guilt showed in her eyes for the briefest of moments before she quickly buried it beneath a disingenuous smile. That’s right, Dallas thought. Just pretend nothing happened.
“Dallas,” she purred, and then threw her arms around him as if they were old friends. He staggered back a step, completely taken off guard. The woman had the nerve to touch him? “Good to see you again.”
Allie’s eyes widened, as she glanced from Dallas to Jennifer and back again.
“You two know each other?”
“Oh, we’re old friends.”
Dallas firmly unclasped her hands from his neck and stepped backward. “No, we’re not.”
Jennifer flipped her blond hair from her shoulder, not bothering to register the protest. “I was so surprised when Allie here told me you were selling that I wanted to come right over.” Jennifer ignored Dallas’s hot glare.
“I’m not selling.”
Jennifer swayed a little, unsteady on her feet. “But Allie said...”
“Allie doesn’t speak for me.” Dallas set his lips in a thin, determined line.
“You don’t want to sell?” Now it was Allie’s turn to look dumbfounded.
“Well...I thought it was too good to be true.” Jennifer considered Allie and Dallas.
“Now’s the part where you tell Allie the bad news,” Dallas said. He hated being so close to Jennifer and hated that Allie had brought her here, but the fact was, he would enjoy this next part.
“What bad news?” Allie had no idea what was about to hit her.
“I’m sure you’ve already considered the problem of selling only Allie’s half.” Dallas tucked his thumbs through his belt loops. Jennifer suddenly looked uneasy.
“What problem is that?” Allie’s voice was sharp.
“My half has the seaside views that the tourists want.” Dallas nodded toward his side of the property, which sloped downward. Allie’s house would have a seaside view, except it was completely obscured by tall coffee trees, dotted with white flowers. Dallas, on the other hand, had a house closest to the beach, nothing on three sides but sparkling blue Pacific Ocean. “Plus, I have indoor plumbing.”
“You what?” Allie’s face bunched up in anger.
He took a second to enjoy it. Wasn’t his fault that Misu had turned him down when he’d offered to build a bathroom to her cabin when he was doing the same for his.
“And then there’s the volcano,” Dallas continued, unable to help himself. “Technically, your half of the estate is in Lava Zone Three. I’m in four.”
“I know about the volcano. But what are the zones?” Allie’s gaze roamed from Dallas to Jennifer and back again.
“It means that you’re in a more hazardous zone than Dallas is.” Jennifer picked invisible lint from her shirt. “Your house is more likely to be wiped out by a lava flow.”
“What?” Allie grew pale.
“The divider line pretty much goes right through the property.” Dallas pointed from one end of the land, drawing an invisible line with his finger straight across the ground. “Because of that, and the lack of a seaside view and plumbing, your half will fetch less than half of what mine will if you’re selling to developers. If we sold our shares together and split the profit, you’d make far more. Isn’t that right, Jennifer?”
“Well...” His ex tried to hedge, but even as slick as she was, she couldn’t sidestep this fact. “Dallas is mostly right.”
“Mostly right?” Allie looked as if she was going to explode. Her dark eyes sparked like steel striking flint. “How much difference are we talking about?”
“Well, realistically...” Jennifer hesitated, biting her lower lip.
“Spit it out.”
“The real value is the land and the Kona coffee on it. If you took that away, as well as the seaside views... You’ve got a pretty small house and a coffee-processing facility, but only a very small share of the actual Kona crop, so it wouldn’t be a workable plantation. You’d have to sell it strictly as a residence, and with the lava zone issue and no plumbing...about half as much as we talked about on the phone.”
Allie couldn’t hide her disappointment, and Dallas saw it clearly on her face. Too greedy, Dallas thought. That was the problem with Allie and every other gorgeous woman he’d ever met. Too damn greedy. Maybe she and Jennifer had more in common than he thought.
“And you can’t even get that,” Dallas said. “According to the will, Allie can’t even sell her half without getting permission from Aunt Kaimana first.”
“What? I don’t remember that in the will,” Allie protested.
“Page three, section E,” Dallas said, pulling the will from his back pocket. He’d unrolled a photocopy of the will and began to read it aloud.
Jennifer and Allie listened with interest.
“‘If the land is to be divided and then sold, it is the will of Misuko Osaka that Kaimana Mahi’ai oversee the division and issue written approval of the final sale before official transfer can be made to both parties. No sale will take place unless approved by Ms. Mahi’ai.’”
“Wait—Kai’s aunt? What does Kai’s aunt have to do with my grandma’s estate?” Confusion flickered across Allie’s face.
Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t tell me this was a clause in the will.” She turned to Allie, her brow wrinkled in frustration.
“I didn’t know,” Allie confessed, having clearly missed that part. She took the will from Dallas’s hands and scoured the wording.
Jennifer sighed, annoyed. “Well, this is a waste of my time, then.” Her cheery manner disappeared, and she turned away from Allie.
“Wait—where are you going?”
“Call me after you talk to Kaimana,” Jennifer said, slipping on her designer sunglasses as she walked back to her BMW. “That is, if she’ll talk to you.”
“Wait!” Allie called.
“Don’t bother.” Dallas narrowed his eyes as they both watched Jennifer roar back out of the driveway.
“The lawyer didn’t read that clause over the phone,” Allie said.
“Nope, he didn’t.” Dallas grinned.
“But you knew it was there all along.” Allie turned on Dallas, her eyes flashing. He didn’t know how she did it, but she managed to look diabolically sexy when she was mad. Dallas had to admit, maybe he didn’t mind pushing her buttons. “You couldn’t have mentioned it to me before?”
“Me?” A harsh laugh escaped Dallas. “If you were the one who wanted to strip the land and sell it to no-good resort developers for a quick buck, then you should’ve read the fine print. You had a copy of the will.”
“Yeah, but...that’s not fair.” Allie balled up the photocopy of the will in her hands.
“Oh, really? What else do you call looting your grandmother’s property?”
“I’m not looting!” Allie looked mad enough to spit.
“That’s right. Not on my watch you’re not,” Dallas warned, taking another step closer. “You’ll have to go through me first.”
“You aren’t even family.” Allie’s face turned beet red as anger strangled her words. “What gives you the right...”
“Misu gave me the