Secret Games (Tropical Temptation)

by Rock, Suzanne

  Chapter Eleven

  Zoe knew things were going to be bad with Sadie, but nothing could quite prepare her for the ear-piercing scream the country singer made when she saw the unfinished chapel.

  “This is wrong, it’s all wrong.” She waved her hands in the air, like one of the groupies at her concert. “Who ordered this pale wood? It will never do. I wanted pink ivory. Pink!” She whirled on Zoe and pointed a finger in her face. “You told me that the chapel was finished.”

  Zoe tore her gaze away from the golden-haired diva and silently begged Kaleb for help. Sadie’s fiancé wasn’t paying attention, however. Evidently, the comments on his latest YouTube video were more important than his wedding.

  “The most important parts are finished.” Zoe turned her attention back to Sadie. “The building has a skeleton, which in this climate, is critical. And the altar and pews are done, too. The rest is all cosmetic.”

  “But there are no walls, no stained glass.”

  “None of that is native to the island. It had to be imported. Tate said—”

  “Tate? Who’s Tate?”

  “He’s the one in charge of the construction.”

  She twirled her fingers in the air. “Bring this Tate out here. I want to talk with him.”

  Zoe took a steadying breath. Tate had texted her right before Sadie arrived and said that he was running late. Something came up and he’d meet them at the site. Despite her protests over him coming last night, she really wished he was here with her now. She could use his calm, steadying presence to soften her high-strung client.

  “He’s busy right now,” Zoe said. “But he’ll be here in a moment.”

  “He should be here now! I should be seeing my pink chapel and flower arch.” She narrowed her gaze at Zoe. “What happened to my flower arch?”

  Zoe shifted her feet and cleared her throat. “An arch full of rainbow roses takes time to make. Besides, they won’t last more than a few days, so they need to be made and flown in last minute—”

  “Excuses. All I get is excuses.” She waved her hand in dismissal. “Can you believe this, Kaleb?”

  Kaleb hummed his approval as his fingers sped over the phone screen.

  “First, I can’t have my ocelot at my wedding, now I can’t have my rose bushes or my pink ivory. This is such a disaster.” She pulled out a monogramed handkerchief and blotted away her tears. “Do you know what it’s like to grow up poor, Ms. Burkhart?”

  “Excuse me?” Zoe asked.

  Sadie lowered her handkerchief. “Do you know what it’s like to grow up poor?”

  The comment took Zoe off guard. “I…”

  “I grew up in a trailer park in southern Texas. My daddy walked out on us when I was five and my momma had to work three jobs to feed my five brothers and me. We didn’t have two cents to rub together, not two cents!”

  “I-I’m sorry.”

  Sadie sniffed. “When I became famous, I bought my momma a mansion, but she told me it was too much house. I was wasting my money. ‘All I need is my double-wide,’ she said. ‘It’s house enough for me.’”

  “A double-wide?”

  “A trailer.”

  “Oh.”

  Sadie blew her nose. “Do you know what she told me?”

  “What?”

  “She said…” Sadie sniffed and wiped her eyes, smearing mascara across her skin. “She said that I should save my money for my wedding. ‘You go to some exotic location and have that big beach wedding you always dreamed about,’ she said. ‘Spend every penny, honey, because you deserve it. You deserve all of it after the hell your daddy put us through.’”

  “That was very nice of her,” Zoe said.

  “It was.”

  Kaleb glanced up from his screen. “Your momma was the best, Sadie, dear.”

  “I know.” Tears streamed down Sadie’s face. “And she always loved those rainbow roses you got for her. They always made her smile.”

  Kaleb glanced up from the phone and smiled warmly at his fiancée. “I know, that was why I got them for her.”

  “Exactly where did you get these roses, Kaleb?” Zoe asked.

  He waved his hand in dismissal. “The friend of a fan grew them on a farm, I think. I can’t remember.” He shook his head and typed on his cell.

  Sadie sniffed, drawing Zoe’s attention. “When my momma was on her death bed six months ago, I promised her that I would have the dream wedding I always wanted. I would spare no expense and dedicate all of that extravagance to her. It made her happy, Ms. Burkhart. Happier than I had ever seen her in my entire life.”

  “I-I don’t know what to say.”

  “So that is why I must have the wedding of my dreams. For my momma, a woman who’d spend her last five dollars on a bridal magazine for her ten-year-old girl, a girl who dreamed of wearing fancy dresses and being swept away by a prince.” She glanced at Kaleb and started crying all over again.

  Kaleb lowered his phone and hugged his fiancée. “There, there, darlin’. Don’t you worry. We’ll make this right.”

  “I don’t know how we can make this right, Kaleb. I really don’t.”

  “I had no idea,” Zoe said.

  “So you see why everything has to be perfect,” Sadie said as she pulled away from Kaleb’s arms. “Rainbow roses were my mother’s favorite flower. I can’t cut corners with this, Ms. Burkhart. I just can’t.”

  “I understand.”

  “It’s more than just my momma. Kaleb and I have reputations to uphold. Our fans have been following our whole relationship on his YouTube channel. They’re expecting something big and flashy and extravagant. We can’t let them down.”

  “Our reputations are riding on this, Ms. Burkart,” Kaleb said. “Make this right.”

  Sadie shook her head. “She can’t make this right, Kaleb. It’s a disaster.” She turned her attention to Zoe. “It looks as if I’m going to have to do everything myself. Come along Kaleb. Let’s go find this Tate person. Perhaps he has some acceptable answers for why I can’t have my dream wedding.”

  “Yes, dear.” Kaleb swiped his phone screen and followed his fiancée as she stormed over the mounds of dirt at the site. When her heel caught in a divot, she made a frustrated shriek, and Zoe hurried to catch up with her.

  “This was supposed to be a garden,” Sadie complained. “Where are my rose bushes?”

  “I told you that I couldn’t get them. Rainbow roses are made in a lab, not in nature. Bushes don’t exist.”

  “No, these bushes exist, I know they do. Kaleb, tell the woman she’s being crazy.”

  “You’re crazy,” Kaleb mumbled as he texted something to someone thousands of miles away.

  Zoe would give anything to be miles away from this disaster.

  “Did you see my floor plans?” Sadie asked. I could have sworn Rebecca emailed them to you. I was very specific.”

  “She did—”

  “Rebecca!” Sadie yelled. “Where are you?”

  “I’m here, Sadie.”

  “Did you email Zoe the floor plans for the wedding?”

  “Yes, Sadie.”

  “When did you email them?”

  The mousy girl pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Several months ago.”

  Sadie turned to Zoe. “Well?”

  Zoe took a deep breath. Yes, she got the plans, but Sadie had her running all over the world in search of her stupid roses, so Zoe couldn’t oversee the construction on the site.

  “You did give me the plans, yes.”

  “Well?” She placed her hands on her hips. “Did you forward them to this Tate person?”

  “She did,” Tate said as he approached. Stopping at Zoe’s side, he held out his hand. “Tate Carrington of Carrington Construction.”

  It was hard not to gawk. Instead of his usual work wear of a T-shirt and jeans, Tate wore a light-tan tailored suit and a green tie that matched the gleam in his eyes. His hair had been washed and styled back, and his sneakers exchanged for a pair of Italian loa
fers. On his wrist, he wore a Rolex. Zoe only knew this because as he shook Sadie’s hand, the word “Rolex” peeked out from under his sleeve.

  Zoe wondered where on earth he had gotten anything so fancy. The soft material looked smoother than silk and incredibly expensive.

  Sadie furrowed her brow. “Carrington—you don’t happen to be any relation to Will Carrington, do you?”

  Zoe saw Tate’s smile tighten for a brief second, then relax into the lazy grin she had come to know so well.

  “Yes. Will is my father.” After winking at Zoe, he turned his body and held out his arm. “Now if you’ll come with me, I’ll give you a personal tour of the site and show you how it’s going to look for your wedding. If you will consider a few small changes, this setting can become even more elegant and lavish than you can imagine.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “It will be grander than the mansion you had built for your late momma.”

  Zoe frowned. How did he know that Sadie bought a mansion for her mother?

  “Grander?”

  “Absolutely. Not only will it impress all of your fans, but it will have your momma smiling down from Heaven above.”

  “You have my attention.” She slid her arm into his and waved her hand at her fiancé. “Take some pictures, Kaleb. I don’t want anything to be missed.”

  “Yes, dear.” Kaleb tapped the screen several times and held up the phone in Zoe’s face.

  “Hey!” Zoe held up her hands as a flash went off. By the time the spots in front of her eyes had cleared, the party was already moving away.

  The tour was brief and efficient. For everything Sadie found out of place, Tate countered with how they were working to correct it. He showed her the smooth sandalwood pews they had made, along with a panel of stained glass that they were getting ready to put into place. When she mentioned the pink ivory, he countered with using “exotic” wood from the island. It was hard for Zoe not to laugh. The man could make a pine two by four sound like a rare and valuable find. As the tour progressed, he managed to win argument after argument. Sadie’s anger began to wane and soon she was gushing over his every word.

  The only thing he couldn’t make her bend on was those stupid rose bushes. He had been able to get her to change her mind about everything else, however, thank God. Only, as they stood on the edge of the giant cliff and looked out over the water, Zoe couldn’t help but feel like a third wheel.

  Tate and Sadie looked as if they belonged together—or at least were cut from the same cloth. They made a striking couple. Tall and lean, they both carried themselves with a sense of superiority that only someone with money could have. Seeing them together opened up a lot of questions. It also triggered a stab of jealousy that was hard to ignore.

  Zoe glanced at Kaleb and wondered if he noticed how well Tate was playing his soon-to-be-wife. The man still had his nose in his phone, completely oblivious to the world around him.

  “You really picked a great company to head up the construction,” Rebecca whispered as Tate explained how they were going to string up rainbow roses so that they hung from the ceiling. “Where did you find him?”

  Zoe shrugged as she thought about Gavin and how Tate had said that they both grew up in Texas together. “He was recommended by a friend.”

  “Well, give your friend a big hug from me. This is the calmest Sadie has been in almost a year.”

  “I know,” Zoe agreed as she watched Tate and Sadie talk.

  “He’s hot, too.”

  Zoe gave her a sharp look.

  Rebecca raised her brows and leaned back. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not my place.”

  “It isn’t.”

  “But it’s easy to see that he has inherited his father’s looks.”

  Zoe dragged her gaze away from Tate and turned to face her. “You know his father?”

  Rebecca furrowed her brow. “Of course. Tate and his dad used to attend all of the small-town fairs and charity events to shake hands with us common folk.”

  “Common folk?”

  She stared at Tate in awe. “Sadie and I lived in the same trailer park growing up. We used to dream that someone like Tate or his brother would sweep us off our feet and take us away from our difficult lives.” She glanced at Zoe. “We’d watch the local news shows about how Carrington Oil made a donation to a local hospital, or how Tate and his family would visit a soup kitchen. We’d sit and dream about them visiting the trailer park and taking us away from the mess our lives had become.”

  “Rebecca!” Sadie shouted as she approached. “I think we have taken up enough of Mr. Carrington’s time. He has a meeting, and I’m getting bored with all these details. If we leave now, I can still make that charity dinner in Dallas.”

  Rebecca nodded and fell in beside her boss. “Of course.”

  Zoe had so many questions she wanted to ask Tate, but now wasn’t the time. She hurried to catch up with Sadie. On the way to the airport, Sadie prattled on about how lucky she was to have Carrington Construction working on the chapel, and what a boon it was to have such a good-looking guy in charge of her wedding.

  “You never told me that you had Tate Carrington doing all of the work,” she told Zoe.

  Zoe glanced at Sadie in her rearview mirror. “I didn’t think it was important.”

  “Not important?” She elbowed Rebecca. “She thought it wasn’t important. Isn’t that crazy?”

  Rebecca let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, crazy.”

  Zoe wanted to question Sadie further, but the country singer had moved on to other things. With Tate gone, her inner diva had returned, and by the time they arrived at the airport, Sadie had a new list of demands.

  “See that it gets done,” she said as she got on the plane.

  For once, Zoe didn’t argue. She had far too much on her mind. On the drive back to the resort, all she could think about was Tate Carrington and how peculiar her conversation with Rebecca had been.

  Tate came from money. She blinked as she replayed the past several days through her mind. Tate had to be the one who gave her that cashier’s check. There was no other explanation. But if he was so rich, why was he working at a construction site? It didn’t make any sense. Zoe had thought Tate had told her everything about his past. Now, as she pulled into the resort parking lot, she realized that he didn’t tell her much at all. She wanted to know if Tate’s family had always been so rich, and why Tate would run a small construction company if he was really as wealthy as Rebecca claimed.

  After pulling into the resort parking lot, Zoe realized that she had never done an internet search on Tate or his construction company. She had been lamenting to Gavin about finding someone who could fly out and work on Sadie’s tight deadline, and Gavin had recommended Tate. Zoe had been so worn out that she never did her due diligence and just took Gavin at his word. Now, sitting in the parking lot, she wondered about the true identity of the man she had hired. Nibbling on her lower lip, she took out her phone and typed in an internet search using Tate’s name. Just as the results came up on the screen, there was a knocking noise next to her head.

  Zoe jumped at the noise, sending her phone flying into the passenger seat. Tate grinned and motioned for her to lower the window.

  “Come on, let me buy you a drink.”

  “A drink? But it’s the middle of the day.”

  “Yes, but we finally got the witch off our backs. I feel the need to celebrate.”

  Before Zoe could protest—thanks to Sadie’s new list she had far too much to do—Tate opened her car door and pulled her out into the parking lot.

  “My purse and phone!”

  He swooped both of them up and stuffed them behind his back before she could grab them.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” he said as he took a step back.

  “Hey! I need that!” She tried to grab her purse, but he took several steps back and away from her.

  “We just scored a major win. In my book, that means we need to celebrate. No more wor
k today.”

  “But—”

  He kissed her hard, stealing her breath.

  “Tate, we’re at the resort,” she said when they came up for air.

  “Oh right.” He cleared his throat and straightened. “Then we need to go into town. Just let me get out of this monkey suit and get the bike—”

  “Tate, wait—”

  “Right. Forget changing clothes, we’ll just leave.” He tugged her toward the other end of the parking lot. “Come on.”

  …

  Tate didn’t really have a destination in mind. But after seeing her suspicious look at the construction site, he knew that she was starting to put the pieces together. He had to distract her before she figured out exactly who he was, or that he was the anonymous benefactor. And he couldn’t think of a better distraction than sex. He wanted her to focus on the moment, on him. Tate didn’t know how much more time they had together. He didn’t want to spend their last few days arguing over whether or not it was right to give her money.

  Somehow, he managed to get her on his bike, and the noise of the road kept them from talking much. If it was up to him, he would have driven all afternoon. He loved the feel of her arms around him and the exhilaration of driving on the open road.

  This must be how Rob felt after arguing with dad. The thought had come out of nowhere, but as soon as it entered his head, he knew it was true. As much as he professed to be different from Rob, in many ways they were the same. They both had that wild streak, that same wandering spirit. At the first sign of difficulty they didn’t stay and try to work things out. They ran away, hitting the open road leaving their troubles in the dust.

  “I’m just like him,” Tate murmured as the realization hit him hard. No wonder his father was so overprotective. It scared him that his only son, the only family that he had left, was on the same destructive path as his brother.

  “Tate, look out!”

  He swerved back onto the road, narrowly missing the tree. He knew that he had to stop driving before he ended up crashing his bike, just like Rob had so long ago.