focused too much on the numbers. It was clearer than ever that the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story.
His spine straightened. This time, this project was going to be different.
“Mr. Mothan. I hoped to find you up here,” Grant said and took a seat across the table from Davis. “You’re enjoying the cucina?”
Davis looked around as though he hadn’t taken in the space yet. His eyes came back to the computer screen. “You have my report?”
Grant’s grip tightened around the rolled-up sheets of paper. “Sir, I think this investment...What I mean to say is?—”
“Spit it out, Mr. Goldie.”
“You shouldn’t invest here.” Grant felt relief at having made the decision, but a new panic arose from how he would explain his choice to Leo. He felt hot all over and fought the urge to pulse his tee shirt and let in some fresh air.
Grant’s suggestion got Davis’s attention. “Color me shocked,” he said. “I was certain you were giving a good report. When we spoke over the phone, you sounded like you were in love with this place. What happened?”
What happened, indeed? Was it the storm, the cleanup, the kisses by the fire, the way Thandie looked after him when he overreacted—in more than one way—to the flower fiasco, or cooking hotdogs over the bonfire in the rain? Or was it the quiet moment of solitude where he thought about the woman he had once loved and how he felt free to think of his life without her for the first time since she passed away?
No, Grant thought, it wasn’t one thing, it was the whole of it.
There was no part of his experience at the retreat that could have helped him heal by itself. Every single moment, each day, served to lessen his scars in some way. It was only a bonus that he had a wonderful, beautiful, and funny activities director that got him out of his walled castle and into a place of contentment.
“Grant,” Davis whisper-yelled across the table. “I looked at the financials and I was ready to transfer the funds on Monday. What is the problem? You need to convince me.”
“Honestly?”
Davis snapped back, “That’s what I’m paying you for, isn’t it?”
“I think an investment, yours, or anyone else’s, would destroy this place. I think that if you give the money, you’ll start to dictate how they use it and steer its use to things that will bring you more profit, and not necessarily toward what’s best for the retreat.” It felt good to say his thoughts out loud, though he wondered as Davis’s smirk widened across his face if he had calculated incorrectly.
“That’s quite presumptuous of you to assume I would ruin this place in pursuit of money,” Davis said. “Your report, please?”
Grant crunched the papers in his hand. If Davis saw his report, he would surely make the deal with Leo. His report had nothing but positives, and every word of it was true. “No. I can’t give it to you.”
“You don’t have your report prepared?”
Grant held it up beside his face and tapped the roll against his temple.
“Give it to me!” Davis raised his voice. “No report. No paycheck.”
Grant was fine with this arrangement. “So be it.” He stood and walked toward the trash can under the cucina sign. With each step, he tore the paper in half, and in half again. Ultimately, coming to a stop at the trash can and letting the papers fall from his hand like tickertape.
“What are you doing?” Leo yelled as he bolted inside the barn doors and caught the papers in his outstretched palms. “Is this the report? Is it that bad?”
“That’s just what I was wondering,” Davis said and looked at Grant. “You’re fired! Get out of my face.”
“Is that what you said to Thandie before you discarded her?” Grant turned to the man, who was no longer his boss, with an urge igniting inside of him to take Davis behind the barn and kick the snot out of him, just like Thandie had accused him of wanting to do earlier.
“Excuse me? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Davis was correct, Grant didn’t know any of the details, only that this man had walked out on Thandie. Blustering, he added, “You heard me!”
“First of all, she is none of your concern, and secondly, I apologized for leaving her the night before our wedding, and she forgave me.”
Grant recalled his first meeting with Davis, when he had casually asked if Grant had ever left someone at the altar, She forgave him anyway? He felt terrible. No wonder Thandie had wanted to take things slower with him. She was still in love with another man. It was no wonder she was timid in opening up to him. It was no wonder that she refused help at almost every turn. She had only herself to rely on. Grant felt like a fool for not putting the pieces together earlier when it could have made a difference in how he had spoken to Thandie.
“The lesson here is about realizing that you’ve made a mistake and apologizing for it.” Davis stood in front of Grant and patronized him like a parent scolding a child. “Would Grant like to apologize and get his job back?”
“No! Grant would not like his job back,” Grant said in a mocking tone.
“You’ll never get another job again if I have?—”
Grant stopped him short. “This has nothing to do with me apologizing for telling the truth. It has to do with someone that has so much love in her heart that she can even forgive the unforgivable. Neither one of us deserves her.”
Davis spun around on his heels and poked a finger into Grant’s chest. “Wait a minute. You’re in love with my fiancée?”
“Of course not! What an absurd thing to say. Like you said, she’s your fiancée, and she has forgiven you. I’m nobody.” Grant knew the words coming from his mouth weren’t the whole truth, but not lies either. “I hope you will do right by her. And whatever you decide about The Foundry, don’t hold my actions against Leo. He is a good person, and this place is amazing.” Grant turned to walk out and saw America standing by the door, wiping tears from her cheek.
He walked past her and through the doors, and she followed him out.
“What the hell are you doing?” America said and stomped down the drive after him. “Hey! I’m talking to you.”
“What do you want?” he snapped.
Her hands went up in a show of peace. “Whoa. You need to take it down a bit. I’m not the enemy here.”
She wasn’t, but the overwhelming urge to punch that man, Davis, in the face was taking every last ounce of self-control that Grant had left. He just wanted to get out of there and put this whole thing behind him.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“My job is done. You probably heard that I’m fired, so I’m leaving.”
“From what I heard back there, you fired yourself.” America closed the distance between them, and he could see the softness in her eyes. Her genuine concern for him relaxed the tension in his shoulders. “What did you end up telling Mr. Mothan?”
“I told him not to invest.”
“Are you serious! How could you? This week was perfect. Except the rain and?—”
Grant interrupted her rambling. “This week was perfect.”
His words shut her up as she processed what he said. “Then why?—”
“If you get his money, everything special about this place, and it is very special, will change. So, I told him not to invest.” Grant kicked the gravel in his path. “It wasn’t an easy thing for me to do. But you don’t want a guy like that anywhere around here.”
“I suspect not,” America said and kicked the gravel too. “And that’s why he fired you?”
“I wouldn’t give him my report, because I knew if he read it that he would jump on the opportunity to be a part of this in a heartbeat. So, I tore it up and threw it away.”
“And that’s when Leo picked it out of the trash,” she finished his thought. “I don’t understand one thing, though.”
“What’s that?” he said.
“Why are you still standing here and not going after what you really want?”
What he really wants? How would this woman know anything of what he desired? He raised an eyebrow, coaxing her to continue her thought.
“I’m talking about Thandie.”
He took an exasperated deep breath and blew it out. “You didn’t hear? She forgave Davis, and I guess they’re back together now. I even caught them kissing earlier.”
“Are you daft?” America sucker punched him in the shoulder with surprising force.
“Ouch,” he moaned and held the sore spot in his hand.
“She forgave him because she’s ready to move on and didn’t want to carry that baggage into her next relationship. A relationship she hopes will be with you.”
“Me?”
“So, if you’re done being a fool?—”
“Where is she?”
America pointed at the tire tracks still visible in the mud, heading away from the barn.
“Can I borrow your car?”
She tossed him the keys and pointed at the cherry-red pickup parked in the drive. “Go on.”