A Hamilton Family Christmas - Donna Kauffman Page 0,106

memories. I’d somehow forgotten there were some of those, sprinkled in.”

“I’m sorry I made you go back. I am,” she went on, when he would have silenced her. “I didn’t know. I mean, I suspected it wasn’t good, your childhood, but then you said something about your grandmother’s place and I guess I just wanted to understand you better. I thought if I got a sense of where you came from, I’d be able to figure out who you are now.”

“Why does that matter?” He pressed a finger across her lips, and the touch made her shudder with renewed awareness. “Because it will help you figure out how to fight me?”

“Yes,” she answered honestly. “At least, that would be the intellectual answer.”

“There’s a different one?”

“There’s more to it than that—now. It matters, Griffin.” She touched his face and was stunned by the way his eyes instantly darkened. His reaction to her gentle touch was ... visceral. “I don’t know why. We’ve only just met. But ... it matters. That I know you. I didn’t just want to know more. I needed to know. Not because I’m scared of losing the hometown I love to some re-imagined resort vision of yours. I’d have sworn to that before. But now . . .”

“Now?” he prodded.

“You’re surprising me.” She cupped his cheek, held his face, looked at him directly. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s not about Hamilton—the town or the company. And it’s not about Lionel, or why you came here. Not this part. This part ... is about me. I’m . . . you’re—” She broke off.

“What are we, Melody?” he asked quietly.

“We’re not like anything I’ve experienced. You’re—different. From what I thought. From what I know. I’m drawn to you.” She smiled a little. “And it’s not just the accent, and not just because I wanted to taste you.”

His fingers tightened on her, and she could feel him all but vibrating beneath her touch. Or maybe it was her. “You, the man . . . you intrigue the hell out of me. And . . . I want more. I want to know ... everything. I wish to God you were here for any other reason, because I want what I want ... and that includes keeping Hamilton the way it is.”

“That’s no’ going to happen,” he said gently. “No matter if the town as a whole rises up. We’re going forward with the resort, the hotel, the golf courses, all of it.” He braced her face. “We’ve no choice, Melody.”

“Then why not tell me the whole of it?” she asked, just as fervently. “If I can’t change it—”

“You can make it a lot harder than it has to be.”

“So tell me why I shouldn’t bother. Tell me, Griffin. I know your loyalty is to Lionel in this, but it’s my home. I deserve to know. We all do.”

He held her gaze for another interminable minute. “Lionel . . . has made some mistakes. Some bad ones. The decisions on how to fix it—they’ve been made, Melody. The money has been invested. We will go forward, and we must succeed. We’ll need your help, the help of all of you, to make it the best success possible, and the swiftest, which is to everyone’s advantage. But it will go forward regardless. Or you won’t have a hometown.” He pulled her in closer. “Without this change in direction, Hamilton Industries will collapse.” He tugged her into his arms, and, stunned, she let him. “Lionel didn’t offer me anything”—he whispered in her ear—“because he didn’t have anything to offer. But if I save this ... then what I save will be mine to build on.” He kissed her temple, then nudged her until she looked at him again.

She knew her eyes were swimming with tears. Tears of loss, tears of shock, tears of grief.

“I take care of what’s mine, Melody. I always have. And I always will.”

7

He was going completely off the rails. Telling her things he’d agreed with Lionel not to speak of, ever, if possible. Griffin hadn’t agreed with that decision, but he hadn’t had the final say. Lionel understood his town, his company, his people, a hell of a lot better than Griffin did, so he hadn’t fought him on it. But he knew secrecy had been the wrong way to go.

He wasn’t sure he could trust Melody not to say anything, at least until he’d had time to talk to Lionel. He wanted to believe he