and the more rustic accommodation he had grown accustomed to.
He pushed open the door to his office, a slight smile curving his lips as he realized that this one room, containing a computer, a desk, a chair and a couch had more space than the entirety of his typical living situation.
“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the couch.
She gave him a sharp bit of side eye, clearly considering defying him for the sake of it. But, seeing as there was nowhere else for her to sit, she clearly decided against it. Instead, she took up a position on the couch that managed to look both furious and inconvenienced.
Her shoulders were stiff, her hands folded tightly in her lap, her knees locked together.
“That’s a very comfortable couch,” he said. “And yet, you seem determined to make it feel very uncomfortable.”
“I couldn’t be comfortable in your house no matter how I sat. That’s like trying to be comfortable in a bear’s den.”
He lifted his lip, touching his tongue to the bottom of one of his canine teeth. “My teeth aren’t quite that sharp.”
He watched as the color rose in her cheeks, as her body tensed even further, a feat he wouldn’t have imagined was possible, since she was already wound so tight he figured a stiff breeze could snap her in half.
“Let’s just get to the work farce,” she said, her tone hard, brittle.
“There’s nothing farcical about the amount of work I have to do. Sadly.”
He reached over to the desk, pulling a large stack of papers off of it and depositing it on the couch next to her.
“Go ahead,” he said, “have a look.”
She looked at him skeptically. “Why are you letting me look at your family finances?”
He shrugged, sitting down in the office chair, leaning back and clasping his hands behind his head. “We already know each other’s secrets, what’s a few more?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Okay,” she said, sounding completely unconvinced. She started to leaf through the papers. “I’m not a financial analyst by any stretch of the imagination but even I can see that there are negative numbers where you would rather have positive ones.”
“True.”
“So, what is this?” She set one of the papers aside. “Your version of a white flag? Show me the soft underbelly of your family and... What? Do you want me to tell everybody? Do you want me to stab you with a broadsword?”
“I’d rather you didn’t do either of those things. But, now you see what I’m contending with.”
“And you want my input on...what to do with the stores?” She looked back at of the papers. “You need to sell off everything you can.”
“The thing is, I don’t want to destroy the main street. I don’t want someone to take ownership of those buildings who doesn’t care about the town. For all of my father’s sins he does seem to love Copper Ridge. I’m not sure he much loves anything else. But this town has been his kingdom for a long damn time, so if he has ever protected anything, it’s this place.”
“Like I said before, Lane will buy from you happily.”
“I think I want to put some covert feelers out for people who might be interested in the empty block of buildings at the end of the street.”
“You suddenly care about the town?”
His chest tightened. “For once I just want to leave a place a little bit better than when I first got there, instead of a little bit worse.”
She didn’t say anything to that. “Well, I’m not completely against what you’re saying. And as somebody who has an investment in the businesses on Main Street I prefer this to just selling to a big property management company or something.”
“You haven’t mentioned anything about eliminating your competition or making sure that another knickknack store doesn’t open up.”
“Frankly, whatever brings people to Copper Ridge is good. In a small town it doesn’t benefit us to look at each other as competition. At least, not from my point of view. We want people to know they have options, to know there’s a reason to walk down Main Street. Ample reason. That means that I want every business on that street healthy, and every building full.”
“Not very many people would feel that way. Most people prefer to cut the throat out of their competition.”
She lifted her shoulder. “People aren’t going to come to town once. They aren’t going to buy one thing. They’re going to want to eat at more than one restaurant, make sure