Resisting Ryan: A Small Town Romance (Hart's Creek Stories Book 1) by Suzie Peters

Author:Suzie Peters [Peters, Suzie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: GWL Publishing
Published: 2023-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Ryan

Every time I walk away from Peony, I feel more and more dissatisfied… bewildered… frustrated.

Is that because I want to stay with her, to take her in my arms and tell her I’m in love with her and that I never want to let her go?

Probably.

Except I can’t do that. It’s not what she wants to hear.

On this occasion, though, my frustration and bewilderment aren’t just because I want to stay with her. They’re because I don’t understand her. I’ve been back at my hotel for over an hour now, sitting on the chair by the window, with my head in my hands, and I still don’t get it.

I suppose I was being optimistic, hoping that if I offered her enough, she’d accept. But to turn me down out of hand? No… I didn’t see that coming.

Don’t get me wrong, I know she’s not doing this on a whim, or to be difficult. I heard every word she said about her family belonging in Hart’s Creek. I even heard what she said about the farm, and I understood it, too, because I feel exactly the same way about my company. My father started it and worked all his life to build it up. I know that better than anyone, and there’s a heavy sense of responsibility on my shoulders to carry it on, and to make it even bigger and better. But that doesn’t mean I’d commit financial suicide over it, which is what Peony seems hell-bent on doing.

All for forty acres of land.

That’s all it is at the end of the day. It’s just land. There are more important things in life. She must realize that.

And surely to God, she has to see that she can’t go on as she is now.

I let out a sigh, pushing my fingers back through my hair, and I pick up my briefcase, putting it on the table in front of me, and popping it open. Moving aside the document I prepared for my meeting today, I pull out the one I brought up here with me… the one I amended to reflect the higher offer. I open it, glancing down at the figures Gabe and I prepared while I was still in Boston, unaware I was going to come up here and fall in love with Peony Hart.

The figure of eighteen thousand dollars per acre jumps off the page at me, and I shake my head, reading on a little further to the justification for the low offer, which was entirely because of the poor drainage that Peony already mentioned to me.

I dread to think what my father would have said if I’d gone to him and said I’d offered more than double the value for a property… which is what I’ve just done, having allowed Peony to talk me up by an extra three hundred thousand for a house and outbuildings that I know I’ll only demolish at the earliest opportunity.

I can see him now, getting up from behind his

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