The Property Brokers by Sandi Lynn
Chapter 22
Grant
I couldn’t believe she pulled it off.
“Excuse me, Grant?” Tina spoke as she poked her head inside my office. “Your dad wants to see you.”
“Thanks, Tina.”
I got up from my desk and before heading up to see my dad, I turned and looked at Bella.
“Let’s celebrate tonight. Dinner at my place. I’m cooking.”
“You don’t cook.” She smirked.
“Sure, I do.” I gave her a wink.
I walked into my dad’s office, and he was on the phone. Standing in front of the window, I tucked my hands in my pants pockets and stared out at the busy city while he finished his call.
“Thanks for coming up, son,” my father spoke as he set his phone on his desk.
“What’s up, Dad?” I took the seat across from his desk.
“Ross Engelman called me. He wants us to list his townhome on the Upper West Side. Here’s his number. I told him you’d be calling him.”
I took the piece of paper from my dad and placed it in my pocket.
“How was your date with Cassandra?” I asked with a smirk.
“It was nice.” The corners of his mouth curved upward.
I steadily narrowed my eye at him because my dad never used the word “nice.”
“Just ‘nice?’” I arched my brow.
“Fine. We had an amazing night. She’s a great woman and I’m taking her out again tomorrow night.”
“Wow. Okay. Two dates.” I smiled.
“Don’t make a big deal about it.” He pointed at me. “How did things go when you showed Bella the West 21 building?”
I let out a chuckle. “Things went fine. She just sold Penthouse A.”
His brows furrowed for a moment as he placed his hands on his desk.
“What?”
“She managed to get a client who offered a million dollars less on a $5.3 million dollar property to buy an $11.5 million dollar penthouse.”
“I’ll be damned.” He shook his head. “How did she do that?”
“Dad, honestly, I don’t really know. I was there with her and the clients, and I still can’t explain it. She has this way with people. It’s crazy.”
“She is quickly becoming this company’s most valuable asset. I’m putting you on warning.”
“About what?”
“You don’t do anything to make her leave.” He pointed his finger at me. “In fact, you do everything in your power to make her happy so she’ll stay on here. Give her anything she wants. Do you understand me, son?”
“You don’t have to worry. I think she lives to show me up.”
* * *
Iwent back down to my office, and when I stepped inside, I saw a man standing by the window looking out at the city.
“Hey, man. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Hey. I’m looking for Bella Marcus.”
“She was just here a little bit ago. Let me go ask her assistant where she is.”
I walked out of the office and over to where Cody stood talking to Tom.
“Do you know who that guy is?” I asked. “Is he an agent or something?”
“I don’t know. He’s here to see Bella. She just ran to the bathroom,” Cody said.
“Okay.”
I went back into the office and took the seat behind my desk.
“She just ran to the bathroom,” I spoke. “She’ll be back in a minute.”
“Ah. Okay.”
He was a good-looking guy. Six three, short brown hair, dark eyes, mid-thirties.
“Are you an agent?” I asked with a suspicious feeling in my gut.
“Ah, no. I’m a doctor.”
I glanced over at the door and saw Bella standing there with a shocked expression across her face.
* * *
Bella
“Ian? What the hell are you doing here?”
I was mortified when I looked over at Grant.
“You really gave me no choice since you refused to answer my phone calls and text messages. Is this Grant?” He pointed to him.
“Ian. Not here.”
“Why not? You don’t want him or anyone to know that you broke up with me via text message while you were in Hawaii without any explanation at all?”
The sick feeling which I thought was gone returned as my body began to sweat and my heart raced as I closed the office door.
“Ian—”
“No explanation, Bella. All you said was ‘It’s over between us, and I’m not coming back to California. I’m sorry.’ Who the hell does that? I thought things with us were good. We were together for over a year. I think I deserve better than that.”
“Let’s go talk somewhere in private,” I spoke with a shaky voice.
“I’ll leave, and let you two talk,” Grant said as he began to get up from his seat.
“Nah, man. Don’t bother. I’m not staying. I just flew out here because I needed to put closure on our relationship before I leave.” Ian stared at me with a mix of hurt and anger in his eyes.
“Leave?” My brows furrowed.
“I’ve joined Doctors Without Borders, and I’m leaving for Haiti tomorrow. I’ll be there six months and then I’m going to Africa for two years.”
“So, you decided to do it.”
“Why wouldn’t I? You knew it was my dream, and now there’s nothing or no one keeping me here.”
“Is Marley going?”
He pursed his lips as he looked down for a moment.
“Yeah. She’s going.”
“Of course, she is.” I shook my head.
“Regardless of what you think, Bella, there isn’t and never was anything going on between us. I think that was something you wanted so desperately to believe in that fucked up little head of yours.”
“Hey. That’s enough,” Grant snapped.
“It’s okay.” I put my hand up. “He’s right. Can you give us a moment, Grant?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
Grant stood up from his chair and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him. Walking over to Ian, I stood in front of him and took hold of his hand which he quickly jerked away.
“I’m sorry, Ian. I truly am. You’re an amazing man, and you didn’t deserve what I did to you. In fact, you don’t deserve someone like me in your life.”
“That is not true,” he spoke.
“This is what I do, Ian.”
“You know why?” he asked. “Because of him. You’re still in love with him, Bella. Whether you admit it or not. You can go from relationship to relationship, and you’ll never be happy until you figure yourself out or put him behind you. I can’t compete with him. In fact, no man can. I tried, but I always knew in the back of my mind things were going to end up this way.”
“I’m so sorry.” A tear fell down my cheek.
He wiped my tears and softly pressed his lips against my forehead.
“Goodbye, Bella Marcus. I really hope one day you find the happiness you deserve.”
He walked away and headed towards the door.
“Ian?”
“Yeah?”
“Have a safe trip and please be careful.”
The corners of his mouth slightly curved upward.
“I will. And for the record, Grant was a fool to ever let you go. Even if you were only sixteen years old.”
He walked out of the office, and I took in a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” Grant asked as he stepped back inside.
“Yeah.” I wiped my eyes. “I’m fine.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I have to get back to work.”
“Sure. Okay. I have a meeting with a client soon, so I’m going to head out. I’ll understand if you don’t want to do dinner tonight.”
“No. Dinner is still on. Just text me your address and I’ll come over around seven o’clock.”
“Okay.” His lips gave way to a small smile.
After Grant left, Cody walked in and hooked his arm around me.
“Are you okay, boo?”
“I’m fine. Ex-boyfriend drama is the worst,” I said.
“The total worst.” His arm tightened around me. “And I’ve had my fair share over the years. But now that you’ve got that settled, you can focus on your relationship with a hot and sexy Grant Roman.”
“There’s nothing between us.” I shot him a look.
“Boo, I see the way you two look at each other. Even if you don’t mean to look at him that way, you do.”
“Grant and I are complicated.” I sighed.
“I can tell.” He smiled. “We’ll have lunch soon and you can tell me all about it.”
“Enough talk about us. We have work to do for the West 21 open house.”
