shadow of doubt that lurked, that Jack had already been slipping in his mental abilities when they’d struck the deal, and if that were the case, it would appear to Lora that Heath had taken advantage of her grandfather. The very idea made him ill—but he knew he’d have a helluva time trying to convince Lora otherwise. He braced his knuckles against the desktop and stared at Lora. “Listen, we can stand here and snipe at each other all day but it’s not going to solve anything. We both want the same thing—to save Larimar. I say we work together to that end and put the personal stuff aside.”
Her stare narrowed at his suggestion and he felt filleted. “Why do you care so much? This is my family’s problem. Not yours. I can’t imagine that you’re so attached to being a handyman. Surely there are other handyman jobs out there that you could get.”
His temper rose but he choked it back until he could talk without shouting. “Why does it matter? I care. Whether you like it or not, I love this family. And if that doesn’t jive with how you think I should behave just because I don’t share DNA, then too damn bad. I don’t care. I love them. Deal with it.”
She stared as if shocked by his admission but when she could find no fault with his statement, she backed down—if only incrementally. “Thank you for your help,” she managed to offer with a stiff show of gratitude and he knew it must’ve cost her soul to utter. She straightened and crossed her arms across her ample chest, which only drew his attention to the full swells barely contained in her bikini top hidden beneath the gauzy white cover-up. He jerked his gaze away as if what he saw had the ability to turn him to salt, and he mentally berated himself for looking at all. Lora held up the letter. “If I’d known it was this bad…I would’ve come sooner.”
It was as much of an apology as she was going to offer but frankly, it wasn’t enough. Her self-absorbed act needed to go. “You need to talk to Lilah. You’re too hard on her.”
“I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of my business with my sister,” she said, but he wasn’t afraid of her and continued.
“You knew when you put her in this position that she wasn’t up to the challenge. Hell, Lindy would’ve been a better choice and you and I both know that Lindy is as flighty as a butterfly on the breeze, but at least she wouldn’t have cracked under the pressure.”
“Lilah is a grown adult. I wish everyone would stop treating her with kid gloves,” Lora snapped, but he saw guilt in her eyes. “Besides, she’ll get over it. Nothing bothers Lilah for long.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s really sad that you don’t know your own sister.”
“Oh, and suddenly you’re an authority?” she mocked.
“More so than you,” he said bluntly.
“Watch it, Heath,” Lora murmured. “You’re treading on dangerous ground. My Pops may have a soft spot for you but I don’t suffer from the same feeling. In essence you’re my employee. I could fire you right now.”
“Do it, then,” he dared her in a silkily dark tone. “But let me tell you something else, so you can make an informed decision. If you do that you’re going to have a shit-storm on your hands that not even you will be able to handle. I’ve been running Larimar for the past year but beyond that, I own the gift shop downstairs and Larimar doesn’t have enough money to pay me off.”
She stared, shock in her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “Why don’t you take a moment to really look at Larimar and see all the changes that have been made since you’ve been gone. Someone had to do something to start making some money because the one with the marketing degree…well, she was unavailable.”
With that, he stalked past her. He was done with her for the day. If he stood another minute in her presence he’d choke on his own frustration—or choke her.
CHAPTER FOUR
LORA©DIDN’T©KNOW©WHY but the weight of Heath’s judgment sat heavily on her shoulders. Why should she care what Heath thought of her relationship with her sister? Clearly, Lilah had Heath believing she was helpless, just like everyone else. Lora refused to feel guilty over her decision to make Lilah take on more responsibility for once. So what if Lilah had no real business sense, was it so hard to write a check and pay some bills? Lora silenced the ongoing argument in her head, annoyed that Heath had managed to make her feel culpable and wrong in the same breath.
She sat in Pops’s chair with a huff and started shuffling papers, looking for some semblance of order. She didn’t know where to start. She looked in the files and found folders with marked headings written in a clearly masculine hand. She knew Lilah’s handwriting was flowery and her Pops’s handwriting was an illegible scrawl that only her Grams could decipher, which meant Heath had sorted these papers and put them in order. She pushed away that acknowledgment, not ready to make amends with Heath just yet. It was childish and worse, she knew it, but she couldn’t quite deal with the feelings that rose when she thought of Heath’s honest admission.
He said he loved her family. Obviously, she was not lumped up in that admission. Lora sniffed. Who cared? She didn’t need nor want to be included in Heath’s affections. She had enough family, she didn’t need more. She paused. And what did he mean that he owned the gift shop? She put aside the tax file for the moment and started sifting through the other files. She found the gift shop and pulled it.
After she finished reading the paperwork pertaining to the business arrangement between Pops and Heath, she leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. She’d found the reason Heath had been so involved in her family’s affairs and it wasn’t so much altruistic as it was self-serving.
It shouldn’t surprise her. In the corporate environment, no one did anything without a reason—and it was usually because they served to benefit from the action. Why was she surprised Heath was no different?
Maybe because a part of her—locked away deep inside—hoped the man Heath had become had remained that trustworthy island boy who had watched her with furtive glances and rare smiles.
This paperwork showed that he was just a man—like any other—looking out for himself.
And for reasons she wasn’t interested in pursuing—it hurt.
* * *
HEATH©CAUGHT LILAH©AS©SHE was leaving, her eyes red but otherwise dry. She stopped and gave Heath a look of apology but shrugged. “I guess I knew that wasn’t going to go well,” she said, her voice scratchy yet soft. “I let her down. I knew it was coming.”
“You didn’t let anyone down,” he disagreed, still hot. “She put you in a position where you were doomed to fail. Don’t let her off the hook so easily. She has to shoulder some of the responsibility, too. It’s not right for her to make you assume the role you were never groomed to take. Pops always made it pretty clear that he thought Lora would take over the running of Larimar, which is why she’s on the estate paperwork.”
Lilah nodded, but she was plainly still miserable. His heart broke for the young woman and even though she was an adult and clearly not a little girl anymore, he gathered her in his arms and hugged her tight. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s all bark and no bite,” he assured Lilah, and she shuddered against him, clinging to him like a spider monkey. “She has a tendency to lash out when she’s backed into a corner. She’ll come to her senses and realize what a royal—well, for lack of a better word—bitch she’s been and maybe if an apology isn’t in her vocabulary she’ll at least show with her actions that she’s sorry.”
At that Lilah lifted her head and gave him a wry look. “My sister? Show that she’s sorry? I don’t think she knows how.”
“Well, one can hope there’s some shred of humanity left in her, right?” he joked, coaxing a smile from Lilah. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
He could tell she wanted to believe him but Lilah