Can't Stop the Feeling (Whispering Bay Romance 6)
He actually agreed with her. In his line of work, he’d had to learn to read people quickly and Palermo and Wentworth were as crooked as they came, but he couldn’t talk crap about his clients. Not even to her.
“My case isn’t the strongest, but I can definitely tie the city up in court for years. In the end, nobody’s going to win except the lawyers.” He hesitated a moment before continuing. “That’s why I’m going to propose that the city compromise with Vince and Nora. We split the beachfront property in half. Nora gets her fair share of her father’s estate, and the city benefits too. There’s no nasty, dragged-out legal battle and everyone wins.”
“And you make a nice fat commission without much work.” Her blue eyes narrowed like she just thought of something. “Wait a minute. Doesn’t Earl’s will state that the land is to be used solely for public access? Even if the city wanted to give Nora half the land, wouldn’t she be forced to respect the conditions her daddy put in that will? Which means she wouldn’t be able to sell it for a profit.”
She was sharp. It was one of the many things he found so attractive about her.
“Have you actually read the will?” he asked.
“Not word for word. It’s kind of long,” she admitted, “but Pilar knows what she’s doing.”
“I agree. Pilar is a good attorney. And normally, you’d be right. When someone specifies in their will that they want a resource such as land to be used for a specific function then the benefactors are under an obligation to respect the deceased’s wishes.”
“Why do I have the feeling you’re about to pull an ace out of your sleeve?” she muttered.
“Earl was a smart old dude. He had a clause put in his trust that stated if his benefactor, in this case the city of Whispering Bay, was under any financial strain they could choose to use the resource anyway they saw fit, as long as fifty percent of the gift went for the original intention. Financial strain is a bit hard to prove or disprove, so basically the city is free to give Nora half the land. If they want to, that is.”
“So that’s where you got the fifty-fifty split idea from. You certainly tied all that up nice and neat, didn’t you?”
The server came by with their bill. “Will there be anything else?” he asked.
Ben looked to Jenna.
“No,” she said glumly.
He paid the bill and stood to help her out of her seat. Neither of them said anything till they reached the parking lot. Moonlight combined with the gentle sounds of water lapping against the shore made the scene below too tempting to ignore. It was like something out of a bad seduction plot. Although he fully expected her to say no, he still had to try.
“There’s a nice breeze coming up from the gulf. Want to take a walk on the beach?”
* * *
A walk on the beach sounded…romantic.
Don’t do it! But she couldn’t let tonight end on that little moral victory of his. He thought they could split the land fifty-fifty and everyone would end up winning. Not on her watch, baby.
She slipped off her heels. “Okay. A walk sounds good.”
They took the boardwalk down toward the sand. It might have been nighttime, but it was still muggy. Pretty soon her hair was going to take a trip to crazy town. She took the long strands and began twisting it into a knot.
He gently pulled her hands from her hair. “Don’t,” he said. “Keep it down.”
“In about five minutes, I’m going to start looking like a Chia Pet.”
“I happen to like Chia Pets.” The intimate tone in his voice made all the protective cylinders in her brain fire at once.
“What do you think of the beach?” she asked.
He looked suspicious by her change in topic. “The beach is beautiful.”
“Not when Ted Ferguson and his development company overrun the shoreline with condos.”
“So we’re back to that again?”
“You better believe it.”
“It’s called progress, Jenna. And if the city takes our offer, there’s still going to be a lot of undeveloped beaches left for public access. Whispering Bay would have the best of both worlds. Miles of beautiful, unspoiled beaches and the commercial and residential development that creates jobs and widens your tax base.”
“Oh, you’re good. But I guess you probably know that already.”