She groaned. The man did know her. How was that possible? “Thank you but—”
“Not to mention, I’m interested.” He must have seen her moment of bewilderment and quickly added, “In the hotel. I might want to buy it. You haven’t signed any papers yet, right?” He nodded as if the idea had just come to him. “At the very least, another offer could get you an even better price from Devlin Wright. Now, about dinner—”
She stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“I’m always serious when it comes to food when I’m hungry,” he said.
“About making me an offer on the hotel?”
“We can talk about it at dinner.”
She felt on spin cycle. Her sunburn was tightening her skin, and exhaustion was pulling at her after the miles she’d put on earlier today. She just wanted to go to her room, take a hot bath and lie down for a while. But she hadn’t eaten since buying some junk food on the trip, and Finn was right: she wasn’t anxious to see the staff from that horrible summer and whom she’d tried to forget for the past ten years.
Finn must have seen her weaken because he charged ahead as if he was closing a business deal. “Another reason we should have dinner is that I know you’re also anxious about seeing the townspeople for the first time after word got out about your plans for the hotel. Your ears must have been burning when they found out. There was even a group led by Vi Mullen to try to get the hotel into a historical register to stop you.”
She felt a moment of alarm. Nothing could hold up the sale. She’d been counting on this.
“Don’t worry. They failed. But I would make a great buffer the first time you go into town since some of the residents act like they’re afraid of me, except for Earl Ray.” He shrugged. “Earl Ray likes me, but I suspect he likes everyone.”
“He does.” She felt herself giving in. Maybe Finn wasn’t as delusional as she’d thought. He’d certainly summarized her situation quite quickly and easily. But then again, she reminded herself, he’d spent months hiding out in a boarded-up hotel in Buckhorn looking for a ghost. That did make him questionable, even if he was rich and eccentric. “I can’t believe the locals haven’t figured out who you are. Especially Earl Ray.”
He shrugged and grinned. “I look homeless, don’t I?” She nodded. “They’ll be surprised that you haven’t had me arrested for trespassing.”
“I’m still considering it.”
His grin broadened. Dang, but the man was gorgeous. “Their mouths will drop open when they see us together at the café. Plus, it will give me a chance to show you that I’m not dangerous. Nor a crackpot. But the townspeople don’t have to know that.” He laughed, and she actually smiled.
Still, she couldn’t help feeling skeptical as well as wary. The man had sold his business, made a fortune and disappeared, only to turn up after hiding out in this old hotel most of the winter hoping to see Megan’s ghost? That would make anyone leery of him. Nor was she sure she could believe him—let alone trust him. And to find out he’d known Megan...
No matter what he said, she sensed he was running from something. As someone who was doing her own running, she recognized the look. She told herself she should be careful because a man like that, well, he was dangerous, especially if a woman let that grin of his get to her.
But danger was relative, she thought as she considered that one of the former staff from ten years ago was probably a killer. Now they were entering the hotel on the floor below with plans to stay for the entire weekend. They’d all been suspects in Megan’s murder, her included. Right now, Finn seemed the most normal person here, and she really was hungry. “This dinner you’re suggesting... Who’s buying?”
“I think I can afford it.” His grin really did make him damned irresistible. Right now she would have considered having dinner with the devil if it meant escaping the hotel and this so-called reunion.
JENNIFER MULLEN HAD given little thought to her basic nature—until the invitation came in the mail. She was abrasive, argumentative and had a mouth on her and a questionable past. Enough people had mentioned it that she’d accepted it as true. She also carried a grudge, as any of her exes could attest.
“You’re never going to find a man if you don’t tone it down,” her mother used to tell her. Like Jen wanted or needed a man that badly that she’d been willing to change. Maybe if she ever met a man who made her want to be different...
Then she’d gotten the invitation for the Crenshaw Hotel reunion and thought about the teenage boy who’d taken more than a piece of her heart ten years ago. He’d been the rare one who’d made her wish she were capable of being someone else. Someone who might find herself married to a famous doctor named Claude Drake.
She’d thought that ship had sailed—until she got the invitation. There’d been a lot of other men since then, but Claude had been a real heartthrob. Although, he hadn’t seemed to know it. He’d been young and so innocent for someone who was brilliant in other ways. He’d skipped a bunch of grades, graduated from high school and college early and was headed for medical school at eighteen. He’d been inexperienced; that much she knew. Too much book learning and not enough street smarts, especially when it came to girls. He’d been starry-eyed with Jen. His first.
But then Megan had turned his head. Jen hadn’t blamed Claude. Megan had a way of getting what she wanted. Clearly she was rich like him and like Jason. So what had she been doing working at the Crenshaw, anyway?
Not that
