Chapter 19

Kyle followed Pepper out the back door, across the rear lawn, and down to the water's edge where she had lawn chairs set up for guests to use. He hoped they could sit down, but the moment they reached the chairs, she turned and faced him and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Okay, talk."

He explained about his parents, about wanting to open a new division, although he was beginning to think the whole thing was nothing more than a ruse to get him down here to meet Pepper. About his promise to keep this under the radar until he evaluated the situation.

"But my game plan got a big kink it in right away." He rubbed his jaw. "I wasn't prepared for you."

"Really?" She glared at him. "You must have been so excited when I introduced you as my fiancé. The perfect cover. Tell me, was being with me all part of the game, too? Because you were very realistic."

"Pepper, no." He spread his hands. "My game plan went out the window the moment you jumped on me and kissed me. I never believed in love at first sight." He tried on a little smile. "Or first kiss. But I fell for you like the proverbial ton of bricks."

"If you fell so hard for me, how come you didn't tell me right away what was going on?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "You've had plenty of opportunity."

He shook his head. "I didn't know how. I was so blindsided by you I was knocked off balance."

"You know how much this place means to me," she cried. "What was your plan? To steal it out from under me? Oh, wait." Her face lost all its color. "I can't sell it anyway. My parents still own it. That's how this started, right? My mama can't keep her nose out of my business. She thinks if they sell Hibiscus House, I'll get married and, as she puts it, live life. She doesn't know that I am living life."

"Pepper, please." He took a step toward her, but she took a step back at the same time.

"Hibiscus House is everything to me. I have plans for it, way more than my parents ever thought of. How could you even dream of taking it away from me? You think because you have all that money you can ride roughshod over people? You made a fool of me, Kyle. And that hurts more than anything."

"I was.... I had.... I'm not.... I'm sorry." He didn't know what else to say. "I'll do anything to make this up to you. Forget Hibiscus House. It's you I fell in love with."

"You love me so much you want to take this away from me?"

"That was before everything happened," he cried. "Please. Pepper."

"This is too much for me to process right now. You'd better leave. Just...just...go."

She turned and ran back to the building, but not before he saw the tears in her eyes.

Kyle had never felt this low in his life. The one good thing to come out of this was maybe when his parents saw how their plan blew up, they'd quit meddling in his personal life.

With a very heavy heart, he trudged back to the B&B to get his belongings. But if Pepper thought they were done, she had another think coming.

"This is what happens when you meddle in other peoples' lives," Kyle said for the tenth time.

He was pacing in his parents' living room where they were seated side by side on a couch. He had come there directly from the airport, after calling to make sure they were home.

"But, Kyle," his mother said yet again, "we were only thinking of your happiness. Your life. We wanted you to get married. Settle down. Have children."

"No." He stopped and pointed a finger at them. "You wanted me to have children so you could be grandparents. You didn't trust me enough to find the right woman on my own."

"You weren't doing so well," Hal Montgomery grumbled.

"That's beside the point. Is it so hard to understand that I wanted to fall in love before I got married? Like you two did?"

Brenda Montgomery sat up straighter, her eyes bright. "And now you have."

He glared. "To a woman who, thanks to the two of you, wants nothing to do with me. Ever again. Period."

"I'm sure we can make this right," she told him in a calm voice. "When Joseph helped his three sons marry, they had a few rocks in the road."

"He was plenty lucky that it all worked out," he replied. "All of those matches could have blown up in his face. Don't use him as an example."

"All right." Hal cleared his throat. "The question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"The first thing," he answered, "is I'm going to make damn sure she knows I'm not trying to steal Hibiscus House from her."

"You have to admit," Brenda pointed out, "it's a jewel of a place. It would be a great cornerstone for a new division."

Kyle shook his head. "No cornerstone. No new division. If we ever decide to do it - and I mean ever - I'll get the research done on it, along with financial projections, and we'll go from there."

"Okay, okay, okay." Brenda sat back and threw her hands up. "How are you going to let her know if she won't talk to you?"

"I have a plan." He raked his fingers through his hair. "I thought about it all the way home on the plane. I have a plan, and I'm going to get started on it. It involves a lot of groveling among many other things." He stopped pacing and glared at the two of them. "And I want the two of you to promise me you'll stay out of it."

"But we made the mess," his mother protested. "We should be the ones to help clean it up."

"Absolutely not. You've given me all the help I can stand. I have to do this my way."

His parents stared at each other for a long moment then turned back to him and nodded their heads.

"Just so you know," he went on, "I'll be keeping my eye on you. I don't trust either of you."

He was sure his mother was about to comment, but his father reached over and squeezed her hand.

"We'll be good," he promised.

If only Kyle could believe that.