Harlequin Romance December 2020 Box Set

by Susan Meier, Sophie Pembroke, Jessica Gilmore

  But not today. Thanks to Ivona’s sprained ankle and Ana’s migraine they were two members of staff down. Lily had to step in. With a second heartfelt sigh, Lily pulled her phone out of her shorts pocket and quickly composed an apology to Damir. She stared at the message for a few minutes before pressing ‘Send’. It was done. Hopefully he would be as understanding about her schedule as she had been about his—and if not, then, casual or not, this fledgling relationship was never going to take off.

  Ignoring the disappointment that lay heavy on her chest, Lily tilted her chin and marched out to the beach café where she was needed to serve drinks and take payment for beach chairs.

  Every table in the café-bar, every sun lounger was occupied. Lily couldn’t believe the difference a couple of weeks made. Dubrovnik itself was busy all year round, a popular city break no matter what the weather, and the Dalmatian Riviera also enjoyed an extended season from late spring right the way through to Halloween, when the bustling resorts wound down for the winter break. Lokvar, however, like many of Croatia’s many islands, enjoyed a much shorter season. But it made up for length with intensity. The B&B was fully booked for the weeks and months ahead, and every morning day trippers arrived early to enjoy Fire Cove and kept on coming throughout the day and into the evening—all happy to order drinks and food from the beach café. Unassuming as the café was, Marija was sitting on quite a little gold mine.

  The rest of the morning and lunchtime passed quickly as Lily took orders and delivered drinks and snacks, keeping an eye on the sunbeds and beach chairs to make sure each occupant had paid for using them. Exhausting though it was, she found she enjoyed the constant buzz and dealing with such a variety of people from all over the world. Contract law was often solitary, just her, her computer and hundreds of lines of text to scrutinise. She’d thought she preferred life that way but maybe she’d been wrong.

  Smiling at a happy, sand-covered family, Lily collected the empty plates and glasses from their table and began to manoeuvre her way back through to the kitchen, when she caught a glimpse of a figure waiting by the framed menu at the café entrance.

  ‘I’ll be with you in a minute,’ she called over her shoulder, relieved that so far the vast majority of her customers spoke English no matter what their nationality and determined to spend some time with her language app that evening.

  ‘Take your time,’ the figure said in familiar tones, and Lily stopped stock still, almost dropping the heaped tray as she did so.

  ‘Damir? Didn’t you get my message? I am so sorry but I have had to cancel our plans. We’re short-staffed and I’m needed here.’

  ‘I know.’ He sauntered towards her, quirking an eyebrow at the tray. ‘Do you need a hand with that?’ Before she could protest he took it from her.

  ‘Thank you. But if you know I can’t make it then why are you here?’

  ‘We have a date.’

  ‘Yes, but…’

  ‘Maybe not the date we originally planned, but I thought we could improvise. What do you need me to do?’

  ‘What do I…?’ Lily blinked. Had she heard him correctly? ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You said you were two people down? Luckily I was working in a café from the time I was old enough to collect glasses.’ He held up the tray, effortlessly balanced in one hand. ‘So put me to work.’

  ‘I can’t ask you to do that, you’ve been in meetings all week…’ But she was torn. Luka was behind the bar, which meant she was covering both the café and the beach. Easy enough when it was quiet, almost impossible when it was as busy as this. Besides, she had been looking forward to spending time with Damir.

  ‘You haven’t asked, I offered. Lily, I’ve been in meetings all week and the only thing that kept me going was the thought of seeing you today. So if this is what I have to do…’

  He didn’t look like someone who had been in meetings all week and who had flown across the country this morning, he looked almost piratical with his dark windswept hair, the graze of stubble outlining his jaw and rolled-up white sleeves showcasing strong capable wrists. ‘Can you mix drinks? Make coffee?’ she asked hopefully.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Because then Luka can manage the beach and I can stick to waitressing in here. You really don’t mind giving up your Saturday afternoon?’

  ‘I want to spend my Saturday afternoon with you,’ he said, the heat in his gaze causing the rest of the busy café to fade away as she stood there, unable to move, unsure what to say.

  ‘I don’t know how to thank you,’ she managed at last, and he winked.

  ‘I’m sure I’ll think of something suitable.’

  * * *

  ‘Two small beers, one large, a Shirley Temple, a lemonade and an Irish coffee,’ Lily panted as she passed Damir the order note, scooping up the tray of coffees he’d just brewed with a quick smile. Her cheeks were flushed with the heat and exercise as she rushed around the terrace, her hair pulled back into a jaunty ponytail. She wore practical black shorts and a white T-shirt teamed with a small apron—not at all how he’d envisioned her looking when he picked her up for their date. Yet all he wanted to do was pull her into a corner and kiss her until they were both gasping for air.

  ‘On it,’ Damir promised, as he lined the glasses up before him, mentally running through the ingredients for a Shirley Temple. To his surprise he was enjoying the fast pace, even though spending his precious time making endless coffees, pouring endless beers and concocting endless sickly-sweet cocktails was not how Damir had planned to spend this afternoon. What he had planned was the next phase in the wooing Lily campaign after an unexpectedly excellent start.

  He hadn’t intended to mix business with pleasure quite as thoroughly as things had turned out, but the more he thought about it—and there were times when he could think about little else—the more sense it made. He was genuinely attracted to Lily and she was attracted to him. Why deny themselves an enjoyable few weeks or months just because he needed something from her?

  And that was all this was. A few enjoyable weeks. So he had decided to come and help her out? It wasn’t that uncharacteristic.

  Only of course it was. Damir couldn’t remember the last time he’d put himself out for another person, the last time he’d stood behind a bar rather than sat behind a desk, the last time he’d received orders rather than given them, but to his surprise the afternoon faded into evening long before he got bored.

  ‘Okay, bartender, your shift is over.’

  He looked up from the mojito he was garnishing to see Lily leaning on the bar, her hair now down and grazing her shoulders, her apron tossed over her arm.

  ‘The night shift is here. It’s time to collect your wages,’ she said.

  ‘Wages?’

  ‘Payment in kind,’ she amended. ‘Dinner and whatever you want to drink. Antun is making us pizzas as I speak so get yourself a drink and come and sit down. You deserve it.’

  The last ferry had departed and the café died down to a pleasant hum of regulars, those staying on the island and those with their own boats or charters, so they managed to grab a table at the end of the terrace, looking over Fire Cove. At this time of day it was easy to see where the bay had got its name from, the sun lying heavy and low, casting a golden path on the darkening sea, the sky a hundred different shades of red, orange and pink.

  ‘It is so beautiful,’ Lily said with a sigh. ‘Every day I think that has to be the most beautiful sunset yet, and then the next day tops it. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be here.’

  ‘It’s a gorgeous spot,’ he agreed. ‘So much potential.’

  He hesitated, wondering whether to say more when Antun emerged from his kitchen in person to place pizza and salad on the table and for the next couple of minutes they were busy helping themselves to slices of hot, heaped pizza, forking the fresh salad onto their plates.

  �
�Mmm, this is delicious,’ Lily mumbled. ‘I’m sure the place you had in mind was amazing too, but I’m not sure anything can beat this view and freshly made pizza with Antun’s secret tomato sauce recipe.’ She took a sip of her wine. ‘What did you mean just now when you said potential?’

  This was it. This was his moment. Damir did his best to sound nonchalant, as though he hadn’t thought about nothing but this topic for years. ‘Only that this is the best spot not just on Lokvar but possibly on the whole of the coast. The water is safe, the beach perfect, the view as you said is spectacular, and yet only a handful of people get to stay here. Don’t you think it would be the perfect setting for a hotel complex? Rooms, sports facilities, a beach club, a five-star restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows? I always think it’s a shame that the tourist season is so short on Lokvar, especially when so many livelihoods depend on it. A resort here could change all that.’ He sat back and picked up his beer bottle, every sense attuned to her reaction.

  Lily looked around as if envisioning what he’d described. ‘I can see what you mean, this place is blessed with everything and I guess the beach bar and villa are pretty basic, but don’t you think that’s part of the charm? I love how it’s so democratic, anyone can come here for a swim or picnic, or rent a chair for just a few kuna, whether they’re backpackers or own their own yachts. Besides, the villa has been in Marija’s family for generations. I can’t imagine her selling it and I don’t see her wanting to do that kind of development at her age—or at all to be honest.’

  ‘So will Josip come back one day, do you think?’

  Her expression clouded. ‘No, I don’t think so. I don’t know what will happen. Whether Ana will take over running it or Marija will sell it. To be honest, I think she’s refusing to make plans, hoping Josip will change his mind.’

  ‘And he won’t?’

  She shook her head slowly. ‘I don’t see it. He doesn’t even talk about Lokvar much, but he must think about it all the time. How could you not miss this with all your soul? Don’t you? I get it’s more exciting in Dubrovnik, and it’s beautiful there too, but there is something so special about Lokvar.’

  ‘It’s not really practical for me to live here. Once my father expanded onto the mainland we all moved. I do have a house here, but I don’t use it. After Kata left I just wasn’t here enough to justify running it so I converted it into a holiday let instead.’

  Lily’s eyes narrowed and she sat back. ‘That reminds me, you weren’t entirely honest with me the first time we met.’

  ‘Oh?’ Guilt, unexpected and unwelcome, twisted through his chest. It was so easy to forget his subterfuge while sitting out under the darkening sky. Every time he was with Lily, despite his vows to maintain the necessary emotional distance.

  ‘A café, you said, a few apartments on the mainland. You didn’t mention the hotel here, or the hotels and restaurants all around Dubrovnik. You practically own the whole island according to Ana.’

  That lack of honesty. ‘I didn’t want to impress you for the wrong reasons. My grandfather had ambitions and started to fulfil them, my father carried them on and I have taken what they started and been very successful. I’m proud of that, but I don’t want to be judged on it, especially by pretty strangers. I wanted to take you out because you liked me, not because you liked my portfolio.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have said yes because of what you have, it’s who a person is that interests me.’ She took another bite of pizza. ‘So was it your dream as well to be a hotel tycoon or were you indoctrinated from a young age?’

  A dream of his own? He’d never really allowed himself to consider such a thing. It was easier not to think about what could have been when what must be was so clear. ‘I’m the only son of an only son. The Kozina ambition was pretty much instilled in me from birth. I told you I was collecting glasses as soon as I could carry them. By the time I was twenty there wasn’t a job in the café or hotel I hadn’t done, including working on the building crew. I studied business at university but my apprenticeship was here. With my grandfather and father.’ Now he was the only one left. His failure to remarry, to father sons to carry on the business lay heavy on him. He knew his duty.

  ‘But what if it hadn’t been your family’s dream? Take me, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer from a young age. Not because I had a passion for sub-clauses but because I knew it was a career that signified stability and success, respect. And that seemed enough. But since I came to Lokvar I’ve wondered who I might have been if I hadn’t yearned for that stability. If I’d followed my heart.’ She laughed, twisting the stem of her wine glass in her hands. ‘Not that I have any answer to that yet. But I chose that, you didn’t have a choice by the sound of it. Is there a part of you that wishes he’d been, oh, I don’t know, a musician or an accountant or a teacher? Anything?’

  ‘The only possible other profession my family would have been happy with is a professional footballer and I am nowhere near good enough. Lily, it’s not as simple as wishes and wants. Around here, tourism pays the bills of nearly everyone, it has for a long time. And it’s better to be the ones controlling that, profiting from it, than the ones losing out to it. This coastline has a long, bloody and difficult history, conquered over and over, annexed to too many empires.

  ‘To be here, free, successful, respected? It’s a luxury my ancestors could never have dreamed of. Even my father lived through a period of turmoil. Of uncertainty. He saw his country fall apart, saw war and devastation and hatred. No wonder he came out of that wanting control of his destiny, to own his land, to ensure our roots were so firmly planted we could never be torn out. He worked tirelessly, constantly to make that happen. I am honoured to carry on his dream.’

  He looked out over the now-dark sea. His father’s untimely death, the charge he had laid on Damir had only fired his ambition. Pushed him to be who he needed to be, whatever the cost. It was worth it. The late lonely nights in the office or at his desk at home, the risky deals and the falling away from his friends were all worth it.

  It had to be.

  Lily leaned forward and placed a hand on his arm, the warmth of her touch spreading through him. ‘When your life falls apart, when everything you think you know disappears, it’s hard to know how to make sense of it all.’ Damir got the impression that she was speaking from experience. ‘I don’t know much about what happened here, about the war. I know that Josip left Croatia as soon as he could and has never returned. It makes sense that the war had a profound effect on your father as well, that it pushed him to take your grandfather’s dream and do everything he could to make it happen. I’m sure he would be very proud of you.’

  He shrugged. ‘Maybe.’ He’d never allowed himself to think about it. ‘My grandfather died after we built the first hotel here, but he died knowing that we were on our way. And then my father was head of the family and he wanted more and more. One hotel wasn’t enough, two wasn’t enough. I don’t know how many would have been, if there was a moment he would have thought, yes, we’re here. I did it.’

  ‘When did he die?’

  ‘Eight years ago.’ Now it was her turn to clasp his hand, her warmth offering comfort. ‘I’d been married for a little over a year. Kata had her first teaching job, she liked me home in the evenings, liked to spend weekends with me…’

  ‘That doesn’t sound like too much to ask.’

  ‘For someone else, maybe not. But she knew who I was when she married me, knew my family and our ambitions.’ He looked out at the sea, remembering the pressure of those days, torn between two people he loved. ‘It wasn’t easy, balancing her expectations with my own. She always felt I put her last, my father that I was uncommitted. He doubled his workload to show me up, although his doctor had been advising him to take things easier.’

  The conversation had taken an unexpected personal turn. Somehow Lily’s soft questions got through his carefully built defences. First, back in
Dubrovnik, he had opened up about Kata, now here he was talking his father. Topics he never discussed, not with anyone.

  He hesitated, but the next words spilled out before he could stop them. ‘He was here, overseeing the upgrade of the hotel, when he had a heart attack. Overseeing it because I had taken the day off to take Kata sailing.’ Sometimes he thought that day out with Kata had been the last day of peace he’d known. ‘It took too long for the air ambulance to come. He was dead on arrival at the hospital. My mother blamed the hotel, blamed Lokvar, blamed me.’

  ‘And do you blame yourself?’

  How could he not? ‘I should have been here.’

  Her grip tightened as if she were trying to imprint her words onto him. ‘It was the weekend. You were with your wife where you had every right to be and your father disregarded his doctor’s instructions. It’s very sad but no one’s fault. Especially not yours.’

  But he knew better. He was responsible and that knowledge was a burden he’d never be able to shed—neither did he deserve to. ‘I knew what he was like. I just didn’t want to let him win. He was a proud, stubborn bastard. I guess that’s one thing I inherited from him. So I promised him I wouldn’t let him down. Not again. And I haven’t. I’ve achieved far more in the years since he died than he could ever have dreamed.’ But it wasn’t enough. He wasn’t sure it ever would be. But developing this land, achieving his father’s dearest dream here might just give him the closure he craved.

  Lily looked at him keenly, and then got to her feet. ‘Come on,’ she said, pulling his hand. He didn’t move and she tugged him again. ‘Come on.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘It’s Saturday night, I’ve been working hard all day and I don’t know about you but I feel like I deserve a treat. The island band are playing down at the harbour and although I would never have thought I’d say this, I’m getting quite partial to their unique brand of rock covers of European pop. So let’s go and dance.’