Length8h 32m
About this audiobook
They are going to tear down the gazebo.
Curtis Mayfield says it out loud to nobody, standing on the veranda of the Bellhaven Inn with his phone against his ear. His mother danced with him on her hip in that gazebo at the Summer Solstice Gala. He was four. He remembers the sequins and the jasmine and being spun until he was dizzy.
So he films his bid video right there, on a sagging porch under white columns and peeling paint, with an egret watching him from the marsh like a judge. Two point four million. Full historic preservation. A closing date in August.
Then a voice behind him says that's a pretty speech.
Rafael DeLuca is leaning on one of the columns like he belongs there, linen suit the colour of sand, a scar through his left eyebrow, calluses on his palm that don't match the suit. He opens a folder and produces a rendering of the Bellhaven ballroom restored: chandeliers, moldings, a dance floor polished to a mirror. The kind of work that costs a fortune, commissioned before Curtis ever showed up.
Rafe tells him, not unkindly, that he can't afford it. He is right.
Curtis's bid was leveraged against three properties, and his stepmother had told him to be conservative and prove himself first. Ingrid Mayfield, silver hair and pearls and a smile that never reaches her eyes, knew he would be outbid. Her own son Leo is the one she keeps calling the natural competitor.
Rafe wins the inn. Fairly, with his own money, on a loan he secured himself. Then he makes Curtis an offer nobody in the Mayfield family would ever make.
*"Then stop fighting. Start working with me."*
What follows is a restoration, a leaked story about a fight between stepbrothers, a press conference Curtis has to stand up at with his palm sweating on the podium, and a paper trail leading back through Mayfield Hotels to money that was moved after his mother died.
Also a small girl named Maya, a crayon drawing taped above a bed, and a man who keeps showing up with a paintbrush instead of a talking point.
A small-town coastal romance between two men on opposite sides of a property bid, about the difference between inheriting a name and earning one. The romance is closed-door.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance, Biography and Memoir
Length8 hrs 32 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 15, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
2Chapter 1 - The Lie I Built My Life On
3Chapter 2 - The Door I Swore I’d Never Open
4Chapter 3 - Moss and Oaths
5Chapter 4 - Barnacle and the Bear
Mostrar todos os capítulosVer menos
6Chapter 5 - The Edge of the Pier
7Chapter 6 - The Invisible Leash
8Chapter 7 - The Shrimp Boat Gambit
9Chapter 8 - The Knot at Midnight
10Chapter 9 - The Scent of Leak
11Chapter 10 - The Octopus’s Refuge
12Chapter 11 - The Stand at the Press Conference
13Chapter 12 - The Cost of Loyalty
14Chapter 13 - The Map on the Napkin
15Chapter 14 - The Serpent’s Nest
16Chapter 15 - The Dinner That Changed Everything
17Chapter 16 - The Whisper in the Marina
18Chapter 17 - The Race That Wasn’t
19Chapter 18 - The Truth Under the Veranda
20Chapter 19 - The Breakwater
21Chapter 20 - The Midnight Wave
22Chapter 21 - The Inn of Ashes
23Chapter 22 - The Shot That Didn’t Break Us
24Chapter 23 - The Ashes and the Alice
25Chapter 24 - The Weight of a Name
26Chapter 25 - The First Stone
27Chapter 26 - The Storm Before the Ball
28Chapter 27 - The Dance That Didn’t End
29Chapter 28 - The Room at the End of the Hall
30The End
31About the Author
32Also by Nadia Vance
33Acknowledgements
34A Note from the Author
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