“Good evening, Mr. Atkinson.”
River looked at her with a furrowed brow of irritation. They’d talked about this already, but she seemed to take pleasure in riling him up. Indulging was definitely a bad idea. He got the feeling Morgan would push all his buttons, good and bad.
“Good evening, River,” she corrected with a wry smile that barely curled the dark plum of her lips. It was a beautiful color that matched the flowers in her skirt and popped against her pale skin.
He wanted to kiss every bit of it off her despite knowing better. “Good evening, Morgan. Thanks for meeting me on such short notice. I thought you would like to see this.”
River turned and gestured to the grassy overgrown property just beyond him. It was in an area near downtown Charleston that was gentrifying and property values were slowly going up. He’d gotten a tip on this land before it was even officially listed for sale.
“This lot is three quarters of an acre. Perfect to split into three quarter-acre lots. That’s actually pretty spacious this close to downtown. There will be a big enough backyard for each family to run and play. Maybe put up a swing set or a little pool. A patio. A grill. Everything they would need.”
“What’s the price?”
River turned back to her with a grin. She was going to love this part. In their business discussions, he’d learned quickly that Morgan wanted to help, but she had an ironclad budget to keep to. He supposed that you had to if you were going to help as many people as you could. “It’s ten thousand less than the property you showed me in West Ashley when we met the other day.”
Morgan’s dark eyebrows went up in surprise. “Really?” She turned and glanced around the property to see what was wrong with it. He’d done the same thing when he heard the asking price initially.
“There’s nothing to concern you. I’ve done a full survey already. The owner inherited the property. He’s more interested in selling quickly as a single lot than he is in taking the time to divide it up and find individual buyers, even if it means making less money. If we make him a cash offer before he gets a real estate agent involved, he’ll probably jump on it.”
“How did you even hear about it? It isn’t listed. I looked after I got your voice mail.”
“Yeah, I know a guy.”
“You know a guy? That sounds sketchy.”
“It’s not, I promise. I just know a few people from my years in the construction business th
at are always happy to let me know when they hear about a property I might be interested in.”
Morgan nodded and glanced back at the land. “If it’s really the price you mentioned and it’s not an ancient burial ground or a former Superfund site, I say let’s put in an offer tomorrow morning. There’s no way we’ll find anything better for that price. Especially in this area of town.”
“Check—no zombie corpses and no toxic waste. We should be good to go. I’ll get the offer drawn up in the morning and hopefully we can get closed on this quickly.”
“Great.”
All this had happened faster than he’d expected, but there wasn’t much reason to linger in an overgrown field with her. They turned together and he started walking her back to the white Mercedes convertible she’d driven over. Back in college, she’d driven a similar, older model. Just the sight of it now reminded him of long winding roads with the wind in their hair and not a care in the world. That was a long time ago, though. A simpler time.
“River?” she spoke about halfway to her car, bringing his thoughts back to the present.
“Yes?”
She stopped and turned back to the empty lot. “You know, as a developer, you could take that land for yourself and build some trendy and expensive row houses here. You probably could make a fortune with the way this area is trending up. When that downtown walking trail is done, you could easily get three quarters of a million dollars each. Are you sure you want to use it for this project? We could find a different property. The one in West Ashley wasn’t bad. I could probably get the price down.” Morgan turned to look at him with her question lingering in her eyes.
River shook his head. She was right, but he hadn’t even considered it. “No, that’s okay. When I saw this land, I could see our little houses sitting on it. Kids running through the sprinklers in their grassy yards. I saw three families that were proud of their new homes. The kind that I would’ve loved to have, that my mom would’ve loved to have when we had nothing. That’s what I want. Not a bunch of trendy three-story pseudo-historic town houses at ridiculous prices. There’s enough of those around town these days. The whole area is losing its character thanks to all the HGTV home-flippers.”
Morgan studied his face for a moment when he was done speaking, and then she smiled. He wasn’t sure if he’d said the right thing until that moment. She might’ve been more impressed by the take-charge, make-money answer he hadn’t given, but he’d given the answer she might not have expected but wanted to hear. Before he could say anything, she leaned in, gripped the lapels of his suitcoat in her hands and pressed a sweet, soft kiss to his lips.
River hadn’t been expecting that. And yet, the moment her lips touched his, he knew it was everything he’d been waiting for over the last decade they’d spent apart. Suddenly, all his worries and cares didn’t seem to matter anymore. There was just this moment.
He was finally able to get his stunned body to respond to his brain and brought his hands to rest at her waist. He wanted to do more than that, but he held back. Nothing Morgan had said or done up to this point had indicated she wanted more than a working relationship. This kiss could mean anything. He’d learned long ago not to presume when it came to the female brain and how it worked.
And then, as suddenly as it happened, she pulled away, leaving him confused, aroused and confused. It bore repeating.
He stood looking down at her in stunned silence as she finally released her hold on his jacket and took a step back out of his personal space. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused as she looked at him, even a bit shaky on her feet with those tall heels.
He reached out a hand to catch her elbow and steady her and she smiled. “Thanks.”
“What was all that for?” he asked.