“What the hell are you playing at?”
I turn away, straightening up the stacks of flyers and buttons. “What does it look like? I’m campaigning against your development. Would you like a button?” I add to a passer-by. I give her one with a big smile. “Let’s keep big business out of Beachwood Bay!”
Ash waits for them to leave before exploding. “Noelle, this is crazy!”
“No.” I fight to keep cool. “What’s crazy is you planning to destroy my business, and then acting surprised when I don’t just roll over and let you. I said I wasn’t going to let this happen without a fight.”
“But it’s a done deal.” Ash rakes his hand through his hair. “We’re going to get approval. This is all a massive waste of your time.”
“Really?” I counter, trying to ignore how good he looks, even ruffled and clearly angry. “Because I’ve been talking to people for days, and they have a lot of concerns about your plans. The noise, pollution—”
“Jobs,” Ash interrupts me. “Have you even thought about the benefits here? The hotel will bring all kinds of new employment and tourists to the area. It’s exactly what the local economy needs!”
“Maybe,” I shoot back. “But who knows what kind of tourists you’re going to attract? The last thing people here want is to be overrun with drunk college kids on Spring Break—”
“Oh, that’s bullshit and you know it.”
“Do I?” I glare at Ash, arms crossed. “I don’t know anything, remember: because you didn’t tell me.”
“Is that what all of this is about?” He gestures around, frustrated. “You’re mad at me, so you’re going to sink my whole project? How many times do I have to tell you, this wasn’t personal!”
I feel a calm settle over me. Standing here, yelling in the street, he still doesn’t realize. Part of me even pities him, to be so locked into his neat little compartmentalized life he can’t see the truth that’s right in front of him.
“You’re wrong,” I tell him simply. “It’s all personal.”
Ash opens his mouth to argue again, but I won’t let him.“No, you need to hear this, even if you ignore everything else I’m saying right now. You keep telling me ‘it’s just business,’ but you don’t understand, there’s no such thing.” I step closer, wishing I could get through to him somehow. If only he would listen, if only he could see!
“What you do every day, that’s personal. The work you set your mind to, all those big goals you achieve. Whatever you put your energies towards, it’s all personal!” My voice rises with passion. “This project right here, it affects my life; all of our lives. So does everything you do. There’s always going to be somebody on the other end of a deal, Ash. A real live person, not some faceless corporation. And hiding behind your company, pretending like it’s just numbers on a page, that’s the biggest lie of all. And you know it.”
I clench my jaw to keep it together, overwhelmed with anger and sadness and frustration for the man staring back at me. This brilliant, flawed, complicated man who has been so busy building up walls to keep his lives separate, he doesn’t even realize he’s boxed himself into a cold, lonely corner.
“This isn’t just business,” I insist, tears stinging in the back of my throat. “It’s my life. Your life. And it doesn’t matter what kind of man you think you are when you’re making these choices like none of that counts!”
I pause for air, my heart pounding. I’m braced for Ash to argue right back at me, to hold his own, but instead, he stands there, silent. For a moment, his detached mask slips, and I see the hollow pain in his eyes; something tormented and dark.
Then he turns on his heel and walks away.
My heart aches. Even after everything, I still feel the chemistry between us. He may be my biggest enemy right now, but that doesn’t stop me from waking up, breathless from a night of passionate dreams; our bodies sliding together, his arms braced tight around my waist. And when I look at him, I can’t help remembering the magical nights we spent together: how being with him gave me the courage to start this journey at all, to strike out on my own and take the risk of following my heart, no matter what the consequence.
I just hate that the path has led us here: on opposite sides of the same fight. Because I’m realizing for the first time that we both can’t win. Either Ash gets his way, and Rose Cottage is history…
Or I win, and he’ll never speak to me again.
*
I stay campaigning until all my leaflets and buttons are gone, then I pack up and head for home. The town meeting is tomorrow, and I need to prepare my speech: for every permit approval, people are allowed to argue in favor or against the plans, and although it rarely happens—the council usually just takes a basic vote—this time will be different.
This time, I have to convince them all to reject the hotel.
But when I pull up outside the B&B, there’s already a car in the driveway, a shiny rental model. And hauling a case up the front steps is a figure with a rumpled jacket—and a very familiar face.
My heart lifts. “Daddy?”
I brake hard and scramble out of the car, running over to smother him in a hug. “What are you doing here?” I cry, holding him tightly. “You didn’t say you were coming!”