Marry disentangled herself from his arms and started across the bridge. “Come on,” she said. “We have a lot more territory to explore.”
“We sure do,” he said.
* * *
When she heard his door open and close, she typed “goodnight” in the chat box and signed off of Facebook. After their kiss on the bridge, they’d had a wonderful day exploring the remainder of the garden. She’d even let him talk her into a paddleboat ride. It had taken them a few minutes to get in sync, but once they did, she found herself having more fun than she’d had in a long time.
She slipped her robe on over her pajamas and went out onto the balcony. The pools were still alive with activity, and there seemed to be a party going on in the large hot tub. She turned her head when she heard his balcony door open. He stepped out wearing his tuxedo shirt with the tie undone. She released the breath she was holding. Was there anything he could wear that didn’t make him look ravishing?
“How did the bachelor auction go?” she asked.
“Great,” he said. “I don’t subscribe to that way of meeting a mate, but it’s a fun diversion for the participants.”
They both looked down at the sound of a big splash following by hysterical laughter.
“They’re having a good time,” she said.
“Where did you have dinner tonight?” he asked.
“I went to El Club de las Estrellas,” she said. “I figured with all the single guys participating in the bachelor auction I was safe from predators.”
Allen laughed. “Predators, huh? Is that the way you see me?”
She scrunched her face. “No, you’re like a little puppy that followed me home.”
“I can live with that,” he said. “Instead of talking across the balcony, why don’t you come over here?”
She cinched her robe a little tighter. “Oh, I-I don’t know about that,” she said.
He rolled eyes and pointed toward his balcony door. “I have a suite, Marry. That’s my living room in there. I’m not asking you to come to my bedroom.”
“Well…okay,” she said. “But I’m in my pajamas. I’ll be over after I dress.”
Before she closed her door, she heard him say, “Don’t change on my account.”
The black slacks and ivory silk top she’d worn to dinner were still laying across the small sofa next to the bed. She changed quickly and stepped into her flip flops but didn’t bother with makeup.
When he opened the door for her, he’d changed out of his tuxedo and into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She suddenly felt overdressed.
“Come into my home away home,” he said.
If her room was The Sunshine Room; then his was The Jungle Room in all different shades of greens and browns. The upholstery on his sofa and matching recliner looked like fern leaves.
He motioned toward the sofa. “Please sit down,” he said. “Can I get you something from my mini-bar?”
She waved her hand. “No, thank you. I don’t want anything to drink.”
“I have soft drinks, too,” he said.
“In that case a diet Coke,” she said. “I like your suite. When I used to work as a district sales manager, my company would always put me up in the cheapest places. I hated coming back to the motel at night and doing follow-up reports at those tiny desks and sitting in uncomfortable chairs.”
“Believe it or not,” he said. “I’ve stayed in some of those places, too.”
He handed her drink to her and sat down on the other end of the sofa. He propped his bare feet on the coffee table. “La Luna always puts me up in this suite when I do seminars for them.”
Marry leaned back against the comfy sofa cushions. “I was chatting with my mother on Facebook a while ago,” she said. “She wanted to know if I’d met anyone yet. I reminded her that I’d only been here two days.”
“So you didn’t tell her about the psychologist who’s been chasing you all over the island? I’m hurt, Marry.”
“I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction,” she said.
He squeezed his lips together, turned an imaginary key and tossed it over his shoulder.
Marry laughed. “You could make a whole practice out of psychoanalyzing my relationship with Mom.”
Allen sipped his drink and made a face. “I don’t think that’s a project I want to tackle,” he said. “Is she still married to her third husband?”
“They were divorced about ten years ago. Now she’s with a guy she met at her senior citizens club. I don’t think they’ll ever get married, though.”
“Why is that?”
“He’s rich as all get out, and Mom says she’ll never sign a pre-nup,” she said. “He owns a lot of real estate in Tampa. Mom moved there to a ritzy retirement community after she sold her home in Orlando.”
“Small world,” he said. “I live in Tampa.”
Marry’s thoughts raced. This could put a whole new spin on things.
“Mom wanted to get away from all the tourists, but I love Orlando, and it isn’t so far from Tampa that I can’t drive over for a visit when I want to.”
He set down his drink. “An hour and a half on the interstate. Less than that if the traffic’s light,” he said. He moved closer to her and brushed a tendril of her hair away from her face. “Do you think we could start seeing each other on a regular basis?”
She nodded. “That might be possible but remember I’m a busy woman.”
“Yes,” he said and leaned in close enough to touch his lips to hers. “So you’ve told me.”
He took her drink from her and set it on the coffee table. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he pressed her back against the couch and kissed her. She ran her fingers through his hair, grasping his head and drawing him into a deeper kiss. He moved closer, pressing the side of his body against hers. She could feel the sparks coursing between them like two charged atoms. But her mind was soon flooded with all of the reasons she’d stayed away from men for two years. If she didn’t stop him now, she never would. Marry broke off the kiss and struggled to catch her breath.
“Allen, please don’t move too fast,” she said.
He caressed her cheek. “I have no problem respecting your boundaries,” he said.
“I’ve rushed into physical relationships in the past and ended up hurt—badly. I don’t feel that I know you well enough, and I’m getting too old for playing around.”
“Yeah, you’re practically a senior citizen,” he said with a laugh.
She picked up her drink and took a sip. “You know what I mean,” she said.
“Yes, I do,” he said. “And for your information, I was just enjoying our kiss. I wasn’t going to ask you to have sex with me…tonight, anyway.”
Marry smiled. For as much as he was driving her crazy, he was really growing on her.
“I have seminars all day tomorrow,” he said. “But tomorrow night, I’d like to take you out on our first real date.”
“I would like that,” she said.
“Good. I’ll make reservations at Aquaviva,” he said and planted a quick, chaste kiss on her lips.
“I hope this place isn’t too fancy,” she said. “I only brought casual clothes.”
“What you’re wearing tonight looks great,” he said. “You don’t have to dress up.”
Butterflies danced in her stomach, and she took another sip—more like a gulp—of her drink to calm them. Allen Love was breaking through the barriers she’d erected around herself and her heart, and she didn’t know whether to be happy or scared.
* * *
Allen knocked on her door at six p.m. She checked her appearance in the mirror. For their night out, she’d dressed in the same black slacks she worn the night before but paired it with a white, silk tank top. When she opened the door, he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. During the day, she had found herself missing his company. Without his banter, it had been a lonely bus trip to Arecibo and back.
“By the way, I have a rented car,” he said. �
�So I thought that after we eat, you might like to take a drive along the coast.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said.
She wrapped around her shoulders the colorful cotton shawl she’d purchased in Arecibo. When they reached the parking lot, and she saw that the top was down on his rented convertible, Marry was glad she’d worn her hair up. The wind tunnel look wasn’t becoming on her.
“So how did you spend your day?” he asked after he was in the driver’s seat.
“I took your advice and went to Arecibo today. It was a little crowded,” she said.
She reached across the seat and brushed her fingers through his hair, bringing a smile to his lips.
“And it would have been more fun sharing it with you,” she said.
“Yes,” he said. “My evil plan to win your heart is working.”
She laughed. “Don’t get all full of yourself.”
When they entered the restaurant, she felt enveloped by the color blue. The lighting was blue. The décor was blue.
“It’s very blue,” she said.
“You’re supposed to feel as if you’re under water,” Allen said.
Marry nodded. “I like it.”
“The ceviche is the most popular dish on their menu, but they have a variety of seafood and other dishes,” he said.
Allen ordered watermelon sangria for both of them. Marry took a tentative sip of the unfamiliar drink.
“Mmm, sweet,” she said. “With just a little tang.”
He leaned across the table and brushed a kiss against her lips. “Just like you.”
She felt a blush rise to her cheeks. “Wait until you get to know me better,” she said.
The waiter brought their crab cake appetizers and placed them on the table between them.
“Besides going to Arecibo, what else did you do today?” he asked.
“Hung out at the pool. Oh, I was chatting with mom on Facebook again, and it seems that I was wrong about her plans with Nick. They are talking about marriage,” she said with an eye roll.
“You don’t approve?”
“This would be her fourth marriage. At her age,” Marry said. “I think she should admit the fact that marriage isn’t something she’s good at.”
Allen chuckled. “She doesn’t have a good track record, but you can’t rule out the possibility that this one will work out.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe. At least, Nick Rudolph has money. He can keep her style, and…”
“Wait a minute,” Allen said. “Nick Rudolph is your mother’s boyfriend?”
Marry nodded. “Yes.”
Allen buried his face in his hands and laughed.
“Is there something funny about that?” she asked.
He looked up at her and shook his head. “Marry, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think we’ve been had.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Nick Rudolph is my uncle,” he said.
Heat rose to her cheeks. “So you’re saying that you think my mom and your uncle set us up to fall for each other?”
He nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. They probably even arranged for you to have the room next to mine to increase the odds of us meeting.”
Marry dropped her fork and leaned back in her chair. “I understand my mother’s meddling, but why would your uncle co-conspire with her to set us up?”
“My whole family has been trying to find a wife for me.”
“They don’t respect your right to find someone on your own?”
Allen looked down at his plate. “Jill’s death was very difficult for me. I mean…I know it’s never easy to lose someone, but when it happens so suddenly. The last time I saw her she was hurrying off to work that morning, and then…she was gone. The next time I saw her was at the morgue in the hospital.”
Marry reached across the table and clasped his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
He inhaled a deep breath. “I went through several months of both depression and over-compensating with work until I basically burned myself out. I had to take some time off from my private practice to regroup. Then the radio opportunity came along, and it breathed new life into me. It was as if I found a purpose again.”
“But your family still thinks you’re missing the love of a good woman,” she said.
“That’s about the size of it,” he said.
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Marry spoke.
“Charlie, my ex-fiancé, left me at the altar. Well, not exactly at the altar. While I was dressing for the rehearsal the night before the wedding, he texted me from the airport. He was leaving to go on our honeymoon with another woman.”
“Ouch,” Allen said. “No wonder you’ve cloistered yourself away from men.”
“I went through a period of depression, too and lots of questioning, blaming myself and wondering what I did wrong that I couldn’t hold on to him. Sometimes I still wonder.”
He opened his mouth to speak but closed it and shook his head.
“Go ahead, Dr. Love,” Marry said. “Say what you were going to say.”
“Some guys are just jerks,” he said.
She dropped her fork. “Uhm…gee. I’m glad I didn’t pay for that advice.”
Allen pushed aside his empty plate and leaned against the table. “Okay, I’m assuming that he didn’t just pick this woman up in the airport, correct?”
“He’d known her for a long time. She was an old girlfriend,” Marry said.
“So he was a coward as well as a jerk,” Allen said. “This Charlie guy was probably having doubts about your relationship a long time before he texted you on the night before your wedding. He should have been a decent man and told you the truth when he first realized that he still had a thing for his ex-girlfriend.”
“Maybe he tried to tell me, and I wasn’t listening. I was busy planning the wedding, and I did a lot of traveling for my job…”
“Hey, Marry.”
Her head snapped up, and she stared at him. Why had he taken that tone with her?
“Hmm, I didn’t seem to have any trouble getting your attention just then,” he said. “Charlie could have found a way to talk to you if he’d been man enough to face you.”
“Charlie never liked confrontation,” she said.
He leaned back in his chair. “I wrote a paper on that once. Remind me to let you read it.” He paused while the waiter took their plates. “I have no doubt that you would have given him the devil,” he said.
“What makes you say that?”
He pointed to her head. “Red hair,” he said. “Fiery temperament.”
“That’s an old wives’ tale,” she said. But true, she acknowledged to herself if not to him.
He grinned as if he’d read her mind. “Confrontation is sometimes necessary—especially when you’ve made the kind of mistake Charlie made. You have to face the music and take your lumps, or take the coward’s way out as he did.”
“It did make me a stronger person. I would have never started my business if Charlie hadn’t left me, and in hindsight we had a lot of differences that might have made us incompatible. I’m better off without him.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “And there you have it,” he said. “Making the best out of the hand we’re dealt—not letting it cripple us or make us afraid of…life.”
It might have been the potent drink in front of her or the atmosphere of the restaurant, but Marry felt warm and relaxed from head to toe. It had been ages since she’d felt that way.
“So how do you propose that we get our revenge on my mom and your uncle?” she asked.
He raised his glass. “By having the best time that we can have and not telling them a single thing about it.”
She clinked her glass to his. “Agreed. I like the way you think.”
* * *
Marry awoke on Friday morning feeling regret that her vacation was almost over. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was
past nine. She and Allen had stayed out late the night before at a dance club. She enjoyed the music, but she’d finally given him proof that she couldn’t dance.
She started the coffee brewing and walked over to the balcony. The hotel staff was setting up beyond the pool area for what appeared to be a wedding. The flowers and arch facing the ocean gave it away. She remembered how a week earlier she had rolled her eyes at the resort slogan, Encontrar el verdadero amor en La Luna Resort. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who had found love at La Luna.
Marry still couldn’t quite believe it. A man that she’d only known for a week had swept into her life and stolen her heart right out from under her in such a different and unexpected way. With Charlie, her relationship had begun with crazy, hormonal, horny sex. What she felt for Allen was as much cerebral as it was sexual. Instead of turmoil, he’d brought out the best in her.
Her mother had certainly pulled a fast one on her. She smiled at the thought of how she’d kept her mom on pins and needles all week—not giving away any details about Allen. As far as her mom knew she’d been spending her days and nights in solitude curled up with her Kindle reading murder mysteries.
She glanced toward Allen’s suite but remembered that he was broadcasting his live radio show from the ballroom. He’d probably already left his room. Her head snapped around at the knock on her door. She rushed to open it and found a member of the hotel staff holding a garment bag.
“I have a delivery for Marry Markham,” he said.
“Oh, there must be some mistake,” she said. “I haven’t ordered anything.”
The young man seemed puzzled and looked around. “You’re Marry Markham, correct?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Yes, that’s me.”
He held out the garment bag. “There’s an envelope attached. Perhaps that will tell you who sent it.”
“Well…thank you…I guess.”
Marry laid the bag across the end of her bed and pulled the envelope off, tearing it open.
Marry,
I’d like for you to attend a wedding with me this morning. I took the liberty of buying this dress for you, because I remembered you saying that you only brought casual clothes. I bought it on the sales lady’s advice, so I hope you’ll like it. I’ll meet you in the lobby at 11 a.m. after I finish my radio show.
Love & Marry Page 3