Page 70 of The Hermit on the Hill

"No."

"Well, I have. And I can tell you from experience there are very few people in this world who give a shit about anyone but themselves. Folks in this town, they pretend to care only as long as it's convenient or as long as the people they help meet certain criteria. Their kind of caring is almost worse than the lack of it in a big city where no one knows who you are, because you feel the rejection and the ostracizing even more here. It doesn't matter who owns the businesses, the town will go on and people will deal." He shrugged. "Or they won't. Sam is like a brother to me and if this is what he needs to get his head straight and find a way forward, a way to be happy, I won't lose a minute of sleep over doing what he asks. I'll walk away with a fat bank account, and I'll be able to get on with my life knowing Sam is getting on with his."

"You're a good friend to him," I said. "But I can't be with someone I can't trust."

"I get that. I do. But you should know that as angry as you are at Sam, he's angrier at himself. I'd be willing to bet the real reason he didn't tell you the whole story has nothing to do with the investors coming in and everything to do with that night on the mountain when he watched his grandmother die."

"What do you mean?"

"He's never admitted it, but he blames himself for her death more than he blames anyone in this town. That's what he believes you'll never be able to forgive, that he watched his grandmother die and did nothing to help her."

"He was just a little boy." I pressed a hand to my chest, because it ached with the tears I refused to shed.

"He doesn't see that as an excuse. If he can't forgive himself, how could he ever expect you to forgive him?"

Marcus started the truck and drove me to Sam's house.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Sam

Jenna walked through my front door and into my office, arms crossed over her chest, glare in place. I'd finally convinced her to stop hiding how she really felt from me, and I was going to have to leave her.

I knew exactly what kind of day she'd had, because George fucking Gregory had called to give me a heads up. No idea why he felt the need to interfere or how he got my number. He claimed he wanted to help, that the town's reaction showed they were plenty mad and we needed a big grand gesture to win them over.

Maybe he thought I'd drive back to that festival and stand beside Jenna while the town ran roughshod over her.

I wasn't some naïve, starry-eyed idiot like George Gregory. Me next to Jenna would only have made things worse for her.

Jenna curled up in a chair near my desk and let out a sigh, clearly exhausted. "Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

While Jenna had been at the festival, Marcus and I had spent the morning figuring out Davis Developers had been the investors stirring up trouble. They'd wanted to push us to make a decision by cluing the town into what we were really up to.

All I'd done was float the idea to a few investors to see if I'd be able to generate interest from deep pockets. That was all it had taken to convince Davis Developers they wanted in and were willing to fight to get it.

Marcus and I had spent the rest of the day reviewing our options. None of them were good. Once we sold to a developer, I couldn't guarantee Jenna's family's businesses wouldn't be affected negatively, and that was a risk I wasn't willing to take.

I hadn't decided yet to call the whole thing off, because I needed a day or two to decide on the best course of action. I wouldn't officially pull the plug until I'd made sure Marcus got his payout.

If I were a better man, I'd get on my knees and apologize to Jenna. I'd announce to the town that I would never sell to a developer. I'd stand with Jenna and play nice with the townsfolk until they warmed up to me. But that was a fantasy.

Reality was that the town would never forget and forgive. And I'd never allow Jenna and my son to be ostracized because of me. Today it might be someone glaring at them on Main Street. Tomorrow it could be them sick and alone with no one to help them.

I shuffled some papers on my desk to avoid her eyes. "You have a lot of family who own businesses in town. I couldn't risk them finding out the truth."

"Because you don't trust me? Or because you care about punishing this town more than you care about me?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm leaving Catalpa Creek as soon as I finalize a few things here. I've got another opportunity in Wyoming."

Something crashed upstairs, but I ignored it. Nana didn't get to have an opinion on this.

Jenna's glare intensified. Good. I needed her to hate me as much I hated myself. "Wyoming?"

"One of our potential developers likes what I started here and wants me to do the same with a resort town out there."

Resort town was a stretch, but it was the farthest I could get from Catalpa Creek, so I'd said yes.

"And what about Catalpa Creek? Are you selling it off to a developer?"

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