Page 81 of The Kiss Keeper
“Oh, no!” Marcus chimed in. “That’s where the cinnamon rolls come in. Lara and I wanted to surprise you and Leo, so we invested the majority of the practice’s capital in foot inserts that smell like cinnamon rolls. But it turns out that nobody wants their feet to smell like pastry. We lost a ton of money.”
Leslie’s jaw dropped as Leo came to her side and took her hand.
“But, Lara, that doesn’t answer how you found Charlie?” her grandmother nudged.
The woman smiled like a game show hostess. “Oh, that’s easy! We all know that grandpa won this land in a card game. I figured whoever lost it may still be mad about it. Losing a huge chunk of land in a card game would be a very foolish thing to do.”
“Like investing in cinnamon-scented shoe inserts?” Leslie said under her breath as Leo patted her back.
Lara nodded, undeterred. “Yeah, exactly! So, I searched the land records and traced the land back to the Wiscasset family. Well, there aren’t any Wiscassets around here anymore, so I did a search of women with the maiden name and then searched for their married names, and that’s how I found Mr. Linton, the real estate mogul. It was tricky. The Wiscasset family name disappeared after a few generations with the birth of all daughters, but I had a feeling a Wiscasset relative with a huge real estate business would be a good place to start.”
Leslie shook her head. “You’re smart enough to figure all that out but not able to grasp that cinnamon roll-scented shoe inserts would be a terrible idea?”
“We all have our gifts, Les. Oh! Look, Marcus! There are oatmeal raisin cookies on the dessert table,” Lara answered as her gnat-like attention span took over, and she and Marcus made a beeline for the treats.
The room remained still as Lara and Marcus raided the desserts.
“You’re a Wiscasset? I thought you grew up in Boston,” Jake said.
Charlie looked away. “My great-great-grandmother married a Wiscasset, and this land was passed down to me.”
Her grandmother stepped forward and touched Charlie’s arm. “And then you lost it, Charlie, and Hal and I built a life here. I’m sorry that you’re so bitter. If you’d only come to us, you know we would have welcomed you with open arms.”
The man’s expression softened as he met her grandmother’s gaze, but in the blink of an eye, his hardened disposition returned, and he glared at Jake.
“Mark my words, kid. You’re done in this business,” the man said, then strode out into the rain.
Natalie caught her breath and stared up at Jake.
“Natalie, I—”
“Hold on a minute,” Leslie interrupted with a beady gaze. “How do we know that Natalie’s not a part of this? What if that guy was right, and she and her boyfriend had planned to try to get this land and then sell it or develop it themselves? If you and Grandpa and Grandma signed everything over to Natalie, she could alter the family trust and take everything.”
Heat rose to Natalie’s cheeks. “I would never do that?”
“You were the one who brought Jake here. He’s your boyfriend,” Leslie challenged.
Shame flooded her system. She wasn’t the only one who’d been dishonest. Natalie glanced at Jake and knew what she had to do.
“Jake’s not my boyfriend.”
“Natalie, wait,” he said, but she raised her hand to stop him.
She steadied herself. “Here’s the truth. I met Jake at the airport on the way to Maine. I’d just gotten dumped by my boyfriend, Jake, and then I met this Jake, Jake Teller, in the security line. We became acquainted and then found ourselves on the same flight. When we got off the plane and saw Leslie and Lara at the airport, I asked, well, begged him to spend the week with me and pretend to be my boyfriend.”
“Oh my, God!” Leslie sneered as the events of Jake agreeing to her proposal took on a new light.
She turned to her fake or real or God, she didn’t know anymore, boyfriend as an awareness washed over her like a punch to the gut. “You only agreed to come after Fish met us at the baggage claim, and you learned that I was part of the Woolwich family. I thought you did it because you liked me.”
She was an idiot. A complete idiot for falling for this con man.
“I do like you, Natalie,” he pleaded.
She shook her head as the sickening sensation remained. “No, you only liked what I could do for you. You used me.”
“It’s not like that anymore,” he whispered.
“But that’s how it started, right? Otherwise, you would have told me that you knew of Camp Woolwich and that you’d come here as a boy. You don’t want me. You want this land. You’re no different than your boss.”
