Page 6 of Tempting Me

His sigh is loud and clear.

“Not even close. This time change has her so lost, and I told Leslie I’d be on night duty tonight so she could sleep.”

Leslie is my brother's wife and the most patient woman I know. Maybe it’s because she grew up in France and everything is different there. All I know is that my brother met her the second week of college and they have been together ever since. They live here in Lovers and have three girls now, but with the new baby, they are back in France to see her family for the summer. Both my brother and sister-in-law have remote jobs, so it works for them. My parents are also there because they’ve never been to Europe. They are making a whole trip of it and will fly back at the end of the summer with Leo and Leslie.

Right now, I’m more than grateful none of them are here to witness my current dilemma.

“That was nice of you.”

“Yeah, well, it’s the least I could do. It doesn't matter that I’ve been practicing this language for more than a decade. Leslie does almost all the translations everywhere we go, so we need her to be well-rested.”

I let out a slight laugh. My brother really does suck at speaking French.

“How’s the trip outside of that?”

“Good. The girls love it here. I think it’s more about thefact that they currently have both sets of grandparents around. Spoiled doesn’t even begin to describe how the days go for them.”

“They should be spoiled. They are Parker girls. We expect nothing less.”

“Don’t I know it. Anyway, how's The Marina going?”

“Good,” I answer quickly. “Really good.”

“I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with it. Is that Brent guy picking up the pace?”

“Mm-hmm,” I say. It's not a lie. He sure got to it when he drove out of town.

“That’s nice to hear. I was worried when he was still behind schedule as we left.”

“Oh, yeah, well, the weather is shaping up again, so we are making better progress.”

Now that was a lie.

“I’m glad. I think Mom and Dad are having so much fun that the idea of selling that place is more appealing now that they could start traveling more.”

“If they just sold it to me, we could all have what we want,” I remind him.

“You know they won’t sell to you until they see you turn a profit. They won’t sell a failing business to their daughter. You can't blame them for that.”

No. I can’t. I just don’t understand how I left for college and they just let it fall apart. Leo cares about The Marina, but he never dreamed of running it himself one day, and he cares about his family more, which is understandable. Letting him run it while he was starting a family wasn’t the right move, but I wasn’t around to voice that opinion. No, I was away at school, earning a degree in business, doubling up on coursesover the summer to get back here as quickly as possible just so I could run The Marina one day. It’s been my plan since I was a kid when my parents would let me help out over the summers in the store or in the restaurant and I saw how happy this place made people. I loved the atmosphere and the people at The Marina. Now, I’m finally here to pick up the pieces and time is running out.

“Shay, did you hear me?”

“What?”

“How much do you think you’ll have done before we get back?”

“Enough,” I tell him.

“Enough? Shay, it’s the first of June. We are coming back in September. You don’t have much time.”

“I know. You don’t have to remind me.”

My tone is snappy, but he brings up the deadline at least once a week.

“I’m not trying to bring you down. I just don't want you to waste more time on something that might not make it.”

My eyes sting. Not because he’s hurting my feelings but more because after today, he might be right.

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