Page 56 of One Quick Obsession

Scarlett stood behind my mother in the open doorway, linen grocery bag in hand and a frown on her face.

I wanted to pinch my nose and groan. Because Scarlett didn’t know I owned the land. But as the wheels turned in that brain of hers, she knew now.

Secrets were never good, I knew that. They always broke those around them, but for once, why couldn’t the world just let me breathe for a minute so I could handle things?

“Mom, Mom! Mom!” I repeated as my mother ignored me. “I’m not the one you need to deal with. That’s on the others that you hurt. I don’t know why you’re here, but this isn’t the time.”

My mother frowned at me before she turned back to look at Scarlett. “Oh, Scarlett Blair. Is there something that you need with the resort? I didn’t know you were making house calls with my son.”

Scarlett’s face drained of color before she narrowed her gaze and opened her mouth to say something.

I knew that whatever she did, it would just egg my mother on. Because no matter how much my mom wanted to apologize right now, she couldn’t help but cut people down. She had married my father for a reason.

But Scarlett already had to deal with enough people in her life. Scarlett already had to deal with enough people in her life who tried to break her. I wasn’t going to let my mother be one of them.

“Mom. Get out. You said your peace, but it has nothing to do with me. And as you can see, I have plans for the evening that don’t include you.”

“Hudson!” she gasped, trying to come closer.

Then Flynn was there taking her by her elbow. “Come on, Mom. Let me walk you out.”

Flynn raised a brow as he stared at me, and I gave him a chin nod. We would talk about everything, but first, I needed to fucking fix what my mother had decided to shatter. She might not have realized what she was doing, but she would have enjoyed the consequences nonetheless.

As Flynn practically dragged my mother out, Scarlett stood to the side, studying me.

“Hudson?” she asked, and I rub my fingers over my temples.

“This has been the longest day, and I have no idea why everybody decided to do this at once.”

“You own the land underneath my home.”

With a sigh, even though it wasn’t yet dinner time, I reached to my cabinet and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of decent bourbon.

“I’m going to need a drink if I’m going to continue this day. You?”

“I guess so. And then you can tell me what the hell was just going on. What was your mother doing here?”

I poured two fingers of bourbon in each, before taking the glasses and walking over her. I handed her one, took the tote from her hand, and set it on the counter. Flynn had thankfully shut the door behind him, leaving the two of us alone.

“You knew the Cages owned the land. It’s what we do.”

She looked down at her bourbon and then up at me. “I didn’t know you did.”

“Because I didn’t want you to hate me more than you already did.” And with that, I tossed the bourbon back, even though it was more of a sipping kind. It didn’t burn, but I already regretted the action. I set the glass on the counter. Scarlett stared at the amber liquid, before doing the same thing I had. When she didn’t flinch, I was afraid I had fallen just that more much in love with her.

Scarlett Blair was some kind of woman, and she scared me.

There, that was as honest as I was going to be in that moment.

“It’s been a really fucking weird day, Scarlett.”

“Tell me about it. There’s a power issue at the resort, and we finally got it fixed. I had to come home and change. I thought I would bring my groceries for later, and here I am drinking in the middle of a workday.”

With a sigh. I put my hands on her hips and drew her near.

“I own the land. I’m sorry for not telling you. There’re a lot of things that I own in this town because it was going to go to waste if I didn’t. Or a developer was going to come in and hurt this town. But things just added up. I didn’t want you to hate me before, and then I didn’t want you to feel like you owed me. So I didn’t tell you. Even though I was trying to think about when I would. I’m sorry.”

Scarlett set down her glass and cupped my cheeks. “Okay. Okay.”