Chapter Six #3
“It’s been so long that you can’t even remember, can you?” she asked. “Yet you claim that you’re helping the neighborhood. You can’t even bring yourself to spend more than a few hours there.”
“You’re one to talk.”
April’s head jerked back in shock. “Excuse me?”
“If you’re this big crusader for the Ninth Ward, why did you buy a house in Bywater when you moved back to New Orleans?”
“What does that have to do with anything? I’m there every day helping to make the neighborhood a better place.
Where I live is irrelevant. And how dare you try to make this about me,” April said.
She poked him in the chest. “This is about you, and how you’re trying to destroy your own neighborhood. ”
“Stop calling it that. It is not my neighborhood,” he hissed.
His words smacked her in the face.
Damien ran a hand across his brow and blew out an annoyed sigh. “That didn’t come out the way I intended,” he said.
“But it’s what you meant, isn’t it?”
He stared at her for several long moments before he said in a solemn voice, “I haven’t lived there in well over a decade, April.”
“Maybe that’s the problem. You’ve been so far removed from it for so long that you don’t feel any connection. You need to actually spend some time there, Damien.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do,” she said. “I know it’s been hard since Kurt’s—”
He cut her off. “Don’t go there.”
April swallowed back the rebuttal that nearly escaped her lips.
She knew his issues when it came to what happened to Kurt, knew that his brother’s incident still weighed heavily on his mind.
But she would not allow his demons to destroy her beloved Ninth Ward.
Even if it wasn’t her actual home anymore, it was still close to her heart.
She would not allow Damien to bulldoze his way in there and change it.
She took him by the hands and walked farther down the hallway, to a seating area underneath the large arching skylight. She sat next to him on the tufted couch and took his hands into her lap.
“Why don’t you let me show you around the Ninth Ward?” April asked.
She felt him stiffen. “I grew up there. I don’t need a tour.”
“Apparently, you do, because you don’t realize just how much it has changed since those days when you grew up there. Or since Kurt was shot,” she added.
His eyes flew to hers. That nerve in his jaw ticked at a manic pace, but he remained silent.
“There is so much good going on,” April continued. “So much good being done. Maybe once you see how hard the people there are working to rebuild the neighborhood, you’ll understand why the thought of you bringing in this new, expensive complex is such a horrible idea.”
“That’s your way of convincing me to join you on a tour? Calling my idea horrible?”
“Because it is horrible,” she said. “It was one thing when I thought you were building housing for the people who actually live there now, but now that I know the truth behind this plan of yours, I can’t help but think of it as being an extremely horrible idea.
And I want to show you why I think it’s horrible.
“Come on, Damien,” she urged. “Be a tourist in your own city. Let me show you around the Ninth Ward.”
He let out a deep breath and said, “Fine. I’ll play tourist. But I’m warning you that nothing I see will make me want to change my plans. I’m going to show you how the project I have in mind will help the Ninth Ward, not hurt it.”
April rolled her eyes. “Do you need me to break out the studies on gentrification?”
“I’m the one in real estate, remember? I’ve read enough think pieces to satisfy me for the rest of my life.”
“And yet you didn’t comprehend a single one of them? That’s so unfortunate,” she said.
Damien huffed out a laugh. “When did you get to be so sassy?”
Despite being pissed at him, she allowed a small grin to pull at the edges of her lips. “I’ve always been sassy,” she said. “I just usually keep it under wraps.”
Damien reached for her hand and trailed his fingers along her skin. Goose bumps marked the places where he touched her.
“Are you willing to return to the ballroom with me?” he asked. “Your new best friend, John Hiraku, is probably searching all over for you.”
“You sound jealous,” April teased.
Damien’s brows lifted. “Do I have reason to be?”
“Jealous?”
He nodded.
“Of Mr. Hiraku?”
He paused for a moment before he continued. “Not of Hiraku. But maybe the guy at A Fresh Start? What’s his name? Simeon?”
The only thing that stopped April from swallowing her tongue was the fact that she would need it to eat her white chocolate cheesecake. That Damien would even care enough to be jealous of any man where she was concerned seemed preposterous. But the look on his face had gone from joking to serious.
“Simeon is just a colleague and friend,” April imparted. “No reason to be jealous of him. Or of anyone else.”
The sensual smile that drew across his lips held a hint of relief. “That’s really, really good to know.” He held his hand out to her. “Now, let’s go back in there and try to get some investors for Alexander Properties and A Fresh Start.”