Page 71 of Sensing Selma
“Is it any better than the first ones?”
He chuckled. “I learned of how he acquired your father’s property. It’s something that I’ve wondered about from the start. I finally got in touch with the notary who informed me that my brother had won Selma Sanctuary in a card game.”
“What?” I frowned. How could my father be so irresponsible?
“When I confronted Jeremy, he admitted that Mr.Selma was quite inebriated at the time. And while he was fully aware that it was a callous and unfair thing to do, he nonetheless held your father to his wager. The property was to be Jeremy’s.”
Seething, I turned away from him. All this; the move, my mother’s failing health, the push to start a new life...all because of a lousy bet. I didn’t know whether to be mad at my father for putting us in such a precarious position or Jeremy for taking advantage of a drunken old man.
Both, I finally concluded.
“But, Susan,” Brad said. “I’ve given my brother an ultimatum. I should have done it a long time ago. Truth be told, this isn’t the first time he’s played a little loose with laws...and morals.”
“What ultimatum have you given him?”
“I quit. If he doesn’t give Selma Sanctuary back to you and your family, I will never work for him again.”
“He must not have taken that very well.”
He shook his head as a crooked smile came to his lips. “Oh, no. He did not like that at all. At first, he ordered me out of the room. Then he whined as he told me that it was his desperate attempt at making a go of this development company. Finally, he admitted that he’d been a bit of a louse.”
“A bit?”
He laughed. “Give him a chance. It took a lot for him to admit he was a louse at all. As clumsy as it all was, he really did want to make a success of our development company. Our last projects hadn’t been as profitable as he would have liked, and he thought this was a sure thing.”
“So what is he going to do now?”
“I spent the last three days going over our books. A while back, Jeremy had temporarily hired a girlfriend to do our accounting. She made a major mistake. Actually, she’d made several mistakes. By the time I got everything in order, we were half a million in the black as opposed to being a quarter million in the red.”
“So, this means...?” I feared saying it aloud. I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
I’d seen the last few weeks play out...Keely’s movie was almost done. My work for her was almost over. I’d had the constant thought that we would have to move on at some point...soon. We couldn’t stay at Moon Manor forever. This whole adventure would come to an end, and we’d have to find our own home.
Brad reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys; Selma Sanctuary’s keys.
I looked at them in disbelief. Unable to reach out to take them, I simply brought my hand over my astonished and gaping mouth.
“It’s all yours again,” he said softly.
Tears blurred my vision as I stared at those keys.
He jiggled them. “They’re yours.”
With a giggle, I grabbed them out of his hand and reached up to hug him. “Oh, Brad. Thank you. Thank you so much. Mother will be so happy. You have no idea.”
I pulled back, but he held me, his hands warm on my waist. “I assure you that I didn’t do all this simply with the intention of...well, of winning you back. But I do think it’s important that you know how I really feel about you.”
I looked at him in silence, unable to say a word.
“I do believe I fell in love with you the very first moment I saw you. I thought it might simply be infatuation, just a passing fancy. When my brother pushed me to leave Selma Sanctuary, I thought...okay. I’ll get over you. I’ll move on. But it didn’t work out that way. I thought of you constantly.” He chuckled. “My heart refused to forget you...to let you go.”
I couldn’t keep from smiling. “It hurt so much to learn that you were gone. I hated you.”
He nodded, pulling me closer to him. “I know. But if you give me a chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life making you forget that misstep, and making you fall in love with me.”
Happy tears stung my eyes.
“Will you give me another chance?”
