Matt had gotten an email from him, and it wasn’t good.
My mentor was dying. It had been coming for a while. No one comes away unscathed when breathing in floating insulation and dust for the years he had. But he was reaching out to see if I was interested in purchasing his company. He had never married and had no children, and there was no one for him to pass on his company to. He was giving me the option to buy out his company and merge us into one massive conglomerate.
And I was considering it.
I had all the financials for the company pulled up to se
e if we could afford something like this. It would be a massive move in the right direction for us, but it also had to be at the right price. I wanted to do right by this man. He was the only other male figure in my life I even remotely considered parental, and I wanted to make sure he could die at ease, knowing his legacy would be taken care of.
If I took this on, that would be why I couldn't come back into town. I would need to be there for the merger, the acquisition of new clients, and projects that were still works in progress. I’d have to retrain multiple employees and possibly build a new headquarters that would fit everyone and all the equipment we would acquire.
I couldn't be in Bar Harbor chasing the woman I had fallen in love with.
The only woman I’d ever loved, really.
But a knock at my hotel door pulled me from my thoughts. The knock was rapid-fire, harsh, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I figured it was Hollis using his cop skills to track me down and lay me out. I was ready, though. I knew the longer I stayed, the greater chance I had of running into him.
And if he thought I was going to back down because he was my friend, he was sorely mistaken.
I got up and yanked open the door, poised and ready to do battle with my best friend. But instead of Hollis, I found Theresa.
And she looked pissed.
“You’re still here,” she said.
“I am.”
“Good. We need to talk.”
She pushed past me, and my gaze followed after her. She had a fire in her eyes and power in her stance. I gathered from her demeanor that things hadn’t gone well with her father. Or Hollis. Or whoever the hell she had decided to talk to first.
It wasn’t until she turned back around to face me that I saw her anger directed at me.
“Why did you come into town, Grant?”
I furrowed my brow as I shut the door to the room.
“Because we were planning on spending a weekend together,” I said.
“Don’t play games with me, not now,” Theresa said. “The first time around. When Ike and I were still together. Why were you in town?”
“I was visiting. Needed to get away.”
“You’re still sticking with that story?”
“Is there another story you’ve heard?” I asked, starting to panic just slightly but trying not to show it.
“Does anything about an email ring a bell?”
I narrowed my eyes at her as I took a step in her direction.
“An email,” I said.
“Stop it. Because if you lie to me for one more second, whatever the hell this is between the two of us is done.”
“Theresa, what the hell are you trying to ask me?”
“The goddamn email Grant. My father told me about it.”