Seduction on the Sand (The Billionaires of Barefoot Bay #2)(31)

Elliott looked from one to the other. “She doesn’t want to sell,” he finally said. “The land has sentimental value to her.”

“Sentimental value?” Nate’s voice rose in shock. “Surely you offered enough money to crush any sentiment.”

“It’s family land, Nate. You understand family.”

“I understand that I’d like to shoot mine.” He curled his lip. “Did I say that?”

“Yeah.” Elliott tilted his head toward the next table and lowered his voice. “And you better shut up or that’ll be online in about three minutes.”

“Listen to me.” Nate pointed at Zeke, his voice low and soft. “You’re thinking with your heart. And you”—he shifted the finger to Elliott—“are thinking with your dick. I guess that leaves me to use a brain.”

“I am not,” Elliott denied. If he had been thinking with his dick, he’d have had her in bed already instead of waiting to clean up this mess that he made first.

“Your tongue is hanging out to the floor,” Zeke agreed.

Nate just shook his head, disgusted, as an older woman slowly approached their table, tentatively holding out a pen and paper. “Excuse me, but are you Nathaniel Ivory?”

He pushed his sunglasses back on, as if that could hide the truth.

“Could you...” She offered the pen to him.

Nate scratched his signature, but gruffly refused a picture. When she walked away, he threw back the rest of his champagne and pushed up. “Now it’ll be all over Twitter that I’m an * who won’t let my picture be taken. I’m out of here. If you need me, I’ll be on my forty-million-dollar yacht.

Or, as some call it”—he gave a lazy grin, softening his famous Ivory family jawline—“the party barge.”

He walked away, sunglasses in place, body language set to bother me and you die.

“What’s the bug up his ass?” Elliott asked Zeke when they were alone.

Zeke shrugged. “He’s been acting strange. Lying even lower than usual. Maybe another Ivory family scandal on the horizon?”

“What day isn’t there an Ivory family scandal on the horizon?”

Zeke looked around, frowning as he zeroed in on someone on the other side of the restaurant. “Hey, isn’t that your goat girl?”

Elliott turned to see two women chatting under an awning, his gaze drawn to the familiar one. The beautiful one. The one he wanted more than his next freaking breath. How had that even happened to him? “She said she had a meeting here with—”

“Jocelyn Palmer,” Zeke supplied.

“How’d you know that?”

“She’s the one we were just talking about. Will Palmer’s wife.” Zeke frowned and gave Elliott’s arm a warning tap. “Will knows about the baseball stadium, so it’s a safe bet his wife does, too. And Will knew where we were going to put it, so...”

“So, shit.” Elliott pushed up. “I should find an excuse to get those two apart.”

Zeke pulled out his phone. “Good, you’re leaving. I’ll call Mandy.” His voice was totally without sarcasm, just...happiness.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” Elliott asked.

Zeke beamed. “Like nothing I’ve ever known.”

That hollow feeling that had gotten so familiar in the last few days deepened in his chest. “Do me a favor and look into that other land. I’ll cover the clearing costs, no matter how astronomical they are.

I’m getting out of the first deal I made.”

“I will. I’ll work on it this afternoon, but you have to do me a favor,” Zeke replied.

“Whatever you need, buddy.”



“Don’t fight it.”

Elliott knew exactly what the other man meant. “I’m...working on it.”

“No, I mean it.” Zeke stood up to level Elliott with a straight gaze. “You always go for the effortless way out of things. If it’s real, it’s worth doing the tough stuff, even if it hurts.”

“Tough? I’ve been living in a trailer and cleaning up goat shit for her.”

“It can get much tougher than that, my friend. Especially if you want it to be real.”

Elliott turned again to look at her, just at the very moment she spotted him. Her face brightened, and her smile blinded and, damn it, his every nerve cell threatened to fry. Felt real enough.

“It is real,” he said softly, unable to take his eyes off her.

“Not as long as you’re lying to her, it’s not.”

His heart dropped a little. “Look, I’m going to tell her everything, but not until after I call that lawyer and kill the deal. It can’t be pending, she’ll never believe me. I’ll track him down this afternoon and pull the offer that I put in.”

“And then what?”

“Then I’ll tell her and...” He finally turned to Zeke. “Who knows, Einstein? Maybe the Niners will be looking for two replacements.”

Zeke gave him a nudge. “Get ’er done, cowboy.”

Elliott snorted. “I’m no more of a cowboy than you are.”

“But you are a straight shooter. If you want to talk to Burns first, do it, but make it right with her as soon as you can.”