“I see you discovered Ruthie’s.”
Noah nodded. “I called Giles, and he told me Ruthie’s is best for family eating and the Wolfe Den offers some of the best barbecue in the county, but I’d have to get there early because they usually sell out before closing. I find it odd there’s no fast-food restaurants around here.”
Viviana set a round table with seating for four with glasses, plates, flatware, and serving bowls and dishes. She removed a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator and filled the tall glasses.
“That’s because we don’t want or need fast-food joints, because it would impact on the viability of Ruthie’s and the Den. If you hang out here long enough, you’ll discover folks in The Falls like their mom-and-pop shops and want nothing to do with big-box stores or fast-food restaurants. They are wary of outsiders looking to squeeze out the little guy with the guise that they can offer you more variety.”
Noah stared at her. “Are you hinting that I shouldn’t build small homes that resemble mega mansions?”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “I hope that’s not a dig at this house.”
“No. It has nothing to do with a house that was built more than hundred years ago. After we finish eating, I’ll show you the renderings of what I’ve designed.”
“How many do you have?”
“Three.”
“Why so many?” she asked.
“Once I have a surveyor map out the land, I’ll know which one I’ll use.”
Viviana emptied a container of steaming collard greens into a bowl. “Are the greens for me or both of us?”
Noah winked at her. “Both of us, of course.”
“So, the New York City boy likes soul food.”
He smiled. “Don’t hate, Viv. I’ve just spent the last five months in and out of DC overseeing the construction of condos, and not only did I develop a taste for collard greens but also biscuits, cornbread, black-eyed peas and chitterlings.”
Viviana wrinkled her nose. “I agreed with everything you ate until you said chitlins.”
“Isn’t it chitterlings?”
“Nah. Down here we drop the g, so it’s chitlins.”
Noah smiled. “I have to remember that the next time I order them. Do you know how to cook them?”
“No because I can’t get past the smell of hog intestines. My aunt used to put them in a bucket of vinegar and leave it outside the house for a couple of days before cleaning them. I must admit they did smell good when cooking, but I still refused to eat them.”
“Did your aunt learn to cook chitlins at Johnson and Wales University’s culinary arts program in Charlotte, North Carolina?”
Viviana dropped a serving spoon, the sound making a dull thud on the cloth-covered mahogany table. “How did you know she attended that college?”
Rounding the table, Noah pulled out a chair for her. “Please sit down, and I’ll tell you everything while we eat.” He knew it was time he level with Viviana if he hoped to have a relationship with her and prayed what he was about to tell her wouldn’t make that impossible. He sat opposite Viviana, his eyes fixed on her delicate features. “Once I decided to offer to purchase your land, I had someone investigate you and your family, but unfortunately the investigator did not look into the zoning laws. Apparently he dropped the ball once it was verified that you and your brother owned the property and felt he didn’t need to delve beyond that.” He held up a hand when she opened her mouth. “Please let me finish, Viviana.
“It’s a company policy that was instituted by my grandfather after he was scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by an unscrupulous client who’d sold him properties he didn’t own.”
Viviana took a swallow of lemonade, staring at Noah over the rim of the glass. “What about me, Noah? How much do you know about me?”
Noah resisted the urge to round the table and pull Viviana into his arms when he saw anguish in the large light brown eyes with the darker centers. “You already told me about the con man who scammed you out of everything that forced you to file for bankruptcy.”
“And you know all of this and you still wanted to go through with the sale?”
“Yes, Viv. I felt as if you and your brother had gone through enough, and that’s why I decided to sign off on the sale.”
“Did you use any of your own money?”
He glanced down at his plate. “Some of it.”
“Why, Noah? Why would you do that knowing that I was forced to file for bankruptcy?”
He rested an elbow on the table. “Do you really have to ask me that?”
“But I am asking, Noah.”
Noah exhaled audibly. He’d told Viviana about what the investigator had uncovered, and now it was time for him to tell her the truth. “Because I like you.”
“That’s not a very good reason,” she countered, “and please don’t pity me.”
A wry smile twisted his mouth. “It’s a good enough reason for me, and the last thing I want to do is pity you. You have to be an unbelievably strong woman to have gone through losing your mother at seven, and being seen as an easy mark by a man and still be standing. After graduating college, I refused to join the family company and embarked on a somewhat hedonistic journey that included nonstop parties that went on for days. I didn’t do drugs, and I was careful not to overindulge in alcohol because I didn’t want a repeat of the episode when we’d raided the liquor cabinet, but I did do a few things that I’m not particularly proud of.”
“What about women, Noah?”
His eyebrows lifted. “What about them?”
“Did you sleep with a lot of them?”
He shook his head. “Not so many I can’t remember their names.”
Viviana picked up a forkful of collards. “Are you telling me this because you want to buy my affection?”
“I didn’t have to say anything to you about what I know, and it still wouldn’t have made a difference. I’m man enough to let you know that I like you the way a man likes a woman, and it has nothing to do with our deal.”
“And if I agree to accept your loan, I hope you don’t expect me to sleep with you.”
Noah did not want to believe Viviana thought he would put pressure on her to sleep with him because he’d offered to cover the cost of paying her employees until the B and B reopened. “No, Viv, I don’t expect you to sleep with me. And to prove that to you, I’d like you to be my plus-one at my friend’s destination wedding in the Bahamas over the Veterans Day weekend. I’ll reserve a villa with connecting suites.”
* * *
Viviana wanted to laugh, but what Noah had proposed wasn’t exactly funny. They’d had two encounters three months ago, and this was their second encounter since he’d returned to The Falls, and now he’d invited her to travel out of the country with him.
She leaned over the table. “Are you attempting to blackmail me?”
“Of course not,” Noah said quickly.
“Well, it sounds like blackmail to me, Noah. You offer to cover my business expenses until I reopen the B and B with the proviso I leave the country with you. We may have a business arrangement, but I refuse to be used as a pawn for your benefit.”
Noah lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry, Viviana. I don’t want you to think I’m attempting to take advantage of you.”
“But you are,” she argued softly.
Noah exhaled an audible sigh. “I sorry you feel this way.”
“So am I,” Viviana retorted. “Don’t you have a girlfriend you’d like to take instead of me?”
“No, because I don’t have a girlfriend. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a relationship. Right now I’m unable to commit to a woman because of my erratic schedule, dividing my time at new and ongoing construction sites, business meetings in New York, and occasionally accompanying Giles to the Bahamas to oversee newly purchas
ed islands for WDG International. We design villas for those with enough money to own a private island.”
Viviana wondered how many more deals she would have to negotiate with Noah before he left The Falls for good. She had to submit an application to reverse her property from commercial to residential so he would get approval to build on the eight acres. And after suggesting she close down the B and B, he’d offered a short-term loan for her to pay her employees during the transitional period. He had also proposed another deal: become his plus-one for a wedding scheduled a month away. The last deal was the easiest to consider because she had time to agree to or decline his offer. Right now she didn’t trust him and saw Noah as manipulative.
“You don’t have to give me an answer now.” Noah’s voice broke into her musings.
“I have no intention of giving you an answer now, because I don’t know you and more importantly I don’t trust you,” Viviana stated firmly. “I’ll let you know after you return from New York. Will that give you enough time to ask someone else to be your plus-one?”
Noah glared at her. “It will give me enough time to know if I will be attending the wedding alone.”
Viviana knew she had struck a nerve, but she wasn’t going to apologize. It wasn’t confidence but cockiness that made Noah believe he was entitled to get whatever he wanted. She didn’t need to pay an investigator to do a background check on the Wainwrights. She could glean enough information about his family’s business from the internet. Their company was second to Douglas Elliman Real Estate as the largest brokerage in New York, the sixth-largest real estate company nationwide, and had recently expanded beyond the States with their overseas division in the Bahamas.
“What do you want to know about me?”
She was suddenly alert. Was she that transparent that Noah was able to read her mind? “Are you an only child?”
Noah chuckled. “No. My parents have four children—three boys and a girl.”
“Where do you stand in the birth order?”
“I’m number two. My brother Jordan is almost ten years older than me.”
“That’s quite a gap between children.”
He nodded. “It took quite a few years for my parents to reconcile.”
“Were they separated?”
“No. They were living together but had separate bedrooms.”
Viviana didn’t think she could live under the same roof as her husband and not share a bed. She had been too young to understand the dynamics between her mother and father.
“Are there ten years between you and your younger brother?”
Shaking his head, Noah laughed softly. “No. I’m four years older than Rhett, and he’s four years older than Chanel.”
Resting her elbow on the table, Viviana cupped her chin on the heel of her hand. “Please tell me your mother named your brother and sister after Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind and the French designer Coco Chanel.”
He smiled. “Why?”
“People with names of famous people or characters are a lot more memorable. When I was a girl, I used to give all of my dolls names. I gave them names of my favorite actresses or characters from my favorite books.”
Noah assumed a similar pose as Viviana’s when he rested his elbow on the table. “Why were you named Viviana?”
“My aunt told me my mother was obsessed with Gone with the Wind and decided to name me after Vivien Leigh, the actress who played Scarlett O’Hara.”
“It appears as if our mothers definitely had something in common, because Christiane loved Rhett Butler.”
Viviana slowly lowered her arm. “When you said your mother’s name, you gave it the French pronunciation.”
“That’s because my maternal grandmother was French and insisted her children learn the language, so I grew up speaking English and French.”
“You’re fluent in French?”
“Oui, ma belle dame.”
“I understood a little of what you said, but only yes and lady,” Viviana admitted.
“I said ‘Yes, my beautiful lady.’”
Viviana lowered her eyes. She wanted to tell Noah he was coming on a little too strong to make her feel completely comfortable with him. He’d openly admitted that he was interested in her, but she wasn’t ready to offer him anything beyond friendship. The memories of her failed relationships still hadn’t faded completely, and while she knew instinctually Noah was nothing like the other three men in her past, she wanted and needed to focus all of her energies on making certain the bed-and-breakfast was profitable, especially now that she would have to cease doing business until the conversions were approved.
“Did what I said make you feel uncomfortable?”
Viviana gave him a level stare. “Yes,” she said truthfully. Noah’s longing stares and compliments did make her feel slightly uncomfortable because the men with whom she had been involved were a lot more subtle in their approach.
However, she had to remind herself that he’d had an overabundance of confidence, beginning with who he was and his accomplishments. He was a Wainwright, born into wealth and privilege. He was able to buy and sell properties with a single keystroke. And after he’d admitted to using a portion of his own money for the sale because he liked her, Viviana felt as if he had somehow bought her.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Noah leaned back in his chair. “I’m sorry about that. What can I do to alleviate your feeling uncomfortable with me?”
“Stop trying to manipulate me into doing what you want.”
Noah nodded. “Point taken.”
“And if we’re going to spend time together, we should feel comfortable enough with each other to say exactly what’s on our mind.”
He smiled. “I agree. I believe I can take whatever you dish out.”
“If we hadn’t eaten together this morning, I definitely would’ve thought that you’d had a bowl of narcissism for breakfast.”
“I believe you’re confusing narcissism with confidence, Viv. I know who I am and what I can and cannot do. If that makes me a narcissist, then so be it. I would never presume to tell you how to run an inn or a bed-and-breakfast because I don’t have the temperament to schmooze with folks who come with a litany of complaints about what they don’t like about their accommodations or the service.”
“What would you tell them if they did complain?”
“I would politely tell them to check out and would wish them well finding other lodgings which suited their needs.”
“That’s the complete opposite of what I learned in Hospitality 101.”
“In my line of work, I cannot afford to be that hospitable. I design structures in keeping with the region and what I believe people can afford. We just put up a luxury condo in a gentrified DC neighborhood geared to an upscale populace with disposable income. Many of the units were sold less than three months after we released the prospectus.
“Building here in Wickham Falls will be the first time WDG will construct homes for low-and moderately low-income families, and I’m proud to be the one to initiate it. Affordable housing is a problem that goes across race, gender and ethnicity. If WDG can be the first real estate company to tackle this crisis and hopefully shame the other big guys into doing the same, then, yes, I’m a narcissist.”
“What about profits, Noah?”
“What about it, Viv?”
“Will you use inferior materials to build the homes here in The Falls to maximize profits?”
A beat passed as Noah stared at Viviana. “You still don’t trust men, do you?”
She blinked slowly. “Why would you say that?”
“What do I have to do or say to get you to believe that I’m not going to take advantage of you or any of the people who live here?”
“You don’t have a problem throwing money around to get what you want, Noah. So why should I trus
t you?”
“Don’t forget my cousin lives here. Do you think I’d do something that would negatively impact him as a Wainwright? Living in a small town is vastly different from a big city where you can go about in relative anonymity. The last thing I want is for folks to treat Giles and his family like they’re pariahs.”
Viviana refused to wither under his hostile stare. “I only asked because, if the structures did prove to be inferior and if they were built on land that once belonged to the Wolfes, my life would become a living hell. Did the investigator put in your report that when Lee decided to drop out of the private school and go to the public high school that no one would sit with him during lunch because he was related to the Wolfes and his father was a drug addict and a felon? That folks were quick to point the finger at my brother when he was falsely accused of breaking into someone’s home because someone had stolen his jacket and left it at the scene? So, I have a right to ask you about what you intend to put up because I have to live here for the rest of my life, and I hope and pray that one day I won’t be judged for who my family was.”
Viviana was unaware of the tears filling her eyes and streaming down her cheeks during her fervent speech until she buried her face in her hands. She didn’t know Noah pushed back his chair, rose and came around the table until his arms went around her body and held her close to his chest.
* * *
“Please don’t cry, sweetheart,” Noah whispered in her ear. “Everything is going to work out, and I’m not going to let anyone ever hurt you again.” He buried his face in Viviana’s hair, inhaling the floral scent clinging to the silky curls. He’d found her spirited and at times sharp-tongued and knew it was a defense mechanism to keep people at a distance. But then he’d discovered her Achilles’ heel. Not only had she sought to protect herself but also her family. Even though she bore no responsibility for what her deceased ancestors had done to those in the region, it was apparent people had long memories and continued to blame her and her brother for others’ past misdeeds.
Noah kissed her hair, but it was her mouth he wanted to taste. He wasn’t a romantic and scoffed at his friends who claimed they’d fallen in love at first sight, but now he knew what they were talking about. The instant he’d walked in The Falls House and saw Viviana Remington staring back him, he knew she was the one he had been searching for. He’d purchased the land, but the zoning issue still had to be resolved. However, Noah knew that was easier to settle compared to getting Viviana to trust him enough not to take advantage of her.
Dealmaker, Heartbreaker Page 4