Hudson (Anderson Billionaires #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,49
was done was done. They had to move forward and come to a compromise. She could do it if he could. She could remain professional if he could. They were both adults after all.
She had to remind herself that she needed to dislike him — that she should hope he would fall into the river that ran along the backside of the property, and then not be found until he made it to the ocean and was a hundred miles out to sea.
But he wasn’t a bad guy.
After he’d saved her best friend two days earlier, she’d had to spend the rest of Saturday hearing about how wonderful he was, how great it was that he was there, and then she’d had to listen to the warning that if she didn’t have fun once in a while she was going to regret it.
Daisy didn’t have time for men. Her lifelong goal had gone up in flames and she was trying to figure out her new path in life. She’d begun outlining a book, but every time she was interrupted, she’d lose track of where she was going and have to start all over again. It was frustrating.
She couldn’t allow a man to make her even more unfocused. She was going to do a great story that centered on the school she’d gone to, adding a lot of fiction, of course, but also shedding light on the history of the building and so many more like it. She’d be able to reach many more than she could by tying herself to a door to only be dragged away and then having that building torn down anyway.
She’d always worked so hard that sometimes she’d forget to eat. She loved feeling that way, loved being so obsessed with her missions that she didn’t want to stop. Passion led to great work. Good passion, not the passion that invaded your body and made you utterly mindless.
Ugh! She paced some more.
It was a cool morning and she told herself she was doing it to keep warm, not because she was frustrated. She’d lie to herself all day long, though, if it made her feel better.
Her gramps — the man who’d raised her with love, understanding, and ethics — had told her he’d sold the property because she had enough to worry about without having to deal with the land. She’d told him she didn’t want it sold. He’d said that was why he’d done it behind her back, that he’d done it out of love.
He’d put one hundred percent of the proceeds into an account for her. There was no way she was touching that money. Not a chance. In her mind, it was tainted. It had come from a big corporate guy who was going to ruin the land. She’d had visions of turning that property into a public park, maybe even having a center built for at-risk youth. There were so many things that could be done with the land that had been in her family for such a long time.
But now it was gone.
She’d spoken to an attorney so she was very aware she didn’t have any legal ground to stand on. Her grandfather had owned the land. He’d chosen to sell it legally. He was of sound mind. So her only option was to appeal to Hudson’s conscience and get him to sell the land back to her. She didn’t want the money. She wanted the land.
She didn’t see Hudson’s monstrous gas-guzzling truck pull up to his construction trailer until nearly nine that morning. It figured he wouldn’t show up to work until midday for most people. She waited for him to exit his truck, her arms crossed, her foot tapping the gravel.
He didn’t say a word as he climbed from the dusty rig and moved toward her. But the smile on his face was enough to make her stomach clench. She pushed that feeling right back down where it belonged. She wasn’t going all fluttery again in this man’s presence. How in the world did he manage to get that reaction from her in the first place? She couldn’t remember responding to any man like that — not once in her life. It was unnerving. He should be nothing more than a distant memory by now. If she thought about it, she could convince herself the sex hadn’t been all that good.
And if she wanted to keep lying to herself, that was just fine.