He barely waited until she’d closed the door before he gunned the engine and took off without looking back.
When bad things happened, Hudson found shifting his focus alleviated the pain. As a kid, when Rowan would come home drunk and moody, Hudson would hide under his bed with a torch and a book, deliberately losing himself in a make-believe world, knowing fiction was far better than reality. The first night he’d had to sleep in his mum’s car, he’d snuggled into the footwell under a blanket, imagining he was a top-secret teen spy being smuggled over the border. And the morning his mum had died, he’d driven to her favourite spot by the beach at Anglesea and stared at the ocean for hours, allowing the pounding of the waves against the sand to soothe him, the briny tang filling his lungs with every breath reminding him of her.
Today, Karly’s betrayal meant he spent the afternoon doing what he did best.
Heading back to the agency, bunkering down in his office and securing another deal.
He couldn’t let his youth housing project fold. Those kids deserved to feel safe with a roof over their heads and he’d be damned if he let anything derail it, including a duplicitous woman who’d stolen his heart as well as his trust.
That’s what irked the most; he’d been an idiot to fall for her. Behind her banter and sass, she’d been playing him all along. As for yesterday, when he’d flayed himself open and actually cried on her shoulder after confronting his dad … he’d shown her a deeply private piece of himself and thought she understood.
How could she do this to him?
But he wouldn’t dwell, and after reaching out to a few contacts and making a few calls, he had what he needed. Investors interested in his plans for homeless shelters for kids in Melbourne and country Victoria. Investors who would benefit from a tax write-off after a sizable donation.
It didn’t make sense at first, because he’d reached out to these business people when he initially wanted to expand into eastern Victoria and they’d shut him down. So why now?
It became clear when they revealed their ventures—a large real estate agency in Inverloch and two satellite branches in nearby coastal towns of St Andrews and Wonthaggi—would benefit from the Grenville Sanctuary touch. They wanted him to expand their business into every coastal town along the eastern Victorian seaboard.
Including a snazzy new agency in Acacia Haven.
Which would only mean one thing for Karly: trouble.
A town that size couldn’t cope with another agency. And with the Grenville name attached to existing agencies with a stellar reputation, and a big budget for expansion, she didn’t stand a chance.
He hated that it had come to this.
She might’ve gutted him but he didn’t want to see her go under, and that’s exactly what would happen if they ended up competing against one another. What chance did a small agency stand against a realty giant?
Hell.
This morning, he wouldn’t have entertained the thought. But after Karly’s revelation … she’d made it more than clear she didn’t care one iota about him, and this was business.
While he didn’t owe Karly anything, he wanted her to hear it from him. She may have broken his heart, but he knew what the agency meant to her. She wouldn’t have fought so hard to keep it otherwise.
She definitely wouldn’t like what he had to say.
CHAPTER
45
Having a photographic memory came in mighty handy as a real estate agent. It meant Karly only had to look at a map once to pinpoint a location. So while every self-preservation instinct urged her to head back to Acacia Haven, she’d found her way back to Hudson’s house and had waited for him for an hour. But when he still hadn’t showed seventy minutes later, she gave up. Besides, what could she say that could make this any better for him?
The look on his face when she’d told him … he’d covered his pain quickly but for a split second he’d been devastated, like she’d stabbed him in the back.
Technically, she had. She’d strung him along yesterday when she should’ve told him the truth at the start. But she’d been greedy, wanting to spend more time with him, wanting more of him. Being in his house, sharing a casual dinner of leftovers, followed by a sensational night in his bed, had made her crave him.
And she never craved any man.
She didn’t need a relationship, which is why she’d never had one. She was happy with her life, until Hudson Grenville had come along and shown her what she’d been missing out on.
Though she was belittling what they shared if she thought for one second that any guy would do. Uh-uh. Hudson made her crave more from life because of who he was: an intelligent, caring, spectacular guy.
And she’d ruined it all.
There’d been a moment while she’d been sitting in her car outside his electronic gates when she’d wondered if it was all worth it. Pop had been right. Did she want to be saddled with a giant debt tying her to Acacia Haven for the rest of her life? Didn’t she want to explore beyond the town, to see what else life had in store?
With Pop’s plans to travel, she could work in Melbourne for a while, see what city life entailed. She could go to the theatre and eat at bohemian cafés in the inner city and drink cocktails with outlandish names at trendy underground bars. She’d always been curious about city life and now Melbourne held an attraction she’d never anticipated having such a pull on her.