by Jenna Brandt
Blake left the stage and came back to Peyton’s side. “How did I do?”
“Great,” she declared with a smile.
“I took your advice and went with something homemade for their Christmas gifts.”
“It’s perfect, just like you.”
As Blake handled everyone coming up and congratulating him on his win for the sweater contest, all he could think about was how good Peyton was at getting him to do things he thought he’d never do. Was this what it was like to be wrapped around someone’s finger. Did Mara do this to his dad in the beginning? What else could Peyton get him to do? It was a perplexing thought, and for a moment, it terrified him. Then he reminded himself, he knew Peyton, and she wasn’t anything like Mara, or the endless money-grubbing, attention-seeking, socialites he had met all his life. She was different, and that’s why she made him different.
Mara was one of the last people to approach him. She had a sour look on her face. “Do you know your brothers took off without saying so much as a word to me? Why do they treat me that way? You all act like I’m worse than the plague.”
“Maybe it’s because all you ever do is come to beg for money or to try to steal the spotlight, Mara. If you tried being a mother for once in your life, maybe we’d all treat you differently.”
“Why a mean thing to say, Blakey. Don’t you know, all I want is to be a part of your lives? I want to help you—” Before she could finish her sentence though, there was a loud clamor behind them.
They both spun around to find Comet tearing off a tablecloth, causing all the food to fall to the ground as well as all over Comet. Peyton was right behind him, scolding him. “Bad dog, Comet, bad dog!”
He barked twice at Peyton, then took off away from her, running directly at the worst person he could possibly pick. He hit Mara like a ton of bricks, smearing the mixture of food and sauces all over her white cocktail dress.
“This can’t be happening,” she shrieked at the top of her lungs. “Look at this mess!”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry, Mrs. Witlock,” Peyton said, coming up to her and picking up Comet. “I can get your outfit dry cleaned for you.”
“Dry cleaned? Dry cleaned,” she yelled in disbelief. “My dress is ruined beyond repair. You can’t fix this.”
“I can buy you another one,” Blake offered. “Two if it will get you to stop making a scene.”
“Me? This is my fault? It’s her,” Mara screamed, pointing at Peyton. “Look what she’s doing to the island, Blakey. She’s brought a rotten dog onto it, she’s encouraging your employees to participate in low-class activities like this party, and she’s manipulating you with her sex appeal.”
“I am not,” Peyton refuted, her cheeks turning bright red with anger. “I would never do that.”
“She’s right. Peyton isn’t like that—she’s not like you!” Blake shouted. “If you can’t be supportive, you need to leave.”
“You’re kicking me out, Blakey?” Mara whined. “I’m your mommy.”
“You’re not my mom, you never were. I tried to have a relationship with you, but you cared more about my dad’s money and your social status than you ever did about any of us. In all these years, it’s never changed.”
Mara blinked several times, glancing between Peyton and Blake. “I can’t believe your picking this low-rent, hussy over me. What has she done to you to cause you to behave like this?”
Peyton’s mother stepped forward, placing her hand on Mara’s shoulder. “Mrs. Witlock, you heard Blake. It’s time for you to go. I would think you would know better than to behave like this, but apparently, money can’t buy you class.”
Mara must have realized she was outnumbered because she flipped her curly locks over her shoulder, turned her nose up at everyone, and headed for the exit.
“Are you okay?” Blake asked, turning to Peyton. “I’m sorry she said all of that about you.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Peyton whispered, her eyes staring at the floor.
Blake reached out and placed his hand under her chin. He pulled her face up so he could meet her eyes. “You know none of its true. You’ve done an amazing job with this place.”
Peyton bent down to pick up Comet. “I need to go get him cleaned up. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Blake realized she probably needed some time to calm down. Rather than chase after her, he decided to go talk with his brothers before they took off.
Several of the employees came up to talk to him, keeping him from reaching his brothers.
He didn’t make it very far before he was cornered by Joelle. “Wow, your mom is a lot, and that’s coming from me.”
“Right, she’s something alright,” Blake said with a shake of his head. “At least she’s gone now.”
“Do you need me to help with anything?” she inquired, placing her hand on his arm as she gave him a sexy smile.
“Look, Joelle, I know you think if you keep making passes at me, that at some point I might give in to one of them. Let me make this clear; I’m with Peyton.”
“But you shouldn’t be. I mean, it’s clear she’s too much of a good girl for you, Blaze. You need someone who can keep up with you, sexually that is,” she purred. Reaching out, she grabbed him by the sweater and pulled him hard against her. Before he could stop it, her mouth was slobbering all over his.
“So, at least now I know why you haven’t told anyone how you feel about me. It was all a lie, and you’ve been sneaking around behind my back with her!”
Blake yanked back from Joelle and rushed towards Peyton. “No, that’s not true. She kissed me.”
“You weren’t pulling away from her, were you?” Peyton accused with hurt in her eyes. Then raising her hand, she added, “You know what, I don’t even care. Everything is done with the fitness part of the island. I met all the requirements of my contract. I was planning to stay for you, but I can see that was a mistake. I’m leaving tonight.” Without waiting for a response, she spun around on her heels and took off.
“Good riddance,” Joelle said with a cackle. “She was like a wet napkin. Could you get any more boring?”
“That’s enough, Joelle. You’ve crossed the line for the last time. I want you to pack your bags and get off my island. You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me. I have a contract,” she snapped at him, placing her hands on her hips.
“And I have a buyout clause in it, which I’m invoking right now. Any amount of money is worth getting rid of you.”
“Fine, have it your way,” she said in a huff. “I hate it here anyway.”
Blake turned around, ready to go chase after Peyton, but he found his brothers standing there with perturbed looks on their faces.
“You messed up, Blakey. You need to go get her and fix things before it’s too late,” David ordered. “You don’t want to miss out on the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
“Agreed, she’s a keeper,” Richard added. “She’d make a great sister-in-law.”
“We need some nice women in the family for a change,” David confirmed.
“Okay guys, I get it. You want me to go win her back.”
“You bet we do,” Danny declared, coming up from behind Blake. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you. Don’t be a fool and let her get away.”
Blake knew they were right. If he let Peyton leave the island, he would regret it the rest of his life. She was the one for him, the only one for him, and he had the perfect way of showing her just that.
He needed to get to the helicopter pad as quickly as possible.
He punched the button for the elevator, but they must have been busy moving employees and guests around the hotel. He didn’t have time to wait. He decided to take the stairs, which for most people would be a long-winded nightmare, but for an Olympic sprinter it would be nothing.
He reached the bottom floor within a few minutes. He was headed around the corner of the building when he noticed Mara and Joelle standin
g together in the shadows. Why would they be together? He moved over to where they were, making sure to stay out of their line of sight. As he got closer, he realized they were talking about him.
“I did my best, Mara, but I can’t help that your son wouldn’t take the bait.”
“All I asked was for you to keep him from getting involved with that twit of a woman. My ex-husband thinks he’s so smart hiring her and putting her right under Blake’s nose, but I knew if I had you apply for one of the new instructor positions on the island, you could run interference. Little did I know; you couldn’t attract a bee with all the honey in the world.”
“Like I said, Mrs. Witlock, I did the best I could, but he’s a tough nut to crack.”
“Don’t I know it. I mean, I thought all the stories I planted about him in the newspapers over the past few months would have done the trick, but that didn’t work the way I planned. It’s why I had to resort to you. Little good any of it did me,” Mara mumbled under her breath. “He still hasn’t come home to mommy.”
“And I never will,” Blake said, coming out of the shadows. “I can’t believe you’re responsible for all of this,” he said gesturing to Joelle. “Not to mention the stories and Comet getting into trouble. Why would you do that to me? Did you actually think I would come running to you if I got my feelings hurt?”
“I had to try something. You boys are getting older which means you’ll be settling down soon, and then there won’t be anything left for me when you have wives and kids of your own.”
Blake shook his head. “I feel sorry for you, Mara. You don’t understand that when a family grows, it doesn’t mean you get less; it means you get more.” Turning around, he tossed over his shoulder before he left, “I have to go. I need to grow my own family before it’s too late.”
An hour later, he was landing on his father’s yacht, The Cookie Cutter, ready to do whatever it took to win Peyton back. He marched into his father’s study, where he found him reading a book. He glanced up and his eyes grew wide with shock. “What on earth are you wearing?” Gordon’s face scrunched up in disgust as Blake got closer. “Are those snowmen?”
“Never mind that, I have an emergency, Dad.”
“What is it, Blakey?” he inquired, setting down his book.
“I might lose Peyton if I don’t do something drastic,” Blake explained. “She thinks I don’t love her, but she’s wrong. I love her more than anything in this whole world.”
“Then you need to tell her,” Gordon stated firmly.
“Not just tell her, show her. I was hoping you would give me Mom’s ring so I could use it to propose to Peyton with it. I know I have an older brother, but I think he would understand.”
Gordon nodded. “I think he would, too. Besides, your Mom would want you to have it, since you have so little else to remember her by. Let me go get it.” Gordon left and returned a few minutes later with a black velvet ring box. He handed it over to Blake. “Make sure to do it right. Make it a grand gesture she’ll never forget,” Gordon ordered with pride.
“I’m a Witlock. Of course, it’s going to be epic.”
Peyton watched as the workers loaded the last of the luggage onto the helicopter. She wasn’t sure how it came to this, but she was about to be leaving Witlock Island forever. She had thought Blake was the one, that they were going to end up together, but all along he had been playing her like a fiddle. Apparently, he really was the trifling playboy the newspapers and social media sites talked about.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Peyton’s mother asked with concern in her voice. “You don’t think you’re making a mistake, do you?”
She knew her mother had reservations about her choice. When she explained what she witnessed, her mother had suggested she find Blake and give him a chance to explain. The problem was, if she did that, she was certain Blake could talk her into staying, even if it meant always wondering if there was another secret woman to worry about. She couldn’t live her life like that.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Peyton nodded. “I need to leave. I can’t stay here one moment longer.”
“I hope that’s not true,” she heard Blake say from behind her. She spun around to find him walking towards her. “Please don’t leave, Peyton. I can’t live without you.”
“Save it, Blake. Your lines won’t work on me anymore. The articles were right about you.”
“No, they weren’t. I just found out Mara planted all those stories. She also fixed it so you would hire Joelle as an instructor so she could sabotage me.”
“Really? That’s awful,” Peyton said with a shake of her head. “I kind of feel bad for her. She’s so desperate for attention, she’s willing to hurt her own family to get it.”
“I know, I told her basically the same thing. I told her that when a family grows, it doesn’t mean you get less; it means you get more. I told her that I want to grow my own family with you.” Blake pulled out the ring box from his pocket, got down on one knee, and presented her the most magnificent diamond and sapphire ring she had ever seen. “Will you marry me, Peyton Belmont?”
“Yes, yes, Blake, I will marry you,” she gasped out.
He slipped the ring on her finger, then stood back up so he could kiss her. She glanced at the ring, still in awe. “It’s so beautiful. How did you get this on such short notice?”
“It was my mother’s ring. I asked my father if I could have it to give to you.”
“You did?” Peyton said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “It’s the most precious gift anyone has ever given me.”
“Good, because I want you to wear it for the rest of your life.”
“Me too,” she said in agreement. “I can’t think of a better idea.”
Blake leaned forward and kissed her again, tilting her backwards as he did. She pulled back and smiled. “You proposed under the stars. I think it’s kind of amazing. Did you plan it?”
He shook his head. “But I think my mom did.”
The sudden barking interrupted the moment, causing them to realize that Comet somehow made it up to the helicopter pad. Peyton bent down and picked him up. “What are we going to do with you?”
“I think we should adopt him. I mean, he’s useless as a therapy dog for the island, but he’s perfect for us.”
“I love that. After all, he helped bring us together, so maybe he’s not a failure after all.”
Comet barked his own approval.
“Oh, I have one more surprise. Your mom should probably come over for this one.”
Peyton gestured for her mother to join them. “Blake has something he wants to tell us.”
“What is it, Blake?” her mother asked.
“I was hoping you would say yes, so I decided to take a chance and get you an engagement gift. Actually, it’s kind of for the both of you. I purchased land for Peyton’s Wellness Center, near your home in Washington, Mrs. Belmont. I set up an account with more than enough money to do whatever you want with it, and I even asked Chef Breole to be your in-house chef. He told me he would be more than glad to get out of the Alaskan cold once it was time.”
“You did all that for me?” Peyton questioned with surprise. This time the tears of joy fell freely from her eyes. Peyton couldn’t contain them. “I can’t believe it.”
“I want to make all your dreams come true, Peyton. Besides, I promised to fill your life with adventure, so starting your first wellness center is just another one for us to share. I figure we’re a pretty great team when it comes to building fitness empires.”
Peyton nodded. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. I love you, Blake Witlock.”
“I love you too, Peyton.”
Comet barked his approval once more, and Peyton let Blake pull them both into his arms for a big hug. Peyton couldn’t be happier, and she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life having the best adventures with the man she loved.
Sneak Peak of The Billionaire’s Reunion
Ten year
s had passed since Molly left her hometown on Echo Island in utter despair. In that time, she completely overhauled her life, leaving her troubled past and adolescence behind.
Today, she was returning with a college degree, an established journalism career, and her hot, new boyfriend, Richard, an elite Miami plastic surgeon.
As he drove his rented, red Corvette through the streets of Crystal Cove, Molly realized little had changed with the small town where she had grown up. Main Street was still filled with the same handful of restaurants and half dozen hotels, along with the grocery store, coffee shop/bakery, and salon.
She watched as people moved along the wide sidewalks next to the stucco buildings. A handful of people were sitting on the benches, which had flower pots on the side of each one. The residents had on shorts and short-sleeved shirts, due to the weather remaining warm year-round on the tropical, Florida Keys island.
“So, this is the town you grew up in?” Richard asked her, the disapproval obvious in his tone. “When you said small, I had no idea you meant this. You said it was a regular tourist destination, but I can’t imagine how anyone would even find this place. It’s so far from the airport,” he pointed out with shock.
She forced herself not to show her irritation with his condescending judgment. She wasn’t sure why it bothered her anyway, considering that when she left a decade ago, she had convinced herself she was better off leaving the provincial place behind.
“That’s the charm of the town; people come here to escape their regular lives,” she explained, though she had ran as far away from the place as she could get only ten years prior.