The Black Sheep and the Princess by Donna Kauffman

dying stirred up.”
    He felt her gaze flicker to his and looked up in time to catch it, hold it.
    â€œMeaning what?” she asked.
    â€œMeaning we have unfinished business, you and me.”
    â€œWe don’t have any business. We never did.”
    â€œI know.” His grin was slow, but it kept on growing until he saw the color steal back into her cheeks. “That’s the unfinished part.”

Chapter 4
    K ate didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or throw up. Her stomach was in knots, her emotions were all over the map…and her body was responding to Donovan’s grin as though she were still seventeen and prowling the campgrounds trying to sneak a glimpse of him with his shirt off.
    â€œThe only business I’m interested in is getting my camp up and running.”
    â€œWhat’s the holdup on starting the renovations? How long have you been up here?”
    â€œA month. I’m still assessing what needs to be done and organizing the labor I’ll need.” Although that had also proved to be a more difficult challenge than she’d anticipated.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAnd what? It’s not something that gets done overnight. My target opening date is next spring. I’m in good shape.”
    â€œTell me about the developers. Did the papers have that right? Is there interest from them on the property?”
    â€œI—I wouldn’t know. Exactly.”
    He frowned. “What do you mean, exactly?”
    â€œShelby and I still have some details to work out. He’s—still the legal owner of the property. Any dealings with developers would have been through him.” Something she’d thought long and hard about after Donovan had left last night. Could they be any part of the reason why he hadn’t shown up? She knew about the articles; her attorney had mentioned them to her during their last talk, that word had gotten out about the wacky heiress to Louisa Graham’s fortune giving it all away. She hadn’t read them or paid any real attention to what he’d been saying about them. She didn’t get the Times up here in Ralston. And her focus was on getting started on the renovations, not on what Manhattan society thought of her business dealings. But maybe she should have paid closer attention. The developer angle had been news to her.
    â€œWhat do you know about Timberline?”
    â€œIs that the development company? I’ve never heard of them.”
    â€œThe news story made it sound like—”
    â€œI don’t care what they made it sound like. I haven’t heard of them. If it wasn’t for my lawyer—and you—I wouldn’t even know my inheritance situation was news.”
    â€œThey didn’t interview you for the article?”
    She shook her head.
    That quieted him for a moment.
    The silence didn’t soothe her rapidly fraying nerves. “Is there a problem? What in the world did it say? I thought it was just some piece ridiculing me for giving up Louisa’s fortune.”
    She felt his gaze on her.
    â€œI wouldn’t have come up here if that had been the case. It specifically mentioned the vandalism and the developers. If you didn’t tell them about that, who did? Shelby?”
    Her mind was spinning again. “I—I don’t know. I suppose it would have to have been.” Except her stepbrother didn’t know about the vandalism. Not through her anyway. And she seriously doubted he was keeping close tabs on the property itself. It had sat vacant now for almost a decade, and clearly no one had been paying any attention to it up to this point.
    But then he hadn’t mentioned the developers to her either. Had he suddenly developed a renewed interest in his initial inheritance?
    â€œWhat steps have you taken regarding the graffiti and any other damage?”
    â€œWhat did the article say about the development deal, specifically?” she asked at the same