Page 170 of Sing with Me

“What do you mean?”

“Clearly, you have an issue with Jared. I’ve known him since we were both kids. I can tell you that he’s tenacious. Has he offered to buy your shares?”

“No.”

“Is he hovering?”

“Like how?” Skye’s eyes widened.

“You said earlier that ‘he’s all over the place.’ What did you mean by that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Skye, you don’t want me to guess. I have a very active imagination.”

“Do you?”

“Let me take a shot at this. I’ll venture to guess that Jared is hanging out at the food festival.”

Slowly, Skye nodded. “How can you tell?”

“Typical Jared. He’s curious about you.”

Skye was surprised at Diehl. His response tonight was more detached than his reaction to seeing her with Jared at the restaurant the other night.

“Should I be worried?” Skye asked. “He showed up out of the blue. Seb doesn’t like the dude because he came on to Emmeline too a couple of years ago.”

Diehl cleared his throat. “Did Jared come on to you?”

“He wouldn’t dare.”

“Or you’ll swat him with your frying pan?” Diehl laughed.

“I’d hate to ruin one of my expensive pans, and I’ve never used it on a person before.”

“He’ll have you arrested. Then I’d have to bail you out,” Diehl said.

“But seriously, Diehl, I’m non-violent.” Skye sat back in her bed, and put her head on a pillow. “If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Sell your shares and walk away?”

“That would be my first thought. It’s not worth the trouble.”

Don’t hang on to things.

Sebastian’s words couldn’t be louder in Skye’s ears. She knew that was the right thing to do now. “Perhaps I’ll send out some feelers tomorrow. See if any of my chef friends would want to buy a forty-nine percent share of an award-winning restaurant.”

“If you can’t find anyone, I’ll buy it,” Diehl said.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to be unhappy. My business manager can get rid of it easily. Jared won’t be a happy camper, I can tell you, but business is business. Meanwhile, you can return to Skye’s the Limit and sleep easy.”

“Have you ever been in the restaurant business?” Skye asked.

“Never. But I’m just holding the ownership. I reserve the right to turn around and sell it to the highest bidder. Or if Jared wants to buy me out, he can.”

“You’d do this for me?”

“Only for you.”

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