Page 61 of To Believe In You
“I certainly would have no part in violence.”
“Then why, when all else failed, did he try to talk me into selling The Captain’s Vista?”
“He must want the commission.”
“He’s representing you in the sale?” Lina picked at her thumbnail with tense fingers. “You both stand to earn more if I give up The Captain’s Vista.”
Dad scoffed. “Lina, please.”
Anger simmered in her chest. “You said you were sending a gift, and not long after, Shane showed up, claiming you sent him.”
“Itwasa gift.” His voice snapped with accusation. “I happen to have the utmost respect for the man, and he’s convinced he wants to win you back. You could do much worse, so I decided to help him show you reason, but I obviously can’t make up your mind for you. If you’re bent on rejecting him, you will.”
Lina’s disappointment settled in like a mangy cat. “He started a fist fight at Gannon Vaughn’s wedding.”
“That was not my doing.”
She could mention the way Shane had grabbed her, but he wouldn’t believe her without the same kind of proof required to obtain a restraining order. She focused instead on her dad’s side of the situation. “Whatwasyour doing? The idea? The airplane ticket?” Her arm felt too weak to keep holding the phone to her ear. She adjusted to rest her elbow on her knee. “All of it?”
“People make mistakes, Lina. You’re alone in this world because you wrote off the man you intended to marry over one perceived lapse in judgment. He’s offered to pay you back repeatedly, but you won’t return his calls, so what’s he supposed to do?”
“That’s not true.”
He continued over her. “Without a family, who will you leave your fortune to? Or do you intend to spend it all?”
She was still plenty young to start a family, if the Lord chose to provide the right man. If not, she’d handpicked charities as her beneficiaries. But the part about spending it all didn’t deserve a reply.
Dad wasn’t in the listening mood anyway. “I suppose you’ll squander it through mismanagement, not spending.”
“You’re the one who’s lost fortunes, Dad, not me.”
“This conversation has run its course. I’ll let you go.” He disconnected.
Lina’s arm slumped away from her ear. She’d thought she and her father would someday mend their rift, but his involvement in Shane’s return to her life seemed to suggest the chasm between them, dug by his disregard for her, was too great. Matt had been right to suggest she set boundaries with Shane, and she ought to establish some with her father as well.
If only boundaries would heal her aching heart.
17
Matt stopped talking to his student mid-sentence when Lina disappeared into the back hall with her phone to her ear.
Shane? Or her parents?
Either way, he hurried through some final instructions and wrapped up his lesson a few minutes early. He saw his student out, but Lina hadn’t returned to the office area.
Tim paced near the front window, working on his phone when he wasn’t glaring toward the rear hall.
Matt would much rather have Tim’s gruff manners pointed at him than at her. He stopped where he could obscure Tim’s view of the back entrance. “You need something?”
“She told me what happened. I’m following her home, if she ever decides to leave.”
“She ask you to follow her?” A flare of jealousy fired the question. If she needed an escort home, why hadn’t she asked?
“I offered.”
Matt should’ve more wisely used the few seconds he had before Tim and Chris showed up. But then, he hadn’t been sure of where he and Lina stood and hadn’t wanted to do anything to inspire her to reject him outright.
Besides, she may have had practical reasons for not asking Matt for help. He’d come from a shift at the home improvement store and was due at the pizza place twenty minutes after his last lesson here.
