Page 38 of The Last Goodbye

“That asshole hits on you, and then walks out on the bill?”

“He’s not the asshole that I’m concerned about at the moment.” She raised a brow, and I had to laugh.

“Let me guess—I’m the asshole you’re concerned about?”

Just then, Brody set down another beer for me and a glass of wine for her, a shit-eating grin on his face.

Briar took a sip and waited until he’d stepped away. “What was with the snarky noises coming from you every time he spoke? And then you make a comment about me not caring about the locals or the tourists or your restaurant? You were clearly making a point. So, let’s hear it.”

“Well, that is the point.” I shrugged. “You fed me some bullshit about all the reasons you’re doing this, but at the end of the day, you’re just doing it for a promotion. I get it—you’re driven and you want to climb the corporate ladder at Daddy’s company. But you should just fucking own it.”

“I can want to do good things for Blue Sky Bay, as well as for your restaurant, and also want to make partner at my firm. Those can all be true, unless you’re so narcissistic that you can’t see past your own damn opinions.”

“If you say so,” I said, because I wasn’t buying it. “Most people are just driven by personal success, and what they’ll get out of it.”

“I’m not. I didn’t need to do what I did for you and your restaurant. If I were doing this just to make partner, which is part of the equation—I’m not denying that; I don’t think that it’s odd to want to see a payoff for working really hard—but I could have done things very differently if that was all I was after. And I don’t appreciate you acting like you have a clue who I am or what motivates me. Perhaps you should allow your grumpy ass to actually ask some questions before making assumptions about something you know nothing about.” Her voice was completely calm, but I didn’t miss the way her gaze hardened, and her chin tipped up defensively.

It was something I’d noticed she did whenever I pressed her about anything.

This woman had clearly practiced keeping her cool.

It wasn’t like she needed to. She’d closed the deal. She had what she needed.

Sure, they had to complete the renovations, but she didn’t need me to sign anything to complete the job.

We’d worked it all out.

I took a long swig from my beer as I processed her words. “Tell me one thing you did that wasn’t in your own best interest.”

“For starters, I didn’t need to work so hard on your deal. I had to fight for that, and yes, we have the budget to make it happen, but that’s not standard business practice at Winchester Investments. My father would have just waited you out. But I actually felt like you deserved something for your restaurant, and I did my best to get you that deal.”

“And you would have had to wait two years. That means you wouldn’t be making money as quickly as you wanted to,” I reminded her.

“I’m well aware, Bass. But I could have moved on to another project and just had all the surrounding lots prepped, and ordered items and lined up subcontractors—that’s not unusual for a project this size. There’s plenty we could’ve done until you were gone. Sure, it benefits us that things worked out, but you are not our only project. Not by a long shot. I pushed for these terms because I didn’t want you to be without options when the lease ran out.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not an evil villain, you jackass.” She grabbed her purse and started to slide off her barstool, but I wrapped my hand around her forearm.

I didn’t want her to go.

I didn’t want the conversation to end.

And I didn’t have a fucking clue why.

“Don’t leave. I wasn’t asking just to be a dick. I’m genuinely asking because you keep insisting that you did this to help me, and I want to know why.”

She sat back on the barstool. “Because I knew that we could both win with this project. It doesn’t have to be catastrophic for one of us in this deal. I’m not looking to destroy anyone.”

“I can see that,” I admitted, because her eyes were wet with emotion and she was blinking rapidly. I’d seen her do this once before, and I could tell the woman worked damn hard to keep it together. I’d given her plenty of reasons to break down, and she’d never fallen apart in front of me. It was clear that she meant what she said, because it was written all over her face. I knew I was being a dick, and I knew I owed her an apology, but those never came easy for me. “I know this is a good deal for me, Briar. I do appreciate it.”

“How big of you to admit that.” Her angry gaze met mine. “For the record, that’s not the only good thing that I’ve done. I also came up with the plan for a decent-size hotel instead of the much larger one that my father urged me to consider. I knew it wasn’t right for this town, and I was able to justify the smaller size with tourism numbers, but I easily could have pushed the envelope and gone for a much larger structure. One that would stand out like a sore thumb downtown. One that would look out of place a few doors down from your new restaurant. Instead of going for the bottom line, I went for tasteful and sensible—in the name of doing the right thing for this town. I wasn’t looking solely at the numbers. Yes, this hotel will bring in strong revenue, but could we have made more? Could I have taken the greedy path? Absolutely. But I didn’t do that. And I had to work double time to make that happen.”

“I didn’t know that,” I admitted.

“Of course you didn’t,” she said, her voice a bit louder now. “You barely speak to me. Meanwhile, I’m out here busting my ass to get you the best deal possible. I’m sure I can count on one hand how many times my father’s company has agreed to cover the renovation for the person they bought a property from. I had to prove that it would be worth it. And I did it because I think you’ve worked really hard to build a successful restaurant, and you don’t deserve to be pushed out.”

I nodded, and I didn’t try to defend myself, because it was suddenly clear that I had no defense.