Page 18 of Holiday Reunion

“And offer?” Her voice rose a few pitches. “And offer for what? I don’t have anything to give you.”

“You could work for me. You could work at the café?—”

“Café!” she shouted. “You can’t be serious. You know how I feel about that. You know that I would never turn my bakery into some quick stop shop for a muffin and a coffee. That would make me no better than a glorified Starbucks. What happened to the charm of small towns? What happened to keeping tradition alive?” She turned and paced in front of him.

His eyes followed her as she seemed to connect all the dots. She was going to be kicked out of her place. She wasn’t going to have a job and it would be sooner rather than later because the Lake Harbor project was well under way. She had lost.

And there was nothing he could offer her. His board hadn’t voted yet, but he knew them well enough to know that they wouldn’t just give her a handout. It had been hard enough to convince them to approve the offer he’d made her before.

All he wanted to do was reach out and pull her into his arms, to assure her that they’d get through this. She was strong. She’d figure out a way to accept what life had dealt her.

But he couldn’t.

James just stood there like an idiot, holding the bag like the criminal he felt he was.

ELEVEN

Sarah’s mind whirled with all the information she was trying to digest. The bank had only just sent out that letter informing her of their decision. Yes, they were in their rights seeing as she was so far behind, but she hadn’t thought they would take action this close to the holidays.

Was it possible that they thought they were in a time crunch? James had just broken ground on the Lake Harbor project. On the far end of the street, they’d already started renovating a building to be a clothing shop.

That had to be it. They were worried they’d miss out on their chance to be part of this project. The bank couldn’t force her hand, but they could certainly offer her bakery up on a platter.

Her eyes cut to his. “How long?”

“How long?” He stammered. “How long, what?”

She moved closer to him and poked him in the chest. “How long have you been in cahoots with the men at the bank? How long have you been playing their little game? You all thought you could bide your time and see if I went along willingly, but you grew tired of waiting, didn’t you?”

“Sarah, I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered. “What you’re saying doesn’t make sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” Her laughter sounded foreign even to her own ears. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner. It all makes total sense. You come waltzing back into town with this big idea and all the money you need to make it happen. You shmooze the mayor, get him on board with your rejuvenation project and he signs off on it. Then you rub elbows with the guys at the bank.”

“Sarah—” he muttered with exasperation.

“Let me finish,” she demanded. “Next all you have to do is convince all the folks who still have businesses in operation. You used your sweet-talking, charm, and wit, then you get them all to sign away their futures by promising them that they will keep majority ownership. But the problem is, majority doesn’t matter if what they’re getting isn’t going to pay the bills at home. Dividend payments still have to be paid. They’re not going to be taking home as much as they think. It’s all a big scam.”

“Sarah!” James said firmly. “While I would love nothing more than to play the part of the villain in your story, you’ve got it wrong. You’re taking things out of context and filling in blanks where you have no information. When you requested, we not discuss business with one another, I went along with it for your sake. Despite what you might think, I realized just how wonderful you were, and I wanted to get closer to you.”

She folded her arms and glowered at him. Tears slipped down her cheeks. “Yeah? Well, I find that hard to believe when it turns out you got everything you wanted right from the beginning. You have an army of businessmen who only want to line their pockets. You’ve got a town, desperate to survive. I was your only obstacle. Congratulations. You beat me.”

“I wasn’t trying to beat you, why can’t you understand that?”

“You tried to buy me with your ridiculous offer. When that didn’t work, you distracted me with the festival?—”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” James cut in. “The mayor asked us to plan the festival and you were the one who demanded we put so many hours in it.”

Sarah ignored him. She didn’t care if she was completely blinded by her emotions. She’d been betrayed and she knew it. “Then when none of that panned out, you somehow convinced the banks to cut me loose even though they’d assured me that they’d give me until the new year.”

His face had turned red by this point and it wasn’t from the cold. “Now listen here. I have been nothing but nice and supportive. I tried to tell you what was going to happen. I made every effort to show you that what you were trying to do wasn’t going to work.” Almost every statement was punctuated with his frustration. “Why can’t you just let me take care of you?”

Her angry energy seemed to still at that moment. She stared at him, not sure whether she should lash out or burst into tears. She couldn’t remember the last time someone took care of her besides her father. And now, she was taking care of him. Up until this point, she didn’t even know if she wanted someone to take care of her. She’d been doing okay on her own for so long.

Well, maybe not okay, but she’d been managing the best she could and without handouts from anyone. People were fickle. This town was the only constant in her life and even it was undergoing changes she didn’t want to accept.

Her walls came up fast, and she took a step back from him. “You know why I don’t want your help? You can’t see the bigger picture. Sure, you say you want to help, but you’re not willing to consider that there are more ways than one to do so. You didn’t have to come back to this town to fix it. We were doing okay without you. All you wanted was a pat on the back so you could become some kind of hero. Well, I’m not buying it. You don’t care about this town just like you don’t care about me. It’s the money and the fame you’re interested in. Yours might be thebiggest case of denial that I have ever witnessed, and I feel sorry for you.”

She let her words take root, waiting for him to argue against her, because that was what someone like him would do. She wanted him to put up a front and tell her that she was wrong. Then she could walk away from this argument knowing she had dodged a bullet.