Finding the One (Lakeside House Hotel Series Book 1)

by MacKenzie Shaw

  Contents

  Daisy

  Noah

  Aft

  This was going to be an interesting weekend

  He live

  Noah was glad

  She’d

  Noah

  Dais

  Why

  Daisy woke up with a huge smile on her face

  Noah was surprised at how natural it felt for

  Daisy sucked in a deep breath. That wasn’t what

  Noah couldn’t believe he was going to offer this

  Six months later

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  Daisy Yorke picked up her wine glass, struggling to give any input to the conversations going on around her. She was part of the bridal party for her best friend Freya’s wedding, which was taking place this weekend at The Lakeside House Hotel. Their college friends had arranged to get together in the bar, before the rehearsal dinner, as this would probably be the only free time they would have all weekend.

  It had been over six years since they’d left college and everyone, Daisy realized through listening to their conversations, was either married or engaged. Some even had kids. She was the only one still single at twenty-seven. The only one out of the group that she’d kept up with over the years had been Freya, mainly because Freya insisted on weekly calls and regular meet-ups. ‘Reading your once in a blue moon Facebook updates’, she said, didn’t count.

  “So, Daisy, what have you been up to since the last time I saw you? We’ve missed you at the last few Maui get-togethers.”

  Melody Marshall gave Daisy a broad smile and shuffled forward on her seat to hear her answer. Melody was married to an NFL player, Brad, Brandon, Brody or something, she couldn’t quite remember, and looked to be about nine months pregnant. She was glowing with what Daisy assumed must be the ‘pregnancy glow’ that the others had been talking about earlier. She debated on how best to answer this question. Before today she had thought herself to be extremely happy and loving the life she had created for herself after college, but after listening to her old college friends talking about their husbands and fiancés and how great their lives were, no mentions of their jobs or careers, she was no longer sure she was happy.

  “Daisy?” Melody prompted.

  “Oh, sorry, I was miles away. Nothing very exciting I’m afraid. It’s been work, work, work. I recently got promoted to Marketing Director at Fredrickson Foods in San Francisco, I think I’d just moved there when we last spoke. There’s not really been time for anything else, unfortunately.” Was that really all she’d achieved since college?

  By the look on Melody’s face there was something else she was itching to ask. Melody had always been the nosy one in college, guess nothing has changed. Thankfully, she was never vindictive with it, more like a mother hen, sometimes smotheringly so. Daisy caught the look and it wasn’t long before she was proved correct. “So,” Melody continued, “is your fiancé? Husband? Here with you?”

  Daisy groaned and for the first time ever, she wished she could say she had one, she didn’t care which. She’d had a few boyfriends over the years but nothing serious, probably due to the promise she’d made to herself in high school, and still kept to this day.

  In high school her parents had both worked low paying jobs, her dad was a mechanic at the local garage, her mom a waitress at the local diner. This wouldn’t have been so bad if everyone around them had been in the same situation, but her mother had inherited their home from a rich aunt and they had been the poorest family in an affluent neighborhood. It had had an excellent high school and that was why her parent’s decided to stay in the house instead of selling it. Being poor in a rich kid’s high school wasn’t easy. She’d made the decision, after a couple of weeks of being there, she wasn’t going to end up like her parents, stuck in a small town with no prospects and no money. She would focus on getting top grades, get a full scholarship to college and a high paying job in a big city. Financial security was her number one priority. In fact, it was her only priority and looking back, she’d sacrificed everything to achieve it. After listening to her friends, she was starting to wonder if she’d made a mistake.

  With a sigh she replied. “No, I’m here on my own. No boyfriend or anything else.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry Daisy, I didn’t mean to push. I just assumed you would be in a relationship like the rest of us.”

  Daisy was sure there was pity in Melody’s eyes, but maybe the surroundings were making her feel paranoid. The Lakeside House Hotel was certainly the perfect venue for a wedding or a romantic getaway for that matter. It was the first time she’d really had thoughts like that, it wasn’t like her at all.

  Freya came up beside Daisy and grabbed her hand, pulling Daisy towards her. “Sorry Melody, I want to borrow Daisy for a minute, won’t be long.”

  Just like in college, Freya was rescuing her and they escaped to the bathroom for some privacy. Freya turned to Daisy looking concerned. “Are you okay? You don’t look like you’re having fun, and I’m sorry, but this is my wedding weekend and I command you to have fun.”

  Daisy laughed at her friend, pulling her into a hug. “I am having fun and more to the point, I’m over the moon you are finally marrying Charlie.”

  “But, there is something. I can tell so spill it or you will totally ruin my weekend.” Freya grinned knowing fine well that the guilt trip always worked on her friend.

  She sighed, it was better to let it out and move on. Freya could be relentless on her quest for the truth, and the last thing she wanted was to spoil Freya’s wedding.

  “I was really looking forward to your wedding.”

  “But …” Freya prompted.

  “Oh no, it’s nothing like that. I’m saying this all wrong, and it really is nothing for you to worry about. This is your wedding weekend after all. I am happy, well I thought I was. What I mean is that I hadn’t really thought about meeting up with the girls, other than catching up with them y’know … like in college. Then listening to them all, they are happily married or engaged and I hadn’t really thought about me being the only single one left. For some reason it seems to bother me, and when I see you and Charlie together, I realize that I would like that … for me. I mean Charlie is your soul mate, you clearly love each other dearly, and I love seeing your eyes light up when you talk about him, or when you notice he’s walked into a room. I really am so happy for you Freya, just ignore me.”

  Freya’s eyes started to fill up with tears and Daisy began to panic. “Oh Freya, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

  She was suddenly pulled into a hug. “That was the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you.”

  “Aw Freya, you’re welcome,” she replied in relief.

  Noah Carpenter looked across the room at his old college roommate. Although he was glad Charlie was obviously happy, he couldn’t think of anything worse than being tied down to one woman for the rest of his life. That sounded like a death sentence to Noah.

  “So, Noah.” Mason Harrison, who’d been one of his and Charlie’s frat brothers, came up and slapped him on the back. “What have you been up to? Heard you were working your way through all the single ladies of San Francisco, just like college huh?”

  Noah grinned. It was exactly like college. He never broke his two date rule as it had always served him so well back then. He’d found that the women he dated became too clingy after that. He wasn’t totally heartless, he always told them upfront about his rule and they all seemed fine with it … until date two ended. Why did women always think they could change him? Couldn’t
they see it was better for everyone to break it off after that? He just wasn’t the relationship type.

  “I don’t kiss and tell, y’know that Harrison,” he replied with a smirk. Just because Mason was now married with a few kids, living out his own suburban nightmare, there was no way he was sharing any details that would encourage him to ask for more. He’d made that mistake too many times before after speaking to friends in a relationship.

  Mason didn’t look like he envied him at all, it was more like a look of pity he gave him and that confused Noah. “Ah Noah, just you wait ‘till you meet the right girl and you’ll wonder why you wasted all these years chasing tail.”

  “No way, man. These years have definitely not been wasted. I’m having the time of my life. Why settle for one woman when you can have as many as you want. You’re the crazy one.”

  Mason just smiled and replied, “I can guarantee you that when you meet her, you’ll know and I’ll expect an apology.”

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Noah laughed. There was no way that would ever happen. Even although his parents had been happily married for nearly forty years, and his paternal grandparents for sixty-four, he’d given up hope he’d ever have the same. He believed that, being part of the Carpenter urban legend, he would have found ‘the one’ years ago. He’d spent all his free time working at the Lakeside House Hotel for years, right up until he’d got his degree in hotel management. He then told his parent’s he was setting up his own hotel consultancy business and leaving the family run business.

  His parents had been rightfully been upset, but Noah couldn’t stand knowing that whatever had brought his grandparents and parents together had finally missed a generation. He couldn’t stand to see the disappointment in his mother’s eyes when every date he had, never lasted more than two. He’d often wondered if he’d set up the two date rule because he knew, if the legend was true, that he’d know whether his date was the one by the second date.

  He never did.

  It had also helped build a reputation he could live up to at college, being known for his two-date rule - and sticking to it, rather than for being part of the Carpenter urban legend. He knew one would give him the respect of his peers, the other ridicule. It had seemed so important way back then.

  Noah walked over to the bar and ordered another Jack and coke. He looked around the bar at all his frat buddies and began to assess them individually. One after the other he noticed they were either married or had a fiancé or girlfriend with them. He was the only single guy left. Noah shuddered at the thought and hoped it wasn’t catching. He was a confirmed bachelor and happy about it, at least that was what he told himself.

  He’d invited Diana to the wedding, a woman he usually invited as his plus-one. She wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship with him so she was perfect. Unfortunately, she was on a date tonight. He now wished he’d tried another few numbers in his little black book, but then again, he didn’t want to give anyone the wrong impression. Asking a single woman to be his date to a wedding could be very dangerous territory indeed, and one he didn’t want to enter.

  Charlie stepped up beside him and ordered himself a drink. “Glad you could make it Noah, wasn’t sure a wedding was your kind of thing,” he smirked.

  “Ha ha, couldn’t miss your big day now, could I? Freya’s great, and you seem really happy about this, so who am I to try and convince you otherwise? Besides my parent’s would have killed me if I’d not come back for this,” he said letting out a laugh. “You know they are the biggest romantics going and were so happy you decided to have your wedding here.”

  “I met Freya here so it only seems appropriate we get married here. I am really happy with her. I never thought I’d settle down, but with Freya I always knew she’d end up being my wife from the first moment I saw her.” Charlie grinned at him. “Tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life, and yeah I get that scares you, but it will happen to you too. No matter what you think right now. This, after all, is the best place for it to happen, or so the Carpenter legend goes.”

  “Yeah so they say, but I wouldn’t hold your breath, at least not for me. Nobody has ever come close to me wanting to lose my man card.”

  Charlie let out a choked laugh as he spluttered whiskey everywhere. “You are going to fall so hard, and I am going to remind you of this moment. Lose your man card?” he scoffed. “You have no idea what being in a real relationship feels like. I can assure you I still have my man card, and Freya loves it. This is the best feeling in the world.”

  “Yeah, yeah I’ll take your word for it. So where is your beautiful wife-to-be anyway?”

  “She’s with her college girlfriends in the other bar. We thought as it was going to be such a hectic weekend, that we’d take this time to catch up with friends, then meet up just before the rehearsal dinner.”

  “Just lead me to the single bridesmaids.”

  Charlie shook his head. “All Freya’s bridesmaids are in relationships, apart from Daisy, and you have no chance with her. Please Noah, don’t pull your usual on her. She’s Freya’s best friend and doesn’t need it.”

  Hmm what is so special about Daisy?

  The rest of the rehearsal dinner guests had arrived and joined them in the bar. Daisy knew a few of them from visiting Freya’s family during their time at college, but most were strangers. Usually confident in any situation, she felt out of place here. She couldn’t put her finger on why and decided not to look too deeply into it as she was only here for the weekend. After all, weddings were supposed to be fun.

  She knew Charlie had walked into the room when she saw Freya’s eyes light up and a huge grin spread across her face. So, that was what love looked like? She saw them gravitate towards each other like magnets, leaving her wondering whether or not she could sneak out to her room until the rehearsal dinner or stay and go back to the girls table. She looked over at the table in question to see it abandoned. They’d all left to join their other halves after taking their cue from the bride-to-be. Typical.

  It hadn’t occurred to her to ask someone to be her plus one, but then who would she ask? Most of her work colleagues were workaholics like her and wouldn’t have taken the time off, and she didn’t really have anyone else to ask. There was nothing like getting out of her normal routine to see exactly how unbalanced her life was.

  “Daisy?” a deep husky voice made her freeze in mid-thought.

  “Huh?” she turned to see a vision of male perfection standing in front of her. She had to look up to see his face so he must be over six feet. Her eyes swept over his charcoal gray designer suit and crisp white shirt, moving up to his messy, spiky dirty blond hair that looked styled to perfection, deep blue eyes and oh that yummy designer stubble. He was also wearing a smug look that told her he knew she was checking him out … and liked what she saw. Great, he was one of them.

  “Yes?” she replied, pulling herself together.

  “Charlie mentioned you were here on your own and I thought I’d come and introduce myself. Everyone else seems to be coupled up.” He held out his hand, expecting her to shake it - which she did. “Noah.” A nice firm handshake. She hated shaking hands with business clients who had limp handshakes, it more often than not told her they would be a walkover in the boardroom. Going by his handshake he wouldn’t be, not that this surprised her.

  He’d also noticed the couples thing.

  “Nice to meet you, Noah. Yeah, I didn’t realize it would be all couples or I would have brought a date.” There was no point letting him know she was a loser without the prospect of a date.

  “I’m glad you didn’t, or I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to.” Oh, he was smooth she’d give him that. What was the harm in flirting? She was out of practice but maybe a weekend of flirting with Noah would help loosen her up a bit. She knew his reputation through Freya and she’d been warned off him. Which was fine by her, she didn’t want nor have time for any type of relationship right now anyway. However, there was no harm in talking
to him. She grinned, maybe this weekend really would be fun after all.

  “Oh, I think you’d always find someone to talk to,” she laughed. It was good to laugh. When had her life got so serious that she’d stopped laughing? Oh yes, when her job had gotten more stressful and she’d started working under the threat of being laid off. Well, she wasn’t going to think about that this weekend, she was giving herself time off from her regular, boring life. This weekend she was going to be carefree and fun Daisy - if she could remember how that went.

  Noah grinned then put his hand under her elbow, directing her towards an empty table. “Let’s grab a seat and you can tell me how you know Freya.”

  Daisy wasn’t sure why, but sitting with Noah like this was kinda nice. She loved how his eyes twinkled when he was flirting with her and the side of his mouth raised in a semi grin. She was sure he’d practiced that look in front of the mirror for hours. She grinned at that ridiculous thought.

  “Something funny?”

  “No, not at all. I was just thinking how weird it is that there aren’t any other singles. There’s usually been at least a few at the weddings I’ve been to. Guess there’s no need for the usual singles table then.” Good save, Daisy.

  “Are you asking me to be your date, Daisy?” he teased.

  “What no!” she was mortified, but then remembered she was supposed to be flirting with him. She couldn’t flirt if she was flustered around him.She reminded herself that she’d never see him again after this weekend. He was also a player, which meant anything that happened this weekend would never go any further. She could go back to her life, but with the memory of this weekend to keep her going until she did find ‘the one’.

  Finding her inner flirt she looked him in the eye. “Or maybe, I am.”

  This was going to be an interesting weekend Noah thought, as he looked over at the tiny brunette sitting across from him. Not quite his usual type, she being around five foot four and his usual preference were leggy blondes, brunettes, redheads, he’d even dated a model who’d dyed her hair blue once for a photo shoot. None of them had been a patch on Daisy. He loved how her hair fell in waves over her shoulder, and she seemed to be unaware of her natural beauty. A rare occurrence in the women he dated. Woah hold on, there was going to be no dating involved, other than the two-date variety. They were just helping each other out.