Homecoming Reunion (16 page)

“I hope not,” Pete said, one eyebrow rising as he looked at Larissa tucked up against Garret’s side.

Garret didn’t respond to the unspoken question in Pete’s gaze, nor did he release Larissa. Instead he reached out his free hand to shake Pete’s. “Thanks for your business. We’ll be in touch,” he said.

“Of course.” Then Pete gave Larissa a wistful smile just as his phone rang. He held it up. “I need to take this call. I’ll let myself out.”

Garret felt he should accompany him, but Pete was already out the door, talking quickly in a subdued tone.

As soon as Pete was out of earshot, Garret turned to Larissa, caught her waist and swung her around. “We did it,” he said, when he set her down, his grin almost splitting his face, surprised himself at the elation he felt at this victory. “We got Pete’s conference.”

Larissa pressed one hand to her chest, the other still clasping Garret’s shoulder. “I thought for a moment he would change his mind,” she said, her voice breathless. “I was trying not to be nervous so I just prayed. Hard.”

Garret grinned down at her and then, bending over, pressed his lips to hers in a quick kiss of celebration. “You’ve been amazing through this all. It wouldn’t have happened without all your work and organization. And your prayers.”

Her smile lit up his heart.

“We did this together,” she said. “You and me.”

“I like the sound of that,” he said, brushing another quick kiss over her lips as her words settled into his heart.

You and me.

Just like it should be.

He gave her a quick hug. “So, I guess we got work to do.”

“I like the sound of that.” She trailed her fingers over his cheek. “You know what I liked the best about this?” she said her voice growing quiet as she rested her hand on his shoulder.

“Tell me,” he encouraged.

“This was the first time, since I started managing the inn, that I’ve worked with someone who cares about it as much as I do.” Her smile grew wistful. “I’m so glad you bought this inn. But I’m even happier that we’re together...that we’ve been able to work together,” she amended, a faint blush staining her cheeks.

Garret smiled at her obvious discomfort. “Are we together?” he asked, a teasing note entering his voice.

She looked down, but he tipped her chin up with this thumb and answered his own question with a slow, lingering kiss.

“I’d like to think we’re together,” he said. “Together again,” he amended.

Her smile wavered a moment, as she focused her attention on her hand resting on his chest. “I just wish it hadn’t taken so long. I missed you.”

Her words tore at his heart and he pulled her close, cradling her head in his hand, brushing a light kiss over the top of her head.

“I missed you too,” he said, feeling an unexpected twist of anger at the years that had kept them apart. “I thought of you so often.”

She lay quiet a moment then said, “That day you came to the house...all those years ago...I’m sorry...I was so confused—”

Garret touched his finger to her lips, stopping her confession. He understood where she was coming from so much better now. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You didn’t know what had happened.” Even as he spoke, Garret found his anger growing at her father and the lies that had come between them. “I’ve never cared about anyone as much as I cared about you,” he said, keeping his voice even. She didn’t need to know how he felt about her father. He was fairly sure she still didn’t know what to think about the contrast in the stories he and her father had told.

To his surprise that didn’t matter anymore. That misunderstanding belonged in a past where Larissa was young and impressionable. She was her own person now.

And after all this time, they were together.

He tilted her head up and kissed her again.

A sound at the door caught his attention. Was Pete back?

But when Larissa glanced over his shoulder, her smile shifted. Then she lowered her hand and stepped away from him.

Garret turned to see who or what had caused the change.

Jack Weir stood in the doorway, his dark eyes flitting from Garret to Larissa back to Garret again as if trying to determine what was going on. His tailored jacket lay in precise lines on his shoulders, framing the crisp blue shirt and perfectly knotted gray-and-blue striped silk tie. If Garret didn’t know that only yesterday Jack had been clear across the Pacific ocean, he would have guessed Larissa’s father had just returned from a trip to his tailor.

Garret’s heart slowed first, then began to race. The last time he saw Jack, he’d been standing in the imposing foyer of his home, Larissa between them, demanding that Garret leave. Demanding that Larissa come away from the door and come to him.

Jack looked as formidable as he had been back then.

In the silence that followed Jack’s appearance, Garret’s emotions veered from stunned shock to anger that surprised him in its ferocity.

After all these years there stood the man who had taken so much away from him. His mother’s job, his own pride and, worst of all, the woman who now stood beside him, her face as pale as the white shirt she wore.

And how would Larissa react to her father’s return?

Chapter Twelve

“H
ello, Dad,” Larissa said, trying to get her head around the fact that her father was here, not Japan where he’d been the last time they spoke. “I thought you weren’t coming back for a couple of days?”

“I completed my business early and thought I would surprise you. Clearly I did.” Her father shot a sidelong glance at Garret, then looked away, as if dismissing him. He walked up to Larissa and bent over to kiss her lightly on the cheek. “Hello, dear.”

“Welcome back,” she replied, happy to see him, yet unable to stifle a sense of guilt that he had caught her with Garret. “How was the trip? How did you get here from the airport? Why didn’t you call?” She thought for sure, after an absence of a month, that he would at least want her to meet him at the airport.

“Baxter said you were busy, so he came and picked me up from the airport.” Her father straightened and frowned as he looked around the room. “I see what you’ve been busy with.”

“We did some painting and got some new bedding,” Larissa said, trying not to feel defensive about the simple changes they made. “We needed to do a quick, inexpensive overhaul of the top floor. We’re getting ready for a conference that we just scored. The entire upper floor will be filled.” She stopped herself there aware of how apologetic she sounded. As if what she and Garret had just accomplished was substandard instead of pretty amazing considering their timeline.

Jack looked around, his eyes taking it all in, his expression revealing nothing, but Larissa knew her father well enough to feel his disapproval. “Looks like a bed-and-breakfast. I wonder what your mother would think.”

He spoke his words quietly, but they held a sardonic edge that hurt Larissa. Nothing about their achievement. Nothing about filling half of the inn—something that hadn’t happened in the last three years.

“Thanks to Larissa’s ideas and organization, we got the rooms painted and refurbished very quickly,” Garret put in. “Because of that speedy turnaround, Pete Boonstra chose to have his conference here, which will be a huge boost in the arm for the inn’s bottom line.”

Larissa was grateful for Garret’s support but at the same time disheartened at the terse note in his voice and at the narrowing of her father’s eyes in response.

A sudden uptick of tension in the room caught her in its net. Why had her father decided to come back now when things were still so tentative between her and Garret?

Jack looked around the room again, the frown on his face creating an answering flush of irritation in Larissa. “I guess what’s done is done,” he said. Then he motioned to Garret. “We need to talk. Meet me downstairs in the office.”

Larissa saw Garret stiffen at the overbearing tone in her father’s voice. For a moment she wanted to remind her father that Garret was not his employee anymore. But years of obeying her father, letting him determine the course of her life, made her keep her comments to herself.

Garret glanced over at Larissa and flashed her a crooked smile as if to show her he didn’t mind. Then he followed Jack out of the room.

As the door closed behind them, Larissa felt suddenly deflated and spent. Why did the sight of her father make her feel as if she’d been sneaking around behind his back?

She wasn’t a child anymore. But as her father’s eyes shot from her to Garret, she felt as if time had wheeled backward and again she was a young girl of eighteen and Garret the boyfriend her father didn’t approve of.

She closed her eyes, trying to center herself.
Please, Lord
, she prayed,
help me to try to please You more than my father. Help me to take care of Garret and myself first.

She waited a moment, as if to get her bearings.

Then she drew in a long, slow breath and strode out of the room and down the stairs. In spite of the tension of her father’s unexpected return, she had a conference to get ready for.

* * *

Garret closed the door of the office, wishing he didn’t feel so much like the teenager he used to be, sneaking around with the boss’s daughter.

As Jack took his place behind the desk and Garret sat down across from him, Garret reminded himself that he had as much right to sit behind that desk as Larissa’s father had. He wasn’t Jack’s employee. He was his partner.

He couldn’t help remembering, however, the last time he and Jack were together as employer and employee when Jack had all the power.

Jack leaned back in the chair, unbuttoning his suit jacket, looking across the desk at Garret. “So. This is an interesting turn of events,” Jack was saying, his deep voice not even betraying the slightest hint of awkwardness.

Garret just nodded, deciding to let Jack determine the direction of this conversation. There were too many things he wanted to say to Jack but none of them would fall under the category of “business.”

“I have to say I was stunned when I found out that Baxter sold his shares in this inn to you,” Jack continued. “You were the last person I ever thought I would be partners with.”

“I’m sure that was a surprise,” Garret said, crossing his arms over his chest. Bad body language, but it kept him from fidgeting.

Jack said nothing to that, as if waiting for Garret to explain how this happened. Garret was tempted to make some smart comment about turning a thousand dollars into a couple of hundred thousand, but he knew that would lead to a conversation about what Jack had told Larissa and he wasn’t ready for that.

Jack eased out a sigh and leaned forward. “I also know you originally wanted to buy Baxter’s share of the mill. I’m surprised you settled for this inn.”

“Baxter changed his mind about selling,” Garret replied. “He offered me this and I thought it would be a good opportunity.”

“Six years ago it might have been,” Jack said. “But a lot has changed since my wife’s death...” He let the sentence trail off. The sorrow in his eyes created an answering thrum of sympathy in Garret. All history with Jack aside, Garret knew that he loved his wife.

“I was sorry for your loss,” he said.

“Larissa told me you sent flowers.” Jack tapped his fingers on the desktop. “She really appreciated that.”

Garret again chose not to reply to the comment.

More finger tapping, then, “So what made you decide to come back? What made you decide to purchase this inn?”

Garret held Jack’s intent gaze, taking his time to formulate his response. “I came back to keep a promise to my grandmother. Plus I wanted to settle in the community. Originally I thought I was buying Baxter’s shares in the mill, but when this opportunity came up I took it.”

“What part does my daughter play in this?”

He wanted to say that it was none of Jack’s business. But because Larissa was Jack’s daughter, that wasn’t true. However, Garret wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure where things were going with him and Larissa. He knew he loved being with her. He knew that when he was with her his restlessness eased away. He also knew that in the past few weeks, as he spent time with her, he had been doing something he hadn’t done since he left Hartley Creek.

He had started thinking about the future of his life instead of his bank account.

“I care a lot about your daughter,” he said finally. “She’s important to me and I believe she feels the same way.” He stopped there, unwilling to expose too much of this fragile relationship too soon.

And he was also afraid that if he said too much, he wouldn’t be able to contain his simmering anger.

“You don’t like me, do you?” Jack threw the question down like a challenge, obviously picking up on what Garret had tried so hard to suppress.

Garret waited a beat, unsure of how to respond to this direct question. “Is that important to you?” he asked instead.

Jack curled his one hand into a fist, then uncurled it again. “If you and my daughter are getting involved again, then I guess it factors in.”

Involved again
. Those seemingly innocuous words quickly dredged up all the resentment that had built since Larissa told Garret about the money Jack had supposedly given him. Garret quashed the feeling, struggling to relegate it to the past where it belonged.

But he knew that as long as his and Larissa’s relationship was going the way it was, he would have to have that conversation with Jack sometime.

Then his cell phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket, glancing at the display. Benny Alpern.

“I’m sorry, I should take this call.” He didn’t really have to, but he was thankful for the diversion. “Unless there’s something else you need to discuss?”

Jack shook his head and sat back in the chair. “Take the call. We’ll need to go over a few things later on, though.”

Garret nodded, as he got to his feet. He waited until he was outside the office to answer the muted call.

“Benny, what can I do for you?” he said as he closed the office door behind him.

“The check you wrote me bounced.”