Page 62 of Unexpected Entanglement

“Me?” Rowan challenged, chest thrusted in pride. “Thanks for the confidence, bro.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Kieran brushed off Rowan’s objection. “The chance is slim. But we don’t have any choice. We got to keep up with the ruse, but you guys better come up with a plausible story to tell when you’re asked, and they will ask. When did you meet, where, and how? Some people who knew Dad most likely know you were with Richard until recently. And suddenly, you just got yourself engaged to the next man you met?”

“Who’s Richard?” Chris asked.

“That’s your first question after all that?” Rowan glared at him.

“Richard is Rowan’s ex-boyfriend of five years,” Kieran answered.

“You were with this Richard for five years?” Chris asked Rowan. “Why did you break up?”

“Seriously?” Rowan rolled her eyes. “Can we get back to the subject, please? Subjects, actually.”

She turned to Kieran. “You agree that someone might be sabotaging us?”

“It looks like it, doesn’t it?” Kieran’s face hardened again. “And I might have a suspect.”

“Who?” Rowan demanded.

“Who else? Connor Gibbes. He’s been eyeing our property for at least a decade. Dad shouldn’t have sold any of it to him. Now that he’s gone, Gibbes is like a raptor flying in a circle, biding his time to strike. And Chris’ presence here must’ve made him nervous enough to come and nose around here. Now I bet he will be unpleasant to Chris at the meeting…”

Kieran turned his gaze to Chris. “If you were considering buying this property, you’d change your mind.”

“I can handle unpleasant,” Chris stated.

Kieran nodded. “We need to show a united front. We need to get our story straight.”

“Okay.” Rowan nodded in agreement.

“You need to turn your charm on and help Rowan win our opponents over because she surely isn’t doing it,” Kieran added to Chris.

“Hey!” Rowan protested. “You know why they don’t like me. Or Bobbie and Morgan, or the few other female business owners in the community.”

“Well, that’s a different fight altogether,” Kieran said. “For now, we just need to show the Chamber that the inn will operate again, and when it does, it will be good for the community. That’s the only way to get Gibbes to back off. And hopefully, these incidents will stop.”

“So you’re not going to report them?” Chris didn’t like the sound of it. “You need to get them on the record.”

“What would the police do? They’d look at this and say it’s an accident.”

“What about the footprint?”

“Could’ve been one of our ground maintenance guys,” Kieran added. “Look, we’ll keep this evidence. And if something else happens, we’ll talk again about the police. This is a small community, Chris. Gibbes has friends in every office on the island.”

Chris understood power. Even in a small community, there was always someone in power. And it wasn’t always the obvious person.

twenty

Rowan turned into the Chamber’s lot and parked in an empty spot. She turned off the ignition and gathered her stuff. Her hand reached her head to adjust her hat but only met hair. She forgot.

Her arm dropped, and she let out a frustrated sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Chris, sitting next to her, asked.

“I don’t get it. Where could my hat be?” she wondered.

They’d looked again for her hat this morning, but nothing.

“Your hair looks beautiful,” he told her. “You don’t need the hat.”

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