The Last House Guest(88)

My one regret is I didn’t get to see Grant’s face when he realized what I had done.



* * *




IN THE WINTER OF last year, I’d sold everything I had to the Sylvas. A strip of plots up on the overlook that I’d been holding on to for myself. All hidden under the name of an LLC.

I’d started investing years earlier with the money from the sale of my grandmother’s house. Cash from the Lomans themselves when they bought my grandmother’s place. Bianca was the only one who ever asked where my money had gone. Grant, it seemed, wasn’t paying attention.

There was nothing in my contract with the Lomans that prevented me from setting out on my own. Making my own investments. So I took that first sum and invested it with a small group in a plot of land a few towns up the coast.

We’d flipped it, each took our share of the proceeds, kept moving.

I had an eye for it and the guts to do it. And apparently, those were the two main ingredients of success. To risk everything for a chance.

It was the start of a new season in Littleport, and we were here today to toast the beginning of something—a joint venture with Faith, renting out their new properties.

Greg Randolph had once called me Sadie’s monster, but he was wrong. If I were anyone’s monster, I supposed, I was Grant’s.

Taking everything he’d taught me, investing that initial money with no fallback. Risking everything, over and over, on investment properties in towns up and down the coast. Believing there was something that would keep people coming—the power of the ocean, the vastness of it, the secrets it promised—and they did.

It was reckless, maybe, with no fallback, and no promises.

But Littleport has always been the type of place that favors the bold.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Thank you to everyone who helped see this project from its earliest idea to the final book:

My agent, Sarah Davies, for all of the wonderful support, on this and every book.

My editors, Karyn Marcus and Marysue Rucci, for the sharp insight, guidance, and encouragement at every step along the way, from first idea to finished product. And to the entire team at Simon & Schuster, including Richard Rhorer, Jonathan Karp, Zack Knoll, Amanda Lang, Elizabeth Breeden, and Marie Florio. I’m so fortunate to get to work with you all!

Thank you also to my critique partners, Megan Shepherd, Ashley Elston, and Elle Cosimano, for all of your feedback and support.

And lastly, as always, to my family.