No Reservations (Special Ops: Tribute Book 1) (20 page)

“That’s what I had thought at the time.”

“So, can you get the bank to renew the loan?”

“I tried. But there’s already one mortgage on this place,
and if you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly have a real source of income right
now. And I poured nearly every dime I have into renovating this place.”

He sat next to her. “What if I co-signed on the loan?”

Her expression softened. “Maddox, that’s sweet, but you’re
not exactly employed either.”

His expression didn’t falter. “Okay, so what if I call the
broker back, forfeit my deposit and put the boat money toward the loan. And
I’ve got some savings I can throw in.”

“Maddox, this is my problem. Not yours.”

“Your problems are my problems. Don’t you see that?”

Somehow hearing him say that, she felt a surge of warmth
nudge away the sadness that had engulfed her. “It wouldn’t matter, anyway. The
boat is a beauty, but the deposit isn’t going to cover this.” She shook her
head. “What in the hell did she need $250,000 for, anyway? I mean, I could
maybe understand it if she’d put the money into renovating this place or
something. But she didn’t. She didn’t even drive a fancy car. She was pretty
basic, Maddox. This just doesn’t make sense.” Her mind wandered to the envelope
in the walls. Would that have explained it? Was there some kind of explanation
in that envelope that was now taking up space in a landfill?

“Well, the important thing is to figure out what to do now,”
Maddox pointed out.

“What to do? There’s really no choice in it. I need to put
the place up for sale.” Her voice cracked as she said it and she blinked back
the tears.

“But you’ve put your own money into this place. You’ve built
equity in it.”

“I’ll get it back when I sell it, after I pay off the loan. I
probably won’t be out any money.” She tried to keep her tone matter-of-fact. This
was a business decision. Not an emotional one. Right now, she couldn’t afford
to remember how she’d poured her soul into this place. She couldn’t think that
the two guests who were arriving tomorrow would likely be her last. And she
didn’t dare imagine how it would hurt her to call her other future guests to
cancel their reservations.

Crying her eyes out wouldn’t change anything. But still she
stood, needing to increase the distance between her and Maddox simply because
the urge to rest her head on his shoulder and sob was too overpowering.

As she gazed out the living room window watching the
passersby drift down her street, she heard Maddox come up behind her. She
shivered when his hand rested on her shoulder, pulling her closer to him.

“This place is your dream,” he whispered, soft words so
sincere that they pulled two fat tears from her eyes.

She wiped them away and clenched her teeth. “Dreams don’t
pay bills,” she said, quoting something her parents had told her when Bridget
had given notice at her job at the firm.

Wouldn’t they be thrilled to see Bridget return to her life
in DC, and search for a stable job again?

The next twenty-four hours of Maddox’s life reminded him how
little a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with a combat V meant in the civilian
world.

Banks didn’t care what he’d done to serve his country. And while
impressed with his entrepreneurial spirit, they weren’t anxious to hand their
money over to someone already knee-deep in a new business venture until they
saw some profits.

With Bridget out meeting a real estate agent, Maddox opened
the front door to the formidable sight of Captain Shey and his wife, Vi.

His mouth gaped slightly at the woman who stared at him from
behind huge sunglasses. He’d been a fan of Vi Owens long before she became Vi
Owens-Shey, so seeing her now in the flesh made Maddox feel slightly
star-struck. He’d been fifty shades of pissed when he was unable to attend
their wedding because of a mission, thinking he missed out on his only chance
to meet the woman who inspired him to stop partying away his paycheck in his
early twenties and open a Roth-IRA.

“Maddox.” Joe greeted him with the usual firm handshake. “This
is my wife, Vi.”

“Ms. Owens-Shey, it’s a real honor, Ma’am,” he said at the
risk of sounding like an infatuated fan.

A smile eased up her face after releasing him from a
handshake and she pulled off her sunglasses. “It’s Vi, Maddox. And it’s nice to
meet you, too.”

Joe cocked his head, as he stalked into the inn and glanced around
the room. “I have to say, when I said I owed you, I wasn’t expecting you to
tell me you wanted to become the part-owner of a bed-and-breakfast inn. Isn’t
an ice cream shop enough for you?”

“It was. Until I saw this place.” Maddox watched Vi’s eyes
wander around the living room, taking in the surroundings. “And met the woman
who owned it.”

A grin touched Vi’s lips. “Ah, so that’s what it’s about
then.”

He might have been smarter to not mention his relationship
with Bridget to them—to focus only on the business aspect of this. But on
principle alone, he would not omit anything when talking to his former CO.

“So, let’s find a way to make it happen.” Vi sounded so
confident, he immediately felt reassured. “How much is her mortgage on this
place?”

Maddox handed her a statement that Bridget had shown him at
his request earlier today. Vi looked it over. “You can refinance and get a
lower interest rate for one thing. That needs to be done right away.”

He liked the direction of this conversation already.

“And the other loan needs to be paid off next month?” Joe
inquired.

“Exactly. Bridget can’t get another loan since she’s already
poured her money into fixing this place up.”

“Well, it looks great. When you refinance, you should
qualify for more money just based on the equity. I can guarantee this place
will appraise a lot higher now than it did before, at least based on what you told
Joe.”

“And you haven’t even seen the basement.” He flicked on the
light and they followed him down the stairs.

“Holy crap!” Vi’s face lit up. “I want to live here.”

“Does that arcade have Centipede?” Joe’s face beamed, his
hand reaching for the trackball next to the joystick. Maddox had guessed the
Captain would fall right into the demographic that would truly appreciate the
arcade.

“And Millipede and about fifty other games.”

Vi’s arms crossed in front of her chest and she tossed a
chin toward the back room. “What’s back there?”

“Laundry.”

Vi shook her head. “Laundry should be up where the innkeeper
is, if we can steal some space from her living quarters. Save her some steps. And
then down here you can put in a small workout area.”

“A workout area?”

“Yeah. I travel a lot, but the reason I can’t stay in B
& Bs is because they never have a place for me to workout.” She shared a
look with her husband. “Being this close to the Academy, you’ll get a lot of military.
They need at least a treadmill to do their PT on in the morning on snowy days.”

“Good point,” Maddox considered. He thought about the first
morning when he’d arrived—how he’d wished he could do more than just go
for a run. “Maybe we could get an elliptical, too. Or a set of weights.”

Joe’s right eyebrow rose on his forehead as he looked at Vi.
“So far my bride here has come up with ways to spend money rather than ways to
make it.”

She sent him a patronizing smile. “Leave the finances to me,
Squid,” she said, shutting him down with one look.

Joe chuckled, draping his arm loosely over his wife’s
shoulders. “You know I was only kidding.”

There was a flash of heat between them when their eyes met, making
Maddox realize that theirs was the kind of love that never faltered or dulled,
even years after they’d said their vows.

“You mentioned something about a roof deck to Joe when you
spoke to him.” Vi pulled her eyes away from her husband and settled them back
onto Maddox.

“Yeah, that’s what she’d like to put in down the road. She’s
got a small water view from the roof that she didn’t even know about. We
watched the Blue Angels up there and had a great view.”

“What prevented her from getting the roof deck before now?”

“Money. And now we’re even worse off with this bank note.”

Joe narrowed his eyes on him. “We?”

“Sir, I plan on investing everything I have into making sure
that Bridget doesn’t have to sell this place. But I wanted to talk to your wife
first, find out if she had any advice. I have some money that I was going to
use for someplace to live. I’d had a deposit on a sailboat. And I have my
retirement accounts I can liquidate.”

Vi looked appalled. Somehow, Maddox knew she would.

“Joe, if he does that, you have my full permission to smack him.
That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. Do you know what kind of penalties
you’d—”

“Forgive her, Maddox. That’s one of her pet peeves,” the
Captain explained.

“I know. I’ve been watching you on the financial networks
since I was an Ensign,” Maddox responded.

Her jaw gaped slightly. “Clearly, you’ve been watching and
not
listening
if you even had any thought of liquidating your retirement
accounts.”

“Does she know you’re doing this?” Joe interjected.

“I mentioned it a little, and she didn’t want my help. She
knows I have most of my liquid savings wrapped up in the ice cream shop. I
talked to some banks, but they couldn’t help me since, on paper, I’m pretty
much unemployed right now.”

Vi nodded sharply. “Okay, so here’s the catch-22. If you
could refinance this place, you’d qualify for more money from them and could at
least partially pay off this second loan. But so long as you’ve got that second
loan, they won’t let you refinance because you’re too much of a risk with so
much debt. So my thought is that we loan you the money to pay that second loan
off. Then you refinance.”

“I don’t feel comfortable with—”

Vi cut him off. “And we don’t feel comfortable with you
liquidating your retirement accounts. The penalties would be too great. It
makes no sense.”

“Look, if I’m too much of a risk for the bank to take on,
then I think I’m too much of a risk for you to take on.”

Joe tilted his head. “We don’t see you as a risk, Maddox.”

“And it doesn’t matter if you are,” Vi tossed in. “You’ll
have your money. Look, you’d have the money if you hadn’t wrapped up your cash
in Becca’s dream.” She snickered. “I mean, seriously,
Tribute
Ice Cream?
That’ll really catch on in this town.”

“The name was Bridget’s idea.”

“Exactly. She’s savvy. Kind of like me, if I do say so
myself.” Grinning slightly, she waggled her eyebrows at the last statement. “I
see a loan to you to save this place as an investment, not a risk.”

Maddox’s jaw clenched. “Then I insist on paying interest. A
percentage point higher than the banks are offering now.”

Joe rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. But Vi chooses the
interest rate. Not you. I think she knows a little more about what’s an
appropriate rate.”

Vi gave an approving nod to her husband before adding, “But
if we’re loaning you this money, you’re going to need more than $250,000.”

“Why?”

“The man cave is great. Don’t get me wrong. But you need
that roof deck at a minimum. That will pay off immediately when you refinance. Once
the bank sees you’ve got more skin in the game, they’ll be willing to offer you
more.”

“And better to do it now before your inn starts booking
solid,” Joe agreed. “You’ll lose less income then. You can’t do construction
with a houseful of guests.”

“You might consider the workout room idea while you’re at it.
At least find out if it’s feasible,” Vi added. “And for God’s sake, Maddox, get
that boat. I mean, this is a sailing town. You can christen it the Shifting
Sands and you’ve got a tax deduction. Put the word out that you take guests out
on it and you’ll fill these rooms so fast you’ll need to expand into that
backyard by next year.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Maddox interrupted. “I thought
that maybe for four-night stay, you get a free sunset cruise or something. Serve
wine, beer—”

“And ice cream,” Joe jumped in. “Nothing’s better than cross-pollination
in business.”

Vi tilted her head upwards and rose up to her tiptoes till
Joe planted a kiss on her lips. “I taught you so well,” she told her husband.

Maddox watched the air spark between them, and the only
thing he could think was,
I want that
. He wanted that kind of
relationship that never stopped flashing with passion.

He’d wanted it since the day he knew he needed to leave the
SEALs.

Pulling his loving gaze away from his wife, Joe turned to
Maddox. “You’ve got the money. Call a contractor for a ballpark for the roof
deck. All we need is a number and we’ll have our bank wire the money to yours.”

Relief overtook Maddox and he grasped the Captain’s hand, and
then Vi’s. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Maddox, this isn’t a favor. We’re just making things right.
You’d have the money if you hadn’t been so dead-set on making my sister’s dream
come true. It’s only right that we make sure you can still have your own. And
if this place is it, then grab it and don’t let go.”

Joe’s eyes locked on Maddox’s and in that moment, the
younger man knew his former CO wasn’t talking about the inn at all.

He was talking about Bridget.