Page 76 of Wild Heart

“Hey,” I greeted her.

“What’s going on? Are you all moved in?”

I held up the room key with a smile and said, “I’m actually here to return this because I’m officially going to spend my first night in my new place tonight.”

She took the key from me. “That’s awesome. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks.”

While she began to type into the computer in front of her—likely to take me out of the suite I’d been in since I’d returned to Landing not quite a month ago—she said, “I want to come over and see the new place.”

“Well, tonight is out, because I’m meeting with my realtor. She’s showing me a couple of spots that might work for my studio.”

“Oh, nice. Hopefully, one of them works out. Are they close?”

“One’s about five minutes away from here, and the other is a little closer to my apartment.”

Before she could respond, the phone rang. She glanced down to where members of her staff were still helping guests. “Hang on. Let me grab this, so they don’t have to deal with it.”

“Sure.”

“Thank you for calling The Westwood Hotel, this is Ivy speaking. How can I direct your call?”

She smiled at me as the person on the other end of the line spoke. I smiled back until she responded to the caller.

“Oh, hi, Francesca. Yes, you’ve called the hotel when you wanted to call the office. I can transfer you over to the Tate, but if I recall correctly, he had quite a few meetings scheduled this week. If he doesn’t answer, just leave him a message, and he’ll give you a call back once he’s free.”

There was silence again as I felt the returning waves of nausea. Why was the woman Tate had slept with calling him here? Worse, why the hell was my best friend talking to Francesca like she not only knew her but didn’t hate her?

“Okay, great. Hang tight while I transfer you.”

Ivy pushed a couple of buttons on the phone, confirmed the call transferred, and returned the phone to its cradle.

“That was Francesca from Keystone Mountain. Did you get a chance to meet her this weekend?”

My lungs felt like they were on fire, and I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I simply moved my head from side to side as my brows pulled together.

“Oh, that was the night you got sick. I think you already left by the time I got to meet her. She’s been working with us for a few weeks now. Well, she’s mostly been working with Tate through some emails lately. We’re contemplating more expansion here at the hotel, and we’ve considered adding some villas to create more of a resort atmosphere. Tate thinks ourguests might really enjoy them, and since they’ve got the cabins at the mountain, Tate was able to check those out while we were there.”

Villas.

They were considering putting up villas.

Tate went to check out the cabins for a possible expansion project here. He hadn’t gone into that cabin to sleep with Francesca.

“Expansion?” I said, the air rushing out of me.

Ivy rolled her eyes. “It’s like Cooper, Liam, and their crews don’t already have enough to keep them busy.”

I was going to cry.

That’s why Tate had been able to act normally. He hadn’t done anything.

But if that was the truth, why did he walk into my room that night to apologize? Why did he tell me he fucked up?

“I’m sure they’ll just work it into their rotations,” I reasoned. “Cooper’s a much happier guy now that he’s got Skye, anyway, so I wouldn’t be too worried.”

She was about to respond when one of her employees walked up and said, “Excuse me, Ivy, but I have an issue I’m trying to deal with here, and the computer is fighting me.”