He cut her off.
This sudden interruption gave her pause. She couldn’t fault him for being touchy, not after she’d broken things off between them.
“I’m sure you’ll convince him eventually,” he said. This generous nod to her recruiting abilities sharpened her guilt even further, but she reminded herself of the reason she’d broken up with Cole in the first place.
“I’ll certainly do my best.”
The silence between them was strained.
“Cole—”
“Ophelia—”
They both stopped.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Fee?” She didn’t correct him a second time about the nickname. She already knew to what he referred.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted, Cole. It’s the only thing I’ve ever asked of you—that you be willing to move to Paris so I could oversee the European branch when the time came. I know that it’s a big commitment, but every time we discussed it, you said you’d be willing to go with me when the time came. Now it’s finally coming to pass, and you’re backing out of your end of the bargain.”
“Don’t forget that the entire deal hinges on you bringing Montgomery out of retirement. You just pointed out that it’s not the easiest recruitment, by far.”
“It changes nothing about you and me, though. I asked you to choose. I told you what it came down to—Paris with me or New York without me. You made it quite clear what you preferred.”
“I asked for some time to think about it—I didn’t know I was writing us off forever by wanting a chance to consider my options.”
“I want to be more than an option for you,” she stated. “Besides, has anything changed since I left? Have you decided I’m worth it, after all?”
The soft static of the line spoke volumes even when Cole said nothing. She scoffed slightly.
“Paris is everything to me. Everything,” she reiterated.
“Everything?” His voice was wounded when he finally spoke.
She sighed with weariness and leaned over to rest her forehead in the palm of her hand. “Cole, please. You have always known how important this is to me.”
“But you’d be leaving everything familiar behind. Including your mother.”
A strangled laugh escaped her throat. “I could finally prove myself to her.”
“Prove yourself? To your own mother? Ophelia, that’s not necessary. Surely you know that.”
She couldn’t explain it to him. She wondered if he had ever understood, if he had ever even paid attention to what passed for a mother-daughter relationship between her and Lillian Reid.
Her lack of a reply must have compelled him to speak further. “Ophelia, be reasonable. We’re talking about our future.”
She felt a twist of pity for him. “Cole, I don’t think we have a future.”
Another minute of silence stretched out between them.
“And what’s your plan if you don’t succeed? If you can’t convince Montgomery to return?”
The thought left a weight of apprehension in her stomach. She couldn’t fail her mother like that. She couldn’t fail herself and her dreams.
“I’ll figure it out. There’s no need to concern yourself.”
“Of course not. Why would I do that?” His words were laced with resentment.
She felt herself bristle. “Right. No need to expect your support or anything.”
They sighed at the same time.
“Well, I just wanted to check in,” she said.
“Yeah. Thanks for that. And good luck with Montgomery. You’re probably going to need it.”
She resisted the urge to grind her teeth together.
“Right. Take care, Cole.”
“You, too.”
As she ended the call, she marveled at the two of them, how awkwardness outweighed any heartbreak they might have experienced. She wondered if their entire relationship had been based on convenience and expectation rather than love. For her part, she felt only frustration.
Placing these thoughts aside and trying not to let Cole’s words get to her, she began preparing for her tour with Dane.
When Ophelia reappeared on the first floor of the inn to meet up with her host, she found Leilani waiting for her instead. The younger girl appeared awkward and uncomfortable as she shifted from one sandaled foot to the other and tugged on the hem of her coral-colored T-shirt.
“Dane’s a little preoccupied right now, so he asked if I could give you a tour of the plantation in his place.”
Ophelia clenched her jaw. Her assignment here was difficult enough, given Dane’s stubborn recalcitrance, but to have him renege on their arrangement so soon rankled thoroughly. Her mother had not advised her to throw away money needlessly. The $10,000 incentive was meant to anchor Ophelia to Dane’s side, allowing her time to get to know the man and continually illustrate the benefits of his return.
But seeing Leilani’s discomfort, she didn’t feel she could take out her annoyance on the younger woman. She forced herself to relax.
“Well, he’ll just have to make it up to me later, won’t he? At least it will give us some girl time together, right?”
Leilani’s fidgeting eased as a look of relief bloomed on her pretty face. She nodded enthusiastically. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”
* * *
“SURELY YOU CAN appreciate my situation, Dane.”
Dane clenched his jaw to keep from arguing. After all, Kenneth Masters had been generous enough in loaning Dane money to continue operations some months ago...if only Dane had realized the motives behind Masters’s scheme before he had accepted. Now, the other man was suddenly revising the terms and requesting payment in full within the week.
“It’s been a difficult year for all of us. You know how hard it is to compete with the larger estates.”
Dane still said nothing. It was rumored that Masters imported cheaper, inferior coffee beans from other regions, mixing them with his own crop of Kona in order to offer “quality Kona coffee” at a significantly lower rate of sale than his fellow farmers could provide. No one had dared to pursue an investigation on Masters, however, and Dane hadn’t learned about these illegal practices until after his deal with his shady neighbor had already been struck. It had unfortunately not occurred to Dane before this that perhaps Masters’s motivations in loaning him the sum went beyond the simple profit he would make on their interest terms.
Dane
