Jonah moved back. Dani let go, her hands falling back to her sides.
She raised her fingers to her lips. “Oh God.” Her voice ripped from her throat. She had forgotten about Boone.
“Not really, but close.”
“Not that.” Dani flushed. “It’s—my fiancé is in there.”
“What?”
“My ex-fiancé is in there. He just walked in with another woman.” How? Why? Who—so many questions ricocheted in her head. “I don’t know how he knows I’m here. We never talked about our histories.”
The memories were slamming back to her, all at once. Her last night in the hospital, when Boone whispered his love. “Dani.” He held her hand, cradling it like it was the most precious thing against his chest.
He asked her to marry him.
She said yes.
His friends burst in from the hallway. They all wanted to celebrate.
She murmured now, to herself, “I was too weak.”
“Dani? Too weak for what?”
She heard Jonah’s voice, but she was still in the past. “I tricked him. I lied, and then I convinced him to go out with his friends.” She felt horror sliding through her veins, chilling her. She focused on Jonah. “He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. I didn’t want to marry him. I made him go out for a beer. He didn’t want to go, but I was in the hospital. I said he needed to celebrate. He was only going to be gone for thirty minutes, enough to appease his friends.”
She left him that night.
She left a note on her bedstand.
“What is he doing here?” Her mind was buzzing. Her lips were still tingling from Jonah’s kiss.
“Do you want to go talk to him?”
“No.”
“What do you want?”
She looked at him, right at him. “I want to steal something.”
And he held her gaze. “I’m in.” He didn’t blink, not once.
Jonah had given her his confident, cock-sure smirk when she handed over the keys. She hadn’t wanted to drive, to tell the truth. She wanted to sit back, not think, and watch the stars and trees fly by. Any other moment in her life, Dani would’ve been unsettled by the contentment that sat with her as Jonah drove beside her. Any other moment, but she wasn’t thinking about that.
“What are we stealing?”
“There’s a photograph of my mother in Julia’s house. I want it.”
“A picture? Are you serious?”
“Very,” Dani said. “Julia said a bunch of her stuff was burned, but I think there’s a picture somewhere.”
“I’d hide it in the flour container if it was my place. Don’t know too many guys around these parts who bake with flour. Now, a fish fry is a whole other story.”
“You’re not a chef?”
Jonah shrugged. “Who am I to say anything? But this is Craigstown, remember? We’re not real ‘with the times,’if you know what I mean. I get flack for the river. I’m supposed to be a firefighter or a cop or…I don’t know, a lumberjack.”
“A lumberjack?”
“Manly jobs, not snorkeling for mussels. Last Thanksgiving, my grandmother sat me down and informed me it’s time I go into the family business. I should be competing with those CEOs and not be a nature-loving hippie.” He shook his head with a sad chuckle. “I love my grandmother, but she’s crazy.”
Family business? That’s right, she’d forgotten about his father. “What’s the family business?”
He signaled and turned the car onto a gravel road. “My dad has a few different companies, but his biggest one is construction. He does commercial.”
“Bannon Corp.”
She blinked rapidly a few times, startled. The name was posted on billboards, at building sites, and sponsored just about every charity event in the local area. They owned a good portion of the nearby metropolis.
“Yeah,” Jonah said dryly. “It’s not really something we advertise around here. When Mom died and we lived with our dad, I learned that we were considered the black sheep of the family. And when I went into my field, I became the family’s disappointment.”
“I can’t believe I never put two and two together.”
He shrugged again. “Bannon Corp is so big, I think people get immune to it. It’s just there, and no one’s really noticed it. Plus, I’ve never said anything. Only one girl asked me if we were related to that company.”
“Did you lie?”
“Didn’t have to. Aiden lied through her teeth for me.” The pride in his voice was unmistakable. Sibling protecting sibling.
“But all these companies that want to build on Falls River, do they know who you are? They have to run in your father’s circle.”
“Some of them know it upfront. My dad’s warned them about me or something. I’ve gotten a few job offers. Mostly from guys who are looking to get into dad’s social circle. But,” his eyes sparked, “some don’t believe it until afterwards, when I’ve ripped their proposals to shreds. One guy commented that I had the Bannon streak in me after all.”
“Your father is a billionaire.”
“My father and my grandfather and my grandfather before that. Not me. Trust me. I’m very much not a billionaire. I’m content where I am. Besides—Aiden wouldn’t ever talk to me again if I went to the dark side.”