by Hart, Taylor
“I think we should get married, then you can make ice cream for me each and every night.”
Mac’s eyes shone with delight as he laughed.
“Seriously, this is white-dress-and-vows-of-forever-worthy,” she said, scooping up another spoonful to savor.
“I might quote you on that for my website.”
When they finished the meal, Penny helped Mac clean up. When the final dish was loaded and the dishwasher set to clean, Penny leaned against the stainless-steel counter.
“Thank you for dinner. Saying it was amazing would be an understatement,” she said.
Mac rested his hip against the counter so he could face her. “You can have five-star food served to you, but it only truly tastes its best when you have excellent company. And tonight’s meal was certainly shared with the best of the best.”
Penny shifted, bringing him close enough to feel the warmth flowing between the two of them. She smoothed his tie with one hand, the corners of her mouth lifting as she felt the hard thumps against his chest.
“Penny, I was wondering. That is, I mean, could I?” Mac started, then fumbled over his words. A sweet pinkness flooded his cheeks.
“Mac,” she said, lifting herself onto her toes, bringing her mouth inches from his. “Would you just kiss me already?”
“Thank you,” he murmured before sealing his lips to hers.
The kiss was slow and tentative, the kindling having been prepared before the match was struck. Their lips barely broke contact, their breaths mingling together.
His melting brown eyes sought hers as he cupped her face with one hand, the rough pad of his thumb brushing her cheek. Then their lips found each other again, only this time there was no tentativeness. First it was like a campfire, and Penny wanted to soak up all the warmth. Mac wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her closer, and she went eagerly. As she wrapped her arms around his neck, the kiss deepened, and they fed the flames until they became a bonfire.
It was the most perfect kiss of his life.
This rush of feeling, the sense of rightness of having Penny in his arms, it was indescribable. And completely unexpected. He wanted to savor every single moment, to figure out how to make their time together extend past the two days he had left in Florida.
Because somehow over the past four days he had bungee jumped off a cliff and fallen hard for Penny Stewart. As impossible as that sounded, it was the truth.
The kitchen doors swooshed open as a woman called out. “Is Miss Stewart in here?”
Penny yelped, and their kiss ended abruptly. Her face flushed almost as bright as a Pink Lady apple. “Yes, Zandra, I’ll be right there.”
“I’m sorry,” Zandra said, and she spun around with her back to them.
Penny took a second to smooth her dress and took a few deep breaths.
Mac leaned close, whispering so only she could hear. “Busted.”
She half snorted, then whacked his arm before taking his hand, leading him over to Zandra. “Good evening, Zandra. What do you need?” Penny asked.
Zandra faced them with a serious expression. “I have an urgent fax for you.”
Penny took the papers Zandra handed her. “Oh no,” Penny said as she scanned the first page, flipping quickly to the next, then the next. “Have my grandparents been informed?”
“Yes, ma’am. Mr. and Mrs. Wessex will be contacting you shortly.”
Penny nodded, tapping the papers in her hands. “Have the concierge contact my pilot and ask for the earliest departure time for the Bahamas tomorrow morning. No later than six a.m., please. Also, arrange for a car to pick me up at my villa an hour beforehand. You can text me the details. Thank you, Zandra.”
“Yes, ma’am. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do,” Zandra replied before leaving the two in the kitchen.
Mac’s mind spun on overload.
Her pilot? A car to pick her up at her villa?
Penny wasn’t talking like an office worker or an accountant. Who did the employee say her grandparents were? And then it all clicked into place.
No.
She couldn’t be.
Could she?
“I’m sorry, Mac.” Penny grabbed a pen from the counter and started jotting down notes on the fax sheet. She didn’t notice that he hadn’t followed her as she continued rambling. “There was a major accident at the Bahamas resort I recently opened up. Some kids running around and not staying out of a clearly posted area where the carpets had been shampooed. Then as the manager and another staff member were heading up the stairs to direct them out of the area, the kids apparently decided to run down the stairs. Slick shoes and marble stairs are the perfect combination for an accident. This one took out the kids, my manager, and the staff member. They’ve all been sent to the hospital, but it looks like the manager has some severe injuries. The poor assistant manager is freaking out.”
Mac felt frozen in place as she continued talking.
The resort she had opened. Her manager. More facts that supported the crazy conclusion he’d come to.
“Penny,” he interrupted her.
“Hmm?” she asked, glancing up distractedly.
“Who are your grandparents?”
The clink of the pen dropping to the counter was more impactful than it should have been. Everything between them fell still, her blank face more telling than she realized. But there it was, and he just knew.
She straightened, stepping towards him with the papers clutched in her hand. “I was going to tell you.”
“The Mr. and Mrs. Wessex the resort employee spoke of—”
“Are my grandparents, yes,” Penny said, nodding her head.
“And they are what to Wessex Resorts?” Mac hoped she’d say the groundskeepers or some distant relatives to the original Wessex of Wessex Resorts.
“They are the founders,” Penny admitted.
Mac took a step back. “You aren’t an accountant?”
“Technically, no, but—”
“You said you were vacationing to write some reports to be considered for a promotion. Was that a lie too?”
Her eyes widened. “No, Mac. I stretched the truth about my job.”
“What promotion?” he asked. When she looked at him blankly, he repeated. “What’s the promotion you’re being considered for?”
Resolve settled into her eyes. “To take my family seat on the Wessex Resorts Board of Directors.”
Mac paused for a moment, letting all of it sink in. Her family was as rich as rich could be. They owned resorts all over the world. He couldn’t believe he had fallen for the one girl he couldn’t possibly have. He rocked back on his heels, letting the finality sink in. “Well,” he said calmly. “I hope you get it.”
He turned, pushing through the kitchen doors into the empty dining room.
“Wait a minute,” Penny said, coming after him. “That’s it?”
“What else do you want?” Mac asked, continuing to walk away, only stopping when she grabbed his arm.
“You’re walking away?”
“Yes,” he said.
Her blue eyes were dark as a thunderstorm. He stood, waiting for lightning to strike him down.
“You’re walking away because I happen to be the granddaughter of the founders of this resort.”
“Penny, your world.” Mac shook his head. How could she not understand how not right they were for each other? “You just ordered a private jet to be ready to take you to the Bahamas tomorrow morning. I can’t even imagine your world. I’m not even a blip on the radar of your social circle. Listen, I really enjoyed getting to know you, but—”
Her eyes went wide. “Are you breaking up with me?” Her voice squeaked as she said the last word.
Mac scrubbed his hand over his face, hating the knot twisting up in his gut as he saw her eyes water. “It was four days, Penny. Were we even a thing?”
Her sharp intake of breath was like a knife stabbing him right through the heart. Her head bobbed up an
d down as she averted her eyes to the dining-room windows overlooking the lamppost-lit ocean boardwalk. “You’re right. It was only four days. Take care, Mac.”
She brushed past him, and he let her go.
He let the woman he loved walk out of his life, and it wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about the lie. Or at least not her inconsequential one.
It was because of his.
Day Seven
Mac propped his elbows onto the bar and dropped his head into his hands, twisting his fingers in his hair and pulling slightly. Why had he let them bait him? His role was to keep things level-headed, and what had he done on the first day? Allowed the god-complex hockey players to push his buttons and made stupid choices. Now his heart felt like a chunk of steak, beat and battered up by a mallet, ready to be thrown on the grill and left to burn.
To make the situation worse, he was still stuck with the Three Amigos.
“Dude, I can’t believe her family owns the resort,” Brighton said, accepting the cold beer from the old guy tending the bar. His tag said his name was Fred. He was nice, but rather quiet. “How much money do you think she has? At least as much as us, right?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mac mumbled, wishing he could get them to shut their traps. The razzing had been going on for at least fifteen minutes with no end in sight.
“A couple mil at least,” Chris said, picking up his phone. “Let me ask Siri.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mac said again, firmer this time.
Chris swore under his breath. “I need to invest in the hotel business. Dang. Four billion.”
“No way,” Brighton said, grabbing for the phone.
Shawn slipped off his stool, looked over Brighton’s shoulder, and shook his head. Then he sauntered over to where Mac and Graydon sat at the end of the bar and tossed down several hundred-dollar bills. “Looks like you won that bet. Three dates, fifteen hundred dollars.”
The crisp bills fanned across the bar, like an insult slapping Mac in the face. He stacked them into a pile, not even bothering to count it as he folded the stack neatly in half.
Fifteen hundred dollars. What once represented freedom was now a choker pulled tight around his neck.
He swiveled around on the stool, then slid the money into Shawn’s shirt pocket. “No thanks.”
Shawn cocked his head to the side, looking Mac over, then shrugged his shoulders and turned back to Chris and Brighton. “Come on, guys. Let’s go spend Mac’s money. Graydon, you coming?”
“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up later.”
The Three Amigos vacated the bar and headed to the boardwalk.
“Hopefully they’ll stay out of trouble.” Graydon signaled to the bartender for another sweet tea.
“I totally screwed up.” Mac ran his finger up and down the condensation of his Coke glass.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have given that money back,” Graydon said.
“Seriously, the bet wasn’t about the money. It was about the fact that a beautiful woman would rather go out with a nice guy instead of a rich jerk.”
“Did she?” The bartender asked, setting the sweet tea in front of Graydon. His eyes met Mac’s. “Did she prefer your company?”
Mac straightened out of his slouch. “I think so.”
Fred simply arched an eyebrow. “Ladies of privilege rarely waste their time. How many dates did you go out on?”
“Three dates over the past four days.”
“From what your friends said about her portfolio, she wouldn’t have said yes to a second date had the first one not been appealing,” Fred said.
Mac smiled, remembering their dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. “Ah man,” he said, shaking his head, still blown away that Penny was a billionaire. Why was she spending time with a guy like him?
“Did I ever tell you how Rachel and I met?” Graydon asked. When Mac shook his head, he continued. “She was on a date at Brisket and Noodles. I was running things while my parents were out of town. Her date went terribly wrong, and she ended up in my office, asking me why men lie while she waited for her cab.” Graydon cracked a smile, shaking his head. “The next time we met was about a week later when she dropped her nephew off at my hockey camp. She thought I was there to do the catering. She had no idea I was a hockey player. I didn’t bother to correct her either. I liked how flustered she got by Graydon the catering guy, instead of DG the rich guy. But man, when she found out who I really was.” Graydon chuckled, leaning towards Fred. “She’s a redhead, mind you. She stayed all poised as she accused me of taking one too many hits to the head to be able to properly remember my own identity, then she smashed a full plate of cheesecake into my hand. Mind you, I was at my cousin’s wedding, and she really was the caterer. My entire family and all their closest friends had the privilege of witnessing my rejection.”
“The feisty ones make the best wives. Congratulations.” Fred shot Graydon a wink. “Back to Mac. So she’s rich. What’s the big deal? Can’t handle a woman with more heft than you?”
“It was all a deception.”
“She didn’t tell you—”
Mac cut him off. “Not her. Me. That first date, yeah, it was about the good guys winning for a change, but there was also an element of it being about the money, too. I figured maybe she’d go out with me once. If I was lucky, a second time, and I’d have the added satisfaction of lightening Shawn’s wallet a bit. I just didn’t expect, well, her.”
Fred’s eyes narrowed, then he nodded his head slightly up and down. “You didn’t expect to fall in love.”
Mac’s shoulders slumped, and he clasped the cold drink between his hands. Defeat filled his soul. “No, I didn’t.”
Fred pushed off the bar counter, then wiped down the gleaming wood with a soft towel. “Well, son, moping at a bar isn’t going to help you one bit. Talking is the only chance you have to resolve the issue.”
“She’ll hate me.”
“Maybe.” Fred shrugged his shoulders before moving away to help a new customer.
Did he dare talk to Penny? Would she even want to listen to anything he had to say after how he had acted last night? There was only one way to find out.
Penny tossed her briefcase on the couch before going to the kitchen to pour a cold glass of water. It had been a horrific day, from the turbulent flights and organizing staff meetings to the hospital and injury reports and comforting three upset families. Her brain was on overload even before Mimi’s irate phone call about Mac and the bet he had made with his friends.
She had shoved Mac and the entire situation out of her mind until the return flight to Daytona. Why return home when the Bahamas resort gave her a variety of reasons to avoid the topsy-turvy emotions she’d have to deal with in Florida? But Mimi wanted her home, most likely to keep an eye on her granddaughter’s emotional state.
Penny sipped the cool water, not finding any pleasure as it soothed her dry throat. She wanted the day to be over. To change out of her nasty traveled-in clothes, pull on some cozy pajamas, then crawl into bed and pull the cover over her head to hibernate from the world.
A soft knock sounded at her door. Penny glanced at the clock. It couldn’t be Mimi, not at eleven o’clock at night. She went to the security monitor beside the door, finding a very tired-looking Mac on the other side. She placed her hand on the knob, tempted to turn it, to let him inside. But she couldn’t face him.
“What is it, Mac?” she asked through the door.
“I’d really like to talk. Can I come in?”
The sincerity in his eyes made her yearn to say yes, but she beat it back. “I’m tired. Talking right now isn’t a good idea.”
“I wanted to apologize and to explain about the other night,” he said.
Bubbly anger pushed past the tired cracks in the walls she had tried to build throughout the day. “Do you mean, explain about the bet you and your buddies made?”
His head jerked in surprise. “How did you—”
“There i
sn’t much gossip that makes its way around the resort without my grandmother eventually finding out.”
“Penny, can you open the door?”
She ignored the request. “Did you get a bonus for scoring a kiss with the rich girl?”
“It wasn’t like that, I promise. It was a stupid bet I made to prove that you’d rather spend time with me instead of someone like Shawn.”
She leaned her forehead against the door, moving it from side to side. Her laugh was short and rough. “Had someone asked me whom I preferred yesterday afternoon, I would have agreed. It turns out, I’m the single billionaire chick who was stupid enough to be duped by a bunch of immature boys. Well, enjoy your bragging rights. You earned them.”
The monitor showed Mac placing the palm of his hand on the door, his head tilted towards the door too. “I didn’t take the money, Penny. Can we talk, please?”
Ironically, if the door magically disappeared, they would be leaning against each other for support. But there wasn’t any magic that could fix this.
“I can’t, Mac. Please, just go.”
They were both still for a moment. She watched him on the monitor, his head bent and his hand pressed to the door. “I’m checking out tomorrow morning. If you decide you want to talk, call or send me a message.”
Penny pushed away from the door. “Goodbye, Mac.”
She ignored the monitor, not wanting to see his expression or to see him walk away. Instead she turned out the lights as she went to her bedroom. She didn’t bother to change clothes. She pulled off her shoes and climbed right into her bed, ready for the exhaustion to take over and hoping for the emptiness of a dreamless night.
Day Eight
Penny’s phone rang, jolting her out of sleep. She pulled the pillow off her head, blinking at the bright light shining through the slits in the window’s blinds. She fumbled before her hand connected with her phone, swiping to accept the call from her papa.
“Hello?” she asked, her voice crackly.
