Page 54 of Resting Beach Face
“Stop it,” I said sternly.
“Never. I live to rile you up.”
I leaned the broom against the wall and clicked the call over to the other line—only to discover it was Nathan. Shit. He’d texted me twice this week already about the development deal I’d unofficially agreed to before Cash convinced me to try another plan.
I wasn’t ready to cut off this avenue of possibility—not until I was sure that Cash and I could actually pull off all the repairs this place needed—so I needed to stall.
“Hey, Nate, it’s late to be calling, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” he said lightly. “You know I go on all cylinders until nearly midnight.”
“Right. Yeah. I guess I’d forgotten about that.”
He chuckled. “You’ll remember soon enough when you’re back in the city. That backwoods place has you acting like a senior citizen.”
I winced. First my sister pointing out my age gap with Cash, and now Nathan calling me old. I was really winning today.
“I’m actually busy with something,” I said, shaking out a trash bag noisily.
“What are you doing, making a kill room?” He laughed. “Maybe I should call you Dexter.”
“Yeah, obviously that’s the most common use for plastic and not trash bags,” I said dryly.
“Well, this will only take a minute. I just wanted to see if you got that paperwork I faxed over.”
“Uh, yeah, I think so.”
“You haven’t looked at it?”
“Well…”
“Declan! These guys won’t wait forever. It’s great you gave us a yes, but we need to get all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted. This is a big project.”
“Right, I know,” I said, stomach squirming with guilt. “I just want to be sure before I sign anything.”
“What do you mean?” His voice sharpened. “I thought youweresure.”
“It’s a big decision. I said yes to considering a deal, but there’s no taking it back once I sign.”
“I know. There’s also no moving forward until you do.” His voice took on an edge. “I vouched for you. I went out on a limb. Don’t screw me, man.”
His vehemence had unsettled me.
“I never asked for that.”
“I know,” he said, “but we’re friends.”
“I don’t want to yank you around, but this is too important to rush. If you can’t wait?—”
“I didn’t say that,” he said hurriedly. “Of course we can wait a reasonable amount of time. A few days?”
I exhaled. “Maybe this was a bad idea. I don’t want to hold up a project, and it sounds like these guys are in a hurry.”
“A couple weeks then,” Nate said. “I’ll explain you’re having a lawyer examine the paperwork. It’s smart to be thorough.”
I hadn’t said I was doing that, but it was a good explanation. Still, I didn’t want Nathan to pay for my indecision. “If the developer needs to move on and consider other locations, I’ll understand.”
“Nah, I’ll smooth it over. No worries.”
