"Well, that went well," Justin muttered.

Sometimes I wish I wasn't an Arlington. Dad and his constant drive to have more, build bigger and be ready for the next big project is a menace to our town's history.

He swung his leg over his Harley and turned the key. Snickering at the quiet purr, he pulled away from the curb. Saving the single Victorian house in town was going to be a bigger challenge than he hoped.

Her furious brown eyes snapping temper at him were set in a perfect heart shaped face. Her hair was obviously growing out, or maybe Angelique DeCoeur just hadn't had time to visit a hairdresser. She damn near met his eyes dead on. Must be close to six feet tall. He only had a couple of inches on her. The carpenter's tool belt she wore emphasized strong legs and a neat waist. Her jeans were almost white with age, and he recognized the Brunt work boots she wore. He had a pair himself. He bet she'd have a hell of a right hook if she were pushed.

Justin's Aunt had no problem breaking confidentiality when she told him Angelique's loan was a short-term construction line of credit. Due to be paid in full on December 15th. He was itching to get his hands on the house. Before his father got his claws in it and simply bulldozed it into rubble and turned the lot into another mini park until he could find a use for it.

Almost all the residences in their little town were Creole style homes with long single floor lines and shaded verandas across their entire frontage. Angelique needed to apply to the state for historic preservation status. Not that she was going to believe he was on her side.

The tunes on the retro radio station brought a wry smile to his lips. Everybody Wants to Rule the World poured through his helmet's headset. Talk about the perfect theme song for his father. Just stick Forrest's name in the place of everybody and let it rip in the background of every commercial his real estate company ran anywhere. Enough was enough. Justin wasn't going along with this property grab.

Lucky for Angelique, he was in charge of the acquisitions department. There was some wiggle room. Turning down main street, he slipped his motorcycle between two trucks and shut it down. It looked like his buddy was in the diner waiting for him.

"I ordered the usual for you. I assumed you haven't had lunch yet."

Brady Carter was his best buddy since almost before he could remember. His mother was their housekeeper, and although his father was stickler for him coming into the business and taking the reins when he retired, at least he wasn't a snob when it came to who his friends were. Brady was a couple of years older than him, but he was his brother in every way.

Justin shook his head. "No, and I got the supreme cold shoulder. Dad's reputation got to her before I did."

"How bad?" Brady was shoveling salad into his mouth between words.

"I didn't get a single word in. Man, she's gorgeous. A lot taller than I thought. And I swear her eyes were shooting sparks at me."

"How are you going to win her over? You've got to get her to listen to you."

"I'm going to apply to the Historical Properties Board for her. I'll fudge it, and since they know Dad, they'll probably rubber stamp it. That old gingerbread Victorian needs to be preserved. I hope she's not going to bugger it up with a quick slap of vinyl siding."

"Did some research on her. She's not known for the quick slap and dash flip." Brady took a long drink of his soda before he started in on his fish.

"Well, that's something. Dad's not going to turn this into a green space until he can buy up everything on the block around her. The town set a limit before they take it to court to sell for the back taxes. She has till December 1st to sell it." Justin grabbed the ketchup and squirted it all over the mound of French fries beside the double cheeseburger the waitress placed in front of him.

"She has a double lot, right?"

Justin nodded. "Dad was muttering about putting a six- or eight-unit condo on it if he couldn't get anyone else to sell."

"Yeah and he'll chop down all those gorgeous old oaks along the creek at the back of the property, not to mention destroying the swimming hole too."

"He hates the place."

"Understandable, but man, your mother would never blame the place, even if it was bad juju for her." Brady's dark eyes rounded wide as he spoke. "Shit, shouldn't have brought that up."

"I'm okay, bro. Dad isn't though. Mom might have drowned there, but man I got lucky. Your mom is as much mine as my own was. Thank God she's such a rock." He took his first giant bite of his hamburger and his stomach decided to forgive him for waiting so long for food.

"And thank God my dad talked some sense into us when we went wild in high school."

"We sure had some good times though."

They fell silent as he worked his way through his meal. His one concession to healthy eating was keeping his drink to water. The sugary sweetness of most sodas and juices made him shudder just thinking of it.

"So now what? Her crew took rooms in Miss Ella's motel. Four of them. She's paying the bill for them," Brady said as he finished the last drops of his Pepsi.

"Historical Properties Board first. That's a gift for her. I'll try to catch up with her in a better place next time. Maybe at Pete's Place on Friday night. I'll bet she takes her crew out. If she's paying the freight on accommodations, she's going to be out with them too."

A/N The prompt is in the seventh paragraph