Forever (Time for Love Book 1) (17 page)

"I'm well, thanks. I've been wanting to talk to you. You've been avoiding me."

"Uh, no. I've just had other things to do."

"Rebecca told me about the other day."

Vicky straightened her shoulders and lifted her nose in the air. "I shouldn't have confronted her in a public place, but I don't regret what I said to her, Zach. You deserve better than her."

He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down. "She didn't steal me away from you, Vicky. We were together months ago. We broke up and we've decided to get back together. Besides, you know that you and I were never an item."

Vicky stared at him in surprise. "Knowing what you know, you still took her back?" she asked incredulously.

"What do you mean?"

Vicky glanced around them. There were a handful of people making their way to the same elevators. "Do you really want to discuss this out here where anyone could hear?" she asked in a low voice.

He sighed in frustration. "I don't have time to go into this right now anyway. I have a phone meeting shortly. But you and I are going to have a serious talk soon. In the meantime, leave Bec alone, Vicky. Please don't go around upsetting her."

"You're blind, Zach," Vicky said with disapproval as she boarded the elevator.

*****

T
here was a knock on the door and Zach found his brothers standing there with grins on their faces. "Hey, you're here!" he said with an answering grin.

"Yup," Greg said, giving him a man-hug before walking through the doorway. "I'm looking forward to having some rest and relaxation after you dumped work on us to extend your holiday by two weeks."

"Gran insisted on it," Zach answered. "But I've been working as if I'm in the office."

"Well, your PA's here with us," Jeff said. "She's getting herself settled in her room. I told her you'll see her tomorrow and to just enjoy herself today."

"Okay. You guys ready for our meeting in an hour?"

Both nodded their heads.

"Hopefully that's all you've got planned for the next two weeks, Zach," Greg said. "I'm here for a well-deserved holiday."

"Well, I do have a meeting in Hong Kong, but you don't need to be there if you don't want to."

"Aren't you even having a break?" Jeff asked. "Seriously, Zach, you're going to burn out if you don't slow down. The company won't crumble if you take your foot off the accelerator for a few seconds. And you're making us feel guilty when we're not doing the same hours as you—and you know we already work damn long hours."

"I know, I know. I'm not asking you to match my hours. But don't worry, I'm getting plenty of R and R lately."

Jeff squinted his eyes at him. "You look happy."

"Shouldn't I be?" he asked.

"Rebecca?" Jeff guessed.

The smile on Zach's face turned into a big grin.

"So what exactly is going on?" Greg asked. "All Jeff told me was that you asked him to investigate the man who gave her the apartment, then you found out he was her brother and you asked for Jeff not to pursue it further. Are you sure it was her brother who bought that place?"

"Well, Rebecca definitely owns the place," Jeff said. "And if it's really her brother who paid for it, then there's nothing else to question. Looks like the brother's loaded."

"How do you know?" Zach scowled. "I thought I'd asked you to stop the investigations."

"I'd already started looking into her family before you asked," Jeff said, plonking himself on the couch. "I wanted to give us peace of mind, and I ended up uncovering why we might have been given the wrong info about Rebecca a few months back."

"What do you mean?" Zach asked, his heart beating fast.

"I rang Phillip to ask him whom he'd hired to do the investigating back then. Get this. He admitted he did it himself. I asked him how he came to the conclusion that Rebecca was the mistress of a married man. He said the photos proved it, and that he didn't appreciate me questioning his findings."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Zach asked, annoyed at Jeff.

"I only got hold of Phillip two days ago. I thought setting everything straight could wait till we're all here and we can talk to him face to face. In any case, you want all investigations to stop anyway."

Zach raked his hair agitatedly. If it wasn't for Magda, he would have Phillip thrown off the ship. Phillip's report—which he thought had come from a reputable investigation agency—was the only reason he hadn't gone crawling back to Rebecca all those months ago. He should have listened to his intuition when it told him the findings couldn't be correct. But he'd let paranoia win, and he'd paid for it, hurting his Bec in the process. Luckily for him, his grandmother had unwittingly brought them back together.

"I'm glad you guys are here," he said. "You can hold me back when I try to kill Phillip for coming up with that ridiculous statement about Rebecca. That cost us seven months of heartache."

"Hey, everything's cool now though, right?" Greg said. "Just don't do anything that would upset Gran, especially around her birthday."

"I know," Zach said with a heavy sigh. "By the way, please don't ever tell Rebecca about any of this."

Just the thought of his Bec ever knowing made Zach feel sick to his stomach. He knew she'd never forgive him for having her investigated—especially when the reason was that he'd thought she was a gold-digger who'd dropped him for a wealthy, married man. That would not go down well at all.

R
ebecca sat with the others at the big table for twelve at a posh restaurant for Magda's birthday lunch. Everyone was on high spirits, especially Magda who had been telling sweet stories about her late husband's love for exotic food.

"Enjoying everything?" Zach asked, giving her thigh a gentle rub under the table.

"Yes, everything's wonderful," she answered with a smile.

Zach had insisted that she sit next to him as his girlfriend and not as Magda's nurse. It warmed her that he didn't want to hide their relationship from his family and Magda's friends, but she felt uncomfortable about showing him obvious affection in front of the group. She didn't know how the others would react, and she didn't want to test it on Magda's big day.

She'd been giving Vicky surreptitious glances to try to read the woman's mood, but for the most part, Vicky had been acting like she didn't exist. She did catch Vicky looking at her with a smirk a couple of times. She could only hope that Vicky would be respectful enough to not be snarky to her today.

She gave herself a mental shake, not wanting to dwell on what Vicky might or might not do.

She turned to Sarah to ask how she was finding the delicious food. She caught her friend staring, with mouth agape, at Jeff who was sharing a funny incident that had happened during Magda's seventy-fifth birthday. Hmm.

"How's the food?" Rebecca whispered.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, good," Sarah said.

"How's Jeff?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're drooling, darling," she teased.

Sarah blushed. "I'm not."

Rebecca chuckled. "Not literally, but you are."

"Shh. Be quiet. Someone might hear," Sarah said in a faint whisper.

"I never noticed it before," Rebecca commented.

"Noticed what?"

"How you look at him."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "You don't notice much when Zach's around."

"That's not true! But even if it were, then that means you were already making cow eyes at Jeff all those months ago."

"Cow eyes?" Sarah whispered indignantly.

"Yes."

Sarah looked like she was going to deny it, but a smile tugged her lips. "Well, I've told you before that I think all the Carmichael brothers are hot."

Rebecca leaned closer to speak in Sarah's ear. "Don't forget he's sleeping with Marilyn."

"Yeah, you told me," Sarah said with a dejected sigh.

Ooh, Sarah had a crush on Rebecca's boyfriend's brother. Interesting.

*****

"I
'll see you later, babe."

"Okay, bye," Rebecca said, flushing as Zach gave her a chaste kiss on the lips before walking away with Jeff and Greg to go to their meeting. She watched them walk to the elevators, all three looking absolutely hot and powerful in their expensive suits. Realising she was staring, she glanced away only to notice that Sarah, Vicky and Marilyn were also doing some gaping—along with some of the hotel's female guests.

Hah! One of them's mine
, she thought cheekily.

They were at the hotel lobby, waiting to board a luxury coach that would take them on a private guided tour of the city for the rest of the afternoon. She wasn't looking forward to spending the day in close proximity to Vicky, but even more challenging was the fact that Phillip was joining them. She hadn't seen the man in days, but every time he made an appearance, she wanted to cringe. There was just something about the way Phillip looked at her... like he was stripping her with his eyes. Eww.

*

R
ebecca and Sarah took a seat at the back of the coach, grateful for the air-conditioned comfort of their vehicle on a very warm and humid day. To her chagrin, Phillip sat opposite them, with only the aisle separating him and Rebecca.

"Hello, Rebecca. You're looking especially beautiful today," Phillip commented. His tone was casual but his look was intense.

She forced a smile on her face. "Thank you," she murmured, pretending to read a travel brochure.

"I see that Zach has taken a shine on you," Phillip said.

She looked around the bus. It was, of course, too big for just the nine of them. The grandmothers were busy chatting, and Vicky and Marilyn were at the front, whispering to each other. It was too bad Phillip had decided to talk to her instead of the others.

"It's really such a coincidence that you live in the same building as me," Phillip said, refusing to take the hint that was her silence. "How do you like living there?"

"It's great," she said politely.

"So how often does the guy who bought it for you visit you?" Phillip asked.

What a strange way to frame the question, Rebecca thought. But before she could answer that she saw her brother about once every fortnight, their guide had started talking through the microphone. They all lapsed into silence as they listened.

For the rest of the afternoon, Rebecca managed to avoid having more conversations with Phillip by staying close to Magda.

*****

S
till more than half-asleep, Rebecca turned to her side and reached for Zach. He wasn't in bed. She forced her eyelids open and frowned in confusion. The room didn't look like Zach's. She sat up and saw Sarah sleeping soundly on the bed next to hers.

She plopped back in bed, chuckling to herself. She'd forgotten that she hadn't slept with Zach last night. They both had a very tiring day yesterday with Magda's party going well into the night—even after the birthday girl had already gone to bed!

Since they both had to get up early, they'd both agreed that she'd go straight to her room after the festivities. Zach did grumble a bit, saying he couldn't see why she couldn't move her stuff to his suite and stay with him for the rest of the trip.

She was starting to warm to that suggestion. Her concern had been that it might be disruptive for Magda if they started something that might upset the others in their party—namely Vicky and her grandmother Debra. But Vicky had just ignored her yesterday, which was totally fine with her. That was exactly what she'd wanted the other woman to do.

If no one would make a big fuss and be unpleasant about it, then she would bring her luggage to Zach's suite tonight. That would make both of them happy.

She got up to get ready for the day. What else could she do after their breakfast with Magda? Go to the gym? Laze around in the pool? Join some of the activities? Sit somewhere and read?

Sarah was, surprisingly, going to spend some time with Ron today, so it was up to Rebecca to entertain herself until Zach had finished work for the day. And unfortunately, he'd be finishing quite late tonight.

*****

"H
ello, Rebecca."

Oh, drats.
"Hi Phillip." She'd been so totally absorbed in the ebook she was reading that she hadn't noticed Phillip taking a seat on the deck chair next to hers.

"Good book?" Phillip asked.

"Yes."

"What's it about?"

"Um, just a love story."

Phillip smirked. "I would have loved to see the cover on that. That's the problem with ebook devices. You can't spy on what people are reading anymore."

She gave him a small smile and continued reading. It was a bit rude, yes, but she really couldn't stand the man.

"Where's Zach?"

"Working," she answered.

"So you're Zach's current flame," Phillip said as he made himself comfortable in his seat. "I must say I'm very surprised."

Again, Rebecca chose to stay silent. She couldn't care less why Phillip was surprised that Zach was with her.

"Well, Zach always did have a weak spot for pretty girls," Phillip continued. "And when he has his fill, he moves on to the next one."

Rebecca glared at Phillip. Not only was the man creepy, but he was the epitome of insensitivity.

"Don't worry," Phillip said, ignoring her reaction. "He does treat his discards well—buys them expensive gifts or takes them on a nice holiday before he lets them go. Pretty much like what he's doing to Vicky with this trip."

Rebecca couldn't help her surprised look. How did Phillip know about Zach and Vicky?

Phillip looked at her, a snide smile appearing on his lips. "I can only guess you must be very, very good in bed, Rebecca. Even though Zach loves his women, I've always known him to be careful in his selections. He let himself slip with you."

"What do you mean?" she asked in a low voice, anger rising.

"You see, Rebecca, I know about you and the man who gave you your apartment. I saw the two of you in our basement garage. You hugged him tightly before he got in his Mercedes, and I heard you call out to him. Do you know what I heard? You said, 'I love you. Thanks again for my apartment.'