Diving Into Love (McCallister's Paradise Book 2)

by Rhondeau, Chantel

  “Mmmm hmmm.” John smiled. “Just like we didn’t set Quinn and Larissa up, right?”

  Sierra suddenly felt like an intruder in a private moment. They set their oldest son up with someone? The Larissa who was presumably giving Sierra her room if she were able to stay on the island? Did that mean his parents expected her to be with Parker if she stayed?

  She waved her hand slightly to get their attention. “I’m not trying to be rude, but if what you’re saying is I have to date Parker to stay here, I’m not interested in the job. I’ll find another way to escape Cece.”

  Not that she knew what she would do, but she wouldn’t let that be a condition of her employment.

  John and Susan burst out in laughter.

  “Oh, goodness, that’s just perfect,” Susan said, laughter making her words nearly unintelligible.

  “To think I was worried about her using Parker to stay,” John agreed, laughing harder.

  Trying not to be offended that they were laughing at her, Sierra took in a deep breath. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now. Do you want me to stay away from Parker?”

  “Not at all,” Susan said. “What we want is for you not to be playing with each other. If you like Parker, date him. If you don’t, don’t.” Susan walked around the desk, stooping down and gathering Sierra in a hug. Her hand brushed against the bruises on Sierra’s back and a hiss of pain escaped her lips before she could bite it back.

  Susan immediately released her and shook her head, smoothing Sierra’s hair off her forehead in a motherly gesture that made Sierra wish Neenee were here with her to soothe away her hurt. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I forgot about the bruises. Parker told me it was bad, but it’s hard to think that a mother would actually—”

  “Thank you,” Sierra cut in, not sure she could tolerate concern from someone as sweet as Parker’s mom without losing her composure and crying again. “I appreciate you hearing me out and considering me for a job. I don’t mean to be pushy, but my cell phone could be turned off at any moment. When should I expect your decision?”

  John stood from his desk and extended his hand toward her.

  Sierra stood in turn and shook it, hoping he’d say he would call soon.

  “The decision is already made,” he said, surprising her. “Welcome to the McCallister family.”

  Elation flooded through Sierra and a few tears leaked from her eyes as relief, happiness, and utter exhaustion rolled through her all at once. “You don’t know how much this means to me. I’ll be the best worker you’ve ever had.”

  Chapter 12

  Parker snapped an underwater shot of the school of purple and blue fish swimming past a snorkeling family. The water was perfect today for Parker’s favorite hobby, photography. He had some great shots for this family to take home as souvenirs after they finished exploring the coral reefs and looking at the fish.

  Even though Parker preferred the deeper water dives where they had an opportunity to encounter more fish species, there was something great about having a small group of people on his tours who preferred to stay along the coast line. This family was having so much fun, it made even Parker’s somewhat gloomy mood better.

  The past three days had been fairly slow for the snorkeling business, and Parker was able to give Anthony and Paige a few days off after covering for him last week while he helped Sierra. The only thing that could make his life any better than it was right at this minute was seeing her, maybe even taking her on a date.

  Although he’d sent her text messages every day during the past week since she moved from his house into Larissa’s old apartment, Parker had yet to see her. She kept claiming she was too tired after working at the horse stables all day, but Parker wondered if she’d yet again rethought kissing him. They had felt so connected that morning in his apartment. She made him realize that he wanted more, and then took herself away. It didn’t seem fair somehow.

  Well, tonight he intended to change that. The weather was perfect and he’d read the on-line message board this morning. A fisherman said the dolphins were still in the area.

  If a gourmet dinner cooked by Parker’s baby brother and watching dolphins swim near them didn’t melt her heart and get her ready for romance, there was nothing Parker could do to tempt Sierra to see him. Assuming the dolphins cooperated, but he had yet to stop his boat a fair distance from them and not have them get curious and check him and his passengers out.

  They were friendly little devils, a pod of all males, and no one had ever failed to be amazed by them. Sierra wouldn’t resist either. Once he had her softened up and delighted by the dolphins’ antics, hopefully Parker could sneak in another kiss. It was worth a shot. He had to do something! More than a week without her company, and he still couldn’t stop dreaming of her. He had to change her mind about him.

  Checking his waterproof watch, Parker noted that it was quitting time. The two younger children were still squealing with delight anytime they spotted something interesting or a fish swam by, and Parker almost hated to break it up.

  He swam toward them reluctantly. Tapping the father on the shoulder, Parker grinned when the man surfaced and took his goggles off.

  “Is our time up?” he asked.

  Parker nodded. “I’m afraid so. I’d love to let you stay out longer, but I have somewhere to be tonight and I can’t risk you out here alone.”

  The father glanced back toward the beach. “Wow. I had no clue we’d come out quite this far. I definitely wouldn’t want my kids here without you around. I don’t even think the lifeguards can see us out here.”

  “Exactly.”

  As the man rounded up his family and told them it was time to leave, the kids groaned and complained, asking for five more minutes.

  Perhaps Parker should institute some sort of warning for groups with children. Even though he didn’t know much about them, it seemed all kids asked for five more minutes. It was something to think about in the future, but tonight, he had a date.

  “Hey, there is some good news,” Parker told the kids as they began paddling back to the shore beside him.

  “What good news?” The boy rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to stop swimming. This is the only cool thing on this dumb island. This place is so-o-o boring.”

  Parker had worried about that with the families bringing younger and younger kids these days. He needed to talk to his dad about finding more kid-friendly activities on the island. “Well, I took a lot of pictures.” Parker kept his voice hearty and happy. “You’ll have some great shots to take home and show all your friends. That’s cool, right?”

  “I guess,” he said sullenly. “I’d rather have five more minutes.”

  “Drake, you stop that right now,” his mother scolded as she struggled to keep up with the group. The husband might be worried about his kids, but they were much better swimmers than their mother. Of course, with the mandatory life vests that didn’t matter, but she was having a hard time keeping up. “We paid for an hour, and that’s what we’ve had. Mr. McCallister doesn’t owe you more than that.”

  “Sorry,” Drake grumbled, though he sounded anything but.

  Parker lagged back until the mother caught up with him. “It’s not too much further. We’re almost where you should be able to touch.”

  “Thank goodness.” She paddled harder. “I’m glad our hour is up. It was fun, but I’m beat.”

  Well, if the parents were happy, that was all that mattered in terms of good word of mouth advertising for the resort.

  When they finally reached the shore, Parker helped them out of their flippers and life vests. Once they had dried themselves off, Parker already had his camera equipment dried and placed in the bag. He snatched a business card from the front pocket and handed it to the father.

  “The pictures will be uploaded by tomorrow,” he explained. “I’ve written an access password on the back of the card. If there’s anything you want, let me know.”

  “How much is it going to cost?” t
he man asked.

  Parker understood. The island wasn’t cheap, and this family seemed less well off than their normal clientele. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll include it as part of the trip.” Parker winked at the mom. “Just don’t tell anyone, because normally I’m very expensive.”

  The mother giggled and looked away, and even the dad was happy enough to receive free pictures that he didn’t get upset about Parker flirting with his wife. Another happy customer served.

  Now, Parker needed to see about making a certain woman happy. He wouldn’t take no for an answer tonight.

  * * *

  Sierra stepped out of the shower and dried quickly, putting a brand of lotion a lot cheaper than what she was used to over her dried out skin. Working was not as simple as she’d hoped it would be. Every night exhaustion set in and she couldn’t wait to get the smell of horse manure off her and relax in her small apartment.

  Not that she was complaining. She knew she’d eventually adjust to her new lifestyle, and at least she was making her own choices and doing what she wanted. One could wish Mr. McCallister had been joking about her mucking out horse stalls, but that was exactly what she did every morning. Luckily, that wasn’t her only job duty and she was able to spend a lot of time with the horses themselves. It was tolerable, if not ideal.

  She even had blisters on her hands from using the shovel. Soon, her hands would be as work roughened as Parker’s.

  Cece would be pissed if she could see her now. However, Sierra’s cell phone had been turned off before she even had a chance to return her parents’ phone calls. Apparently they were done with her, and didn’t care to keep in contact.

  More likely Cece figured she could force Sierra into coming home, begging for forgiveness, by cutting off all contact. Yeah, right. It had saved her the trouble of having to speak with them, and Sierra was fine with that.

  Sighing, she slipped on her underclothes, stepped into a pair of yoga pants, and pulled on a pink tank top. Parker was the one problem she had. His father had been right.

  While she wanted to see him, had almost an obsessive need to, she really was too tired. The McCallisters had provided her a new cell phone as part of her salary on the island. Parker texted and said the sweetest things to her every night. It was difficult to deny his requests to come see her, but she always refused. She looked a mess, wearing the most ratty, relaxed clothing she owned and spending all her time in bed at night.

  Well, Parker might like the in bed part, but she didn’t want to make that step with him.

  Scratch that. She wanted to, but it wasn’t the right time. Just because she couldn’t stop obsessing about him, that didn’t mean it was time to go forward into something more complicated. She needed to stand on her own and figure out who she was, now that she wasn’t the dutiful daughter of Rodger and Cece Burns. It was an adjustment, for sure.

  Upon exiting the bathroom, a knock sounded on the door to her room. Frowning, she walked across the tiny space to look out the peephole. She didn’t recognize the woman on the other side, but her hands were full of red roses.

  Sierra pulled open the door. “Can I help you?”

  “Sure can,” she said in a bubbly voice. “Are you Sierra Burns?”

  Sierra nodded.

  “Great. These are for you.” She thrust the roses into Sierra’s hands. “I also have a package, but I’ll carry it in for you, it’s kind of big. Took me two trips up here to get it and the flowers.”

  Without waiting for permission, she pushed past Sierra and crossed to the bed, setting a brown cardboard box down on Sierra’s white comforter.

  With a wave, she headed back to the door. “Have a nice evening.”

  Bemused, Sierra closed and locked the door. The room was very small, and the only place to put the flowers was either atop her dresser drawers near the end of the bed or on the desk that took up the wall beside the doorway.

  Since she didn’t have much use for the desk, Sierra set the roses down there, sniffing their fragrance in with a happy sigh. What girl didn’t like roses? Thinking back, it was the first time she’d ever received flowers in her life. She wondered who they were from.

  Searching through the flowers themselves revealed no card. Hopefully the package could shed more light on the situation. She sincerely hoped they were from Parker, but part of her worried it was from her parents. That this was their cruel way of telling her they knew exactly where she was and could pull her out of here at any second.

  Suddenly hesitant to touch the box, fear held her captive. If it was from her parents, she should just throw it all out without looking at it. She had to get their negative influence out of her life. They had decided to cut off her off. They didn’t deserve to have any control over her now.

  As she stood in front of the box, her new work-issued phone beeped with an incoming text message.

  Relieved to put off the decision about opening the box for a few more seconds, Sierra reached to grab it off the dresser. A smile curled her lips as she saw it was from Parker. At least he hadn’t stopped thinking about her, even if she kept denying him. It showed that he was serious about having something more than a fling. From all the things she heard from people on the island, he was the type to move on quickly from a woman. And yet, he hadn’t moved on from her and they weren’t even seeing each other. Every day he contacted her gave her a bit more confidence in him.

  She swiped the screen and scanned the message.

  Does it fit? I can have something else sent if it’s too big. You’ve got a nice chest, Red, but that made it hard to know what size you needed.

  He bought her clothes? No longer hesitant, she turned to the box.

  Tearing open the top, inside she found a large box of chocolates sitting on top of another, smaller package wrapped in purple and silver wrapping paper.

  Setting the chocolates aside, she carefully unwrapped the gift, keeping the paper intact and folding it neatly before setting it aside. Anxiously, she pulled off the top of the white gift box.

  Inside was a beautiful, sleeveless, polka-dot dress. Sierra pulled it from the nest of white tissue paper and held it up. A brown background had white, blue, and yellow polka-dots with the brown continuing in a solid color to a skirt that would hit just above her knees.

  Feeling more energetic than she had in days, Sierra doffed her clothing and slipped the silky fabric of the dress over her head, shimmying it down past her hips. It was the perfect size.

  Rushing to the bathroom, she looked at herself in the small mirror. The dress was reminiscent of the swimsuit her mother ruined by shoving her into the coffee table that day. The suit was one of her favorites, and now Parker had replaced it with something even better.

  She twirled around, the skirt flaring as it brushed against the cabinet and edge of the toilet. Apparently she needed a bigger place to twirl.

  In the other room, her phone beeped again and she rushed to grab it.

  Hello? the message read. Did I pick wrong? Are we still speaking?

  Laughing, Sierra punched the button to call Parker’s phone.

  “Hey, Red. You okay?”

  He sounded so hesitant that Sierra almost felt bad. “It’s perfect, Parker. So beautiful. Thank you.”

  Parker’s long puff of breath came through the line. “That’s a relief. When you didn’t answer, you had me worried.”

  “I had to try it on, silly man.” Sierra giggled, happiness overcoming her once again. “It’s lovely, but what’s the occasion?”

  “The occasion is dinner with me, tonight.”

  Sierra sucked in a breath. It was true she felt awfully tired, but Parker had gone through all the trouble of buying something to woo her, and she really did miss him.

  “Don’t say no,” he said into the silence. “I know you’ve been working hard and you’re tired, but I also know you have the next two days off. As do I. I promise not to keep you awake too long tonight, but I really, really need to see you. I miss you.”

  Her h
eart melted. “I miss you too.”

  “You don’t know how happy that makes me. I’ll be there to pick you up in a few minutes, okay?”

  “No, not okay.”

  “What? I thought you missed me,” he protested.

  “I do, and I want to see you tonight,” Sierra reassured him quickly. “My hair is a mess and I have no makeup on. Give me a half hour, okay?”

  Parker let out a low whistle. “You can get ready that fast? You’re definitely my dream girl.”

  Laughing again, Sierra suddenly couldn’t wait to see him. “You think I’m your dream girl now, wait until you see me in this dress!”

  Chapter 13

  Parker cut the engine on the boat about fifty yards from where he spotted fins cutting through the clear, blue water. The boat rocked slightly from side to side, but it was a calm evening. Hopefully Sierra wouldn’t have any problems with seasickness, now that they had stopped.

  Speaking of Sierra... holy hotness! She stood next to him under the steering shelter, a bright smile on her gorgeous mouth. Her body rocked the new dress, and all he could think about was kissing her.

  “Are we here?” she asked, the scent of her floral perfume floating on the ocean breeze. “I’m confused. I thought you were showing me something. All I see is water.”

  With a grin, Parker took her hand and led her to the platform, pointing over the starboard side. “You’ll have to be patient, Red. I can’t force them to come over here, but I think they will.”

  “They?” Her brow furrowed in perplexity and she pouted, making her even sexier than moments before, something Parker hadn’t thought possible.

  “You’ll see.” He raised her hand to his mouth, kissing the back of it lightly.

  Sierra’s hazel eyes met his. “Are you trying to romance me, Mr. McCallister?”

  Turning her hand palm side up and nestling his cheek against it, Parker nodded. “Is it working?”

  “Maybe.” Her fingers tenderly grazed his skin and she winked. “Depends what they are.”