“Felicia.” He nodded, pulling out a chair for her. “Thank you for coming.”
She sat and crossed her leg. “I had a choice?”
“Welcome to Makana and my home.” He sat across from her. “Is there anything I can offer you while we are still speaking cordially to one another?”
Jorgen and Carl slipped into the house. They probably sensed that privacy was in order. They were correct, of course. Maxwell was certain it wouldn’t be too long before their civility detonated into an encounter as flammable as the passion they’d once shared.
Maddie and Alex were lounging on the balcony after a late breakfast. She’d dug into her birthday basket and was now enjoying the homemade goodies. “I should just attach these biscottis to my hips instead of eating them.”
Alex leaned back in his chair, his feet up on the balcony railing, finishing the New York Times crossword. “Your hips are fine.” He threw the pen and paper on the table. “And you have an incredibly sexy ass. Also, hot legs. And great toes. Nicely painted if I say so myself—”
She threw a napkin at his head. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments, you dork.”
He got up, bent over, kissed her, snagged the remainder of the cookie out of her hand and ate it. “Ready for the beach?”
In the ocean, they swam races, with Maddie winning one out of three. They joined other couples in the hotel pool for a game of volleyball. She sat straddled on Alex’s shoulders.
Looking up at her, he said, “You had to eat more biscotti, didn’t you?”
“You are so going to get it.” She dunked his head underwater, hopped off his shoulders and spiked the oncoming beach ball over the net.
After lying in the sun to dry off, they walked back to their hotel room hand in hand, chatting about the island and continuing to rib each other.
Maddie called the front desk at the hotel in Makana to check messages. There were none.
“Expecting an important call?” Alex asked.
She shrugged. “Thought Uncle George or Felicia—never mind.” Grabbing a cold bottle of water from the bar fridge, she stepped out on to the balcony.
“Hey.” Alex followed and lifted her chin. “What’s up?”
She took a long swig of water. “Do you realize how lucky you are? Your family, your parents, they’re so normal. I’m surprised you have the hang-ups and issues that you do.”
He gave her a hesitant smile. “Thanks, I think.”
“You know what I mean.” She sat on a chair. “Your family is the picture of perfection.”
He dropped an envelope on the patio table and sat on the reclining chair beside her. “Nobody’s family is perfect. That’s not possible. My parents bickered. I remember a few loud disagreements. I’m sure they’ve been frustrated with each other and probably hurt each other’s feelings at times. But it always got resolved.”
“Your parents?” The only resolutions Maddie had witnessed over the years had taken place in lawyers’ offices. “They’ve been married for what? Forty-one years?”
“Forty-four.” He lay back in his chair. “It’s not like they were at each other’s throats every day, but with three active kids, stress from work, life in general, they did have disagreements. What I remember most though, was how they were thoughtful of each other. They always gave each other space and quiet time.” He smiled. “My mother always said her sense of humor helped her with us kids and my headstrong father. She also claims that she operated on the assumption that men stopped maturing after the age of twelve.” He reached out and tugged on her hand. “Come sit here.”
She rose, settling between his legs on the reclining lounge chair. “Your mother’s a riot.”
He kissed the top of her head. “My parents never let the outside noise, the distractions and temptations, slip into their world. And like I said, they each put the other’s needs before their own. I’m not talking about either of them being submissive. It’s about knowing that your partner has your back at all times.”
She laced her fingers through his. “You think they ever thought of throwing in the towel?”
He rubbed his thumb inside her palm. “Maybe at some point. But their love and commitment was strong and secure enough to get them through it.”
“For a hard-nosed reporter, that was rather poetic.” She lifted their intertwined hands and kissed his wrist. “Hallmark called and they want to hire you.”
“I surprise myself sometimes.” He chuckled. “Speaking of Hallmark.” Letting go of her hands, he leaned over and grabbed an envelope from the table. “I was asked to give this to you.”
She took the envelope he handed her and opened it. It was a card with a birthday wish and a message that said the writer looked forward to seeing her again in a few days. It was signed by Maxwell Hollister. She laid her head against Alex’s chest and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. “That was nice of him. It’s not that I’m ungrateful, but a stranger has more consideration than my own family. I didn’t get an e-mail, a phone call, nothing from Felicia or Uncle George.”
“Is that what’s been bothering you?”
Maddie put the card on the table, got up and leaned against the railing, facing Alex. “Among other things, yeah.” She rubbed her forehead. “I’ve been doing some thinking about what you asked me. You know, about going to London.” She blew out a breath. “One of the reasons I’m hesitating to make a decision is because I…well…I’m trying to find out who I am.”
Alex got up, standing in front of her he wrapped his hands around her shoulders. “Are you kidding me? Out of all the people I know, you’re the one person who knows exactly who she is and what she wants.”
She shrugged. “For as long as I could remember, I’ve wanted to see if my gene pool had a deep end.” She met his inquiring gaze. “I gave up trying to get a straight answer from Felicia, and I was getting nowhere on my own. So about six months ago I hired a private investigator to help me find my father. I thought it would take him longer than it did.
“He’s been calling me here with updates and requests for more money, of course. A few days ago he sent me some information. I’m still not clear on a few things. Reece is helping me. Before I could get Felicia to confirm some things the other night, we had a fight and I haven’t heard from her since. From what I gather she…well, she went to a fertility clinic and…” She stopped talking when she noticed Alex had paled. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I wish you would have told me this before.” He threw his head back and let out an audible sigh. “I could have saved you some time and money.”
“Why? What are you talking about?”
“It’s Maxwell Hollister. This assignment. Maddie.” His voice softened. “I’m just going to come out and say it.” Taking hold of both her hands, he said, “There’s a possibility that Maxwell Hollister is your biological father.”
“What are you talking about?” Her breath quickened. “How is that possible?” Alex was so off base with this one. Right? “A man like him wouldn’t be donating at a fertility clinic—”
“I can only tell you what I found out. I have no idea what this fertility clinic stuff you discovered is about.” He guided her to a chair, encouraging her to sit. “I’ll fill you in with what I know.”
She sat, mainly because a gust of wind would have knocked her over.
Listening without interrupting him, she focused on his every word. He told her that he’d had a few hunches even before arriving on the island, and they’d intensified shortly after they arrived. He’d investigated, finding out that both she and Hollister shared the same hemoglobin disorder and shellfish allergy. But the real tip-off came when she told him about the maid cleaning her hairbrush. He discovered she had been collecting strands of her hair so that Hollister could run a DNA test. He confronted Hollister and the billionaire told him that even without the test results, he was convince
d she was indeed his daughter. Alex also told her he was aware they were being followed on the island by some sleazeball PI who conspired with Crystal-Bitch-Washington to expose her secret parentage.
Blood rushed to her head, along with an overwhelming feeling of resentment. Needing some time and space to digest everything, she stood, knocking the chair over. She slid the patio door open and ran into the room.
She bent over forward with her hands on her thighs, taking deep breaths to get rid of the head rush. He knew. He knew all this time. How could he keep this from me?
She heard Alex enter the room. He put his arms around her waist. She slapped them away. “So let me understand this,” she said as evenly as she could, concentrating on breathing, and straightening, “you suspected Maxwell Hollister could be my father, but instead of coming to me about it, you went behind my back to Maxwell to verify it?
“You also knew I was sent on this assignment for this reason? Who the hell’s side are you on?” She put her hands up to keep him away from her. The last thing she wanted was any physical contact with him. “Spill it. What else do you know? When did they meet? How did they meet? Where has he been all these years? Why hasn’t he tried to contact me?”
Alex looked miserable. But why the hell did he look as hurt as she felt? What was he holding back? Again, she shoved his hands away when he came to wrap his arms around her.
“I told Hollister that if the subject came up I’d tell you there was a possibility you were his daughter,” he said. “You’ll have talk to your mother and Hollister. It’s their call to give you the details. I’ll answer what I can, but I gave my word that I wouldn’t divulge—”
“What? You know more and you’re not going to tell me? Damn you, Alex. I expect lies, manipulation and disloyalty from my family, especially Mommy Dearest. But I sure as hell don’t expect this shit from one of my closest friends who knows the crap I’ve put up with.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before now that you hired a PI to find your father? I would have helped you. We could have figured this out together even before coming to Hawaii—”
“Don’t you try to turn this around on me,” she yelled. “I don’t owe you an explanation. You owe me plenty. You should have told me right away about Maxwell Hollister, DNA tests, threats from your ex-bitch about exposing my personal life.”
He took a step toward her, but again she backed away.
“Maddie, calm down. I only got confirmation from him the other night. We haven’t had time to get into any of this—”
“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down.” She put her hands on her hips. “Okay, not sharing the England deal with me, I can accept that. It’s business. Your decision didn’t affect me—”
“You’re wrong about that.”
“Whatever. But this information about who my father is. This is my damn life.”
“We didn’t have a lot of time to discuss this until today. Sometimes, you’re not the easiest person to have a serious discussion with—”
“I see.” At the moment her tongue worked faster than her mind. “So you couldn’t squeeze in a few minutes to say: ‘Maddie, now that I’m finished screwing your brains out, I’ll be gone for three years and by the way, this whole assignment was a way to get you on the island so that you could meet your father. I had a hunch something was going on, but I figured you wouldn’t be in the mood to get our freak on if we dealt with serious issues’.”
His eyes darkened, like liquid black ink. “That is so damn unfair—”
“Unfair? I’ll be as unfair and pissed off as I want to be.” Her mouth was on autopilot. Reason took a back seat. “You and Washington are one and the same. Anything for a story, right? Was this going to be your next award-winning article?”
“For chrissakes, you know me better than that.”
“I do? Obviously, I don’t know jack about you.” Turn the other cheek. Don’t fight dirty. Words she’d lived by, but sensible wisdom now sounded hollow. “All I know is that you probably used sex to sidetrack me so I wouldn’t find anything out.”
“You know damn well I didn’t use you for sex.” He raised his voice also. “And you got it backwards. You seduced—” She could tell he wanted to take back those words as soon as he uttered them. “Mother of God.” He paced, raking his hands through his hair. “Now I’m being ridiculous. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Oh, so he thought she was ridiculous? She let that slam go by. There were more important things to discuss. “Who else knows about my personal shit?”
He sighed. “Tim. He helped me out by following Washington and Grant. Your uncle. Hollister and obviously your mother.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Even though I threatened her, I wouldn’t be surprised if Washington ran to the tabloids—”
“Let’s share it with the world, everyone except me. Hell, I bet the butler knows too.”
Alex didn’t confirm or deny it.
“I was being sarcastic.” This could not be happening, she thought. “Why the hell would Maxwell’s hired help know?” She eyed him with suspicion. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“That’s another story and it’s not up to me to tell it to you. Hollister said he would explain—”
She slapped her forehead. “Stupid me. I forgot, your loyalties lie with others and not with the woman you’re screwing—”
“For fucksakes.” He turned his back to her. “Stop reducing our relationship to that. It’s way more than that, and you know it.” Throwing his head back, he said, “I know you’re confused—as soon as you talk to your family, I’ll help you make sense of it all.”
“You’re going to help me make sense of it? Like you’re doing right now? Not telling me everything you know?” She backed away. “You lied to me—”
He swung around. “I never lied. I didn’t tell you right away, you’re right. But it’s not like I kept this to myself for months.”
“No wonder you won a few Pulitzers. You spin the truth so damned beautifully. Here’s a newsflash for the ace reporter—a lie of omission is still a lie.” Propelled by anger, she picked up the purple angel pillow he’d given her and sneered at the embroidered quote. “Nice way a buddy is taking care of a friend, huh?” She threw the pillow against the wall. “You kept this to yourself because you’re a control freak—”
“I was trying to protect you from getting hurt.” He went to the patio door and spread his hands on the plate glass. “The way I took care of your apartment. I did it because I care and I was worried. I knew you’d take it the wrong way—”
“My apartment?”
He nodded. “Might as well tell you. It’s not a big deal. I own the place. I arranged for the property manager to deal with you directly and keep me out of it.”
“No big deal? No big deal? You are unbelievable.”
Since she couldn’t take her anger out on her mother, her uncle or Maxwell, she pummeled him with vicious words. “You cheapened our friendship by turning me into a woman dependent on a man. Like my mother. And I didn’t even know about it. I don’t take charity from anybody. Least of all from you. Someone I trusted. Yeah trusted, as in past tense. This is my official notice. I’m moving out, Mr. Landlord. Any more surprises you want to spring on me?”
She looked around for something else to throw, but came up empty. Instead, she hurled more words. “It’s been great getting it on with you, but now you can fly away and leave me to pick up the pieces of my insane life, get answers you already have but won’t share. Thank you, Donovan. The sex was great. It’s been a blast.”
He stood in front of her. “So you’re telling me that everything between us was physical? Sex? That’s it? Because that’s not what you said last night.”
Out of frustration she kicked a T-shirt that lay on the floor beside the bed. “To think I was actually considering going with you.”
“And now?”
>
“No. Damn. Way.”
She could see his jaw clenched tight. They both remained silent. Staring at each other. Her face was flushed and so was his.
“The way your family handled this secret sucks.” His voice calm and low. “What you’ve been through is unfair. But what happens with them should have nothing to do with us. This is you being the escape artist you’ve always been. When things get serious you pull a prank or push me away.” He held her gaze with intensity. “You’ve been looking for an easy out, haven’t you?”
Her face heated up even more. “After you’re finished analyzing me, why don’t you dial a few wrong numbers to keep people on their toes, Dr. Pop Psychology?”
“That’s it. Make jokes,” he said. “God forbid something good happens in your life and it screws up your expectations.”
“You have no idea what I expect. Because if you did, you’d know that I would have expected you to be straight with me the way I’ve been with you.”
“I know you expect any and all relationships to tank.” She recognized the determination in his voice. He was trying desperately to coax her into facing things she’d rather not talk about. He wasn’t about to let her off the hook. “If you look a leap of faith with me and it worked then you’d have to stop using Felicia as an excuse for your no-strings arrangement.”
“This is coming from the guy who lives by the two-date maximum rule?”
“Never with you.” He picked up his overnight bag and threw it on the bed. “You don’t think I was scared about getting into this relationship with you? Why do you think I held off for so long? But I took a chance because you’re worth it.” He paused. “You still are.”
Opening the nightstand drawer—practically tearing it off its hinges—he threw socks and underwear into his bag. “I knew damn well after that first kiss that if we gave in this was never going to be casual. And that was fine with me.” He opened the closet door and grabbed his shirts and pants. “As soon as I signed that contract, all I thought about was you. How to ask you to come with me. To take a chance together and see where this could take us.”
What a Girl Wants Page 30