Their Unfinished Business

by Braun, Jackie

  Be happy, his grandmother had beseeched him as she lay dying. Make me proud.

  Elsie wouldn’t be proud, for this wasn’t what she’d meant. She’d known his happiness would never be found in business ventures or material possessions. He’d spent millions of dollars on a showplace of a penthouse in Manhattan, but he didn’t have a home. And he never would without Ali.

  He needed to rectify that. Now. He turned to the woman he loved, the woman sitting beside him, intent on baring his soul. But before he could speak, she said, “I can see why you love it here. New York suits you.”

  But it didn’t suit her. Still, he wanted to know, “Did…did you enjoy yourself?”

  “I loved visiting you. Maybe…maybe Audra and I will come back for a weekend some time. She’s been trying to get me to go shopping.”

  Visiting. That’s not what he had in mind. He reached for her hand. “I don’t want you to be a visitor in my life, Ali. I want so much more than that. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Yes, she thought she did. And tears threatened. New York was Luke’s home now. Hadn’t he made that clear with the quiet pride in which he’d shown it off to her? Stay with me, he’d urged her last night. God help her, but as much as she loved him, she couldn’t.

  She’d spent the past decade working toward her dream of running Saybrook’s. She was part-owner now and heading up its expansion. Her life was there. His was here. The past, it seemed, was repeating itself.

  Ali pulled her hand free and fiddled with the clasp on her watch before she finally felt composed enough to say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think this will work.”

  “Why not?”

  “I can’t stay in New York. I’d feel so…” She gestured with her hand as she groped for the right words. “So lost, so swallowed up. I’d miss sunsets on Lake Michigan and the way the air smells like the inside of a cedar chest on hot summer evenings. I’d even miss swatting at mosquitoes if it meant I’d also have to give up listening to the mourning doves cooing to one another before the sun makes it up over the trees. I’m an islander, Luke. You’re…so much more than that now.”

  “I can see I’ve screwed this up royally.” His accompanying laughter was harsh. “I’m not asking you to stay in New York. I don’t expect you to move here. What if I told you I’m thinking about relocating?” He cleared his throat. “To Trillium.”

  The air seemed to back up in her lungs, and so it was a moment before she was able to ask, “What are you saying exactly?”

  “I want you back, Ali. I love you.”

  She almost threw her arms around him before her practical side reasserted itself. He’d been in love with her when he left Trillium the first time, too. Love hadn’t stopped him from pulling up stakes then. Love hadn’t brought him back to Trillium more than a decade later, either. A business deal had. What if he found the need to move on again? She didn’t think she could bear it a second time.

  Self-preservation had Ali tugging her hand from his. She’d never realized she was a coward, but she just couldn’t leave herself open to the kind of heartache he’d once caused.

  “Trillium can’t compete with New York, Luke.”

  “It’s not a competition, but even if it were, I love you. That pretty much trumps everything else. Tell me you don’t love me, Ali.”

  “Luke, please.” It came out a near sob, because they’d had this same argument once before, only in reverse. “Don’t do this. It nearly killed me when you left Trillium. I didn’t think I’d ever get over you. In fact, I don’t know that I ever have.” The admission was hard, stripping away the last of her pride. “I hope you’ll understand, but I don’t think I can risk that kind of pain again.”

  “It’s not a risk,” he promised.

  “It seems like one to me.”

  She hadn’t realized she’d begun to cry until he reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek.

  “God, Ali, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I hurt you.” Swearing under his breath, he fished the handkerchief from his breast pocket and held it out to her. “I want to make you happy. I want to make us both happy. I want—”

  But she laid a finger over her lips before he could finish.

  “Let’s not argue anymore, okay? That got us nowhere eleven years ago. It didn’t change anyone’s mind.” She sighed with regret. “It just left us both bitter and angry. I don’t want to be either any longer. We’re different people, with different needs. I think it’s time we both accepted that, made peace with the past and moved on.”

  But Luke was shaking his head even before she finished speaking. “You’re what I need. As for the past, I don’t give a damn about it. What do I have to do to convince you that it’s the future I want to talk about? You’re going home, Ali. I want to, too.”

  They had arrived at the airport, and the driver opened the door. Ali got out, but when Luke tried to follow, she stopped him.

  “Trillium’s no longer your home, Luke. Don’t come with me.”

  “I’m coming,” he said tightly. “At the very least, let me see you back. I know how much you hate to fly.”

  “No. Please, stay here.” The way her voice broke and her eyes pooled stopped him. She looked so broken…it nearly killed him to know he’d done that to her.

  She finally managed to clear her throat. “I need to be alone right now. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t come to Trillium for a while. I know you have business there now, but—”

  “I don’t give a damn about business!” he shouted. “None of that is as important to me as you are.”

  Her smile was at odds with the tears on her cheeks when she said, “Goodbye, Luke.”

  “It’s not goodbye,” he insisted, but she was already walking away.

  Luke didn’t overindulge when it came to alcohol. He didn’t believe in it given how his father had died. But he poured himself a third glass of scotch that evening and stared out at the glittering skyline that had once held so much promise and appeal. Now it mocked him.

  He now knew with painful certainty that nothing would ever fill him with the sense of rightness and belonging he’d known with Ali. She’d loved the young man who’d been a dreamer and, even if she hadn’t said the actual words that afternoon, he knew she loved the man who’d made those dreams into reality.

  The kicker was she didn’t trust him.

  In business, Luke’s word was as good as a signed contract. He said what he meant and meant what he said. No one had questioned that in a good decade. Yet Ali didn’t believe him when he told her he could live anywhere as long as it meant they would be together. She didn’t trust him to stick around this time.

  Of course, he’d botched it all badly by bringing her to New York and making it seem as if it were the city that had changed his life when, in fact, she had.

  Tossing the remains of his drink down the sink, he went in search of his cell phone. If she needed proof that he was a man of his word, then by God, he would give it to her.

  When Ali returned to Trillium she threw herself into her duties at the resort. Work had always been her anchor. Keeping busy was what had helped her through heartache the last time. This time, however, no matter how many hours she logged behind her desk at Saybrook’s, and no matter how bone-tired she was when she finally collapsed into bed at night, she thought of Luke.

  I love you.

  Had she made a mistake by leaving? Luke seemed to be trying to convince her she had. He’d left a couple of messages on her answering machine and had fired off half a dozen e-mails. She hadn’t responded to any of them, though. Now, a week after her return, she walked into her office after lunch to find two dozen red roses spilling out of a vase on the desk. Audra walked in just behind her, a squirming puppy cuddled in her arms. She settled into a chair as Ali reached for the card tucked amid the blooms. Her sister had been making noises about starting a family. Apparently she’d decided to start with a pet and work her way up to children.

  “Luke sent you something,” A
udra said.

  Ali’s gaze flicked over the roses. She’d never been a fan of the flower. They were too pricey and they faded too quickly. Now carnations, those lasted.

  “Apparently he doesn’t remember what I like,” she murmured, opening the envelope. The name signed on the card, however, was not Luke’s.

  “They’re from Bradley,” she said on a frown.

  “Figures,” Audra snorted. “He doesn’t know you very well, does he? You’re too practical for roses.”

  “He’s nice,” Ali said defensively, even though guilt nipped her since she hadn’t returned his last two phone calls, either.

  “Look.” Audra blew out a deep breath as she tried to keep the bundle of brown and white fur from escaping her lap. “I’ve held my tongue for weeks on this, waiting for you to figure it out on your own, but I can’t keep quiet any longer. He’s not nice, Ali.”

  “I know Luke said Bradley was the one making inquiries about the property we purchased. He even claimed Bradley had bid on Saybrook’s when it was first put on the market, but we own the resort and the extra acreage now, Audra, and he’s still interested in seeing me.” Ali was feeling raw emotionally, which was perhaps why she added, “Apparently, he likes me. Maybe he even loves me.”

  Audra worried her lip for a moment before saying quietly, “If those really are his feelings, Ali, ask yourself why he’s hit on me half a dozen times in the past few months.”

  “What?” she asked, not even realizing she’d crumpled the card in her fist.

  “I know you might not want to believe me—”

  But Ali stopped her. “I believe you, Aud. We’re well past that point. Which is why I have to ask, why didn’t you say anything before now?”

  Audra stroked the puppy. Her voice was barely above a whisper when she replied, “I couldn’t bring myself to do it. You and I had finally settled our differences, a fact Bradley knew and exploited. I kept hoping you’d see his true colors.”

  “Does Seth know?”

  Audra snorted out a laugh then and glanced up. “The man’s alive, what do you think?”

  “I guess not. But he doesn’t like Bradley.”

  “No. Seth caught him ogling me one time and that was enough to put his back up. Dane’s no fan, either, for the same reason.”

  “Why is it I feel like I’m always the last to know everything around here?” Ali sighed.

  The puppy finally managed to scoot off Audra’s lap. It loped around the room on its oversize paws, sniffing the various corners before finally squatting at Ali’s feet.

  “Your dog just peed on my carpet,” she spluttered, incredulous. “You’re going to clean that up.”

  “Sorry, Alice. But that’s not my dog.” Audra stood and scooped up the puppy. Dumping the wriggling bundle of fur into Ali’s arms, she said, “This is what Luke sent you. He said to tell you it doesn’t have a pedigree, but it does have loads of potential. He also said to tell you that it will love you unconditionally and follow you wherever you go.”

  “I don’t want a dog,” she protested sternly, even as her heart melted a little.

  “It needs a home, Ali.” Audra turned to leave, but then she stopped at the door. “So does Luke.”

  Ali named the dog Harley, even though she didn’t intend to keep him. But every time she tried to pack him up and take him to the pound, the sight of his big brown eyes and clumsy oversized paws stopped her. He’ll love you unconditionally, Luke had claimed. He’ll follow you wherever you go. Something about that seemed so appealing. And so the second day she had him, Ali invested in a thirty-pound bag of puppy chow, a blue leash and collar and one of those plush canine beds, which she tucked into the corner of her room. Not that the bed’s location mattered much to Harley. He whined and carried on that night until she scooped him up and settled him beside her on the mattress.

  Ali had to admit, the dog was a good judge of people. When Bradley stopped by to see her later in the week, Harley barked copiously, right after which he nipped off one of the tassels from the man’s expensive leather loafers.

  Their meeting had started off shaky considering what Ali had discovered, but it had gone downhill rapidly after Harley’s disappearing tassel trick. Not only had the guy had the nerve to make some disparaging comments about Audra’s character, when confronted with Ali’s suspicions about his interest in developing on Trillium, he’d finally come right out and admitted that most of Ali’s appeal had been her assets. And he’d meant that physically. No double entendres to sooth her wounded ego. Her heart, of course, had not suffered at all in the exchange.

  After he’d gone, she sat on her deck as the sun melted into Lake Michigan, Harley dozing contentedly in her lap, and questioned her judgment when it came to men. A mocking voice—one that sounded suspiciously like Audra’s—kept reminding Ali that she’d believed what she’d wanted to believe because of her own pigheadedness.

  Did that apply to Luke as well?

  Ali had told him to stay away from Trillium and he had done so for nearly two weeks now. Damn the man for finally doing exactly what she asked.

  The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass had Ali spearing up in bed the following morning.

  Pushing the hair out of her eyes, she peered at the clock: 6:00 a.m. Her first coherent thought was that surely the world would wait until she’d had her first cup of coffee before it came to an end.

  Harley whimpered beside her and she reached over to stroke his head. “It’s okay, boy. Nothing to be afraid of.”

  She was just swinging her legs over the side of the bed when she heard the crash again. It was a cloudy morning, rain threatening to accompany the brisk wind that had the curtains whipping back from her open windows. All she could think was that a couple of the big white pines edging the property line had finally tumbled over onto Luke’s grandmother’s cottage. Despite their vast size, their root systems were notoriously shallow.

  She pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, which she realized was inside out as she hopped down the steps of the deck, her feet not quite inside the pair of canvas sneakers she’d found by the sliding glass door. Harley hurried after her as she rushed along the beach, where the waves churned white and angry at the shore. When she cleared the trees, though, she stood stock-still, urgency giving way to utter shock.

  Trees had not crashed into Luke’s grandmother’s home. A wrecking ball had. And the person at the controls of the crane wielding that ball was none other than Luke Banning.

  “Good morning!” he called out cheerfully.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” she shouted from the beach.

  Clearly he’d lost his mind. Yet he looked perfectly sane. Perfectly…happy as the place where he’d spent a good deal of his boyhood lay in ruins.

  “Taking a page out of Audra’s book, I guess. I’ve decided to start fresh.”

  She didn’t have a clue what the man was talking about.

  “By taking a wrecking ball to Elsie’s cottage?”

  “Tom Whitey said the place needed so much work to restore its structural integrity that it almost wouldn’t be worth it. Besides, it’s my cottage,” he said, his grin receding. “It has been for eleven years. You’re the one who said we needed to accept the past and then move on. Well, I finally am. Sometimes you have to tear things down to do that.”

  Her heart sank. “So, you’re dividing the property and selling it then?”

  “Nope. I’m building. Rebuilding, actually.” He hopped off the crane and jogged down the steps that led to the beach, meeting her on the shore. Harley barked and Luke knelt down to rub the puppy’s belly. “I see that you kept him.”

  She shrugged. “I couldn’t bring myself to take him to the pound. Thank you, by the way.”

  “You’re welcome.” He squinted up at her. “See any potential here yet?” he asked softly.

  The puppy got up and began chasing his tail in circles. After a moment, Harley fell over, dizzy but victorious, with the appendage clamped betw
een his teeth.

  Ali couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not sure about potential, but he has the unconditional love part sewn up, and he does follow me everywhere.”

  Luke straightened and tucked a handful of her hair behind her ear. “Told you so,” was all he said, and Ali got the feeling he was talking about more than the dog.

  “I n-named him Harley, by the way. I figured it suited his rebel spirit.” She made a face. “He peed on the carpet in my office the first day I had him.”

  “I’m glad you were able to overlook his faults.”

  “We all have them,” she said on a shrug. “He also chewed the tassel off one of Bradley’s shoes.”

  “I owe him a juicy bone for that,” Luke said, his expression turning tight. “So, how is Bradley?”

  “Oh, I’m sure he’s fine. You know alley cats, they always manage to land on their feet.”

  One side of Luke’s mouth crooked up. “An alley cat, huh?”

  She rolled her eyes on an exasperated sigh. “You were right about him. Satisfied? It turned out he was only interested in my assets and not, well, my assets, even though he apparently tried to grope Audra’s a time or two.”

  Luke swore. “Want me to beat him up for you?”

  “No. Dane and Seth have already offered, but Bradley’s the type to sue. No sense letting him get a foot in the door at Saybrook’s over my bruised ego.”

  “I’m sorry, Ali.” One side of his mouth crooked up, though. “Not sorry that he’s out of the picture, of course, just sorry that he disappointed you.”

  She waved off his apology. “I can survive disappointment.”

  They regarded one another in silence as the wind howled and the gulls screamed overhead. Then he said, “Want to see the plans for the new house?”

  “You’re really going to build a vacation home on Trillium?”

  Luke just shook his head as he walked up the steps ahead of her. “For a smart woman, Alice, you’re pretty slow. I told you I was relocating.”

  “But you belong in NewYork, Luke. You love it there.”