by Jamie Pope
“Why would I do that? Planning something like that would require wasting my precious thoughts on you.”
“Things got pretty intense between me and your fiancé. I was fairly sure he had put a hit out on me. I’ve never seen a face go that purple with rage when I told him he was never going to be able to build on this island.”
“And you thought that me canceling my wedding, attempting to destroy my dress and telling you my outlet sparked was an elaborate ruse to get you into my clutches so I could carry out some nefarious plan?”
“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds stupid.”
Laughter escaped her. It startled her because she wasn’t expecting it. She couldn’t remember the last time she had really laughed. Even before things came crashing down around her.
“You don’t bring that out often, do you?” He looked at her; there was no smile on his face, no softness to his expression.
“What?”
“That smile. It could knock a lesser man on his ass.”
She didn’t know how to react to his comment. If he was hitting on her, it would have been all too easy for her to throw him out, but he wasn’t hitting on her. She wasn’t sure what he said was a compliment at all.
“Do you like pizza?”
“That is probably the dumbest question you’ve ever asked.”
“Everyone likes pizza, don’t they?” She reached into the cabinet for some plates.
“If they don’t I would have them investigated because they clearly are up to no good.”
“I couldn’t decide between the veggie lover and the meat lover, so I asked them to put both on one jumbo pie. I also got cheesy bread and cinnamon sticks with cream cheese icing,” she said as she placed food on his plate.
“No chicken wings?”
She gasped. “I haven’t had chicken wings in years. Should I call back?”
“I was joking.” He took the plate from her, his fingers brushing her hand as he did. She wasn’t sure what she had felt when he grabbed her wrist earlier, but now as they touched again she definitely knew that there was a little charge there.
She couldn’t explain why she was feeling it when she was still so wrecked from the breakup. She wasn’t looking for a rebound or a man to make her forget. Yes, Derek was tall, strong and very good-looking, but she lived in Miami among some of the world’s most beautiful men and she had felt absolutely nothing around them.
He put his plate down and went to the cabinet to get glasses. “Let me get you something to drink.”
“I’ve got wine, water and chocolate milk. I don’t really want water right now.”
“Wine it is.”
“There’s some in the refrigerator.”
“I love this kind,” he said as he took a bottle from the refrigerator. “My grandmother says I should be ashamed of myself for liking such cheap stuff, but if I have to drink wine over beer, this is the brand I’m picking.”
She grabbed the plates and brought them to the kitchen table as he was pouring them large glasses. “I guess it’s safe to admit that I like ice in my wine, too.”
Derek grinned widely at her. “So does my aunt Clara. We don’t tell my grandmother, though. If you want ice in your wine, you’ll have ice in your wine.”
Ava smiled back at him. She was annoyed with herself for finding it hard to dislike him. Everyone liked him. The entire island was devoted to him, and she was starting to see why. He was easy to be around.
She took her first bite of pizza as he took the chair beside her. For a moment all she could do was sit there and moan. Hot, gooey cheese, spicy sausage and fresh veggies all in one bite. She could remember the last time she had pizza. It was almost two years ago now, and she had been with her brothers. It was right before Carlos had met Virginia. Then it was frozen pizza that Carlos had in his house, but she still loved every bite of it. It was so rare that she allowed herself to enjoy what she was eating.
“I’m surprised to see you eat like that, Ava.” Derek was watching her, she could feel his eyes on her as she ate, but she didn’t care. She was too focused on her food. “I would have thought you would be eating something green.”
“I’m sick of green stuff. I don’t ever want to take another sip of unsweetened green tea, or have a kale smoothie, or eat another salad with no dressing. I was nearly starving myself so that I would look good in my wedding dress, so that I would look good for him. I’m done with that now, and all I want to eat is pizza and cookies and things with more calories than I should consume in a week.” She took another huge bite of pizza and washed it down with a large gulp of wine.
“You are beautiful, Ava. There is no denying that, but I thought you seemed a little too skinny.”
“Did I ask you what you thought?”
“Nope, but I’m telling you that starving yourself for a man is stupid, and if he didn’t appreciate you the way you were, you should have sent his ass packing a long time ago.”
He was right about that. Max never told her that she had to look a certain way. It was simply expected. Be thin. Be fit. Be fashionable.
Her mother was incredibly curvy. The women in her family weren’t thin. Her weight had been a huge struggle for years.
They ate in quiet for a while. It should have been an awkward silence, but for her it wasn’t.
“So are you going to tell me why you ended it? I can list a dozen reasons you should have, but I would like to hear it from you.”
Ava picked up her glass and took a long sip. “Max has a secret family.”
“What?” Derek sat up straight. “There were a million things I thought you were going to say. None of them were that.”
“He has three children. The oldest one is practically an adult.”
“How did you find out?”
“Ingrid, his mistress, came here a couple of weeks ago to tell me. She had a photo album full of candid pictures of Max and his kids.”
“Mistress...he’s still sleeping with his children’s mother?”
“Yes. He loves her. There was a picture of them together. They were laughing. His arm was wrapped around her. The look of love on his face was undeniable. He’s never looked at me that way. Not even once.” She felt herself growing emotional, and her eyes filled with tears. She tried to hold them back. She hadn’t cried yet. She had refused to. Max wasn’t worth it, but she was feeling too much at the moment.
“Ava.” Derek reached across the table and took her hand. The simple gesture was more comforting than it should have been.
“He was never going to tell me about them. If she hadn’t come here, I would have walked down the aisle like an idiot thinking that every time he went away, he was going on a business trip.”
“If he loves her, then why did he ask you to marry him?”
“He was using me. I fit the image. Ingrid doesn’t.”
“So she came here to get back at you?”
“No. She thought I should know that we would be sharing him. I guess she thought having everything out in the open would be for the best. She was quite distressed when I told her that I wasn’t going to marry him.”
“She still expected you to marry him?”
“Of course, and so did he.” She swiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks. “He always gets what he wants. I’m not a person to him. I’m property. I was supposed to be happy spending his money and doing as he wished. I’m not supposed to be angry. I’m supposed to feel lucky that he chose me to spend the rest of his life with.”
“Ava...” His arms came around her, and he pulled her from her chair and into his lap. She felt protected then. Completely safe. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this way.
Actually, she could. It was before he father had died.
“I thought I was going to spend the rest
of my life with him, and he doesn’t even love me. I’m such an idiot.”
“No, you aren’t. I saw the way he treated you, like you were a precious stone. He loves you in his own way. But a man like that is incapable of true, deep love. Because there is something broken inside of him. You didn’t do anything wrong. You expected him to love you the way you loved him. That’s what every woman should expect of the man she is going to spend the rest of her life with.”
His sweet words made her cry even harder, and she hated him for that. It had been a full two weeks since she had called off her wedding, and she had been holding it together for all that time. But Derek had come and made her think about her father and made her feel safe when she no longer thought that was a feeling she could have, and it undid her.
He held her, rubbing his big hand down her back. She wasn’t sure how long she cried, but she felt his lips graze her cheek. It felt nice. Warm. Comforting.
“You’ll find a new man,” he whispered. “One that will love you.” He kissed her cheek. It was a soft peck, which was probably given to be kind, but as she lifted her head to say something to him, his mouth moved closer and his lips brushed against hers.
Before she had felt an electrical charge when they had touched, a little humming that told her there might be something there. The moment his lips pressed against hers she felt a full zap to her system, and instead of moving away from him, she moved closer to him and allowed him to kiss her again. She allowed him to deepen that kiss. She allowed herself to kiss him back. It was only a moment before she came to her senses and realized what was happening.
“What the hell are you doing?” She jumped off his lap. “Why did you kiss me? Who told you that you could kiss me?” She swiped her hand across her lips, hoping to remove the warm, tingling feeling that he had put there with his mouth. She had never been kissed like that before, never felt that way after she had been kissed. It was like he performed some sort of witchcraft on her.
“You’re wiping your mouth?” He raised a brow. “It was that bad?”
“Yes. You’re a terrible kisser. It was gross. I need to gargle with bleach. Get out.”
“Get out?”
“Yeah, get out, Mr. Grabby-Hands-Kissy-Mouth.”
“You were... I was...” He let out a sound of pure frustration, grabbed his toolbox and stormed out of the room. A moment later she heard the front door slam. She collapsed into her chair then, relieved.
She had no business kissing him.
And certainly no business wanting it to happen over and over again.
* * *
The next day Derek took the ferry to Miami. He needed to get some supplies for his furniture business, but the real reason he had gone off-island was to visit Mariel. Mariel was divorced and in her early forties with a kid in college. They had been casually seeing each other for years since they’d met at a dinner for Florida entrepreneurs. She didn’t want anything from him. Not a relationship, not a commitment, not even much of his time. It was the perfect arrangement. She was smart, funny, good in bed and focused on growing her business. She understood that his work came first. She was exactly the kind of woman he needed in his life.
“I’m a little surprised to see you, Derek. It’s been a while.” They sat on her patio. She was sitting across from him in a designer chair, her legs crossed seductively, a high-heeled red shoe dangling from her foot. It should have turned him on immensely, but he was distracted.
“Is this not a good time?”
“It is always a good time when you are here. I haven’t seen you in a few months. I thought you might’ve moved on to younger pastures.”
“No. I’ve been busy. This is the first chance I’ve gotten to get off-island in weeks.”
“Oh? I’m not sure how you do it. I’d go crazy if I had to wait for a ferry to escape someplace.”
“It’s not escaping. I love it there. There isn’t a place on earth that can compare to Hideaway Island.”
“Yes. It’s beautiful, but if you want good shopping or exciting nightlife, it’s not exactly the place to be. You’re a young man, Derek. A beautiful, talented young man. If you came to Miami after your term is over, I think you would love it here. You would be stepping over women.”
“I’m not looking to step over women. I just need one good one in my life.” Ava’s face annoyingly flashed in his mind for the hundredth time that day. He could not stop thinking about her. It was the real reason he had gone off-island today. To escape his thoughts of her. But she had still managed to follow him.
Last night had been so weird. He had planned to go over there to check her outlet and then leave, but somehow they ended up having dinner together. Just pizza and cheap wine, but in that candlelit kitchen it was the most intimate dinner he’d had in years.
He had gone hard watching her take that first bite of her pizza. She closed her eyes, let out a little moan, reacted as if what she had in her mouth tasted heavenly. He would never forget that sound or the expression on her face. It made him wonder what she would look like in bed as a man worked between her legs. Would she make that same face, close her eyes the same way, give that little moan that would be the end to a weaker man?
He was getting hard thinking about her again. “Come here,” he said to Mariel, hoping that a couple of hours with her would banish thoughts of his neighbor from his mind.
She stood up, long, toned legs looking fantastic in the short dress she wore. She walked over to him with the strides of a practiced seductress. Most men would have been jelly by now, but watching her come closer to him wasn’t making his heart race. He wasn’t overcome with the urge to take her to her bedroom and strip her naked.
He wasn’t really feeling anything for her.
“I always like your visits,” she said as she slid onto his lap. Immediately he noticed the difference between the way she felt and the way Ava had felt last night. Mariel was long and lanky like a model. Ava was more petite, and heavier, but in a good way. Her round bottom had felt so delicious in his lap, like it was meant to be there.
“I like my visits here, too. I should make an effort to come see you more.”
“You should. Or maybe I can come to the island sometimes.”
“No,” he said quickly without meaning to.
“No? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”
“You are gorgeous and successful. I wouldn’t be embarrassed at all. But I’m the mayor of a small island, and if my grandmother and aunts saw me with you, they would be planning our wedding and asking you when you planned on getting pregnant.”
“Oh.” She shook her head. “That won’t do.”
“My town has been interested in marrying me off for some time now.”
“What good is a mayor without a perfect first lady?”
“Exactly. It’s hard to be discreet there.”
“Well, this is one place you don’t have to be discreet,” she said before she pressed her lips to his.
Goddamn it.
He had kissed Ava for only a moment and yet her kiss came rushing back to the forefront of his mind. She freaked out and threw him out of her house, but before she did, she had kissed him back. Warm, soft, full lips. A little breathy sigh. Her arms wrapped around him. It was a beautiful kiss, even if she had said it was disgusting.
She was right. He shouldn’t have kissed her. Especially since she was two weeks single, fresh from a long relationship. But he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t imagine what she was feeling and yet when he looked into her big brown eyes he could see how hurt she was; he could feel it. She thought that she was unlovable. That she was some kind of prop. Derek couldn’t stand seeing her that way, and something in his brain shouted, Make it better.
Make her better.
She’d come easily when he pulled her onto his lap. She’d held on to
him as she cried, and this incredible need to protect her had come over him.
He should have had the opposite reaction. He had been with his mother through many of her breakups. He had heard her cry and rage and fall apart so many times, he had almost become numb to it.
There were similarities between the two women. Both beautiful. Both chose rich men who they should have known weren’t right for them. Both changed who they were to fit a man’s expectations. Derek’s heart should have hardened to her. He should have thought that she got what she deserved for getting involved with a man who was so clearly a snake. But there was one major difference between his mother and Ava. He felt in his gut that Ava wouldn’t repeat her mistake.
“Um, Derek?” Mariel had pulled her lips from his and frowned down at him. “Is there something wrong? You seem like you’re not enjoying this.”
“No.” He moved his lips closer to her again. “I am.” He could push through this and make love to her. It had been a couple of months since he last had sex. He probably needed to blow off steam. But as she wrapped her arms around him, he knew it wouldn’t be fair to Mariel if he did, because he would go to bed with her while his mind was on another woman. “I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I can’t do this today.”
Mariel nodded and gave him a small smile. “I knew this day would come. It always does with the younger ones.”
“What?”
“You’ve outgrown this. You need a partner, not a sex buddy. Maybe your family is right. It is time for you to find a first lady.”
* * *
Ava sat on her porch swing that evening, her mind peacefully blank for once. There was a warm breeze blowing and the sound of birds chirping in the distance. She felt languid. She wasn’t sure how that was possible, but she did. She had spoken to her mother for more than an hour on the phone that day and made plans with Elias for that weekend. Her underlying sadness was still there, but overall she had felt pretty good. If she had gone back to Miami, she was sure this wouldn’t be possible. There must be something special about Hideaway Island.
