by Amy DeLuca
Hunter was not an average guy.
He was remarkable in every way—including his arrogance at offering her a loan.
Maybe it hadn’t been arrogance. Maybe it had been pity. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
Kristal jumped back as the kitchen door pushed inward suddenly and nearly smashed her face. Jana, who’d saved her by agreeing to take over Hunter’s table, came in wearing a huge smile.
“Get a load of this,” Jana said, opening the check folder and holding it up to her. “Looks like someone really appreciated your service.”
Seeing the stack of hundreds, Kristal shook her head in confusion. “He paid in cash? I thought you took his card.”
“He did pay with a card. This is your tip, girlfriend.”
Kristal gasped. “What? That’s more than the entire bill—by a long shot.”
Jana lifted her shoulders in a happy shrug. “These rich guys—who can figure ’em out? Maybe he was showing off. Maybe he’s just nice. Anyway, I’ll take his table anytime you don’t want it.”
Lifting the bills, she fanned them under Kristal’s nose and giggled.
Wonderful. Now her humiliation was complete.
Pity for the win. Hunter had decided she was a charity case, and really, who could blame him? He’d made such a phenomenal success of his life. She was couch-surfing and serving his burgers.
Although, all things considered, her life wasn’t that bad. The couch-surfing had been limited to one house—Cinda’s. It had been wonderful to see her friend on a daily basis and get to spend time with Cinda’s adorable four-year-old son, AJ.
And working at the restaurant had been fun once she’d gotten the hang of it. Jana was an awesome new friend, the view couldn’t be beat, there was free food, and Kristal was slowly saving toward that apartment deposit.
If only Newport wasn’t so darn expensive. This entire region, in fact, was one of the least affordable in the whole country.
Of course, Kristal would have loved to make a living with her photography, but there was far less demand for art photography than there was for portrait photographers, which she had no experience in.
Even if she could learn the new set of skills required, starting a new business would take a capital investment she simply didn’t have.
She’d been scouring the job listings, applying for any and every opening she might come close to qualifying for. So far, no takers.
Her classmates had been right about that MFA not being worth the paper it was printed on. Everyone seemed to want applicants with degrees in STEM fields—people like Hunter.
Worry crept up her spine in a now-familiar sensation. Kristal hated to think about leaving her beloved hometown. All her memories of her parents were there. The scenery she most loved to photograph was there.
But as sweet as Cinda was and as much fun as the extended sleepover had been, she couldn’t continue to impose on her friend and her son indefinitely. Kristal was an adult, after all. She had to be able to stand on her own two feet and was more than a little ashamed she’d never attempted it before now.
At some point, she’d have to expand her job search beyond Rhode Island and maybe even beyond New England. She’d lick her wounds, pack up her meager belongings and… leave.
Collecting the cash, she handed it to Jana. “Here—it’s yours.”
The other waiter held her hands up, shooting her an are-you-crazy look. “I can’t take that. It was your table.”
“Yes, you can. I gave him to you.” Kristal pushed the money at her.
Like Cinda, Jana was a single mom, though her situation was the by-product of a divorce and an ex-husband who was a dead-beat dad.
The father of Cinda’s child didn’t even know AJ existed. She’d fallen in love with him one summer while working at Bailey’s Beach. At the end of it, he’d left without a goodbye. She’d found out she was pregnant a couple months later.
Anyway, if Jana accepted Hunter’s ridiculous tip, it would be a gift. If Kristal took it, it would be humiliating.
“Honey, if you could give me a man like that, I’d take him,” Jana said with a smirk. “But I have a feeling he’s already taken. You should have seen the little-lost-puppy look on his face when I showed up in there instead of you. Believe me… he’s yours.”
Kristal shook off the insinuation, and they ultimately agreed to split the cash. While sliding his credit card receipt into the register, she noticed Hunter had written more on the paper than his signature.
Pulling it back out, she read the manly scrawl across the bottom of the slip.
Kristal, my offer of help stands. Anything you need. Anytime. Hunter.
He’d added his phone number as well. Kristal frowned at the words and numbers. She didn’t ask for him to swoop in and play Santa Claus, and she really didn’t need a sugar daddy.
Her mind flashed back to that dark room at the party. A mixture of shame and pleasure filled her insides.
Did this have something to do with their kiss? Did Hunter think she’d be open to an… arrangement?
Mortification set her face and body on fire. Needing to cool down, she retreated to the walk-in freezer and pretended to look for something inside.
No matter what she had to do or where she had to go, Kristal would not stoop to her stepmother’s level and use her “feminine wiles” to get a rich man to bail her out.
If Hunter Bestia thought his shiny new billions could buy her, he had another thing coming. The next time he came into the restaurant, she really would give his table to Jana.
And maybe add a hefty dose of salt to his coffee.
Six
A New Approach
Hunter walked into the living room and fell into the corner of one of the oversized leather sofas with his laptop.
“Doc!” His co-workers/housemates/closest friends from high school called out his nickname, bestowed upon him because he was always trying to get them to eat better and take exercise breaks instead of mainlining coffee and donuts while spending twelve hours straight in front of a computer.
Five of them were there, hard at work—everyone but Tuck, who was basically a bat, staying up all night and sleeping during the day. Whenever they managed to cross-over early morning work hours with him, he yawned through every conversation.
Since people referred to them as the Seven Dwarves, the guys had nicknamed him Sleepy.
Aiden, Josh, Paul, and Reid all looked up from their own laptops and offered greetings.
Hap, who occupied the other end of the couch, gave Hunter his trademark ultra-white grin. He’d been a child star on TV in his youth, and the Hollywood glow still surrounded him.
“Hey Doc, welcome home.” Now there was a guy who was cheerful, no matter the time of day or night.
Hunter did not share his mood today. “Hey.”
“So… how was the trip?”
“Fine,” he replied, opening his laptop and starting to work. He had a lot to catch up on, and he wasn’t in the mood for chit-chat.
Hap snorted. “You must be jet-lagging—hard. Whenever I travel from the West Coast, I’m wiped.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty tired,” Hunter agreed because he didn’t want to get into it.
Fatigue was not the reason for his funk. On the way home from the restaurant, he’d driven by the Bianco family’s mansion and nearly wrapped his Bentley around the trunk of an old-growth beech tree.
There was a Lila Delman Real Estate For Sale sign out front.
Stunned, Hunter had swung the car back around and pulled into the drive, getting out and walking up to the front door, intending to knock.
A heavy, black lock box hung from the door. He knocked anyway and rang the bell. No answer. Stepping to the side, he’d peered in through a window.
The house was empty. All the furnishings were gone. They’d moved out.
Baffled, Hunter had dialed the realtor’s office and found out the mansion had been repossessed by the bank.
Repossessed. He didn’t
get it. How could this have happened? He’d driven home, his belly tumbling with worry and disappointment.
Hap shrugged at his terse response and went back to his work, but Hunter never managed to fully immerse himself in his own tasks. He’d wanted to apologize to Kristal tonight. Now he had no idea where to find her.
And there was a bigger concern. Where was she living? Was she okay? He couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“Hap?”
His friend lifted his head. “What’s up?”
“Remember Kristal Bianco from high school?”
“How could I forget? You drilled her name into my brain back then. Kristal this, Kristal that. Why? You two going out?”
“What? No. I just saw her… at Castle Hill Inn.”
Hap’s interest increased. “How’s she look? Still hot? Or did she peak in high school?”
“Hardly. If anything, she looks better. Have you heard anything about her? Like, about her family fortune being blown or something?”
The other guys had all stopped working and were listening now as well.
“No.” Hap looked around the room as if seeking input from the others. Each one shook his head no. Hap looked back at Hunter. “Why?”
“She’s working there… as a waitress.”
Hap’s jaw went slack. “Wow. That’s weird. I haven’t heard anything, but I can ask around. Hey—you gonna ask her out now that she’s fallen from the clouds down to the level of us mere mortals?”
Hunter shook his head. “Nah. She’s not interested.”
Hap waggled his brows. “I always thought she was interested.”
Seeing Hunter’s instant glower, he clarified quickly. “In you, dude, not in me. Whoa—get a grip. You’re dopier than Dopey when it comes to that girl.” He hooked his thumb at Josh.
“I hate that nickname,” Josh said in an I’ve-told-you-this-a-thousand-times tone.
One of their best friends from high school, Josh was literally a genius, but sometimes the minutiae of real life eluded his understanding. In other words, he could be a real airhead. He could finish a thick book in an hour and write complex code like he was making a grocery list, but he often wore mismatched clothes and almost never got a joke.
“Sorry, Josh,” Hunter said before turning back to Hap. “You’re wrong. She wasn’t interested then, and she’s not interested now. I blew it today at lunch. I was just as tongue-tied and awkward as I was back in high school. I think I might have even insulted her. There’s no hope.”
Hap slapped his own leg. “I knew something was wrong. You didn’t even gripe about that bag of nasty fast food on the coffee table.”
“Hey—” Reid wore his usual glower. “Those were my clam cakes, and they were darn good.”
Hap ignored their grumpy friend, keeping his focus on Hunter.
“You know what your problem is? You’re the man—you always have been—but you didn’t believe it then, and you don’t believe it now. More money’s not gonna fix that. You’ve gotta realize you’ve always had everything you needed. The right woman’s gonna see that—if she’s not right for you, no amount of money will matter.”
“Nothing matters,” Reid growled. “If she’s not interested, she’s not interested. You can’t make someone love you.”
Hunter felt bad for the guy. At one time, he’d been as happy-go-lucky as Hap, but Reid hadn’t been the same since his high school sweetheart Mara had left town without warning and had refused to even speak to him since then.
If anyone understood the pain of unrequited love, it was Hunter, but for his friend’s sake, he hoped Reid would get over it soon.
Mara had been gone for years—last Hunter had heard she was a TV reporter in Mississippi, of all places, and hadn’t even returned to visit her mom.
Paul sneezed loudly then blew his nose with a honk before speaking in his perpetually congested voice. “She’s taken, anyway. I heard she’s with Harry McAllen.”
“They broke up,” Hunter said.
“Oh.” Paul sneezed again. “Where’d you say she works?”
The party was almost over. Hunter had spent way more time there than he would have liked and made far more small talk than he wanted to—he had too much work to do to waste time hobnobbing with the Newport elite.
But he couldn’t leave. Not until he made absolutely sure Kristal wouldn’t show up.
He’d gone to Castle Hill Inn a couple more times over the past week, but both times he’d been told she wasn’t working that day.
Knowing better than to ask for her number or home address, he’d asked the waiter who’d taken over for her at lunch the last time—Jana—when Kristal’s next shift was.
She said she wasn’t sure.
So Hunter vowed to just keep trying to catch her. He needed to tell her he was sorry for making her feel like a beggar, and he needed to find out what could possibly have happened to cause the foreclosure of her family’s home.
When he’d gotten the invite to tonight’s cocktail party, he’d immediately RSVP’d yes, hoping she’d be there. The hosts were her family’s long-time next-door neighbors.
So far, she was a no-show. Unfortunately, the one Bianco he didn’t want to see was there and had just spotted him.
“Hunter Bestia,” Margot said, slinking up to him and sliding a hand around his arm. She squeezed his bicep and raised a brow in apparent appreciation for its size and firmness. “Just the man I wanted to see.”
“Hello Mrs. Bianco.”
She pursed her lips and gave him a simpering smile. “Call me Margot. Please. No need for such formalities any longer. We’re both adults now—not even that far apart in age. I married very young.”
The older woman ran her eyes up and down his body, making him shudder. “And my, my… how you’ve grown up. You know I always told my stepdaughter you were the one to watch, but she’s such a silly—”
He interrupted Margot’s flirtation. “Where is Kristal tonight?”
Her Botox-ed eyebrows made a valiant attempt to draw together, and her over-filled lips pouted.
“How should I know? Anyway, as I was saying…”
Hunter shrugged away from the long-taloned hand stroking the front of his jacket. “Don’t you live together?”
Apparently getting the message—finally—Margot straightened and lifted her lipo-suctioned chin.
“Not as of the past few weeks. I’ve decided to downsize. Who needs all that room anyway? Now I’m free to travel and not worry about running and maintaining a large household. You must be doing a lot of traveling.”
She smiled and stepped close again, renewing her transparent attempt to be seductive.
Ignoring her question, he pressed for information. “Where’s Kristal living then?”
“I don’t know,” Margot snipped, clearly annoyed now by his persistence and lack of interest in her come-ons.
“I think she’s been staying with some friend or another… ‘couch-surfing,’ I believe the term is. All the kids are doing it these days. We grown-ups prefer more luxurious accommodations. I’ve got a yacht at the Yachting Center Marina. It’s brand new and gorgeous. The master suite cabin is absolutely to die for. You should stop by later and see it.”
Hunter frowned in frustration. Margot had no idea where her stepdaughter was living. Kristal could be at a homeless shelter for all this woman cared.
“Sounds nice,” he said dismissively. “I see someone I need to speak to, if you’ll excuse me.”
It hadn’t been a lie. He had spotted someone he knew—and it might be exactly the person who could help him connect with Kristal. The owner of the restaurant group that managed Castle Hill Inn, the man had been a close friend of her father Richard, according to what Kristal had said.
He walked up and offered his hand. “Hunter Bestia. How are you, sir?”
The man smiled. “Ah, Hunter. Yes. Good to meet you. Congratulations on your company. You guys are making some big moves over at Billionaire Bachelor House.”
/> Hunter laughed. “Billionaire Bachelor House? Sounds like some kind of reality show.”
“That’s what some of the locals are calling it now. I understand you’ve got kind of an early-days Facebook situation going on over there, and it might turn out to be just as big.”
“Not sure about that, but yes, it’s going well. We’re really happy the hard work seems to be paying off.” Hunter’s tone changed. “Listen, I wonder if you could answer a question for me. I’m a friend of Kristal Bianco’s from school.”
That might have been overstating it—"admirer” was closer to the truth than “friend,” but he didn’t want to freak the guy out.
“I’m concerned about her. I saw the family home up for sale. I heard she’s working for you now?”
“Yeah, it’s a crying shame what’s become of Richard’s estate,” the guy said. “His wife drained the accounts dry after his stroke, and I talked to one of his law partners who said even his daughter’s trust was in trouble.”
Hunter’s attention riveted to him, and his heart rate increased. “What do you mean?”
“Well, they’re looking into it, but apparently someone got ahold of the secure passwords and raided it. The entire account’s been liquidated, which means Kristal’s flat broke.”
Harry. He’d been Richard Bianco’s protégé and Kristal’s boyfriend. No doubt he knew all about the trust and probably had access to Richard’s computer at work.
“That’s awful. Do they know who did it?” Hunter asked, seething inside.
Kristal’s boss shook his head. “Not sure. Last I heard the investigation was ongoing. Hopefully the poor kid will get what her father intended for her eventually—all he cared about was providing for his family. But cases like these can take years. In the meantime, she asked me for a job. She’s a hard-worker, that one, just like her dear old dad.”
“Do you happen to know where she’s living? I mean—I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
There were plenty of spare rooms at the billionaire bachelor house, not that Hunter had any chance of convincing Kristal to move in.