Page 11 of Fallen Hearts

“Suit yourself. But I think you’re nuts. Clearly Papa Bennett thought it was a good idea, and if you decide to go back to work but keep the inn open, boom. Problem solved.”

“If I go back to work, I’m selling it.”

“Okay, genius, let’s think this through. You sell it. And the new owner runs it. Either way, someone other than you will be the new innkeeper.”

I fucking hated that. “You mean someone other than my dad.”

“That too.”

“Stop making fucking sense, will you?”

Parker smiled. “Someone has to have two brain cells to rub together in this group. And it’s obviously not that one.” He nodded to Beck, who’d moved on from wooing Pia and was back to his original target.

Poor woman. She didn’t stand a chance.

“At least we know he’ll never break the pact.”

My gaze shifted back to Pia. “I never worried about him breaking it.”

“I never worried about any of us breaking it. You’re a mean bastard. Cole wouldn’t get married if you paid him ten million dollars to do it. And Beck and I like variety too much.”

All true.

I watched as Pia sipped her red wine. She didn’t glance my way, but instead sat alone and looked really fucking miserable. My doing, unfortunately.

“I never thought we’d actually do it,” I said, going back to the pact we’d made in college never to marry. It had been Cole’s idea—not surprising, since his parents had a pretty shitty marriage. Everyone, including Cole and his sister, agreed they should have gotten divorced years ago, but they stayed unhappily married for convenience’s sake. And for appearances too.

“I did.”

I looked at Parker. His characteristic smile was gone.

“If my dad could cheat, anyone is capable of it. Marriage just doesn’t work.”

“Or it works too well,” I said quietly.

That was the one thing about Dad’s death I wasn’t sad about. Finally, after all these years, he was back with the woman he loved. The one whose death he never recovered from.

“Or that.”

We fell into a companionable silence until Parker blurted out, “You should keep her.”

Pia.

Truth was, it did make sense. But I wasn’t sure about working so closely with a woman as beautiful as that. I’d been able to keep up my end of the pact by dating women who I couldn’t see myself with for more than a night. Pia did not fall into that category. My attraction to her was so fucking strong, the second she started talking I knew I was in trouble.

“I should. But I won’t,” I said with a finality that Parker accepted.

She finally met my gaze.

And stood up.

5

PIA

Screw it.

No one ever got ahead in life by sitting on the sidelines and letting other people carry the ball. If I wanted this job to be my fuck you to the jerk who passed me over for a promotion I deserved, one I’d more than earned, then I actually needed the job.

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