"The doorman is calling a cab for me." Her arms were crossed tight over her chest as her teeth chattered, her face every bit as chilly as her body language.
He held up a hand to stop the doorman from hailing a taxi. "Damn it, that's not necessary. I brought you here. I'll drive you home."
"That would be awkward." She squeezed her eyes closed and then nodded to the doorman, silently signaling him to flag down a ride. "Please, just let me go. You already made it clear we have nothing left to say to one another."
Her struggle to hold back tears tugged at him. Damn it all, the last thing he wanted was to hurt her. But pride held him back from telling her the truth about that land. He needed her to believe in him. "You're upset. I get that." He took her arm and gently guided her away from the restaurant's main entrance. "But this isn't the place."
She let him steer her a few steps to the side. "The facts won't change if we're in your car."
"The facts?" He bit back a weary sigh. "You don't understand-"
"How about this for facts?" Her arms slid to her side, her hands clenched in tight fists. "You've been buying up land since the tornado. Taking advantage of people's pain. So fine. Tell me how I'm wrong," she finished defiantly.
"Taking advantage?" He searched for the words to make her understand, for the words to keep her in his life. "I've been buying property from people who needed to cut their losses. If I wasn't there to buy from them, they would lose everything rather than walking away with the money to start over. We've discussed this before."
He'd spent his childhood seeing his family's life repossessed. He wasn't lying when he told her he tried to help people in his town as best he could. He swallowed back the past and focused on the present, on Megan.
She shook her head. "And destroying the wetlands? How is that 'helping' people? Sounds like you're making excuses. You can justify it however you want, but I don't see it the same way."
The sound system hummed with a symphonic version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," as if mocking him with memories of a holiday spent in a homeless shelter until his dad landed on his feet again. Granted, they had all gotten gifts that year, courtesy of a local church group.
Even if he told her his real reason for buying the wetlands, that wouldn't change who he was. "You're employed by a non-profit organization and get paid a salary. I own a business where people only get paid if I make a profit. That's how life works."
She held up a finger, her hand shaking with restrained emotion. "Don't speak to me like I'm a child. There are plenty of people who make a profit without compromising their values."
"I follow the letter of the law in my business practices." He wasn't like his father, damn it.
"Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's morally right."
Okay, now she was stepping over the line.
"And what makes you the authority on right and wrong? There can be a middle ground if you'll stop being judgmental and-"
Gasping, she backed up a step. "Is that what you think of me? That I'm uptight and judgmental just because I live my life by a moral code that isn't identical to yours?"
He looked into her eyes and didn't see any room for changing her mind. She'd dug in her heels deeply. He recognized the look from the three years he'd known her. These past few weeks had been an anomaly. She wasn't interested in a real relationship with him.
"I think you're just looking for a reason to break it off with me. I think you're so locked onto the past that you're convinced every man is like your dad or Evie's dad. So much so, that you never really gave me a chance. Not three and a half years ago and not now."
"That's not fair," she whispered.
"None of this is." His hand gravitated to the ring box in his pocket again by habit, but he left it inside. He met her gaze and willed her to see the love in his eyes, to understand how he felt. To trust him.
To trust in him.
For an instant, he could have sworn he saw her stance softening and he reached to caress her arm.
The taxi rolled to a stop at the front entrance.
She pulled her hands in tight again, closing herself off from him, from what they could have had together. "Goodnight, Whit. I just...I can't do this."
Looking so damn beautiful that she took his breath away and broke his heart, Megan rushed past him and slid into the cab.
The taxi's taillights disappeared into the night like fading Christmas lights. His big night with Megan was over and he'd botched it from the start. He'd been so busy making plans for them, looking for angles to persuade her and win her over. All the while missing the most important thing of all.
This wasn't about winning a deal like some business merger. This was about having Megan in his life forever. This was about being in love with her. Somehow, he'd never once used that all-important word and because of that, he'd lost her.
Twelve
After a sleepless night, Megan took out her frustration by trying to restore order to some part of her world. She grabbed the bottle of disinfectant and moved on to spritz the next cat kennel. Her gloved hands scrubbed with a vengeance.
She'd spent most of the night crying and second-guessing herself. Today was supposed to be a day off. She should have been spending it with Whit. Evie had even asked to go to a friend's house to play, her costumes and fears fading. Which left Megan alone in her too quiet house. So she'd come to the shelter to get her mind off things, but it wasn't working.
Somehow she and Whit had shifted from considering moving in together to broken up in the span of one dinner, and all because of a land purchase.
A land purchase they had been at odds over for months.
She should have seen the signs, but she'd been so blinded by how much she enjoyed being with him. Her eyes watered again. She sniffled and rubbed her wrist under her nose.
Footsteps echoed in the corridor and she blinked faster to clear her eyes-as if that would make any difference given how puffy they were. God, she hoped whoever it was wouldn't stop and talk. She just wanted to clean and clean until she dropped into an exhausted sleep and didn't have to think.
The footsteps stopped right outside the doorway.
"Soooo?" Beth's voice called. "How did your big date with Whit go last night?"
Megan could have diverted an employee or regular volunteer. But there would be no escaping Beth.
Eyes stinging from the sharp scent of bleach, she spoke over her shoulder, keeping her face averted. "The meal was five-star quality."
"Everyone knows the place is great." Beth pulled up alongside her. "It's one of those restaurants where guys take women to propose. Megan? Sweetie? Are you okay?" Beth dipped her head to make eye contact.
Megan flinched and scrubbed harder. "Would you like to help me here? I'm expecting a call from a grant writer any minute." Her words tumbled over each other as she sought to distract. "The guy's going to donate his services to help us put in a proposal to help fund a voucher spay/neuter program."
Beth grabbed a second bottle of antiseptic spray and tore off some paper towels. "Abigail and I can finish up here. On one condition."
She tucked her head into the steel kennel. "What's that?"
Her friend rested a hand on her shoulder. "Can you take off the glove so I can see the ring?"
Is that what her friend thought? This day just got worse.
Megan knew the moment had come. She couldn't hide anymore. "There's no ring."
She couldn't even begin to think about all that didn't happen between them last night. All her hopes...up in flames.
"Oh. Really? I could have sworn that he planned to..." Genuine confusion was stamped on Beth's face. "I mean..."
Seeing her friend's certainty was bittersweet. "Just because he takes me out to eat doesn't mean he planned to propose."
Beth took Megan by the shoulders gently and turned her. "Those are dark circles under your puffy eyes. Were you crying? Honey, what's wrong?"
Megan sagged back against the empty kennels they used for new cats to get acclimated before going into the free roaming facility. "We had a...really bad argument, and, well, it's over between us."
"No," Beth whispered, "that's not possible."
But it was. She knew that all too well. "I heard about his land grab...the wetlands."