Bride & Seek

by Samantha Chase

  “Wow,” she sighed. “What brought that on?”

  “I just realized that by going on this walk and essentially bringing an end to this game of hide-and-seek, we wouldn’t be doing anything like this again.”

  “Well…I wouldn’t say it like that,” she began with a hint of sassiness. “I mean, who’s to say I won’t just be overcome with lust when I see you walking around some time and won’t grab you and drag you into a closet somewhere and climb you like a tree?”

  “Promise?”

  Raking her hands up into his hair and pulling him down for another kiss, she murmured, “Definitely.”

  Cade’s mind was swirling with the thought of closing the sides on the cabana and letting her climb him right here, right now. He knew no one would bother them, but…at least he hoped no one would bother them.

  Oh, hell, he thought. There was no way he was going to take that risk. No one needed to see them…climbing.

  “You know,” he said a few minutes later after they’d caught their breath, “I think if you ever get a weekend off, we should make reservations here and check out all the amenities ourselves.”

  “Really? You’d want to book a weekend where we both work?”

  Taking her hand back in his, he led them out of the cabana and back toward the main building. The beach ahead of them was relatively isolated, and if the whole point of this walk was to be seen, they needed to be where people were.

  “Sweetheart, have you ever seen the cabins here? They’re magnificent. Completely private and have their own pools or hot tubs.”

  “Seriously?”

  “They’re small but private.”

  “Sounds very appealing.”

  He nodded. “I haven’t been in many, but the few I have seen are amazing. Kind of always wanted to stay in one, but…”

  “But what?”

  Shrugging, he said, “Never had anyone I wanted to stay in one with.” He saw her eyes go a little wide before a slow smile crossed her face. “It’s true.”

  “I bet there have been plenty of women who would have loved to stay in one with you.”

  Cade playfully nudged her shoulder as they walked on. “Doesn’t matter. There’s only one I want to stay here with.” He waited for a beat. “So what do you say? Think you’d like that?”

  Cammie stopped walking and waited as Cade faced her. “I think I’d love that. As a matter of fact, I may have to go back to the office and look at our calendar for the next couple of months and find a weekend that’s light so I can put in my request.”

  Honestly, Cade was a little bummed about having to wait that long. What if…

  “What about tomorrow night?”

  This time her eyes went really wide. “What?”

  “Tomorrow night. After the event. We’ll see if they have any cabins available and we’ll stay here.”

  “Cade…that’s crazy! And…and we wouldn’t get to fully enjoy it! The wedding will be over by five, but then I won’t be done until about seven, and then we’d have to check out by noon on Sunday. It’s not a lot of time, and…we’re going to see your parents on Sunday.”

  “If we checked out at noon, that would give us plenty of time to get ourselves together and up to my folks’ for dinner.”

  She looked up at him, and as much as he hated it, the look on her face said it all. And she was right. When they finally got to stay in one of the cabins, he wanted it to be for an entire uninterrupted weekend.

  “Okay. We’ll wait. But you can’t blame me for being anxious,” he said, hoping he sounded light and not like he was pouting.

  “It was a lovely idea,” she said soothingly. “And I promise I’m going to look into it this afternoon and find us the perfect weekend to stay and relax.”

  He sighed dramatically. “I guess it will have to do.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “There’s always hide-and-seek,” he teased.

  “I knew it! I knew you were hiding around here, and now we’ve found you!” Both Cade and Cammie stopped and stared as Whitney Van Wilkinson and Preston Cameron blocked their way off the beach.

  11

  For a moment, Cammie could only stare. This was it. She was finally facing her fears.

  No, that wasn’t the right word. She was finally facing her…nope. Fears. It was the word.

  “I knew you were working here and just too afraid to face us,” Whitney said in that snooty tone of hers.

  “Wait,” Preston said, taking a step back, “you knew Cammie worked here? Is that…is that why you wanted to get married here?”

  Wow, Cammie thought. How could she have been so stupid for all those years? It was apparent Preston was not the one in control of his relationship with Whitney. Hell, he wasn’t even an equal partner.

  “Of course, I knew,” Whitney said, barely sparing him a glance. She was too busy looking at Cammie with a superior expression on her face. “So this is what you’ve been reduced to? Working as a secretary at a destination wedding resort?” She paused and tilted her perfectly coiffed blonde head to the side. “Doesn’t it bother you? Seeing so many people in love, in real relationships, while you’re…you know, not?”

  Beside her, Cammie felt Cade stiffen, but she just gripped his arm a little tighter, silently willing him to let her handle this.

  “Whitney,” she began pleasantly, a serene smile on her face. “It’s so nice to see you standing upright. And with pants on.”

  Cade let out a cough that was clearly hiding a laugh, but Cammie kept her focus on the woman in front of her. “Nice to see you could get off your back for a little while and see how…classy people live.”

  Whitney sputtered, searching for something to say, but Cammie had stopped paying attention. She focused on Preston.

  “And you,” she said, her tone a little crisper. “Are you seriously going to stand here and pretend you had no idea why your fiancée was obsessed with getting married here at Emerald Grove? Or why she suddenly had an interest in being here all the freaking time? Are you really so damn clueless?”

  “Um…I just thought…it has a wonderful reputation,” Preston stammered, refusing to look Cammie in the eye. “I just figured it was a coincidence.”

  “Right,” Cammie said sarcastically. “Just like it was a coincidence I happened to come to your office to find you screwing her on your desk. After you’d left me a message telling me to stop by.”

  “Wait…what?” Preston said, and this time he looked right at her even as he paled.

  Rolling her eyes, she snorted with disgust. “Oh, come on, Preston! You know damn well you asked me to come to the office that day! If you didn’t want to get married, you could have just manned up and told me! You didn’t have to set me up to find you like that!”

  “You think…you honestly think I wanted you to find me screwing Whitney? Do you have any idea what a nightmare it was when people found out?”

  “Good thing it was the boss’s daughter or you could have been fired,” Cammie said dryly.

  “Hey!” Whitney cried. “I’m not going to stand here…”

  “Oh, shut up!” Preston yelled, looking directly at his fiancée. “For once, just shut the hell up!” Then he faced Cammie again. “I never left you a message to come to the office, Cammie. I swear to you! I would never…I mean…I’m not that heartless!”

  She could only hope the look of disbelief she gave him while she tried to come up with the right words would be enough. “Heartless? You’re not heartless? We were going to be married, you jackass! And the whole time we were planning our wedding, you were screwing her!”

  “I have a name,” Whitney snapped.

  “Sweetheart, I believe you have many names,” Cammie said sweetly. “I’m just too polite to mention them.” She focused on Preston again. “What would you call what you did, Preston? If it wasn’t heartless? Gutless? Cowardly? Sleazy? Because I believe we can find more than enough adjectives for it.”

  Clearly she’d made her point because Presto
n simply hung his head and took a step back.

  “That’s it?” Whitney cried at Preston. “You’re not going to defend yourself? Or us?”

  He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “You did it…”

  She paled, her mouth opening and closing, but no words came out.

  “You sent Cammie the message to come to the office,” Preston said slowly. “You were pressuring me. I told you I didn’t want to break things off with Cammie. That you and I were…” He stopped, seemingly remembering they had an audience.

  “You thought you could just seduce the boss’s daughter and that would be that?” Whitney asked snidely. “You really are an idiot, Preston.” She sighed loudly. “I could have had you fired. I would have had you fired if you didn’t call off your wedding to Camilla!”

  “It’s Cammie!” Preston yelled. “Why on earth can’t you ever remember that?”

  Cammie glanced at Cade and saw him doing his best to hold in his own laughter. She knew she was seconds away from bursting out laughing herself. This was beyond entertaining, and yet… part of her pitied them. They were both so damn clueless. Whitney had clearly manipulated Preston. And Preston? Well… he was just pathetic. How had she ever thought that she loved him?

  “Because she’s irrelevant!” Whitney replied. “I got rid of her because she’s nothing. A nobody! She didn’t deserve you!”

  “Actually, I have to agree,” Cammie interjected, sounding syrupy sweet. Then she smiled at the two of them. “I deserve a hell of a lot better. And that’s what I have now.” Cade took his arm from hers and slid it around her waist, pulling her close.

  “With the gardener? Seriously?” Whitney asked with disgust. “That’s what you consider better? Preston’s a lawyer. He’s successful and works for one of the biggest law firms in Raleigh!”

  “And he’s a spineless, gutless, pathetic excuse of a man,” Cammie said firmly. She looked up at Cade and smiled. “Come on. We have a calendar to look at.”

  They started to walk away, but Cammie had one more thing to get off her chest. Turning, she looked at Whitney one last time.

  “Oh… and he’s a cheater,” she stated, pointing at Preston. “Good luck with that.”

  And with a shared laugh, Cade pulled her close, kissing her on the head, and they walked back to her office.

  “Tell it again! Tell it again!” Anna May said giddily a little while after Cammie and Cade had returned to the office and told the girls about their encounter.

  “I was very proud of her,” Cade said from his perch on the corner of Dixie’s desk. “She handled it with such class and dignity…you know it just ticked the two of them off even more!”

  Cammie looked at him and smiled. “I was terrified at first. I had no idea what I was going to do or what I was going to say, but…once I got going…”

  “She kicked some serious ass without lifting a finger,” Cade finished for her.

  “Well, good for you!” Dixie said with a huge smile. “Seriously, I am impressed.”

  “So what’s next for you?” Anna May asked. “Now that you don’t have to slink around looking for hiding places.”

  Cammie grinned and gave Cade a flirty wink before she looked at her bosses. “Well, we’ve decided we’re still going to find good reasons to slink around–just for fun.”

  Her statement was met with a bunch of hoots and hollers from the girls in the room.

  “But…” she quickly interrupted, “we actually came back in here to look at the calendar and see when our next light weekend might be. We were talking about getting a cabin of our own for a weekend and wanted to start planning it.”

  “That would be…” Anna May began but was interrupted by the office phone ringing. “Excuse me. I’ll go and grab that.”

  “I’ve got the phone right here,” Dixie said and picked up the phone. “Emerald Grove Events, this is Dixie.” She paused and listened. “Uh-huh…right…okay…we’ll need it in writing. Yes. No, it’s not refundable. Yes. We’ll be able to sit down with you in an hour. We’re with a client right now.” And another pause. “Then we’ll send the paperwork right over…thank you. Bye.”

  Everyone sat quietly as Dixie hung up the phone and made quick work of pulling up a document on her computer and printing it out. When she had the papers in her hand, she looked at everyone.

  “Bad news,” she began, her voice somber. “The Van Wilkinson-Cameron wedding has been canceled.” She waved the papers in her hand like a flag. “They’re going to sign off on them ASAP because they’re checking out of Emerald Grove and have a long drive ahead of them.”

  There were more hoots and hollers before Dixie cleared her throat and got their attention back. “I’m going to run these out to the concierge and have him deliver them for us.”

  Cade stood up. “Why don’t I take them out there?” He grinned. “It will give you ladies a few minutes to talk. I’ll be right back!” And with a wink, he walked out of the office.

  “Wow…” Cammie said. “That was…”

  “The best way for this situation to end,” Dixie said. “For all of us!”

  “Amen!” Anna May agreed. “The thought of dealing with the two of them–especially after what you just went through–again, I don’t think I could have done it.” She shook her head. “Although, my brother’s ex-wife was always trouble. Especially while they were married. Anyway, once they got divorced and she remarried, she would still show up for family events like she was entitled to be there! Honestly, I told Randy that he needed to put his foot down, but he just bided his time and bided his time and…”

  “Anna May…” Dixie said wearily. “Can we please focus on one soap opera at a time?”

  “Oops. Sorry,” She gave a little shrug. “I still don’t think I could’ve handled dealing with them after today. You know, if they decided they still wanted to get married here.”

  “It wouldn’t have been so bad,” Cammie said. “Think of all the fun we could have had and all the jokes we could have made at their expense!”

  “Ooo…that would have been fun,” Dixie agreed.

  Cade walked back into the room and sat back down. “What did I miss?”

  “We were talking about all the ways we could have joked behind Preston and Whitney’s backs if they were still getting married,” Cammie explained.

  Beside her, Cade chuckled and shook his head. “Y’all are just a bunch of mean girls,” he teased. “And it’s awesome.”

  “You know it,” Anna May said.

  “Well, it’s over and done with,” Dixie said as she leaned back in her chair. “So…Where were we? Weren’t we talking about you and Cade needing to find a weekend for you to have off?”

  Cammie nodded. “We were, but…I know it’s busy, and we do have a wedding to get ready for, so we’ll look it over and I’ll put in a request sometime next week.”

  Dixie simply observed her for a moment before glancing over at Anna May. The two nodded as if silently communicating. “Well…I think you deserve to have this weekend off.”

  “Really?” Cammie asked excitedly. “Are you sure? I mean…it’s such short notice, and…”

  Anna May picked up the phone and Cammie heard her talking quietly to one of the front desk clerks. “Perfect,” she said after a moment. “Thank you!” Hanging up the phone, she looked over at Cammie and Cade. “Emerald Bluff is available and is being held for the two of you if you’d like it.”

  Cade stood up and Cammie saw the stern look on his face and was afraid he didn’t like the fact that things had sort of gotten out of their control.

  “Cade,” Cammie began. “It’s okay. We can wait. It’s not a big deal.”

  But he was looking at Anna May. “So it’s available now? As in right now?”

  She nodded, her smile lighting up her entire face.

  He looked at his watch and then at Cammie. “Emerald Bluff is supposed to be amazing. It has the best view out of all the cabins.”

  “I’m sure it do
es,” Cammie agreed. “But…it’s only a little after one, and we both have to finish out the day…”

  “Your weekend starts now,” Dixie said. “Go on. Scram. We’ve got it covered.”

  “Are you sure?” Cammie asked, but she was practically out the door as she said it.

  “Go and have a great weekend,” Anna May said. “And we don’t want to see you until Tuesday!”

  Rather than let them keep talking, Cade grabbed Cammie’s hand and said, “Deal! Thank you, ladies!” and pulled her out the door.

  It wasn’t until they were at the check-in desk that he stopped and looked at her. “I want the whole weekend, Cammie. If it’s available, I want to stay until Monday. What do you think?”

  “Cade…a cabin is so…expensive. Are you sure?”

  Behind the desk, the clerk–Marshall–smiled. “Hey, Cade. Hey, Cammie,” he said and pulled a reservation folder out for them. “Emerald Bluff…here are the keys…and I’ll just need you to sign here.”

  Cade leaned over, picked up a pen, and froze. He looked up at Marshall. “I…is this right?”

  “Yes, sir,” Marshall said with a grin. “Compliments of Emerald Grove Events.”

  “What’s going on?” Cammie asked, coming up beside him.

  He signed his name, shaking his head the entire time. “Thanks, Marshall,” he said before turning and taking the keys and then reaching for Cammie’s hand.

  “Cade?”

  They were outside before he spoke. “It seems like we got a deal–three nights in the cabin–on the house. Compliments of your boss.”

  “No!”

  He nodded.

  “So…are you mad?” she asked nervously. “I’m sure she meant well, and…”

  “Cammie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I do need to take care of some things this afternoon around the resort, and then we both need to go home and pack, but…let’s go check out the cabin first.”