So she hugged Harper and they parted ways, fingers crossed, and promised to keep in touch and get the needed information to the bank.
Chapter Eight
Emily was holding something back. Parker wouldn’t outright call it lying. She was too sweet for that. But she was vague about her morning and she’d been gone longer than a typical time delivering her goodies to Harper, even if he included her helping out and talk time with her best friend.
Then there was the noise coming from her father’s study … it sounded like a fax machine running, and since James was busy with the people who would be replacing the windows at the inn, meeting at their warehouse, he wasn’t the one using it. He’d slipped out while Emily was in town so she couldn’t hover and insist he wasn’t up to driving. The doctor had said he could do what he felt he could handle.
And now, when she wasn’t in the office with the door closed, she was on the computer.
“Everything okay?” he asked from his seat on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
She glanced over, looking up from where she’d been staring at the screen. “Sure is!” she said too brightly.
He narrowed his gaze but let her have her privacy.
He was about to turn his attention to his life and when he was going to go back to New York, something he didn’t want to face, but he couldn’t stay in Colorado forever. He glanced over at Emily, bent over her laptop, blonde hair falling in her face, covering her expression, and his heart gave a kick in his chest.
He wasn’t ready to go.
But Ethan would need him back soon. He couldn’t just check out of life indefinitely.
The sound of a car door slamming startled them both and they jumped at the noise. “Expecting anyone?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “Maybe Dad’s back early.” She jumped up from her seat at the same time the front door opened and her asshole almost-ex walked in like he owned the place.
Parker stood, pissed, before the man opened his mouth and said a word. If it were up to him, he didn’t care how small this town was, the front door to this place needed to be locked.
“Rex. What are you doing here?”
“At some point, aren’t you going to admit you’re happy to see me?”
Parker coughed. “Is your head really that far up your ass?” Parker wasn’t going to start out being nice.
Rex scowled at him. “You’re still here?”
Folding his arms across his chest, Parker grinned. “Haven’t left.”
Parker took in the other man’s outfit. He’d been in a suit during his last visit and he’d learned his surroundings because now Rex was wearing a pair of jeans, pressed like Parker’s had been when he arrived, which Parker had quickly realized didn’t fly out here in Colorado. Relaxed comfort was key and Parker had adapted accordingly, wanting to fit in where Emily lived and, in doing so, finding more of himself.
He had a hunch that Rex’s change of clothes had everything to do with the fact that Rex now had competition for Emily and he wanted to make the point that he, too, could adapt. Rex was full of shit, Parker thought. He only wanted Emily to fall for his crap long enough to get her back to Chicago and begin his subtle brainwashing all over again.
Rex glanced around the inn. “The roof looks good,” he noted. “Better than all the construction going on last time. Should help you raise the sale price,” he said, looking around.
“What makes you think we’re going to sell?” Emily asked. “This is my family’s legacy. You’re out of your mind if you think we’re going to hand it over to developers to destroy the beauty of the inn and the town.”
Parker wondered if she heard her own words or realized the import of what she’d just admitted. She might fight her father’s desire to keep this place alive and vital, fear for his health driving her, but she loved it as much as he did. She loved the town. She wasn’t going to let it be destroyed.
As he thought about Rex’s words, Parker narrowed his gaze. “What would make you even ask such a thing?”
The other man shrugged off the question. “People who renovate the old often do it with resale value in mind,” Rex said to Parker, as if he were an imbecile for not knowing those things himself. “I just assumed.”
That let Parker smirk. “You know what they say about people who assume.”
Rex frowned and looked away from him. “Emily, can we talk privately? I have news you’re going to want to hear,” he said, sounding excited by whatever he had to tell her.
“You can say anything you have to in front of Parker. We have no secrets.” She didn’t glance Parker’s way and he knew for sure they had one. He just didn’t know what it was yet. He wasn’t all that concerned, though he wished she’d trust him with her secrets since she clearly had that trust when it came to dealing with her almost ex-asshole.