“Sorry I couldn’t get by to see you before now, but Seth and I have been pretty busy,” she said.
“Newlyweds usually are,” Luke teased.
A glimpse of Ali’s tight expression told him she wasn’t all that pleased with her twin’s enthusiastic greeting. Given the fact that Audra had been on the back of his Harley when he left Trillium, as eager as he to get the hell out, he figured he understood that. And still, he couldn’t keep from hugging her back.
Dane’s exclamation ended Luke’s reverie.
“Whoa, Al, look at you!” Dane whistled. Luke couldn’t be sure but he thought Audra poked her brother in the ribs, after which Dane coughed and said, “I mean, I’ve always liked that outfit.”
Ali flushed, but then settled back into her chair. After taking a sip of her coffee, she said, “Luke was mentioning that he thought if we could add some acreage to the golf course, it might make it more aesthetically pleasing.”
“And safer for golfers,” Luke inserted. “Insurance premiums being what they are, that’s something to take into consideration.”
“But another hundred acres,” Dane began, pulling out the plat map from the stack of files he’d brought with him. “Where would we pick up that kind of land?”
“It doesn’t have to be a single parcel,” Luke said, following Dane to the table.
He stood just between Ali and Dane’s chairs and his arm brushed her shoulder when he leaned over for a better look at the map. He was wearing cologne, the same crisp yet subtle scent he’d always favored. It had Ali inhaling deeply and remembering. She forced her attention back to the map. They had shaded in the acreage they planned to purchase. It was a sizable tract that snaked along one edge of the resort’s property line.
“Do the Dohertys still own this chunk of land?” Luke asked, tapping his finger on a pie-shaped chunk.
“Yes and they’re not budging,” Audra commented. She leaned one hip on the table on the opposite side of Dane and sighed. “We’ve already dangled the carrot.”
“There’s a rumor that the Tollmans are interested in getting rid of the thirty-five acres behind their beach-front cottage,” Dane said. “A good portion of it is wetland, though.”
“For a golf course, you need to think of it as a hazard, not a wetland,” Luke said, smiling. “Do you think some of it might be usable?”
Before her brother could answer, Ali gave voice to the idea that had been kicking around in her head since the conversation began.
“What if in addition to the acreage we’re planning to purchase, we use part of the resort’s property?” She angled in her seat so she could look at Luke. One glance at those liquid eyes nearly had her forgetting what she was planning to say.
“Go on,” he coaxed and his gaze dipped to her lips as if in anticipation of the words.
“We—we’ve been thinking of adding half a dozen cottages in the woods. I was just thinking, what if we reconfigured the entire setup of the resort’s existing three hundred acres, factoring in the golf course and the additional land? We could give some of the old cottages fairway views and add new structures to some of the other holes once the course is complete.”
His eyebrows notched up and then he grinned in a way that stole her breath.
“Do you play?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Golf. Do you play?”
“I don’t really have time for games,” she replied even though she did indeed play. She could feel her face heating under his scrutiny and knew without looking that her sister was smiling smugly and Dane had crossed his arms over his chest.
“Pity.” Luke shrugged. “Life’s not much fun without a little recreation. What do you do to relax?”
“I work.”
“Hmm. I wonder what your boyfriend thinks about that?”
“Her boyfriend?” Audra blurted out.
“Bradley Townsend isn’t…bothered in the least by the fact that I enjoy my job,” Ali replied.
None of it was a lie. She hadn’t called him her boyfriend. And during their one date he hadn’t complained at all about her demanding career.
“Are you going to see Townsend again?” Dane asked.
“Saturday.” She cleared her throat. “Can we get back to business? Please.”
Luke straightened and walked back around to his chair. “I like the idea,” he said, settling onto the seat. “The reason I asked if you played golf, Ali, is I think you hit a hole-in-one with that plan.”
She flushed again, this time for a very different reason. She almost hated herself for it. What did it matter what he thought of her? She wasn’t out to please Luke Banning. She crossed her legs, tugged at the hem of her skirt and tried to convince herself she wasn’t lying.
Three hours later, Luke and the Conlans emerged from the room with a partnership forged and their signatures drying on the thick stack of paperwork their various lawyers had had a hand in drawing up.
“When will you be heading back to New York?” Audra asked.
Luke had planned to leave Trillium that afternoon. He had two meetings scheduled in Manhattan on Friday and plans to attend an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Rochelle Bullard on Saturday.
Now, the thought of returning to his penthouse held no appeal. He told himself it was just that he hadn’t had much time off in recent months. He was due a vacation and, besides, he’d never made it out to his grandmother’s cottage. He should check on it and then look into putting it on the market.
The thought of selling it made him unexpectedly sad. He wasn’t a sentimental man. In business, he couldn’t afford to be. In his personal life, he just plain didn’t care to be. His relationship with Rochelle, for instance, was casual and hardly headed in the direction of serious. He glanced at Ali and wondered if her date with the developer on Saturday would end with a chaste peck or a sweaty tussle between the sheets. He felt a muscle tick in his cheek at the disturbing visual his thoughts conjured up.
In response to Audra’s question he heard himself say, “I haven’t decided when I’ll leave.”
Ali sat on the rear deck of her cottage that evening and watched the setting sun shimmer in hues of pink of gold over Lake Michigan. Dane and Audra had gone to dinner with Luke. Seth would be meeting them. Ali had made excuses and headed for home, eager for some time alone.
As soon as she’d walked through the cottage’s door, she’d poured herself a glass of wine, turned on some vintage Bonnie Raitt and shed her clothes along with Audra’s killer shoes. They’d looked great, but they had proved anything but comfortable.
Now, dressed in blue jeans and an oversize University of Michigan sweatshirt, she sipped merlot and thanked God that even before knowing Luke would be on Trillium, she had scheduled a couple of days off from the resort. She saw no reason to change her plans now. She wasn’t a coward, but the less she saw of Luke Banning, the better.
Having made that determination, her gaze drifted down to the beach and she nearly bobbled her wine.
“Hey, Ali!” Luke called out, hiking up the grassy incline to the deck wearing a cocky grin that put her teeth on edge.
Wouldn’t it just figure that she was back in jeans with her feet bare