Like One of the Family

“Lilah is a grown adult. I wish everyone would stop treating her with kid gloves,” Lora snapped, but he saw guilt in her eyes. “Besides, she’ll get over it. Nothing bothers Lilah for long.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s really sad that you don’t know your own sister.”

“Oh, and suddenly you’re an authority?” she mocked.

“More so than you,” he said bluntly.

“Watch it, Heath,” Lora murmured. “You’re treading on dangerous ground. My Pops may have a soft spot for you but I don’t suffer from the same feeling. In essence you’re my employee. I could fire you right now.”

“Do it, then,” he dared her in a silkily dark tone. “But let me tell you something else, so you can make an informed decision. If you do that you’re going to have a shit-storm on your hands that not even you will be able to handle. I’ve been running Larimar for the past year but beyond that, I own the gift shop downstairs and Larimar doesn’t have enough money to pay me off.”

She stared, shock in her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

He shook his head. “Why don’t you take a moment to really look at Larimar and see all the changes that have been made since you’ve been gone. Someone had to do something to start making some money because the one with the marketing degree…well, she was unavailable.”

With that, he stalked past her. He was done with her for the day. If he stood another minute in her presence he’d choke on his own frustration—or choke her.

CHAPTER FOUR

LORA©DIDN’T©KNOW©WHY but the weight of Heath’s judgment sat heavily on her shoulders. Why should she care what Heath thought of her relationship with her sister? Clearly, Lilah had Heath believing she was helpless, just like everyone else. Lora refused to feel guilty over her decision to make Lilah take on more responsibility for once. So what if Lilah had no real business sense, was it so hard to write a check and pay some bills? Lora silenced the ongoing argument in her head, annoyed that Heath had managed to make her feel culpable and wrong in the same breath.

She sat in Pops’s chair with a huff and started shuffling papers, looking for some semblance of order. She didn’t know where to start. She looked in the files and found folders with marked headings written in a clearly masculine hand. She knew Lilah’s handwriting was flowery and her Pops’s handwriting was an illegible scrawl that only her Grams could decipher, which meant Heath had sorted these papers and put them in order. She pushed away that acknowledgment, not ready to make amends with Heath just yet. It was childish and worse, she knew it, but she couldn’t quite deal with the feelings that rose when she thought of Heath’s honest admission.

He said he loved her family. Obviously, she was not lumped up in that admission. Lora sniffed. Who cared? She didn’t need nor want to be included in Heath’s affections. She had enough family, she didn’t need more. She paused. And what did he mean that he owned the gift shop? She put aside the tax file for the moment and started sifting through the other files. She found the gift shop and pulled it.

After she finished reading the paperwork pertaining to the business arrangement between Pops and Heath, she leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. She’d found the reason Heath had been so involved in her family’s affairs and it wasn’t so much altruistic as it was self-serving.

It shouldn’t surprise her. In the corporate environment, no one did anything without a reason—and it was usually because they served to benefit from the action. Why was she surprised Heath was no different?

Maybe because a part of her—locked away deep inside—hoped the man Heath had become had remained that trustworthy island boy who had watched her with furtive glances and rare smiles.

This paperwork showed that he was just a man—like any other—looking out for himself.

And for reasons she wasn’t interested in pursuing—it hurt.

* * *

HEATH©CAUGHT LILAH©AS©SHE was leaving, her eyes red but otherwise dry. She stopped and gave Heath a look of apology but shrugged. “I guess I knew that wasn’t going to go well,” she said, her voice scratchy yet soft. “I let her down. I knew it was coming.”

“You didn’t let anyone down,” he disagreed, still hot. “She put you in a position where you were doomed to fail. Don’t let her off the hook so easily. She has to shoulder some of the responsibility, too. It’s not right for her to make you assume the role you were never groomed to take. Pops always made it pretty clear that he thought Lora would take over the running of Larimar, which is why she’s on the estate paperwork.”

Lilah nodded, but she was plainly still miserable. His heart broke for the young woman and even though she was an adult and clearly not a little girl anymore, he gathered her in his arms and hugged her tight. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s all bark and no bite,” he assured Lilah, and she shuddered against him, clinging to him like a spider monkey. “She has a tendency to lash out when she’s backed into a corner. She’ll come to her senses and realize what a royal—well, for lack of a better word—bitch she’s been and maybe if an apology isn’t in her vocabulary she’ll at least show with her actions that she’s sorry.”

At that Lilah lifted her head and gave him a wry look. “My sister? Show that she’s sorry? I don’t think she knows how.”

“Well, one can hope there’s some shred of humanity left in her, right?” he joked, coaxing a smile from Lilah. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

He could tell she wanted to believe him but Lilah knew the score. She knew Larimar was in trouble and she knew he was doing everything he could to fix it but if Lora worked against him instead of with him—they might lose Larimar all together. And if that happened, Pops would lose whatever bit of sanity he had left.

And that would kill them all.

“Thanks, Heath,” Lilah said, pulling away. “Maybe you’re right. She’ll come around.”

As soon as she said it, they both realized how ludicrous the statement was and burst into rueful laughter just in time for Lora to round the corner.

Lora took in the two of them sharing an easy familiarity with one another and stiffened. A warning tingle went up his back and he realized a moment too late that she’d taken the situation and spun it in a completely different direction in her head. And to prove his fear, she observed in an icy tone, “I see you’re not only preying on an old man but a naive young woman, too. Tell me, Heath, are there no boundaries you won’t cross?”

Lilah looked shocked and simultaneously grossed out at Lora’s implication but before Lilah could defend his actions, he simply waved away her attempt with a snort of disgust Lora’s way, saying, “Don’t waste your breath, Lilah. Your sister is not only blind…she’s an idiot.”

And he stalked from the room.

* * *

LILAH©FELT©CAUGHT©BETWEEN two opposing forces and while her loyalty ought to be with her sister, she had to admit Lora seemed to be acting deliberately difficult.

“Why are you doing this?” she cried, angry. “Can’t you see that he’s been nothing but helpful through this whole ordeal? When you weren’t here, he stepped up and did everything he could to save Larimar.”

“Do you know about the deal he struck with Pops on the gift shop?” Lora asked.

Lilah winced, knowing how her sister would interpret the deal. “Yes. But you have to know that he would never do anything that would hurt Pops or the resort. This place and our family has been his family since he was a kid. You know this better than anyone and yet, you’re so willing to throw him under the bus. For what? So you can feel justified in your anger, or so you don’t have to deal with the fact that when we needed you the most, you didn’t come?”

Lora appeared shocked at Lilah’s impassioned speech, but no one was more surprised than Lilah. She wasn’t the one who took stands and got involved beyond the superficial. She hated confrontation and always sought to avoid it, but she’d reached her limit with Lora’s cold and cruel attitude and since Lindy wasn’t here to back her, she had to stand alone and tell her oldest sister the plain truth. What was the worst she could do? It wasn’t like Lora would ground her—or worse slap her—for her opinion. And it was high time she stood up to her, anyway.

“You don’t think it’s coincidental that he struck that deal when Pops’s mental acuity started to fail?”

“No one knew Pops’s mind was slipping. He hid it from all of us for a long time. When Heath discovered what Pops had done…he felt terrible. But don’t take my word for it, just ask him. He’ll tell you,” Lilah said, hoping she was right and that Heath would indeed, swallow his pride and tell Lora the straight truth about his guilt. But even as she knew that Heath never seemed to shy away from sharing personal information with her, there seemed to be some block between Lora and him. At one time, Lilah had wondered if Heath had had a crush on her sister but given the tension between them as they grew to adulthood, she discarded that idea. Instead, she settled on the notion that they simply didn’t get along, which was a shame because Heath was probably the only person on this planet that Lora couldn’t bully.

“Lilah…I know you have a soft spot for Heath but—”

“Stop. I won’t listen to you pile more bricks on Heath when you have no proof that he did something to swindle Pops. It’s ludicrous to begin with but I won’t listen to another word so don’t waste your breath. You can spend all the time you want trying to nail Heath to the wall or you can spend that energy helping us.”

“I am trying to help. Don’t you find it the least bit suspicious that Pops handed over all the money in the reserve account to Heath for his business when we needed that for repairs, taxes and other resort expenses?”

“No.” Lilah refused to budge. Lora wanted to vilify Heath, needed to, perhaps, for her own sake but Lilah wouldn’t take part. No, Lora would have to shoulder that burden on her own. “You need to take a good look at your motivation. As much as you say that you’re just looking out for Pops’s interests, you should look inside and see if that’s true. For what it’s worth, and I know you don’t value my opinion because I’m just the baby of the family, Heath feels more like family to me than you right now. If you go after him, you’re going after me, too, because I’ll stand behind him.” Lilah started to leave but decided to leave her sister with one final thought. “Oh, and before you start thinking something completely far afield like I’ve got the hots for Heath or vice versa, he’s like a brother to me and I love him as such. For the record, the only Bell sister he might’ve ever had eyes for was you. A long time ago, that is. Now? I think you pretty much destroyed whatever he might’ve felt for you. But that should suit you just fine, right?”

And then Lilah, her heart thudding quickly and painfully in her chest, left her sister standing in the hallway with her mouth open.

Welcome home, Lora.

CHAPTER FIVE

LORA©STARED©AFTER©HER©SISTER, wondering what had just happened.

First, if she could manage to get over the shock of her baby sister bawling her out when she’d never said a cross word to her in all her life, then she could focus on the bombshell Lilah had dropped as if it’d been common knowledge and not some major revelation.

Heath? What? Of course, it mattered nothing to her if Heath had once had a crush on her, but surely she would’ve noticed, right?

Lora searched her memory for evidence of this so-called fondness and something sat like a forgotten relic in the recesses of her mind. A flash of laughter echoed and the image of Heath’s twinkling eyes bounded back to her. Her heart warmed instantaneously until she remembered something else.