by Kim Law
Oh geez, what a way to start the event that had to be perfect.
“The plumber is tied up with another emergency on the other side of the island. It’ll be late evening before he can get here. Possibly morning.”
“Well then, call someone else. But first, get the Jordans taken care of. Put them in Mr. Kavanaugh’s room.” She didn’t want Mark under the same roof as her, anyway. “We’ll move him to the hotel.”
She worried that would look suspicious since she’d just been caught fuming at the guy, but she couldn’t care less. The more steps she put between them, the more she remembered what it had been like when they were together. How hot it could get in an instant. And she knew he remembered it too. She’d seen it in his eyes when he’d looked her up and down.
All Andie could think about was how four years of celibacy — on her part — and two people who had combustible pasts could turn into nothing but wrong. Especially when she was stressed to an intolerable level, and everyone knew how good sex was for stress.
“I can’t get over the fact that Andie’s running this gig.” Rob Masterson cracked open a crab leg and waved it in the air as he ranted about how shocked he’d been to find her running the place. He then described how pathetic it was that Mark had suggested the wedding be there in the first place. “I mean, clearly you knew she was here. You’re still hung up on her. When are you going to move on, man?”
“I have moved on,” Mark uttered. “Years ago.”
Gray coughed something into his hand that sounded suspiciously like, Bullshit.
“Shut up, Gray.”
“But you knew this was her business, right?” Rob added. “That’s too big of a coincidence.”
Mark studied his buddy in the waning daylight, wishing Rob hadn’t left Penelope’s side to come over and catch up. He was not in the mood for his friend that night. “Yes,” he finally answered, knowing Rob wouldn’t shut up until he admitted it. Also knowing Gray would out him if he didn’t do it himself. It wasn’t like he could deny it after the earlier conversation with Andie. “I knew it was her place.”
Rob dipped the crabmeat in butter, his attention now on his meal, giving Mark the mistaken hope that their conversation was over. He eyed Gray, who scanned the area as if looking for someone.
“Looking for Roni?” Mark asked.
“Who?” His friend might pull off a poker face for jurors, but Mark knew Gray well. He was hot for Andie’s friend.
“The hostess that was here earlier. Her name is Roni.” Mark tilted his beer at Gray. “You’re hoping to hook up.”
Gray shrugged, not denying it, and Rob interrupted, lifting his eyes from his plate to catch Mark head-on. “You and Beth come across it before she dumped you?”
Clearly, he wanted to understand how they’d ended up there. But some things were none of his business.
“Something like that, yeah.”
Rob tossed the next crab leg onto his plate and turned to Mark, wiping his mouth on the cloth napkin. “Is that why she dumped you? Because you’re still hung up on this one?”
Gray didn’t say anything, merely smiled wide.
“No,” Mark answered. “That is not why she dumped me.”
“Because if so, that’s even worse than I thought. Andie’s a nobody, bro. Though finding out her aunt owns the place …” He whistled softly through his teeth. “That was a surprise. But still, she’s Kentucky hicksville.”
“Shut up, Rob,” Mark and Gray said at the same time.
Mark really needed Rob to lay off Andie. They hadn’t thrown punches in years, but one more crack, and now might be a good time to renew an old hobby.
Mark had never thought of Andie the way Rob did. It’d only been Rob’s snotty opinion that she wasn’t good enough.
Though that had been one of the arguments he and Andie often had.
He couldn’t help who his family was or what their history had been. And he couldn’t help that some people — not his family — looked down their noses at those who hadn’t been born into the same kind of lineage. But Mark’s home life had never been anything but normal. His father worked hard, his mother took care of his brothers and him, and everyone had eaten dinner together most nights. His dad’s occasional business dinners and his mother’s charity events sometimes interfered, but they’d all made it a priority to be home by seven as many nights as possible. Even when the boys had been teenagers.
Mark had never understood why Andie had seen his family as anything different from hers or why she’d worried she wasn’t good enough. Of course, he also hadn’t realized until the end that she’d wanted to be a part of what she saw as “better,” as opposed to just wanting to be a part of him.
“Maybe you two need to go at it while you’re here,” Rob tossed out. “Get her out of your system once and for all. Nothing wrong with dallying with her — she’s got a great bod. Just don’t tie yourself to her and life will be good.”
Mark stared at the man he’d known since elementary school. “You’re an ass, Rob.” Gray nodded in agreement. But Mark was no better because he’d been thinking the same thing. Why not an affair to get her out of his system? Walking away sure hadn’t done it.
“Yeah, but an ass with the right kind of wife.” Rob’s smile was more smirk.
They’d been best friends for years. They’d gone to Harvard Law together. Their fathers had been childhood friends. But they’d drifted apart since Rob had been in Chicago. Hearing the words coming out of Rob’s mouth now, Mark wondered what had held them together for so long.
Or had Rob simply changed that much over the years?
A sickening thought rolled through Mark’s gut. Had he once been like that himself? Surely not.
But if so … maybe Andie’s long-ago argument had held water. Had he treated her like she was beneath him?
No. He pulled in a breath, refusing to believe he’d ever been that much of a jerk. “Give it a break,” he said. He was tired of this conversation, especially since they’d had it more than once back when he’d been dating Andie. “There’s nothing wrong with her and never has been.”
He rose and tossed down a tip then headed for the walkway that led to the beach. He was done socializing for the evening. And he wasn’t even going to delve into what had put him in such a foul mood — even before Rob had sat down.
Mark stopped at the end of the boardwalk and lowered to the top step. He didn’t care about sand on the backside of his chinos, but he wasn’t fond of the idea of going farther and risking ruining the loafers he’d picked up in Italy the year before.
The sun was just thinking about setting on the west side of the island as he gazed out over the early evening horizon. He could see what Andie always loved about the beach. It was calming. Relaxing.
And Turtle Island was apparently her place of solace.
Andie had only hinted at that fact when they’d been together — telling him very little about her home life in Kentucky, and briefly mentioning her times with Ginny — but after the tongue-lashing he’d gotten from her aunt, and then finding out that Andie had been on the island all this time, he had to assume that to be the case. This was her oasis. He was just glad she had one.
“Not much of a coincidence you ending up here, is it?”
Mark glanced up to find one of the women he’d just been thinking about. Genevieve Whitmore.
Her red curls had been tamed tonight, into a sophisticated style back behind her head, and though her dress looked like the last thing someone would want to get sand out of, she motioned for him to scoot over and plopped right down next to him.
“You mean sitting here staring at the ocean? Or …”
She harrumphed like any good southern woman and then gave him that evil eye she’d no doubt perfected early in life. “You’re not stupid, Mark. Don’t pretend I am either.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he muttered. It had been four years, but she still had him instantly treading on fear. “And no, not a coincidence. I suggested Seaglass to the Jordans.�
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“That’s what Andie said. She was fit to be tied over it, too. Not a word out of you in years, and then you show up, bringing a whole crew with you?”
“I was impressed by what I saw online.” And he had been, but that had zilch to do with suggesting Seaglass as the wedding site. He rubbed the palms of his hands together and gazed off into the distance. “She’s been all right, then? All this time?”
He didn’t see them, but he felt those deep green eyes studying him. Finally, she spoke. “She’s a fighter. She’ll get up and keep going no matter what.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I remember.” She’d hit a couple bumps at her job in Boston early on, but they hadn’t deterred her. He glanced over at Ginny. “But how has she been? Really?”
“That would be something you’ll have to ask her yourself, young man. I don’t presume to speak for my niece, even when it eats at me not to.” Her lips took on a slight curve, and for the first time since he’d taken the ferry over to the island, Mark’s shoulders lost a little of their tension.
He propped his elbows on his knees, his head turned toward her. “She didn’t seem too thrilled at the idea of talking to me earlier today.”
“That’s because she’d learned you were coming here just an hour before.”
He widened his gaze. “And I take it you knew before then?”
“I don’t miss much.”
No, she didn’t. The day she’d shown up in Boston to pack Andie’s things, she’d given him an earful. And what he’d gotten from that lecture had been that first, she wanted to rip his balls off and feed them to the nearest snake, but also that she knew the breakup was for the best. “It was fate,” she’d said. According to her, fate knew the right time for two people to get together. And it apparently hadn’t been their time.
Which had left him wondering if she thought another time would be right for them.
“I never quit worrying about her,” he said. That was something he hadn’t admitted to anyone. Not even to his own mother. But he suspected Ginny needed to hear it to know that no matter how he’d treated Andie at the end, he had cared about her. A lot.
“And I imagine she never quit wondering what she’d done wrong.”
“But Rob told her …”
He drifted off. Rob was supposed to have told her that Mark had overheard her the morning of their wedding. She’d been on a call with a client, hastily pulling out clothes for an apparent, last-minute business meeting before the wedding. And it had been clear from the snippet of conversation he’d overheard, that she was not shy about throwing around the Kavanaugh name. She was marrying him for his last name. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t heard it with his own ears. The impending wedding probably hadn’t even registered with her, other than to invite the client over to meet his parents during the reception.
As he’d stood there that day, faced with the reality that not only had she repeatedly put work ahead of him, but that she hadn’t really wanted him at all, Mark had refused to go into a marriage with the balance so unevenly distributed. He’d wanted Andie, and he’d wanted her forever, but he wouldn’t come home to someone, day after day, who only remembered he existed when she needed something from him.
Yet knowing Rob, he’d probably told her another story entirely. Something that would have hurt her even more than the fact that Mark didn’t bother to show up and have the conversation himself.
Which made Mark a grade-A jerk for sending Rob to begin with. Which he’d been aware of at the time.
Ginny nodded as if reading his mind.
“What did he tell her?”
She merely watched him with steady eyes. “Another good conversation for you and Andie to have, my dear.”
“If she’ll hang around long enough to talk to me.”
Earlier, after greeting the wedding party at the beginning of dinner, she’d disappeared without another word, leaving Ginny and the wedding coordinator in charge.
“The way I see it,” Ginny began, chuckling a little with her words, “is that you can sit around moping for a couple weeks, whining about how Andie won’t talk to you. Or you can hunt her up and make sure she does. She’s always liked the beach in the evenings, you know? Maybe this is fate telling you it’s finally time.”
“It doesn’t sound like fate to me, Ginny. It sounds like manipulation of the moment.”
Ginny sat quietly for a good thirty seconds before she placed a hand on his knee. Her touch was gentle, and as he looked down at her arm, he couldn’t help but notice the contrast of the outrageously colored bracelets she wore to the more sedate, beige dress she had on. It reminded him of Andie. Though she’d dressed conservatively in appropriate situations, she’d often paired her attire with a bit of flair. Either a unique ring, an eccentric clip in her hair, or maybe just hot undergarments that were totally opposite the clothes she wore on the outside.
“When did you find out she was here?” Ginny’s tone was soft, but probing.
Odd question. “Last winter.” When he’d been supposed to be helping Beth find a location for them to get married. Instead he’d been Googling his old girlfriend. “Why?”
“Why not before then?”
“I don’t know. It just …” he paused. He hadn’t let himself look before then. Hadn’t been sure he wouldn’t hunt her up.
“Fate,” she said. “Everything happens when it’s supposed to. You were meant to find her last year. At least, locate her last year. But you still had some issues to work through, didn’t you? You weren’t yet ready to face her again.”
“I had no intention of facing her at all. I was — ” He cut himself off. He didn’t want to tell her he was supposed to be marrying someone else. How would that make him look?
“I know about Ms. Ryan. You and she should have been married already. Yet you’re not.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “How do you know all this?”
The wrinkles on the woman’s face weren’t extensive, but were enough to indicate she was no wallflower when it came to living. “The man who shattered my only niece’s heart is scheduled to come to my home. What would you expect me to do? Let that happen without looking into the facts myself?”
Of course she’d looked into his life. He would have done the same thing. “And if you’d found that Beth and I had gotten married?”
“Then Mr. Masterson and Ms. Jordan would have found another venue for their wedding.” With those words, she rose, reaching around to swipe at the sand on her backside. “People may think I’ve done nothing my last thirty years but hang out on the beach and play bridge with my friends, but I also protect what’s mine. And that girl, she needed me. She doesn’t so much anymore; she’s done a lot of growing. But I’m still taking care of her just the same. And just like the last time you and I talked, I’ll say it again. You do not go near her without making sure you don’t hurt her again.”
“I didn’t come here to hurt her.” Mark had risen with her, but didn’t know what to do next. He wanted to head down the beach and search for Andie. Instead, he caught Ginny’s eye. “I swear I didn’t,” he stated passionately.
She nodded. “I believe that. And I believe it was time for you to finally seek her out. Fate and all. But it doesn’t mean hurting her can’t happen. You may both need closure, but you take very good care, son, to make sure it happens in a way that doesn’t leave that child brokenhearted over you ever again.”
With her words, she turned and marched back the way she’d come. Mark watched her go. What he wanted to do was shout after her that it had been he who’d been left brokenhearted. Andie might have been upset when she’d quit her job to get away from him, but it hadn’t been the loss of him that had destroyed her.
He, on the other hand, had been a ridiculous mess. In a way he didn’t care to ever be again. Which had been part of his and Beth’s final discussion.
He only wished he knew what to do about Andie now. He had two weeks, and he’d be a fool not to use them wisely. But
he’d be damned if he knew what the wise path was.
Not to mention that the thought of seeking her out scared him to death. Just seeing her for the brief moments he had earlier that day had made one thing clear. There was still something between them. She’d felt it too.
Which did not bode well for closing that door and moving on with his life.
Andie pulled her arm back and released the Frisbee, watching it sail through the air before a small arm reached up high to snag it. The little girl who’d caught it laughed and bounced up and down.
“You’re the best Frisbee thrower in the world, Andie,” little Maggie Walker shouted as she pulled in the disc and readied to send it back across the beach.
“Me! Me!” Roni Templeman and Ginger Atkinson, Andie’s best friends since she’d met them on the very same beach over twenty years ago, both shouted and jumped up and down just like the kids they were playing with.
Maggie giggled and slung out her arm, sending the Frisbee in a crooked arc heading straight for the ocean.
“Geez, Maggie,” said Hunter, her twelve-year-old brother. “You’ve got to use your wrist.”
Hunter clomped into the water since the Frisbee had landed nearest him, shaking his head at his little sister’s poor aim. Andie made a habit of playing with several of the local kids on the evenings when there wasn’t an event she had to attend. She looked forward to this time of the day. It was relaxing, fun, and just pure pleasure.
And far better than sticking around some party where one of the main attendees had been shooting her dirty looks, and another had been silently watching. She hadn’t wanted to give either Rob or Mark the opportunity to corner her, so she’d talked Aunt Ginny into fulfilling the hostess duties for the evening.
Hunter flicked his wrist like a pro and sent the green circle flying, and Roni ran for it.
“So …” Ginger started, both of them watching Roni as she splashed along the edge of the water. She made quite a picture in the fading light with her short bob and cut-off jeans. She could almost pass for a teenager instead of twenty-eight. “Mark, huh?”
