Confessions of a Girl-Next-Door (7 page)

It had taken Olivia years to be taken seriously. For that reason, she was determined that her only child be above reproach.

Her mother continued. “Just as importantly, Phillip is the ideal husband for Morenci’s future queen.” Olivia ticked off his attributes, all of which Holly had heard before. “He comes from a prominent and well-regarded family. He has his own fortune, which grows daily thanks to his business acumen. If there are skeletons in the man’s closet, none have been found. And believe me, your father and I have hired the most tenacious people to look.”

“Mother—”

“I want to spare you the scrutiny your father faced for marrying me.”

“You’re a wonderful queen and a caring mother.” It was true. Even as Holly chafed
against Olivia’s sometimes overbearing actions, she understood it was love that guided them.

“A spring wedding would be lovely,” Olivia was saying. “It would give Morencians something to look forward to. And, God knows, with the current economic conditions and that nasty flood that damaged so much of the business district last fall, they need something to buoy their spirits. Your nuptials, my dear, are just what the doctor ordered for our country.”

Forget the weight on her shoulders. Now, Holly felt queasy, and her legs turned to rubber. Before they gave out completely, she managed to slip onto one of the chairs at the kitchen table. Outside, the rain that an hour ago had been torrential was merely insistent as it tapped at the window.

She rubbed her left temple, feeling the beginnings of a headache start to take hold. So much responsibility, Holly thought, as the heavy yoke began to settle firmly into place once again.

“Mother, please.”

“Fine. I’ll leave talk of weddings to a later date. When can we expect you?”

“I already told you—”

“When?” Olivia interrupted.

A cartoon stuck to Nate’s refrigerator door caught Holly’s attention. It showed a sloe-eyed man lounging on a dock with a pole in one hand, a beverage in the other. Gone Fishing, it read. So simple. So utterly ideal. “A week at the earliest. I’ll call if I decide to be longer.”

“H-H-Hollyn!” Olivia sputtered.

Holly talked over her protest. “Sorry. I have to go. There’s a storm here and the reception isn’t very good. I’ll call again soon. I promise. Give my love to Father.” And with that, she hung up.

Nate spied Holly when he reached the bottom of the stairs. She was seated on the couch with her arms wrapped around her knees, which she’d pulled to her chest. Her gaze was on the window, but he doubted she was seeing anything, both because of the darkness and the vacancy of her expression. Even a far-off flash of lightning failed to make her blink.

He almost turned back around. He didn’t want to disturb her. But she looked so lost, and, given her pose and the way she’d pulled back her hair, a lot like the girl she’d been.

“I’m thinking that phone call didn’t go very well.”

She started at the sound of his voice and uncoiled. It was almost comical the way she smoothed down her shorts once her feet were settled on the ground, as if she were wearing a silk ball gown rather than simple cotton.

“Not very well, no.”

“Parents worry,” he said, thinking of his own. “I talk to my folks regularly and without fail my mother still asks if I’ve been taking my vitamins.”

He’d hoped to get a laugh out of her, or at least a smile. Her frown deepened. “My relationship with my parents, my mother in particular, is a little more complicated.”

“I know.” He took a seat on the couch, leaving a full cushion between them.

“Sometimes I feel like she’s more worried about how I’ll fare in the history books a few generations from now than, well, about me. I know she has her reasons, but …” Her frown deepened. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay. What?”

She turned, the beginnings of a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. “How about you? From what you said earlier, I know you attended university and after
graduation lived in Chicago for a time. What else?”

That was broad enough to keep him talking for hours. Nate would much rather rehash her life. God knew, he wanted some of the blanks filled in, blanks that the tabloids couldn’t possibly know or get right. Had she really been in love with him all those years ago? Had she hoped, as much as he had, that they could find a way to be together? Did she love this guy she was supposedly going to marry?

Instead of asking any of those questions, he nodded.

He wasn’t completely comfortable talking about himself, especially since his life, even what he considered the highlights, might not be all that exciting from her point of view. But she smiled, nodded encouragingly, as he told her about the summer internship he’d had between his junior and senior years of college at a hotel in New York’s Times Square.

“New York is something,” Holly said. “So much energy and so much to do. It’s my mother’s favorite city, though she wouldn’t admit to that publicly for obvious reasons.”

“It’s something,” he agreed. Though he
had a feeling she’d enjoyed a bird’s-eye view from some penthouse apartment, where he’d shared a tiny walk-up with four other interns in a section of the city that wouldn’t make it on any tourist maps.

“Anyway, after graduation from the University of Michigan, I took a job in Chicago and attended Northwestern in the evenings to earn my MBA.”

“I’m impressed.”

He shrugged, but damn if he wasn’t warmed by her compliment.

“And now I’m here.”

“Doing what you love.”

She’d summed it up perfectly. All he could do was nod.

“I envy you that,” she said softly.

“You envy me.” He realized as soon as he said it that he’d insulted her.

“My apologies. I forgot. I have the world by its tail. I have no cares, no concerns, no worries whatsoever beyond which silver spoon to select to eat my next meal. I’m not allowed to envy anyone anything.”

She started to rise to her feet. Nate put a hand on her arm to stop her. “I didn’t mean—”

She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly,
as if reaching deep inside herself for patience. Apparently, she found it. When she opened her eyes, she looked calm and only the slightest bit weary. She straightened her shoulders, tilted her chin up. She was the polar opposite of the woman he’d come across mere minutes ago, legs pulled to her chest and lost in thought.

If Nate had to pick one word to describe her it would be
regal
. And he meant it as a compliment, even if he also knew what it was costing her.
I’m always on display
, she’d said earlier. Which meant she knew how to play the part of princess.

“Of course you didn’t. It’s all right. I’m tired and being insufferably rude, especially after all you’ve done for me.”

He’d offered her a place to stay for the night—a little begrudgingly at first—showed her how to operate the ancient shower in the guest bath, shared a beer and allowed her the use of his phone. He’d hardly been put out. He said as much.

“But I do appreciate it, especially since my visit was so unexpected.”

Nate rose to his feet. He felt like a champion heel. Holly was apologizing, but he was the one who was sorry. Not only for the
thoughtless comment he’d made, but also for the effect his words had had on her mood. It was as if a light had been doused. He didn’t like knowing he’d done the dousing.

“It’s no problem, you being here. If I’ve seemed, well, a little brusque, it’s just that I’m not good with surprises,” he said. “I like to know what’s coming next.”

“I’d rather enjoy a few surprises now and again. Part of the problem for me is I know exactly what to expect. The script has been written. I’m just acting out the scenes.”

He’d never thought of it that way.

“I think I’ll retire now.”

“It’s been a long day,” he agreed.

“Yes. Very.”

He waited until she was at the base of the steps to turn out the lamp. Enough light spilled from the open door of his bedroom at the top of the stairs to keep them from tripping.

It was odd, walking up to his bedroom with a beautiful woman at his side and knowing they would part ways at the top of the steps and nothing would happen but sleep. Or sleeplessness, as the case likely would be for him.

He’d entertained overnight guests of the
opposite sex before. He was a grown man, after all. And he’d hardly lived as a monk.

But this was different. This was something … more. He might not like it, but that was a fact. He’d accepted that earlier when they’d kissed. The mere memory of it would haunt him, just as memories of a suntanned teenage girl had haunted him for the past decade, whether he’d wanted to admit it or not.

At the top of the steps, she turned, as he’d known she would, starting to the opposite end of the house after offering a polite smile and the appropriate good-night wish. Words stuck in Nate’s throat, jumbled up on his tongue.

I’m glad you’re here.
He nearly said it. And he
was
glad. In spite of everything and all of the conflicting emotions seeing her again had prompted, he was.

But instead of telling her so, he stepped into his bedroom and closed the door. After stripping off his shirt and shorts, he stretched out on the cool cotton sheets, eyeing the shadows cast from the lamp on the nightstand, as his mind tried to make sense of his thoughts.

He’d gotten over Holly. A long time ago,
in fact. It hadn’t been easy those first couple of summers, but then he’d gone off to college, dated other girls both on the island and elsewhere. Even if none of those relationships had lasted long or held any deep meaning for him, it wasn’t as if he’d been pining. He’d figured the feelings he’d had for Holly had only felt so intense because he’d been young and in love for the first time.

That had made sense.

Now, here she was again. Back on the island after all of these years. She’d been in his life for mere hours, already upsetting its careful balance in ways he couldn’t begin to fathom. And while Nate wished he could say that he’d been right, that immaturity and imagination had been responsible for those inflated feelings of the past, he knew he would be lying.

She was special.

Nate the boy had loved Holly the girl. After the kiss of a couple hours ago, he knew that Nate the man could very well wind up in a similar predicament.

If he allowed it.

He didn’t plan to allow it. After all, just like before, she would be leaving. In mere
days, she would go back to a life that Nate wasn’t part of and never could be.

No, he wouldn’t make the mistake of falling in love with Holly twice.

N
ATE
awoke just before dawn, not that he’d slept much knowing that Holly was just down the hall, stretched out between the sheets he’d spread over his boyhood bed.

Oh, the irony, given the many fantasies he’d entertained of her there back when they both were teenagers, when his hormones had been churning on high.

Between her nearness and Hank’s buzz-saw snoring, Nate barely had managed a few hours of shut-eye. Add to that his anxiety over the extent of the storm’s damage to the resort, and it was no wonder he was suffering insomnia. At first light, he dressed and prepared to head out.

Hank was still sleeping. The noise coming from the other man’s room confirmed as much. Nate glanced down the hall. Before he could stop himself, he was at Holly’s
door. He leaned in close and listened. The only sound he could hear was breathing and it was coming from him. She was probably dead to the world, a casualty of jet lag. He started to step away, then stopped. Even though it made absolutely no sense, and he knew he was being unforgivably rude, he slowly turned the knob, pushed the door open a crack and peeked inside.

Just as he’d suspected, Holly was asleep. She was on her side, facing him. She looked lovely, if troubled. Even in sleep her brow appeared furrowed. She’d come to the island to get away. Even as he wanted to believe it wasn’t his business or his concern, he couldn’t help wondering, from what exactly? She’d mentioned how scripted her life was. But she was a princess, high enough up the royal food chain that surely she could call some of the shots. So what exactly was she running from?

Or whom?

That guy she was linked to? Nate’s hands fisted at the thought.

She sighed then, turned. Honey-colored hair spilled over the pillow. His pillow.

Lucky pillow
.

A sound rose in his throat—part moan,
part curse. Nate closed the door with a smart click and hurried downstairs. Mere minutes later, armed with a Thermos full of black coffee and a clipboard, he hopped in his pickup truck.

He spent the first hour riding from one end of the resort to the other, jotting down notes and prioritizing the cleanup as he went. This was how he approached problems: head-on and with a plan. Doing so was not only practical, but in this instance it also helped keep his mind off of Holly.

As he drove, a calm settled over him, despite the obvious fallout from the storm. This was his kingdom. Last night, he’d experienced some doubts. They’d cleared off with the storm. He’d made the right choices in his life. This was where he wanted to be. The resort was a grand enough dream for him. He was happy here. The island was home.

He’d already called in the Burns twins to help. The boys were seventeen, with strong backs and a deep desire to earn enough cash to buy their first car. Their dream vehicle was a vintage restored Mustang the island’s only doctor had put up for sale. So they were only too happy to hear Nate had extra hours for them to work.

As he drove, Nate stopped to chat with any guests who were out and about. Several of them were, especially those who had come to the island to fish.

“That was quite the storm last night,” Ernie Smithe commented. “Reminded me of the one back in eighty-seven.”

The older man haled from a suburb just outside of Detroit and had been coming north for two weeks in June for as long as Nate could remember. He was seated at the picnic table just outside his cabin, a steaming cup of coffee at his elbow as he went through his tackle box.