Falling For You (Honey Leaf Lodge #1)

Chapter Eighteen

Violet

I stood at our lodge’s entrance. My fingers clenched tightly around the porch railing as I waited for Owen.

The evening sky was streaked with orange and pink, casting warm shadows over Buttercup Lake, but I couldn’t feel its usual calm.

My heart was a drum in my chest, beating a frantic rhythm of anticipation and dread.

My stomach twisted into knots.

I was a wreck.

I felt a flicker of hope when Owen asked to meet me here, but then reality set in.

Perhaps he had some explanation for why he had been so distant lately.

Maybe there was a reasonable answer for everything I’d heard around town.

But as I stood there, I couldn’t shake the growing unease in my chest.

I knew better.

Too many things stacked up today about Vern’s property. And obviously, he’d been scouting it a lot since he’d been here.

But the idea of it being developed into something that could change the entire landscape of our small town made me anxious.

And why wouldn’t Vern come to my parents first? I wanted to believe that whatever he was involved in would only bringgood to the town.

Between Jessie’s offhand comment at the hotel and Ellen and Carol’s quiet murmurs at the bakery, I knew Owen held the answers.

A truck rumbled up with the slow crunch of gravel under its tires.

I straightened and crossed my arms tightly over my chest as he parked.

All I knew was that I was desperate for the truth, no matter how painful it might be.

Owen stepped out of his truck, his face tense. His usual, easygoing demeanor wasnowhere to be found.

He looked like he had the first time I’d met him, where even getting him to crack a smile had been a challenge. Tension weaved through every feature on his face.

He approached me slowly.

For a brief moment, I saw a flicker of something in his eyes—guilt, maybe, or regret.

Regardless, it didn’t ease the tightness in my chest.

“Hey,” he said softly, stopping a few feet away.

He looked like he wanted to say more, but his silence hung in the air.

I stared at him.

“Owen, what’s going on? Why haven’t you answered any of my texts? And what is all this about the property next door?” My heart hammered.

He ran a hand through his hair with a pained expression. “Violet… I didn’t want to do this over text. I wanted to tell you in person.”

“Tell me what?” I snapped, my voice sharper than I intended.

But I couldn’t help it.

Everything inside me was coiled so tightly, it wouldn’t take much for me to explode.

Owen swallowed hard and lowered his gaze down to the ground for a brief moment.

“My partners… the investors I work with.” He sighed, bringing his gaze back to mine. “We’re closing on a deal tomorrow. The property next door—it’s being sold to us.”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut. My chest constricted.

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

I stared at him, my mind racing to catch up with his words.

Days of silence.

“No,” I said, shaking my head as if I could make the words disappear. “No, that can’t be right. My parents were supposed to have first dibs on that property. Vern promised them we’d have the first chance to buy it if he ever sold. My parents and brothers plan on expanding Honey Leaf.” My voice broke, and I tried to clear my throat.

Owen’s face tightened.

I could see the regret etched into his features, but it didn’t matter.

“I know, Violet. I know that’s what Vern told your parents. But… my partners offered him twenty percent over whatever your parents’ market price would have been. He couldn’t turn it down.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Twenty percent over? You knew my parents couldn’t compete with that kind of money. Between the rescue animals and running this lodge, there is no way we could come close.”

“I know,” Owen said softly, his eyes filled with guilt. “That’s why Vern took the deal. It’s why he made us all sign an NDA. He didn’t want to wait for financing from your family. We offered him the money upfront. It was a business decision. And he didn’t want it getting out until it was already done.”

“A business decision?” I repeated, my voice rising. “Next thing you’ll tell me is that you’re opening a big resort or something.”

And that was when I saw it.

The truth skirted across his gaze.

“Is that what you’ve been doing this whole time? Working behind our backs, making business decisions to push us out?” My arms folded over my chest as my pulse pounded through me. “Trying to keep me distracted with all the flirting and kind words, just so you could slip under the radar?”

He was silent a second too long.

“A resort. That’s what you’re putting next door to our family lodge.” My eyes narrowed on him as all the good times felt laughable.

“It wasn’t like that,” Owen said quickly, stepping forward, his hand reaching out as if to calm me.

I took a step back on the porch, putting distance between us.

“I didn’t want it to happen this way, Vi. I tried to slow it down. I didn’t want to hurt you or your family.”

“Don’t call me that. Only family and friends can use that name.”

Hurt lodged in his gaze, but I didn’t trust anything about him.

“I didn’t want this to happen.” He shook his head. “Not this way.”

“But it did,” I said, my voice trembling now. “You knew. You knew this would destroy everything for us and didn’t say anything. You’ve been spending all this time with me, acting like you cared, and you were planning this all along.”

“Violet, that’s not fair,” Owen said, his voice cracking. “I didn’t know it would get this far. I didn’t know we’d close the deal this fast. I was going to tell you—”

“You knew.” I pointed at him. “You told me you could tell me in one week. Tomorrow is one week.” I shook my head.

“I was going to tell you. I told you that.” His eyes stayed on mine.

“When?” I interrupted, my heart pounding in my ears. “When were you going to tell me? After it was too late? After the papers were signed?”

He looked down at the ground, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to hurt you. There is nothing either of us could do.”

“So you hid for these last couple of days?” I shot back. “Like a coward?”

Owen straightened and shook his head. “Actually, I had my attorneys looking into any way we could get out of the contract. I’ve been working with them nonstop.”

“And?”

“It’s ironclad.” He shook his head. “I never meant to hurt you, Violet.”

I laughed harshly, though there was no humor in it. “You didn’t want to hurt me? Owen, you’ve been lying to me this whole time! You let me think that we… that we had something real when you were just distracting me from what you were doing all along.”

“It wasn’t like that,” he insisted.

Desperation etched his words.

I almost wanted to believe him.

“I wasn’t dating you to distract you. I care about you, Violet. More than you know. That’s why this is so hard.”

I shook my head, the betrayal cutting deeper than I could have ever imagined. “How can I believe anything you say now? You’ve been lying to me from the start. You were planning this behind my back while pretending like you actually cared about me.”

I shook my head. “What’s the most embarrassing about this entire thing is that it’s only been a week of knowing you, and you manipulated me so hard that I actually fell for you.” I stared at the chrysanthemums on the porch. “In a week. A week. You just knew exactly what I needed to hear, and come to find out, you never cared.”

“I do care about you,” Owen said, stepping forward again.

I didn’t move away this time, but I didn’t meet his eyes either.

“Violet, I never meant for it to happen like this. I didn’t know… I didn’t know how much you meant to me until it was too late. I tried to stop it. I tried to figure out how to make it work for everyone.”

“I’ve always had a bad habit of falling for emotionally unavailable men, but this is far worse. You are far worse than any of that,” I whispered.

“What could I have done?” His eyes pleaded with mine, but I didn’t fall for it.

His charade would just make him sleep better at night.

“You could have told me the truth,” I said softly, my voice barely a whisper now. “You could have told me from the beginning.”

Owen’s face crumpled, and I saw the full weight of his guilt for the first time. “I should have,” he admitted. “I should have told you everything. But I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to lose you. I knew I signed an NDA. My partners…”

“You could have broken it.” Tears stung my eyes, and I quickly blinked them away.

“I wouldn’t just be losing the deal for myself. I’d be jeopardizing the deal for my partners, too.”

“Well, you’ve lost me now.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment.

He just stood there. His eyes pleaded with me to understand, but I couldn’t.

I couldn’t understand how someone who claimed to care about me could betray me like this.

“I’m sorry,” Owen said finally, his voice hollow. “I’m so sorry, Violet.”

I let out a shaky breath, and the tears I’d held back finally spilled over. “It doesn’t matter. It’s done. You’ve made your choice.”

Owen took another step toward me, but I couldn’t bear to look at him anymore.

I turned away.

As I felt the weight of everything crashing down around me, my heart was shattering into a million pieces.

“Violet, please,” he said quietly. “I didn’t want it to be like this.”

“But it is,” I said, my voice shaking. “And now my family’s going to lose everything because of you. Maybe not this year or next, but it’s coming because of you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“That’s always how it works. You big guys come in and think you can kick us little guys around. We’re just game pieces to you. But my family means something to me.” I shook my head. “But you’ve been clear as day from the first time I met you. Business was your number one, and you just proved it.” The tears had been replaced with anger. “But in my world, family is number one, and I’ll make you pay.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

The weight of our shared heartbreak pressed down on me like a heavy fog.

Owen’s breath hitched as he tried to find the right words, but there was nothing left to say.

I couldn’t even look at him.

After a moment, I heard him take a step back. “I’ll leave you alone,” he said softly, his voice broken. “I… I don’t expect you to forgive me.”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I just stood there, staring out at the fading sunlight.

Feeling like the ground had been pulled out from under me, all I wanted to do was collapse.

I heard him walk away, his footsteps growing fainter until they disappeared completely. And then I was alone.

The grumble of his truck as he turned and left our property left a gaping hole. I had so much confusion and embarrassment riddling me with every passing breath.

How did I fall for it? I’d been seasoned to watch out for men like him. I knew better than to be swayed by a few kind words and a couple of glances in my direction.

I felt the cold sting of betrayal settle deep in my chest. Owen was gone, but the devastation he had left behind was still there, hanging in the air like a dark Wisconsin storm cloud. It almost felt like a tornado would strike next, and I wouldn’t even notice.

I didn’t know how to fix any of it.

My parents would be crushed when they found out about the sale.

Our lodge, our family’s legacy, would be overshadowed by whatever monstrosity Owen and his partners planned to build next door.

And all I could think about was how I’d trusted him. I’d let myself believe that he could be part of my world.

I knew our relationship would start slow and ride out the waves.

I believed we had enough of a connection to give it a go and see where it went… and then to find out, I’d been fooled. The connection had been a manufactured mess of emotions, and I fell for it.

I sank down onto the porch steps, burying my face in my hands as the tears came harder and harder.

I had let Owen into my lifeand heart.

For the first time in a long time, I felt completely lost. And I didn’t know if I’d ever find my way back.

But I knew one thing. I didn’t just get mad. I got even, and Owen would get his.