More, Please (22 page)

My heart lurches and I grab Logan to
steady myself.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes. I heard from my realtor.”

“What did she say?”

“Just that she has news and to call her.”

His eyes light up, and he seems as
excited as I am right now. “Well, call her. Right now. I’ll keep an eye out for
the bags.”

I punch in her number. As her phone
rings, I overanalyze her text. If it is good news, wouldn’t she just write it
in the text? Or maybe she’d be more likely to want to tell me good news
directly? I have no idea, and panic as she doesn’t answer. It will kill me if I
have to leave a message and wait for her reply.

“Jackie Swanson,” she finally answers,
and I sigh with relief.

“Jackie, it’s Allie. I just got off the
plane and got your message.”

“Oh, Allie, I’m afraid it’s not good. You
were outbid. The property has gone to someone else.”

I feel the tears welling up in my eyes
and I search for Logan, needing to cling to something, someone. He’s headed
back my way, dragging our bags, with concern in his eyes when he sees my face.

As a tear drops onto my cheek, his face
falls. He knows.

“I’m so sorry, Allie,” I hear Jackie’s voice
in my ear, but I can barely respond. “I know how much you wanted that
property.”

I nod, even though I know she can’t see
it. “Thanks, Jackie.” My eyes are locked on Logan and he wraps his arm over my
shoulder and gives me a reassuring squeeze.
At least I have Logan.
The
thought flits through my mind, as though a life preserver has been tossed to me
as I drown.

But I wanted that kennel so badly I could
taste it. It was my dream. And now that’s all it will ever be.

“If it makes you feel any better, you
never could have outbid the buyer,” Jackie says in my ear. “It was JLS
Heartland. You know, that big housing developer. They’re tearing it down and building
some houses.”

My blood drains from my face. “Who? Who
did you say?” I ask her, unwilling to believe it.

“JLS Heartland. They’re huge around here.
They’re buying up a lot of land in Newton’s Creek, I guess because it’s caught
the eye of commuters and land’s cheap here. I’m so sorry, Allie. You can’t win
against a company like that.”

I hear a whirring sound in my head as
blood saturates my brain, making me light-headed. It’s the same loud noise
between my ears that I heard on the airplane from the engines. But my feet are
flat on the ground. I reach out and touch the handle of my suitcase just to see
if I can feel it, to convince myself I’m not having a bad dream. But I can feel
the cool, hard plastic in my hand.

Logan’s family’s company outbid me. My
mind races, trying to remember if I ever told his family about my plans for the
bankrupt kennel. But I didn’t.

I only told Logan.

“Again, I’m so sorry, Allie. You call me
if you want to start looking at some other property for your rescue. I think
it’s a wonderful idea.”

A wonderful idea that will never come to
pass. I can’t afford to buy land and build something new. I could barely afford
the lowball bid I made on the foreclosure. “Thanks, Jackie.”

I turn off the phone and am unable to
look Logan in the eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Allie. I take it you
didn’t get it,” he says.

“No.” My voice is soft, breathless, with
the wind knocked from my lungs.

“Someone else bid more?”

I can’t answer him for a moment. I just
stare at the dirty floor of the baggage claim and let the sounds of people
coming and going flow over me. Finally opening my mouth, I whisper, “JLS
Heartland.”

In my peripheral vision, I can see his
head tilt with awareness. “What?”

“JLS Heartland,” I repeat, finally
looking at his eyes, trying to see if he had any idea this could have happened.
“JLS Heartland bought the land. They’re tearing it down and building a housing
development.”

“Son of a bitch.” The curse escapes him, and
his eyes are daggers as he looks off into the distance somewhere. “Dammit,
Allie. I had no idea they were eyeing that property.”

I search his eyes, looking for deceit. But
as always, there’s none there. This is as much a shock to him as it is to me. “Did
you tell your family what I was planning?”

He presses his lips together in thought,
and shakes his head slowly. “No. No, I—” he pauses. “I know I told them
you wanted to build a rescue kennel for your dogs.” His brow furrows sharply.
“I might have told them you bid on a foreclosure, though. Dammit, Allie, I’m
not sure if I gave any details. But it would be natural for me to tell them.”

He takes my chilled hand in his. “They never
would have done this if they knew you were the other bidder, Allie. Even Ryan
wouldn’t. He’s all business, but he doesn’t skulk around behind people’s backs.
If he knew you were bidding on something they were interested in, he would have
said something.”

I look at him, my heart aching, knowing
that he’s trying to convince himself as much as me.

“I’ll figure this out, Allie. I’ll find a
way to fix this.”

I hear his words, but I know it’s futile.
I wrapped up everything I had in that dream, and now I have nothing to show for
it but heartbreak.

- LOGAN -

I step into the massive complex that is
the heart of my family heritage and feel nothing but anger as I storm toward
the directory. It says a lot about how often I come into this building that I
have to look at the directory to even know what floor my brother’s office is
on. I haven’t been in here in years. Nearly a decade, actually, and the place
looks completely different now. It’s a sleek modern fortress, intimidating and
pretentious.

I spot the office of the CEO listed.
Top
floor, of course
, I think, realizing I should have been able to guess that.
My feet pound against marble floors that glimmer in the sun that shines through
the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lobby.

Not a single fingerprint mars the
mirrored elevator as I step in and press the button. My fingers are cold,
wanting desperately to curl into a fist and punch my brother. Did he know? I
want so much to believe that he didn’t.

As the elevator doors open, I’m greeted
by a slick granite reception desk and a young woman in the tight ponytail and
trim suit who asks if she can help me.

“Yes, I’m Jacob Sheridan, Jr. and I’m
here to see my brother.”

Her eyes widen at that, and I’m partly
surprised, having wondered if the people here even knew I existed. It wouldn’t
be their fault if they didn’t. I’ve been the family recluse for so long, hiding
out under the auspices of the U.S. Navy.

Nodding, she lifts her phone and tells
someone I’m here.

She offers a seat to me, but I prefer to
stand. I’ve got too much rage coursing inside my veins to sit in the soft chair
she gestures toward, or sip on the coffee she offers to bring me.

An older woman approaches. “Mr. Sheridan?”
she asks.

“Call me Logan, actually. I go by my
middle name.”

“Of course. I’m Deborah, your brother’s
assistant. Let me walk you back.” She signals for me to enter the long hallway
and I spot the imposing double doors at the end. So this is where my brother
hangs out these days, I ponder.

“You look so much like your mother. You
have her eyes,” she says. She looks to be in her early sixties, the kind of
woman who might have photos of her grandchildren framed and sitting on her
desk. I decide to like her. “She’s such a lovely woman—your mother,” she
continues.

We stop outside his door and she taps
before she opens it for me. I spot him on the other side of a large mahogany
desk, a desk I can imagine my father sat behind in the not-too-distant past.

“Let me know if you need anything, Mr. Sheridan,”
she says and shuts the door behind me.

“Logan.” Standing, my brother looks
concerned. “I don’t think you’ve stepped foot in this complex since…”

“Since a long time ago, Ryan,” I cut him
off. “I’m well aware. Let’s just cut the bullshit for a minute. Does the name
Newton’s Creek Boarding Kennel ring a bell?”

He looks at me, apparently confused, as
he sits back down. “No. Do you need a boarding kennel for Kosmo?”

I lean back on my heels, a hint of relief
seeping into my gut. “It’s a boarding kennel that went bankrupt a while back. Did
I happen to mention it to you ever?”

I need to know. I need to know if I
slipped about something that ended up causing Allie pain. It would kill me, but
I need to know.

“I don’t think so. Why would you be
telling me about a bankrupt kennel?”

“You just bought one, Ryan.”

Cocking his head, he frowns. “You mean
the company did?”

“Yes, dammit, the company you’re CEO of.”
My voice is thick with venom as I approach his desk.

His eyes narrow at my tone and he leans
forward. “Do you have any idea how many acres we buy up every week, Logan? Oh,
that’s right. You wouldn’t know, would you? Because you don’t give a shit about
our family business. So don’t you dare come marching in here insinuating that I
don’t know what’s going on in my company. It’s all land to me, Logan. I don’t
give a damn if there’s an old kennel on it or an abandoned motel or a tree
house. We’re after the land, not the buildings.” He pauses, checking his temper
as he leans back in his chair again. “So are you going to tell me what the hell
is going on, or are you just going to interrogate me some more?”

I square my shoulders toward him, still
on the offense. “Allie put a bid on a foreclosure. An abandoned dog kennel. She
wanted to turn it into a brick-and-mortar presence for her rescue organization
so that she could save more dogs.”

Ryan’s face sags noticeably as he nods. “I
remember you told me she was trying to buy something. But you never mentioned
where.” He emits a quiet curse. “So I take it we outbid her?”

I nod. “By a sizable amount, I’m sure.”

“I didn’t know, Logan.” He moves his
mouse, waking up his computer. “Where is it?”

“About three miles down Tyland Road. Two
acres near the intersection with Birch.”

He taps at his keyboard and frowns at
what he sees on his monitor. “In between two farms,” he says it under his
breath, as if it’s more to himself than to me. “Yeah, we bought it and the two
adjoining farms. We’ve got plans for forty homes there. A clubhouse with a
pool. It’ll be a nice community, Logan.”

I raise an eyebrow. “It’ll be just as
nice with a dog rescue on it.”

Ryan heaves a sigh. “I’m sorry about
Allie’s plans. But there are other places where she can build a dog rescue.”

“You’re so detached from reality, aren’t
you, Ryan? She doesn’t have the money for that. That’s why she bid on that old
kennel. She had enough money to fix it up, not to start fresh. Why the hell
can’t you just let her keep it?”

“
I’m
detached from reality? You’re
the one asking me to keep an old dog kennel smack dab in the center of our
newest seventy-acre housing development. The barking alone will drive people
away. It’s not going to happen, Logan. I’m sorry. I feel horribly for Allie,
but it’s nothing personal. It’s business.”

“Maybe it should be personal, Ryan. Maybe
we have gotten too damn big if we’re buying up land without even thinking of
the people it affects.”

“We build
houses
, Logan. We’re
always thinking about people. We’re providing affordable houses in safe, family-oriented
communities.”

“Affordable? That’s such bullshit, Ryan. Half
the guys I served with can’t afford the homes you build, and they’re protecting
your freedom, for God’s sake. You sit here in your slick new office with your
Armani suit and build your houses for people in your world, not mine.”

“Listen—”

“No, you listen. That little piece of
land was Allie’s dream.”

He stares at me, his eyes seeming almost
sympathetic. “Shit. You’re in love with her.”

“Yes, dammit.” I know it’s the first time
I’m admitting this, and it annoys me that I’m telling it to my brother, not
her. I should have said it a long time ago. But it’s the last thing she wants
to hear from me right now. “She’s everything to me. And you’ve fucked it up,
dammit.” I give the chair I’m leaning on a shove, fighting back the urge to
send it soaring across the room.

My breathing is tense and I need to get
out of here.

“Where are you going?” I hear my brother
over my shoulder as I head to his office door.

“To try to fix this.”

- LOGAN -

Allie is packing.

I watch in quiet disbelief as she neatly
folds freshly washed clothes into the same suitcase that was on a flight home
from Annapolis just two days ago, and it cuts my heart open.

How much things can change in the course
of two days.

“This is crazy, Allie. You can’t just
leave.”

“Logan, I need to get away.”

“You were just away.”

“Away from you.” Her eyes widen, like she
hadn’t intended to say it.

“Okay, well, I’ve always asked for
honesty,” I say through my teeth. The fact is, she’s been nothing but away from
me the past couple days, always claiming to be busy, barely speaking to me. I
know she’s hurt and I don’t blame her. But silence isn’t going to fix anything.

I’ve been busy, too, trying to come up
with a plan to make this right. I tell her that, and all I ever hear is that
she doesn’t want my help.

“Look, you didn’t outbid me. So it
doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“Yeah, but it has everything to do with
my family,” I admit.

She rests her hand on a stack of shirts filling
her suitcase. I hit the nail on the head.

“It was a business decision,” she says,
sounding reminiscent of my brother. “I don’t blame your family.”

“You just don’t want to have to see them
again.” I say it matter-of-factly because it’s what I’d feel. My family means a
lot to me, and if she sticks with me, she knows she’ll have to face the people
who pulled the rug out from under her. There’s no joy in that.

“You have a lovely family. I care a lot
about them. But I’m not feeling too warmly about JLS Heartland right now, to be
honest.”

“Neither am I.”

“Besides, I really have been needing to
spend some time with my mom. I’ve let too much time pass. I was able to rehome Juniper
and Sandy yesterday, and Cass took Rex off my hands because her spaniel should
be placed next week.”

“I could have taken the dog.” It stings
that she wouldn’t even ask. I feel like she’s cutting ties with me as quickly
as she can. “You know I would have taken him.”

“You’ve done enough for me.” She looks up
at me, tears in her eyes. “I really mean that, you know, Logan. You’ve done so
much for me, and I—” She stops, pressing her lips together tightly into a
thin line. “All of this would have happened anyway. I would have sold my condo and
been sleeping on Cass’s sofa all this time. You’ve only made my life better.”

But I couldn’t stop this from happening. “You’re
going to get your shelter, Allie. I’ll see to it.”

Shaking her head, she presses her hand
against my chest. It’s the first touch I’ve had from her in a while, and it
makes me want to pull her toward me, hold her close, and never let her go. But
she steps back again before I can. “No. I’m not getting it that way. I’ve been
skating along on your generosity enough. I mean it, Logan. Enough already.”

I want to tell her I do it because I love
her. But tossing the word at her right now would seem more like manipulation, a
way of getting her to forgive my family and me, a way of making her want to
stay.

“I won’t be gone that long. Nancy doesn’t
care where I work from, so long as I have my laptop. And I’ll figure out where
I’m going to live while I’m away. I have the money from my condo now that it’s
not wrapped up in the bid.”

“You don’t have to move.”

“Your renovation is almost done anyway. It’s
time for you to sell this place and move on.”

Move on?

I have to remind myself that was ever my
plan.

She extends her hand with her set of keys
to the townhome. “I’ll get my furniture out of here as soon as I can.”

I close my fingers over her hand,
trapping the keys back in her grasp. There’s no way I’m letting her give those
back without a fight. “Allie, I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about us.
Us
,” I repeat, hoping she feels the weight of the word.

Staring at my hand still enclosed around
hers, her shoulders shudder. “I just need some time, Logan. Time to let it all
soak in. I’ll still be around if you need me.” Two tears trickle down her
cheeks. “So if you can’t sleep, you know who to call.”

I pull her close, whether she likes it or
not. “I won’t sleep. Because I’ll be finding a way to make this right.”