Preserving Love: A Contemporary Romance Series (Nick & Lexi Book 2) (4 page)

Sneaky little shit.
 

“Patty,” I sat my glass down and leaned back into my chair. “I don’t have a clue what is going on. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Evan and I made a deal to leave business where business belonged and we don’t discuss any of this with each other. I’m not sure why everyone suddenly has decided that I’m sleeping with the enemy so to speak,” I shook my head, “but the only thing Evan and I have discussed recently is where we’d like to go to dinner.”

I watched her face brighten with a pink hue as I tried to figure out the best way to exit the situation.
 

“Alexis,” she spoke softly. “I’m sorry I’ve upset you.”

“Wouldn’t you be upset Patty? If your personal life was being used to judge you as a person?”

“Well when you decide to have a relationship with…”

“With? A man that happens to feel differently about a subject than I do? That is supposed to make me a spectacle?”

“No,” she answered, her tone beginning to sound a little angrier. “I mean when you are battling over something important and he’s on the opposite side as you it does kind of…it makes people think is all.”

“Think what? I do this voluntarily. If it wasn’t something I wanted, I would just leave. His is a job! He’s doing his job.”

“He chose to go back to it,” she reminded me. “He made that decision after saying he wouldn’t. Clearly the Society doesn’t have a lot of faith in his word.”

“Well after years of working together, they should have a little faith in mine!” I heard my voice raise though I didn’t mean for it to.
 

I watched her face darken, probably more at the fear of a scene than at upsetting me. I wanted to scream. I’d barely even talked to Evan lately and everyone seemed to think we were conspiring to bring down the city of Asheville with a condominium development.
 

It was in that moment that I realized I actually hadn’t talked to Evan at all in days. Things had been pretty busy at the shop and I assumed he’d been busy getting things prepared for the initial meeting with the HRC. Boy, guess I’d been right about that one. He was busy alright-- working to undermine our efforts to stop them.
 

“Patty,” I calmed myself and looked at her with the full intention of ending the conversation and the lunch we were pretending to have. “If I were you, I’d spend more time paying attention to what the preacher is saying in that church of yours and less time listening to what others are saying.”

Knowing that I’d said something hurtful, and only partially regretting doing so, I stood and placed my napkin on the table where my plate should have gone had I ordered.
 

“Thanks for the lunch invitation, but I seem to have lost my appetite.” I spoke angrily and turned to walk out of the restaurant.
 

I had opted to walk for lunch since it wasn’t very far from the shop, but as I felt the anger flood through me on the journey back I wished I’d brought my car. How dare any of them do this to me. Evan had me blindsided by the group that wanted rid of me because of him, Patty played devil’s advocate in the hopes of gathering more gossip and Grant who had refused my position was waiting in the wings on me to screw something up so he could take it.
 

On that day I wondered why I bothered doing any of it. I volunteered to help them and fight for our history and our land only to be repaid with suspicion and doubt. No one believed I was going to stay on the side I needed to stay on. Except Evan. He clearly knew he couldn’t trust me or I’d have had an idea about any of this.
 

That was okay, I was going to fight this one too. I just needed a little more information to do that. Which meant spending some time with one of the Commission members. A task I had grown accustomed to over the years.
 

*****

Chapter 6

Evan

“Evan,” I heard Brad’s voice before I even realized he was in my doorway. “Got a minute?”
 

Why’d they always think they needed to ask that? It wasn’t like I could say no. Everyone damned well knew that if they wanted to talk to me, I had no choice but to listen.
 

“Sure, Brad,” I gestured for him to come inside though I’d have rather he not and I could finish and maybe have five minutes of a damned life. “What’s up?”

“We just need you to sign off on the request for the HRC,” he threw a stack of papers onto my desk and sat his cocky ass in the chair. “I need to run them down there before they close.”

“Why me?” No one had told me that I needed to be the one to sign. Shit, I’d been the one to argue the idea. Why would I sign for it?

“It’s your deal, man,” he slung his arm towards the papers. “So sign ‘em and I’ll let ya be.”

“My
deal
was to help get the condo design ready. My
deal
was to even help with the HRC shit since I’ve been through it before. My
deal
didn’t include a petition to speed up the process or a fight with the Preservation Society.” I pushed the papers towards him. “Sign em your damn self.”

As soon as I’d heard their half assed plan I’d been pissed. I hadn’t agreed to the bullshit they were trying to do. Apparently the higher ups had decided to use the Society’s desire to battle and their overwhelming community support against them. They were argue an unfair battle if the decision was held off. Hell Brad had even researched enough to find things that backed up his request. Laws and bylaws written into the HRC long before any of the current members had taken residence on it.

To say it was harmful to me was a fucking understatement. Lexi and I were both so caught up in this shit we barely even got a chance to talk. And we’d agreed not to discuss business. But what the hell was she going to do when she found out about this one?
 

“It’s your deal man,” Brad pushed the papers. “We need you to sign.”

This had turned into a bigger mess than I’d have thought. Had I known, I would have refused to be a part of it. Maybe. It was my dream. I didn’t understand why it had to be so hard on me though. Why couldn’t I have a dream come true without it tearing the others apart? Lexi didn’t seem to get it.
 

Her shit was volunteer. Something she loved but didn’t have to do. Mine was a need. This was who I was. Hell her negativity and worry was starting to rub off on me.
 

“Unless there’s a problem…” Brad suggested, knowing I’d fight that idea off.
 

“Why would there be a problem?” I grabbed the papers and tried to avoid reading as I signed. “I just don’t see why I have to deal with the nonsense when I have plans to work on.”

“I just thought maybe your girlfriend didn’t approve,” he threw in, knowing it would only add fuel to the fire.
 

“My girlfriend doesn’t make my decisions for me,” I answered him, knowing that she wouldn’t approve in any way. “Anything else Brad,” I asked quickly and with irritation, “I’m busy.”

“That’s it boss,” he laughed. “Thanks.”

I sat staring at the papers on my desk and wondering what had happened. When the company had called me about building my condo they’d been eager to work with the design I’d made. They were willing to jump through hoops with the HRC to be able to see it come to light.
 

The past couple of months had shown that to be very different from where things were standing. Not only were they trying to fight for a quick decision, and using the Society as their ammunition for a win, they were completely fucking with the design that I’d created.
 

Sure they’d kept some of the basics, but they had ideas that they wanted added and things they’d like to take off. In fact, I spent so much time reworking my plans into what they wanted that I didn’t even always know what was going on.
 

Sometimes it seemed that they only did this because no one else was willing to stand up and fight for them with the HRC after such a massive loss. So they were dangling a piece of my design in front of me hoping that my desire to see it built would keep me hanging on through the disaster that they were creating.
 

The worst part was that it worked.
 

She was going to hate me, but did she really have a right? It wasn’t like she didn’t live her dream every day in that damned candy shop she had. I wasn’t that lucky. I had to fight to see my dream and besides, it was a piece of fucking land. It wasn’t like they were stealing it out from under her family.
 

I saw her name light up my phone as she tried to call and I just ignored. I was busy and didn’t have time to argue with her about this situation. It wasn’t like I could stop it, even if I wanted to. The good part of it was that if the decision was made early, this would stop and we could go on with our lives. The bad part was that I was beginning to wonder if that life would include us together.
 

“Monroe,” My boss snapped my name like I’d been caught stealing from the company. “Meeting in the conference room in ten. Be there.” He walked away as fast as he’d appeared. Maybe even faster.
 

I grabbed my notepad, the designs in case anyone had questions and my cup of coffee. This was going to be a long night and I had a feeling that it’d be one that would only leave me feeling worse than I already did.

“Monroe, have a seat,” Morgan was an asshole as a boss, but the man knew damn well what he was doing. He pointed me to a spot and resumed his place at the far end of the room. His balding head was perspiring, a sign that he was nervous about what he was going to say. His hands twisted in front of his pudgy belly and made me feel nervous as well.
 

“I called you all in here to discuss Willow’s Resort,” he announced, confusing everyone in the room but himself. What the hell was Willow’s Resort? “That’s the name of the condo development we are building,” he grinned in my direction hoping I approved.

“Willow’s Resort?” I asked, unhappy with the choice. “It’s a home. An all inclusive community. Not a resort.”

“Well, that’s part of what I want to discuss,” he added, watching as my face turned red from anger. “we are proposing it as a resort,” he continued. “Naturally people can live there year round if they so choose.”

“I didn’t design this to be a resort!” I heard my own anger as I yelled the response. “This was an all-inclusive home. It wasn’t meant to be overpriced and sold as a frivolous extra!”

“You thought you could choose the price it sells for?” Brad laughed. “You design them, that’s it.”

“No, but I assumed…”

“What did you assume Monroe?” the boss pulled my attention back to him.
 

“That it’d be used for the purpose it was intended for.”

“And it would have been,” Morgan answered, pausing briefly to pull out something from his file. “Then we discovered that the HRC is far more lenient on things that bring in tourists to their historical districts. Billing it as a resort will help us slide past a few of their rules and regulations.”

“I thought we were doing this legit!” I snapped.
 

“It is legit Monroe,” he answered. “We are legitimately turning this little venture into a resort.”

“That isn’t even an area that a resort would be placed,” I reminded him.
 

“Have you seen the tourism numbers for Asheville? For such a shitty little town they are astounding,” he laughed. “Who would have thought some little southern nothing place would attract so many?”

“It’s not a nothing place. It’s actually very beautiful. And the people are super friendly.”

“We know you have a lil fling here Monroe,” Morgan laughed again, followed by Brad. “But the town itself kind of sucks. I miss the city. So I’m eager to get this shit done and move on.”

“ I see,” I nodded, realizing he wasn’t going to cave on any of his ideas.
 

“So we are going to redo the idea, and it’s a resort, clear?” everyone nodded their approval. “We are going to go to the HRC on Monday as we’ve been granted a quick hearing and petition for early decision,” he continued. “Monroe I trust you signed off?”

“Yes sir,” I answered, feeling sick to my stomach.
 

“Then we are going to do whatever it takes to get this approved, get it going and let me go back to my home and family,” he picked up his glass and took a sip, “and tea without goddamned sugar!” he snapped. “Dismissed.”

I walked out of the meeting feeling like I’d been beaten and robbed. He had taken my idea, twisted it completely so that it wasn’t a fight and then turned around and used the fight I’d been in over the retail center to garner information and use it against the Society to win.
 

I knew it was the business world and that was how things went. But that didn’t make it any easier to stomach. I knew how Lexi would feel and I couldn’t bear the thought of facing her. I had to remind myself that this was my dream and she was going to have to understand that. No matter what happened.
 

It didn’t mean we had to end. I’d told her I’d fight for us. That we would come out stronger. But as I watched yet another call from her go to voicemail because I couldn’t face telling her what was going on or lying to her and not telling her, I wasn’t so sure that we would. This may just be what destroyed us.