He shook his head. He had brought her world crashing down around her. He’d thought, as he’d gotten closer to Izzy—Bella—that he might finally have a chance to belong somewhere. Here in this town where his brother lived. Where Bella lived. The town had been friendly—friendlier than his brother for that matter—and Bella had been a delightful surprise. He watched in wonder at her easy friendship with Becky Lee and the way she seemed to effortlessly manage her boys. Which, he was sure, wasn’t how it really was. Those boys had to be a handful. He didn’t know how she did it all.
Rebecca had told him more about Bella when he got back to the Sweet Tea last night. Not in a gossipy way, but in a friendly known-her-all-her-life way. He’d found out that her ex had left her for his new wife. She had built up Bella’s Vintage Shop from scratch, with a bit of money from her brother for her half of the family home he had moved into, and a lot of hard work. He admired how she had taken a difficult situation and worked it out.
He actually, for the first time in his business career, wished his deal with Mr. Potter hadn’t worked out. Well, not really, because Sylvia deserved having her building and her business back. It was that particular building that held her history. She deserved that and more after the horrible rejection his father had thrown at Sylvia and Jake.
But he felt terrible about ruining the well-earned life that Izzy had built for herself.
Izzy. Isabella. Izzy. Bella. The names whirled through his mind.
Owen sighed at the shambles he had made of her life. He couldn’t back out now though. He had promised the building to Sylvia and Jake. He ran his hand through his hair and let out a whoosh of air.
He had to talk to Bella. With a start he realized he had thought of her as Bella, not Izzy. Everything was changing.
He needed to explain things to Bella, but he didn’t know how he would do that since he had promised Jake that he wouldn’t tell anyone they were brothers. So he had no way to explain to Bella why he had bought her building, why he needed that particular building. But he was going to attempt to smooth things over between them. He had to try.
Owen looked at his watch a couple of dozen times, waiting for it to be time for Bella’s Vintage Shop to open. He was at the shop, just moments after she opened the door. She looked up when he came through the doorway. Her face switched from welcoming to what he would peg as panic. She clenched the stack of papers she held in her hand, then looked down and carefully set them on the counter, smoothing them out a bit without much luck.
He crossed the distance between them. The air crackled with tension. When he made it over to the counter, he reached out and stilled her hand that was trying to flatten the receipts. “Bella, can we talk?”
If she had noticed the change from Izzy to Bella, she made no comment, she just nodded at him.
“I’m so sorry about all this. I didn’t realize I’d be throwing you out of your store and your home. I wish you’d let me help you find somewhere for the shop, and somewhere to live.”
“I don’t need you feeling sorry for me. You made it quite clear that it’s just business to you.”
Her words stung.
He’d sin to be able to explain to her that he did it because he owed his brother. He owed him the building and so much more. He'd promised it was Jake’s secret to tell or not, but he really hadn’t stopped to consider how it would affect who was leasing it now. “To be honest, I didn’t really think about the current tenant. I just assumed they’d move on to another spot.”
“How nice and cold-hearted of you.” Her eyes flashed in emerald green anger.
“It was cold. Unforgivable. But that doesn’t help us with the turmoil I’ve made of your life. You have to let me help you.”
He saw her shoulders straighten and she pulled herself up to her full height. “I don’t have to do anything you say.”
He lowered his voice and came as close to pleading as he ever had, “Please let me help you.”
“Owen, I can’t. I need to figure this out by myself.”
“But you would never have been in this predicament if I hadn’t bought the building.”
“It’s all just ‘what ifs’. But we have what we have now.”
“I am truly sorry for all the pain and upheaval I’ve caused.” He was sorry. He had never deliberately hurt a person in his life. At least he didn’t think he had.
“Owen, I need to get to work. I appreciate your apology. I believe you when you said you didn’t know it was me owning the shop.”
“I didn’t know.”
She just nodded at him with sad eyes and the look of the weight of the world upon her shoulders. The shoulders with waves of golden red hair flowing over them. How he wanted to take her in his arms and just make things better. Fix things for her. That’s what he did. Fixed things. Made deals and smoothed the way to better profits for the companies he bought.