Page 39 of The Christmas Eve Delivery

“I’ve been keeping track of some of your projects,” Donald started. “I understand this big resort that you have been wantingto put in Upstate isn’t going so smoothly. I looked into some of your other, smaller, projects. You’ve got a few strip malls around. Those are always a good investment.”

He was right. The resort was a master plan. But until that master plan could come to fruition, I kept other, smaller projects—as he mentioned, a few strip malls here and there—on the books. I had also invested in the development of a small chain of commercial storage companies. Projects that didn’t require a large outlay of money or funds but always brought in an exponentially larger proportion of income.

“Are you looking to buy into strip malls, specifically?” I asked since some investors were very keen on specific types of investing.

“Not exactly. I’m looking at the big picture of what you have going on. I believe that if you can make this resort happen, you’ll be in a very satisfactory financial position.”

“That’s the goal,” I agreed. “So, you’ve changed your mind about investing with my group?”

Donald sat back with a smirk on his face. It was the same expression I remember from our last meeting when he tried to pull the rug out from under me by showing me the flyer to the Historical Society meetings.

“I would like to consider investing in the big picture while securing a percentage of your resort project.”

“That’s doable, very doable,” I said.

“How soon can you have the numbers sent over to my office?”

I should be able to pull a standard investment agreement together in only a few hours, but the addition of the resort, andwhat percentage he was looking at, was going to add a little bit of work to the overall project. I kept a very generic spreadsheet with information he wanted on my computer. I could hand him a printout, but it wouldn’t include the breakout that he wanted for the resort, and if he wanted the specific percentages allotted to our different projects, that would take additional time. I needed to know exactly what he wanted so that I could deliver to his expectations.

“I could have something on your desk first thing Monday morning without any problems.”

He looked contemplative for a moment and then stood. He glanced at his watch.

“I have an appointment with my wife that she will divorce me for large quantities of money for if I am late. I will have my secretary send over the allocation breakdown that I think would be most beneficial, and then you can provide the necessary documentation based on that. I probably won’t have anything to you as soon as Monday, but you can expect it next week,” he announced.

I stood and offered my hand out to shake.

“I’m very glad you took this opportunity to stop in today,” I said.

“I don’t like to waste my time when I come into the city. This seemed like the best use of the extra hour I had before curtain call,” he said, confirming my suspicions about his taking in a show. “Take your time getting those numbers back to me. Make sure they’re done right.”

“Absolutely,” I said. I shook his hand, and he excused himself and walked out. I watched him leave and wondered if maybe he thought I sounded entirely too eager when I said I couldhave numbers to him by Monday. I was, but I was used to investors wanting to know numbers immediately. I didn’t quite understand how this man conducted business. If he wanted to throw his money in my direction, I would take the effort to do things his way. Maybe with a fresh infusion of investor funds, I’d be able to push through some purchases in Brookdale.

I packed a small bag hoping that I would run into Lydia again and she wouldn’t be so angry with me that I didn’t end up staying a few extra days. It seemed that every time I saw her, I ended up staying with her, and I stayed even longer than I intended.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t get away from her. It’s that I didn’t want to get away from her. When I was with Lydia, I wanted to stay with her.

She saw something in me and brought out something in me that I didn’t recognize in myself. I only wanted to make her happy. I wanted to make her life less painful. She should have everything that she wanted, and knowing that what she wanted was the renovations on that inn of hers made me the worst kind of hypocrite.

And what was worse, I knew it, and I should stay away from her because of it.

I knew I was going to Brookdale strictly to find her under the excuse of trying to secure properties for this resort which I was seriously beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.

The next morning’s flight was uneventful. And as anticipated, the drive was made more pleasant by the surrounding bright, fiery colors of fall.

As I pulled into Brookdale, I was not surprised to find the downtown area decorated with giant sunflowers and hay bale stacks, pumpkins, and other gourds in a generally fall, festive manner. After all, decorating the small downtown area seemed to be Mayor Dan’s favorite pastime. He made sure that the downtown area looked like some kind of postcard.

I drove past several people walking down the street and didn’t think anything of it. I noticed a rather familiar but very obviously pregnant woman. She looked a lot like Lydia.

I slammed on the car brakes. Fortunately, nobody was behind me to run into me and cause an accident.

That woman didn’t look like Lydia. That woman was Lydia.

I maneuvered the car to turn around so that I could pull up and park along the street. I got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk ahead of her. She gave me the biggest smile.

“Miles, is that you?”

21

---