A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [92]
Sabina drew a shaky breath. “No, Nana,” she lied. “We didn’t have any customers. Mario must have been mistaken. Besides, we’re not talking about the Harnetts, we’re talking about potions. No more. Agreed?” She reached up and tugged the charm over her head, then pressed it into her grandmother’s palm. “And—and no more charms. They give people false hope.”
“No more potions.” Ruta muttered something else in Hungarian before she spun on her heel and walked back through the bead curtain, her jewelry jingling as she moved.
She glanced over at Chloe. “Why are you smiling?” Sabina asked.
“This is the most interesting thing that’s happened in this shop since your grandmother summoned the spirit of Marilyn Monroe by mistake.” Chloe paused. “She was supposed to be looking for Caroline Monroe.” She tucked her hands under her chin and braced her elbows on the counter. “So, what are you going to do? You could always put a curse on him. Maybe make all his hair fall out. You know how men are about their hair. Or you could make him impotent. Not forever, because that would be cruel, but for a year or two.”
Sabina glanced up at the clock, then grabbed the phone book from behind the counter. “Find out where Alec Harnett’s office is. Harnett Property Development. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Where are you going?” Chloe asked.
Sabina didn’t bother with an answer. She and Alec had made a date yesterday to meet for coffee. “Same place, same time.” It was nearly nine. If he was waiting out on the sidewalk, then she wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to tell him exactly what she thought of his deception.
As she walked down the sidewalk, she recalled their encounter in his kitchen. Things had been going so well and then everything had come to a dead halt. He’d probably begun to feel guilty. No, Sabina thought. That would mean he had a conscience, something that didn’t run in the Harnett family line.
Sabina held her breath as she rounded the corner. She froze when she saw him leaning against a mailbox. In truth, she hadn’t expected him to be waiting. And now that he was, she wasn’t sure where to begin.
He straightened as she approached, his gaze fixed on her face. “I was hoping you’d come,” he said, smiling weakly.
Sabina stopped a few feet away. It wouldn’t do to get too close. “Alec Harnett,” she said.
His smile faded into a grimace. “So you know. Was it the mailbox? I just realized that my name was on the mailbox. When you left the house yesterday.”
“No, it wasn’t the mailbox,” she replied. “Never mind what it was. What difference does it make? You lied to me. You led me on. You tried to seduce me so that you could convince me to convince my grandmother to sell her building.”
He held up his hand. “That’s not true. I tried to seduce you because you’re beautiful and sexy and irresistible. It had nothing to do with real estate, believe me.”
“You are a snake. A—a sleazeball. Slime.” She turned to walk away, but Alec reached out and caught her hand.
“When I came into the shop, I did have business on my mind. But then you were her—the woman I’d met on the sidewalk earlier—and business didn’t seem to matter.”
“So then you don’t want to buy my grandmother’s building?”
“I didn’t say that. But my interest in your grandmother’s building has nothing at all to do with my interest in you—at least not anymore.”
“I’m supposed to believe that? Your father has been waiting like a vulture to swoop down and snatch that place out from under her. He’s filed lawsuits and bribed city officials and worried my grandmother needlessly. She cares about the people in that building. They’re her friends and there is no way she’ll ever leave them to your mercy.”
“I’m not the bad guy here,” Alec said, holding tight to her hand. “We’re not going to turn them out on the street. We’ll find them new apartments, and we’re even prepared to offer them a generous settlement for agreeing to move. Believe me, they won’t be homeless.”
“Because they all have a home.