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The pieces started to fall into place. She remembered now that Reid came from a wealthy family of hoteliers. Though the family business had suffered some losses recently, Reid had taken the helm from his father and turned things around. Last she’d heard, Evanson Properties had not only returned to a profitable enterprise, the company had expanded, all thanks to the prodigal son.
“You decided to expand into the resort business, I take it,” Celeste said.
Something flickered behind his eyes. He gave a small nod before answering. “The Caribbean specifically.”
“I see. But earlier this morning…when I saw you…” Now she was just rambling.
“Just filling in for an employee who couldn’t make it at the last minute.”
“I see,” she repeated uselessly.
Suddenly, it was all too much. Far from fleeing her unpleasant associations with the holiday as it related to her failed relationship, she’d somehow ended up face-to-face with someone who’d played a major role in the whole fiasco.
Reid had been her ex-fiancé’s best man. And she knew he’d never thought her good enough for his buddy.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Reid asked, for lack of anything better to say. How exactly did one proceed with this conversation? The scenario was so completely unexpected in so many myriad ways.
She shook her head. “No. Thank you. I just had some coffee and a mimosa to wash down several pastries.” She took in a shaky breath. “But I’m guessing you already know that. Seeing as you were probably behind the delivery to my room.”
“I was. Did you enjoy them?”
Her eyes grew wide. “Are we really doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Pretending I’m just another one of your regular guests?”
The feeling of guilt from earlier blossomed once again in Reid’s chest. Celeste was indeed his guest. A paying customer. He hadn’t meant to come off as boorish as he had out on the beach. But he’d just been so thoroughly disconcerted at seeing her again after all this time. If he was being honest with himself, he’d imagined encountering Celeste Frajedi more than a few times over the years. Not that he’d ever been able to explain to himself exactly why that was so. He had no reason to be thinking of her at all.
“But that’s exactly what you are,” he answered. “An appreciated guest. Hence, my desire to apologize for my behavior earlier. I hope the gesture served as an adequate apology. I should never have let…our history, so to speak…affect in any way how I treat a guest at my establishment. There’s no excuse for my having done so,” he added with complete sincerity. He really didn’t have any kind of excuse. Not even considering the morning he’d had. On top of the missing Santa and the shock of seeing Celeste again, he’d started the day with another aggravating, infuriating phone call with his father, who was once again trying to take over the company he’d almost single-handedly destroyed.
Celeste looked far from convinced by his words.
“I can assure you such behavior on my part won’t happen again,” he told her. “In fact, you can forget I’m even here.”
The skeptical look she speared him with clearly said he hadn’t done much to convince her any further.
You can forget I’m even here.
Hah! As if she could forget his presence for even a moment. What a mistake it had been to come here. Of all the resorts she could have chosen as a substitute for her regular vacation spot, how in the world had she landed on this one? The cruel fates were clearly laughing at her.
Celeste flopped herself down on the wide king bed back in her suite and draped an arm across her face. No, she couldn’t so easily forget that Reid Evanson was right here on this very island. Nor could she forget the way he’d made her feel three years ago. As if she could never be enough for the likes of his best friend. Never mind that Jack had turned out to be a reckless, disloyal excuse for a fiancé who had eventually left her stranded at the very altar where they were to have made their vows. Sure, now she realized just how much of a favor he’d done her. Aside from saving her from what could have been years of betrayal and heartbreak, he’d helped her come to a conclusion about herself. She clearly wasn’t the type of woman who was meant for a family or a steady relationship. He’d enabled her to avoid the mistake of a lifetime.
A mistake that could have led her straight down the same path her mother had traveled.
But that knowledge hadn’t stopped the sting of rejection, nor the burn of embarrassment as she’d faced down a whole church full of wedding guests to tell them that the ceremony had been suddenly called off.
Reid had been there every step of the way. He’d witnessed her humiliation in its entirety. And she’d received the distinct impression that he felt she’d only gotten what she’d deserved.
An incoming message on her phone pulled her out of her thoughts. The screen lit up with the profile picture of her sister smiling as she held her toddler niece. Celeste groaned and debated whether to answer. On the one hand, she felt drained and conversations with her sister could often be one-sided; Tara’s side. On the other hand, Celeste could really use someone to talk to right about now.
With no small amount of doubt, she pressed her thumb on the icon to answer.
“Hey, Tara.”
“Hey, sis.” The sound of a musical children’s show could be heard playing loudly in the background.
“What’s up?”
“Just calling to see how things are in paradise. Still can’t believe you’re there and not here.” Ah, so this was the routine guilt-trip call. Cynical as it sounded, Celeste couldn’t help the thought given past experience.
Celeste sighed deeply as she shifted to a seated position on the edge of the bed. “Well, it just so happens, I’m beginning to doubt my decision to come.”
Tara’s sudden exhalation came through loud and clear across the tiny speaker. “What’s happened? Spill!”
“Let’s just say there’s someone here I didn’t expect to see. Ever.”
“Details, please. Is it a man?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. But that’s not the import—”
But Tara cut her off. “Ooh, this is getting interesting. Is it someone you had a previous fling with? Can you have another one? Hot and heavy with no strings attached! You could so use that, you know.”
Celeste rubbed a hand across her tense forehead. Honestly, Tara didn’t know her in the least. “I don’t do flings.”
“Well, maybe you should start. Heaven knows your serious relationships don’t turn out so great.” She grunted a laugh. “They don’t turn out at all.”
Ouch. So much for a sisterly conversation to make her feel better. Foolish of her to even entertain the notion. Celeste found herself wondering if she should have answered the phone after all.
“So, who is it?” her sister asked after a heavy pause.
“Never mind. It’s not important. Forget I brought it up. How’s Mom? And little Nat?”
It wasn’t often any of them referred to her niece by her full given name, Natalie.
“They’re all fine,” Tara answered. But she wasn’t having it with the attempted change in topic. “And no way you’re going to try to drop the matter of this mystery man. Tell me who you ran into. And tell me what he means to you.”
Celeste opened her mouth to respond with a resounding and emphatic denial that Reid Evanson meant absolutely anything to her whatsoever. That she’d hardly thought about him over the past three years.
But the lie wouldn’t form on her tongue.
CHAPTER THREE (#u53400e69-8644-5e46-b1a5-243b71b5ee49)
ALEX STILL STOOD in the middle of Reid’s office studying him like a lab specimen. “Is there something I can do for you?” Reid finally asked, ultimately losing the game of visual chicken.
“Yeah. Neither you nor the young lady really answered me earlier when I asked if you two knew each other. It appears you do.”
Reid pretended to type on his keyboard. “Then you seem to have answered your own question.”
“I have more.”
Reid gave up all pretense of trying to get any work done. Leaning back in his leather desk chair, he tried to stretch out some of the tension that seemed to have tied a knot in the back of his neck right at the base of his skull. “Somehow, I knew you would.”
“I do. One of them being, exactly how do you know our esteemed guest? I couldn’t help but notice she’s traveling alone.”
“So?”
Alex grinned. “So does that fact have anything to do with you?”
“What? No! Of course not.” Not directly, anyway.
He hadn’t realized he’d mumbled the last part under his breath until Alex questioned him.
“What does that mean, Reid? Not directly?”
Alex sighed, the tension in his neck traveling farther down his spine. He might have to hit the spa later for some kind of back treatment massage. Though he’d been meaning to do that for weeks, ever since he’d arrived at the start of the season.
“It’s not what you’re thinking, partner.”
“Then what is it? You two obviously have some kind of history and not all of it is positive.
Reid almost laughed at that. Less than positive would be an understatement.
“Celeste was almost the wife of a friend of mine. Let’s just say he hasn’t been the same ever since their relationship ended.”
Alex nodded slowly. “Oh. So she dumped him.”
Reid rubbed his jaw. “Not exactly.”
“Then I don’t understand.”
Reid ran a hand down his face. He hadn’t been sleeping well. There was always something that needed to be done, some detail to attend to. He also had his father’s ill-formed takeover attempt to contend with. Now he’d been thrown another curveball in the form of Celeste Frajedi and he wasn’t sure how to explain to his partner exactly what had gone down three years ago. It hadn’t really had anything to do with him. So it was hard to explain why he’d taken it all so personally back then. Even when it came to explaining it to himself.
“Well, on the surface, Jack was the one who actually did the dumping.”
His friend gave him a blank look. “On the surface?”
“She wasn’t in the relationship for the right reasons. He told me all about it.”
Alex raised an eyebrow.
Reid felt a sensation of discomfort meander down his spine. As if he was betraying a confidence somehow. Though he’d be hard-pressed to identify whose privacy he was uneasy about. Celeste’s or Jack’s?
“Celeste is a shrewd businesswoman. She’s very well known in the industry as one of the most successful marketing executives in New York. The business sites have regular profiles on her. She can be ruthless when she doesn’t get what she wants.”
“You said your friend hasn’t been the same ever since the disastrous wedding that didn’t happen.”
Reid nodded. “That’s right. He’s still traipsing all over Europe, partying in different cities. Living with various women.” Some of those women being wealthy, married socialites looking for a good time on the side.
“Huh. And he didn’t behave like that before he met Celeste?” Alex wanted to know.
The uneasy feeling grew from tingling sensation to an all-out burning down his back as Reid sought for a truthful way to answer. If he was being completely honest, Jack had always had a propensity to be a bit of a partier, something of a Lothario. If anything, his relationship with Celeste had seemed to temper that side of him.
“It’s just different. Trust me. I heard all about it before he called off the wedding. Celeste worked long hours, was never around for him. He said he felt single most of the time.”
“Sounds like she’s just ambitious.”
“I agree that’s a commendable trait. But for people like her, it’s never enough,” Reid answered quickly, though the uneasiness was now sitting like a boulder at the base of his spine. Damn it, why hadn’t he scheduled that massage? Maybe they could fit him in between clients.
Alex went on, “She also happens to have booked our most exclusive and pricey deluxe suite for an extended stay. So clearly her ambitions have served her well.”
Reid shrugged. “I guess. Again, some people can’t seem to have enough.” He couldn’t even tell anymore if he was talking from personal experience about his father or if he was still referring wholly to Celeste.
“You sound like a man who’s only considered one side of a story.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You sure you’re not confusing cause and effect, partner?”
But his friend didn’t give him a chance to answer, just turned and left the office. Apparently, the question was a rhetorical one. Good thing, too. Reid would be hard-pressed to come up with an answer.
Had he been completely unfair in his assessment of Celeste three years ago? Of course, it had occurred to him more than once over the years that he’d only heard one side of the story. But Jack had been his friend since they’d been roommates at university. He was a loyal friend and he’d come through for Reid more than a few times over the years. Reid’s father’s recklessness and wandering eye had started right around that time, too.
Jack had genuinely seemed shaken when he’d confided in Reid as his nuptials had fast approached. He’d talked about how cold and critical Celeste had suddenly gotten when a couple of Jack’s business ventures hadn’t panned out. How demanding she’d been that he get back on his feet in all haste.
Reid slammed his laptop shut in frustration.
What did any of it matter now anyhow? It was all past history. Jack had moved on, even if some of his current behavior bordered on self-destructive. He was a grown-up who could make his own choices. Even if everything Jack had told him about her was the absolute truth, Celeste couldn’t be faulted for her ex-groom’s behavior three years after the fact.
That thought had him feeling like a heel again for the way he’d behaved earlier when he’d first seen her. And also for the assumptions he’d made about her judging him.
In all fairness, Reid had been nothing less than judgmental himself.
Bouncy reggae music greeted her as Celeste made her way down the beach to the seaside cabana she planned to visit for her first dinner here. Her paperback tucked under her arm, she was looking forward to a relaxing evening with a nice glass of wine and a tasty meal of local seafood. Her morning plans had gone woefully astray. The least she deserved right now was a satisfying meal followed by a peaceful stroll on the beach. Then she’d spend the rest of the evening tucked in under her bedcovers, enjoying some further reading. To most women her age, such plans might sound boring and flat. To her, it all sounded like heaven. Exactly what she was looking for during her evening hours on this vacation.
Her step faltered as she approached the cabana. It was already packed and hopping. Every table appeared full. She approached the hostess manning the front entrance.
“Hi, it’s just me. Table for one please.”
The young lady gave her a sympathetic look before motioning toward the bar area where couples sat sharing various appetizers. Several bartenders stepped around each other mixing drinks and taking orders.
“I’m afraid all we have available right now is bar seating, miss. And those spots are going fast.”
Celeste released a sigh of disappointment and made her way to one of the few open bar stools. Squeezing herself in between a burly older man in a Hawaiian shirt and a bikinied brunette, she reached for the drinks menu.
One of the bartenders appeared in front of her within moments. His gold name tag said Phillipe in black lettering. “What can I get for the lovely lady?” He asked her with a wide grin. “And I do mean lovely.”
Celeste tried to smile back. He wasn’t doing any harm but she really wasn’t in any kind of mood for a flirtation. And she had no doubt the young man was flirting. The way he was looking at her left no question about it.
