The Tycoon's Proposal

His first impressions of her had been wrong, something that doubled his interest, because if there was one thing Mac had little experience with, it was being wrong.

She was stronger than he’d expected, not at all scared or intimidated by his attempts to purchase her company. She had stood toe to toe with him, literally and figuratively, and challenged Mac to do the craziest thing...

Help her save Hillstrand Solar.

With that interesting little carrot at the end—that if it didn’t work, and she failed, he could still buy it from her. He could be a horrible person and give her bad advice, advice sure to bring Hillstrand Solar to ruin, but a part of Mac was...intrigued by the idea of helping her. Turning a company around instead of just flipping it to the next buyer could be an interesting twist to his usual practices. A challenge of sorts.

Either way, he intended to use the week to convince her that, in the end, selling was the best strategy. If he paid a little more in a month because of the help he gave her, so be it. She’d have the satisfaction of knowing she hadn’t ruined the company, and he’d still have that last piece to the bigger puzzle he was assembling.

He had an hour until he was supposed to meet Savannah, an hour he could spend working—or he could bite the bullet and see his family. Part of him just wanted to hole up in a coffee shop and spend the sixty minutes checking email on his laptop, but a twinge of guilt told him he hadn’t come all this way just to work. He had missed his brothers and mother something fierce, and it’d be nice to see them.

His father, not so much. Especially after that conversation in Atlanta with his Uncle Tank. His real name wasn’t Tank, of course, but he’d gotten the nickname because John Barlow was a barrel-chested guy with a larger-than-life personality, and the nickname had followed him from childhood on up. The younger brother to Bobby, Mac’s father, and the one who had always been the jokester, the prankster, but who also had gotten into more trouble than a loose pig at a county fair. When he’d first told Mac the story about Bobby’s misdeeds, Mac had dismissed it as yet another joke. Then a little digging had unearthed some truth—truth that redefined everything Mac thought he knew about his family.

And about his father.

Now that trouble was threatening to catch up with the Barlows if Mac didn’t find a way to head it off. But that meant talking to his father, something Mac had learned long ago to avoid doing.

You have another brother, Uncle Tank had said, explaining that he had known the boy for some time, staying in contact by posing as a friend to the family, something he’d done as a favor to Bobby. I talked to him and he said he wants to meet the rest of his family. Soon.

Meeting them meant exposing the truth. Exposing his father as a cheater. Despite the hard feelings between himself and his dad, he didn’t relish telling the others what Uncle Tank had told him. In fact, Mac had no idea how to say the words. How to confront the man he hadn’t talked to in almost a decade. Was there ever a good time for that kind of thing?

A moment later, Mac was in the driveway of his old childhood home. He stood there a moment, taking in the long open porch, the big front door still painted the same cranberry color as always. There were new annuals in the flower beds, and a new American flag hanging from the pole, but mostly the house had stayed unchanged, like a snapshot of the past. A part of Mac liked knowing it would be the same, year after year. He gave the old homestead a nod, then walked up the front steps and into the house. In an instant, his family poured into the hall like water overflowing a dam to see him.

He took off his helmet and grinned. Damn, it was good to see them. “I heard one of you is getting married, and I’m here to talk you out of it.”

Jack was the first to clap his older brother on the back. Still trim and fit from his time in the military, Jack had the shortest haircut of the three of them. “Sorry, Mac, you’re too late. I’m already in love. Might want to talk to the other one. He just got engaged five seconds ago.” He nodded toward Luke.

Luke was engaged? Of the three Barlow boys, Mac would have listed Luke as least likely to get married. He arched a brow in Luke’s direction, and his brother started grinning like a fool.

Mac shook his head in mock regret. “I go away for a few years and this is the kind of craziness I come home to?”

“It’s the best kind of craziness, so hush up and enjoy your family,” his mother said. Della wrapped him in a hug, dragging him toward the dining room table. It was Sunday—family dinner day. Except Mac hadn’t sat at the family dinner table in years, and he wasn’t so sure he wanted to today, either. He could see his father, standing to the side of the table, his face as unreadable as a hieroglyphic.

A mixed bag of emotions ran through Mac. He’d missed his father, but at the same time, dreaded seeing him. And now the knowledge that Bobby Barlow had fathered a child with another woman had given Mac a whole new set of reasons to be angry at the man. All he knew was that he couldn’t deal with this today and definitely not at the Sunday dinner table.

Mama placed a kiss on his temple as if he was five years old again. “It’s good to have you home, Maxwell.”

Mac covered his mother’s hand with his own. He’d missed her simple touch, her ever-present love for her sons. Despite everything that had happened in the past between Bobby and Mac, Della couldn’t hold a grudge if it was glued to her palm. He loved that about his mother. “Good to be back, Mama.”

Jack gestured toward one of the seats at the table. “So, you gonna stay awhile or what?”

Mac’s gaze went to his father. Even now, even at thirty, Mac wanted that nod of approval. Ridiculous. He should be well past that need.

“Of course he’s staying,” Mama said. She pulled out a chair and practically shoved Mac into it. “Plus it’s Maddy’s birthday—”

“Who’s Maddy?”

“Stay home for more than five minutes and you’ll get caught up,” Jack said.

“Maddy is Luke’s daughter. With Susannah Reynolds,” his mother explained. “It’s a long story, one that I’ll share after dinner. And now, Luke is marrying Peyton, Susannah’s sister. So they’re going to be a family very soon.”

Mac glanced around and saw a little girl shyly holding hands with Peyton. To their right stood Meri Prescott, the former beauty queen now engaged to Jack. He remembered both Peyton and Meri from when they were kids, especially Peyton, who had vacationed sometimes at the same lake as the Barlows. And there were his two brothers, smiling like loons. “Is there some kind of marriage plague going on here that I missed?” Mac said.

His mother smiled. “You came home just in time for all the celebration.”

“Wasn’t sure you would,” his father muttered. “Haven’t heard hide nor hair from you in years.”

Mac ignored the barb. Unlike his brothers, he’d never really gotten along with his father. Maybe it was something about being the oldest, the one who set the pace, laid out all the expectations. No matter how far Mac climbed or how well he did, his father rarely had an attaboy or so much as a nod for the achievement. And when Mac had announced he was leaving home the day after he graduated high school, it had turned into a fight about Mac abandoning his responsibilities and his family.

The final torch to the feeble bridge between father and son had been one of Mac’s first business purchases, a small family-owned used car lot that Mac had turned around and sold to an investor up north, who’d taken the inventory and left the lot vacant for years, a barren spot in downtown Stone Gap. It wasn’t until a few years later that the lot was taken under new ownership and management, and saw life again. Bobby had blamed Mac for ruining the town, ruining his friend’s life and ruining pretty much the entire world. In the years since, Mac had spent as little time at home as possible.

But now he had a whole other reason for not wanting to talk to his father. A secret that could not only destroy what little relationship Mac and Bobby had left, but dismantle the entire Barlow family.

Besides, with his brothers looking so damned happy they might just burst, and the mouthwatering aromas of his mother’s home cooking filling the air, Mac wasn’t about to retread old ground or unearth buried bones. “You know I wouldn’t miss seeing Jack’s last gasp as a single man, Mama,” he said. “I even wore black for the occasion.”

“You are incorrigible,” his mother said. “But I love you anyway.”

“She’s just saying that.” Jack, in the seat beside him, clapped Mac on the shoulder. The three boys all had the same dark hair and blue eyes, but Jack was the leanest and tallest of the three by about a half an inch. “You know she likes me best.”

Mac looked around the assembled group, joined by the two women and Maddy. The whole world seemed to have changed in the years since Mac had lived in Stone Gap. His younger brothers were all grown up, getting married, settling down. “Well, damn. You’re all here at once.”

“So where’s your date?” Luke asked.

“What date? I didn’t bring anyone with me.”

“That’s because no one wants to put up with his workaholic self,” Jack laughed.

The familiar argument, back again. From the day he’d gotten his first job at eleven, his brothers had teased him about working too much, playing too little. Mac just hadn’t seen the need for video games or skateboarding on sidewalks. Not when there were things that could be accomplished, goals to be met. “I’m not a workaholic.”

Jack arched a brow. “So you came to town just for my wedding? Not for anything work related?”

“Well—”

“Exactly.” Jack shook his head. “One of these days, big brother, you’ll slow down long enough to live your life.”

“Mac’s living his life. Up there in the city far from all of us. Doesn’t slow down long enough to call and say how-do-you-do,” Bobby said.

“Dad, I’ve just been busy.”

“Living the big corporate life. Sucking up the little guys and slapping them down like ants.”

And that right there was the crux of everything wrong between his father and him. Bobby didn’t understand Mac’s approach to business, didn’t see that sometimes buying a company and shutting it down was a good thing. “Dad, we’ve been over—”

His mother popped to her feet, cutting off the sentence. “Let me get you a plate and dish you up some food. That way your brothers won’t eat your helping.”

For a moment, Mac wanted to stay at this table, surrounded by the family he’d seen too little of since he’d left for college. But that itch to complete the To Do list, to move on to the next thing, the bigger thing, like some mountain just out of reach, nagged at him. He’d been chasing that feeling for years and had yet to find anything that tamed the quest for more.

He took one look at his father’s face, still impassable and cold, and got to his feet.

If Mac stayed a second longer he was bound to say something he shouldn’t. Something such as, Where do you get off judging me for how I run my business, Dad, when you were screwing up your own life? Yeah, probably not appropriate Sunday-dinner talk. “Sorry, Mama, but I can’t stay. Just popped in to say hello. I have a meeting to get to.”

“On a Sunday?” His mother shook her head. “Why are you working on the Lord’s day? Even He took a break, you know.”

“That’s because His work was done, Mama. Mine never is.” Mac pressed a quick kiss to his mother’s cheek, then grabbed his helmet off the sideboard, swung it back onto his head and buckled the chin strap. “I’ll be around, staying at the Stone Gap Hotel, and here through Saturday for Jack’s wedding.”

“Then gone again.” The cold statement from his father wasn’t even a question.

“My life is back in Boston, Dad. Not here.”

“Your life is where you make it, son.” Bobby shook his head. Clearly disappointed. “And there’s nothing wrong with making a life right here. You don’t have to conquer the world and trample the little people to have a life.”

Mac bit back his frustration. No matter how far he rose in his career, how many milestones he achieved, his father never looked at him the way he looked at his other two boys. Maybe Bobby couldn’t understand why Mac would leave Stone Gap, why he’d want something more than what this tiny little speck of a town had to offer. Mac had long ago given up trying to argue the point. His father was never going to see him as anything other than the one who’d let him down, let the town down. One business deal and Bobby refused to forgive or understand.

And now Mac had his own reasons for not forgiving or understanding his father, who came across as the great family man, the pillar of Stone Gap. When the truth was something else entirely.

“I’ll be back,” Mac promised. Then he headed out the door, got on his bike and started the engine, letting the roar of the Harley drown out the tension he was leaving behind.

Before heading to the address Savannah had given him, Mac stopped over at the Stone Gap Hotel to check in and get his room key, because chances were good if he got back late tonight, the eighteen-year-old front-desk clerk would be asleep when he returned. He stowed his small bag of belongings in the room, then grabbed his laptop and a notepad before heading back down to the bike. That was all he’d need for his evening with Savannah Hillstrand. Eat, conduct a little business and leave.

No lingering to get to know her, to see if he could make her laugh or coax that dazzling smile from her again. This was all work and no play, and the sooner he could get back to his room to tackle the long list of emails and reports he needed to read, the better. Then, hopefully, this knot of stress in his chest would ease.

He was just latching his helmet when a car carrying familiar occupants pulled into the hotel parking lot. His little brothers, here to check up on him. Mac tucked the helmet under his arm and waited while they got out of Luke’s car.

“What are you two doing here?”

The younger Barlows leaned against the hood, their arms crossed over their chests. “We’re on a fact-finding mission,” Jack said. “As in finding out why the hell you ran out on dinner?”

“I told you. I had a meeting.”

“At dinnertime. On a Sunday.” Jack rolled his eyes. “The only day you know Mama’s going to expect us all around the table.”

“You missed a hell of a pot roast, too,” Luke added.

“And don’t forget the apple crumble for dessert,” Jack said. “That was amazing.”

“Had myself two helpings since I didn’t have to share with Mac.” Luke patted his belly. “Too bad you missed it for a meeting, big brother.”

Mac scowled. He was back in town for barely a few hours and already they were giving him a hard time. “For one, the time for Sunday dinner is more like late afternoon—”

“So we have time to watch the game. Priorities, Mac.” Jack grinned.

“For another, I don’t think Dad really cared if I was there or not.” Mac shrugged as if it didn’t bother him at all, and as if there wasn’t other untouched issues between him and his father. Issues he didn’t want to share with his brothers, not until he figured out how to drop this secret sibling bomb with as little collateral damage as possible. “So I figured I might as well get some work done.”

“What is up with you and Dad anyway?” Luke asked. “It seemed like you were trying your damnedest to avoid him.”

“More than you usually do,” Jack added. “Dad’s mellowed over the years, Mac. You could try cutting him some slack—”

“I’m not having this conversation. I told you. I have a meeting—”

“No, you have a serious itch to avoid your family today. Which is what I bet you plan on doing all week. We had some very fun family activities planned for the week, too.” Jack grinned. “You know, group trips to the zoo, maybe grabbing some funnel cakes at the fair, a little brotherly bonding in the backyard...”

Mac snorted. Despite his frustration with his brothers, he found a smile curving across his face. “Funnel cakes? The zoo?”

“That’s the plan,” Luke said, pushing off from the car, a gleam in his eyes. “All with the customary big-brother torture, followed by a cold ocean dunking and topped off with a day of us arm wrestling you into admitting we’re stronger than you.”

“Smarter, too,” Jack added.

“Definitely smarter.” Luke nodded, then wagged a finger at Jack. “And better looking.”

“Damned shame. You could have been so much more,” Jack said, reaching forward and clapping Mac on the shoulder. “If only you’d been born second or third.”

Mac shook his head. “It’s too bad you two are so delusional. You do know what Mama says, don’t you? That she should have stopped having kids after she had the perfect one.” Mac put out his arms. “Voilà. Perfection.”

The three brothers laughed at the familiar joke. Their mother loved them all equally, but when pressed, would tell each boy that he was her favorite. Mac had missed this camaraderie, the gentle ribbing by people who knew him best. For a second, he considered turning down Savannah’s offer and spending the week with his brothers instead. Then he remembered what he had learned from Uncle Tank, and knew if he did that, he’d inevitably feel compelled to confess to Jack and Luke. The truth would come out over some beers or basketball, because if there was one thing Mac had never been able to do, it was keep a secret from his brothers.

The only one Mac should talk to was his father. Then let Bobby handle it from there. It was, after all, his mess, not Mac’s. Maybe there was a way to encourage Bobby to come clean, to tell the family the truth before it exploded, which it surely would at some point. A secret that big was impossible to keep quiet forever.

Bobby Barlow, the pride of Stone Gap, had another son. A product of an affair that had been kept hidden for two and a half decades.

Another Barlow brother, who had contacted Uncle Tank, the one who had been the go-between for the child and the mother, probably to keep Bobby out of the mix. Uncle Tank, who had stopped speaking to Bobby years ago, had called Mac, and said only two words, “Fix this.” As if Mac could even begin to figure out what to do. An illegitimate son, an affair—all that was a hell of a lot harder to repair than a broken tailpipe or a company with too much overtime. Eventually, Mac knew someone was going to figure it out. If the truth didn’t come blasting into town on its own first.

Because Colton Barlow, Bobby Barlow’s secret son, had made it clear he wanted to get to know his other family—and do it soon.

Fix this.

That was something Mac would tackle another day, after he had all this business with Savannah squared away. He needed time to think, time to figure out the best way to talk to his father.

Just...time.

“Listen, as much as I’d love to go have funnel cakes,” Mac said to his brothers. “I have plans for tonight. Why don’t I stop by the garage tomorrow?”

“As long as you promise us something,” Luke said.

“I’ll be at Jack’s wedding. I already promised that.”

“This isn’t about the wedding. That’s a nonnegotiable anyway, because your tux is already rented.” Jack grinned. “We need to talk to you about planning the family reunion next month. It’s also Mama and Dad’s thirty-fifth anniversary, and we wanted to make it special. Which means you have to be here for it. Nonnegotiable number two.”

“There’s a family reunion next month?” And his parents’ anniversary? God. This just kept getting worse and worse every second he stayed here.

“Jeez, Mac, don’t you read your email?” Jack threw up his hands. “Yeah, I sent you an invite like three weeks ago. The entire Barlow clan, descending on Stone Gap.”

“Lord, help us.” Luke grinned.

A family reunion next month meant the other Barlow, the one no one knew about, would want to come if he got wind of the event. Now Mac really needed to find a way to talk to his father.

“I’ll, uh, think about that. I’ll have to check my schedule,” Mac said.

“Check your schedule?” Jack scoffed. “Family is the only thing you need on that schedule, you workaholic.”

The word rankled. Twice in one day they’d called him that. “This workaholic is trying to go someplace. If I can ever get out of here.” Mac fended off the rest of his brothers’ questions and slipped onto the seat of his bike.

Jack sighed and threw up his hands. “I give up. You know, one of these days you’re going to realize you actually need your family.”

“I never said I didn’t need my family.” Mac settled the helmet on his head and buckled the strap. Just maybe not parts of his family, such as a father who hadn’t been as true as he claimed to be.

“You didn’t have to say it,” Luke said, disappointment clear in his expression. “It’s written all over your face.” Then his brothers climbed back into the car and headed out of the lot.

Mac revved the bike, felt the power of the engine rumble beneath him. He loved his brothers. He really did. But sometimes he wondered if they lived in a fantasy world. They seemed to think a few family dinners would be enough to settle everything. If that was the case, he and his father would have mended fences years ago. But now, with the information about Colton, that broken fence had become a yawning, impassable canyon.

As soon as he could, Mac was leaving Stone Gap. And it would be a long time before he came back.

He thought of Savannah Hillstrand and all her talk about the business being family. How her father had treated every employee like a relative. Maybe some people were honestly like that, but Mac doubted it. Or maybe she was just some Pollyanna who thought the world was filled with rainbows and people singing “Kumbaya.”

He wound his way to the outer edge of Stone Gap, past the beachfront mansions that outdid each other with more windows, more balconies, more square footage, then down around the edge of the bay before finally coming to a stop in a dirt parking lot. The ocean breeze rolled in from the Atlantic, sweet and crisp. He inhaled and wondered how long it had been since he’d been on the water. Too long, for sure.

His gaze shifted away from the deep blue ocean and over to a small wooden shack. No bigger than a trailer, the place looked ready to crumple with the slightest breeze. The Sea Shanty was, indeed, a shanty.

This was where Savannah Hillstrand wanted to have steaks? This...dive?

When she’d proposed the dinner, with no talk of business until after dessert, he’d balked. That wasn’t how Mac ran his life. He worked as much as possible, as often as possible. But as he’d wound his way down the roads toward the address she’d given him, and caught the scent of the ocean dancing in the air, he’d begun to feel a...longing. For what, he wasn’t sure, but he knew it had come wrapped in her words. What was it about this woman, who believed in family and vacations and lazy days, that had so intrigued him?

All purely professional interest, of course, even if she did have green eyes that lingered in a man’s mind. He just wondered how anyone running a business, particularly a struggling one, could be so...positive and upbeat.

He heard laughter and turned. Savannah Hillstrand stood to the right of the Sea Shanty, talking to an elderly man and laughing at something he had said. A little fissure of jealousy ran through Mac. Insane. He had no claims on Savannah, nor did he want any. This was business. Nothing more.

Then why did his gaze travel over her lithe frame, now out of the severe pantsuit and looking summery and beautiful in a dark green sundress? She had a little white sweater draped over one arm, and her hair was down and curling along her shoulders. She’d changed, done her hair, and a part of him wondered if—well, hoped—that was because she knew she might be seeing him.

He closed the distance between them just as the elderly man went inside the building. At the sound of his riding boots on the dirt, Savannah turned.