Page 132 of Tempting Me

She steps back and waves me inside.

“I had a feeling you’d be coming by soon. I just wasn’t expecting it today.”

“Yeah, Leo hadn’t even left my house before I grabbed my keys and headed this way. What I have to say can’t wait.”

She nods.

“Hun!” she calls out, and Mr. Parker appears from the hallway that leads to Leo and Shay’s childhood rooms. His office is also back there. The same pictures from when we were kids line the walls and the same furniture we’d all pass out on after a long day in the sun still sit in the front living room.

No matter how long it’s been, I still feel at home here.

“Luca,” he says with surprise, his hands on his hips as he looks me over. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you both, too.”

I fear an awkward silence is about to fill the air. There are so many things to say, yet none of us have any idea where to begin.

“Let’s go to the dining room, and I’ll get some lemonade,” Mrs. Parker says. “I made cookies, too.”

I chuckle. Some things never change.

Mrs. Parker works quickly, and within minutes, the three of us sit down.

“I just want to start by saying that I am so, so,sosorry that we didn’t believe you, Luca,” Mr. Parker starts the conversation.

Mrs. Parker sucks in a breath, and I look in time to catch her swiping away a tear.

“You don’t need to apologize,” I start and then look at Shay’s mom again. “And you definitely don’t need to cry. Leo’s your kid. You should 100 percent believe him over me.”

“But it’s you,” Mrs. Parker whispers. “We knew you just as well as we knew him.”

I reach for her hand.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not, though.”

Her response makes me grin.

“Now I know where Shay gets her stubbornness.”

Mr. Parker laughs, and his wife finally nods.

“Which brings me to why I’m really here. I’m not here for apologies. I don’t need them, but what I do need is for you to sell The Marina to me so that I can put it in Shay’s and my name together.”

“Luca,” Mr. Parker says softly and starts to shake his head. “We don’t want to put the burden of that place on Shay.”

“It wouldn’t be on Shay alone. It would be both her and I, and with all due respect, that place is not a burden. Not to me and definitely not to Shay.”

He sighs. “It’ll take up too much of her time—and yours—and we just don’t want that for her.”

“You two deserve to have freedom and not be tied down to a place that takes so much attention,” Mrs. Parker chimes in.

“I think that’s a choice for Shay and I to make. She’s done so much to that place over the summer, and the way it’s changed in just a matter of months is only the beginning of how amazing she can and will make it.”

“Luca, this is very admirable of you, but we just can’t,” Mr. Parker says with finality.

His shoulders are drooping and she’s frowning.

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