This surprises me, but then I remember that her father cut her off when she left the family company.
“If you’re thinking of my sizable trust,” she says, catching my expression, “you should know that my grandfather was as much of a misogynist as my father is—maybe even more. He never forgave me for getting pregnant—and worse, for keeping Cami when I could’ve gone to my grave with this shameful secret instead. After Grandma passed, he changed his will to read that I didn’t get the money in my trust until I turned thirty or was married—and not just married, but married to a man my father approves of.”
I bow my head. Part of me wanted it to be something like this, but I understand why she’s so ashamed. I’ve been the one who needed to work the system before. But damn her grandfather for being a spiteful old man and who thought he needed to punish Brinley for getting pregnant. “Who’s to say the man you marry will even be good with money?”
“I know, right? God forbid a woman have access to that much money without a man to manage it for her.” She rolls her shoulders back as if she’s trying to shrug off tension. “And I’ve gone to the bank to see about a business loan, but they can’t offer me anything close to what I need. I screwed up my credit when I was younger, and now it’s biting me in the ass. And I won’t necessarily be out of a job if they sell to someone else, but . . .”
I get it. The place is important to her, and she doesn’t trust it in anyone else’s hands. In her parents’ emotional absence, she’s made a new family of her best friends, and they all work there and depend on their jobs. “You want to maintain control.”
“I do. My parents love Julian—probably more than they love me, if we’re being real here. Before I saw you in Vegas, I joked with him that I should just marry him so I could have access to my trust and buy The Orchid before it sold to someone who might change everything or fire me and my friends. Or both. He shrugged and said he was up for it, but of course I laughed it off. I told him that wasn’t fair to him and I’d find another way.” She sighs and does nothing but breathe for a few long moments as the sidewalk leads us up a steep hill.
At the top, we stop to wait for the light to change. Cars whiz by as I turn to her. “What changed your mind?”
“A few weeks later, he had an opportunity to buy an apartment building, but the owner wanted to sell to a married couple. She’d owned it with her husband and he’d passed, but she believed a married couple would care more about the families in the units. That a single guy would be more likely to price-gouge and run them off, that kind of thing.”
I gape. “Wow. People do business like that?”
“Small town.” She shrugs. “So, suddenly I wasn’t the only person who was going to benefit from this arrangement. He proposed we get married. I’d get The Orchid, and he’d get his new real-estate investment, and in the meantime we could both enjoy having a partner in life. Someone to talk to at the end of the day and take to business dinners.”
“And someone to warm his bed,” I say, my words too hard.
She cuts me a look and frowns. “That was a given. Julian and I had been sleeping together for years. Not regularly, but on and off. His plan made sense.”
I want to tell her it was a terrible plan, but I know what it’s like to fight loneliness. And I know what it’s like to desperately want to create something of your own—and that’s what The Orchid is for her. The only difference is, she’s already built it, but now she might lose it anyway. “Where does Vegas fit in all this?”
The signal changes, indicating we should walk, and we cross the busy street before she speaks again. “I think I knew I was going to say yes when I came looking for you.” She swallows. “I needed to see you one last time, maybe convince myself that whatever we had once was gone.”
What we had will never be gone. Not as long as I draw breath. “And you were convinced? What you remembered of our night was enough to make you believe you could be happy with him?”
“Nothing was that simple.” She stares off into the distance. “That night was enough to remind me that I forget myself when I’m with you. When I woke up with that ring on my finger, I realized I’d almost thrown away everything.” She shakes her head, and a tear spills down her face. “There are so many people at The Orchid and in the OV who rely on me. I love what I’ve built. I have a good life here, and Cami goes to a great school. I didn’t want passion that swept me away and made me as reckless as it did when we were kids. I wanted to keep my feet under me and do what’s right for everyone who will be affected by my decisions.”