by Jane Graves
Sarah remembered the day she'd showed her mother the resort's website and told her they'd decided to get married there. Her mother had smiled with delight and told Sarah how happy she was for her, just as she had tonight. But it had cost her parents more to stay at this resort than they would have paid for an entire wedding back in Big Fork. Sarah had known that all along, but in the midst of Mona's whirlwind wedding planning, she'd turned a blind eye to it. But now that she saw just how foreign this place was to her parents and the rest of her family, it seemed like the worst decision she could possibly have made.
"I thought most of Randall's family wouldn't be coming, either," Sarah said. "But…"
Her voice trailed off, and Nick got a knowing look on his face. "But my mother expanded the guest list?"
Sarah was silent.
"How many on Randall's side are going to be here?"
"Eighteen."
"Why didn't you tell my mother that wasn't acceptable? That if you couldn't invite more people, she couldn't either?"
"How am I supposed to tell her that when she's paying for everything?"
"And there you go. It comes right back around to money. For them, it always comes back around to money."
“Why are you making this hard for me?”
“I’m only saying what you’re thinking. I know my mother. Trust me—it’s not going to stop. She is who she is, and so is Randall. Yeah, you could strap on armor an inch thick, or you could think about what you’re doing and save yourself having to deal with them for the rest of your life. But all I can do is warn you that the train is coming. It’s up to you to jump out of the way.”
Sarah slumped with dismay. "A train? Really? Must you be so dramatic?"
He gave her a tiny smile. "You don't like my metaphor?"
"It's a little much."
"Are you kidding? My mother alone is a freight train. Two engines, a hundred cars minimum."
"Right," Sarah said, rolling her eyes. "And I suppose every car is full of dynamite."
"Nope. Uranium-235, heading for a nuclear reactor. Why do you think I told you to jump out of the way?"
Sarah couldn't help it. Even though she covered her mouth, a laugh popped out. Picturing Mona as a freight train hauling fissionable material to build a nuclear bomb wasn’t remotely funny, but after everything that had happened that day, she was more than ready to laugh at just about anything.
"Ah," Nick said. "At least my bad metaphor is funny."
"No, it's not."
"Then why are you laughing?"
"I'm not laughing."
"I don't know much, but I know laughter," he said pointing at her. "That's laughter." He paused, his own smile softening. "It's about time."
They looked at each other a long time, and all at once Sarah remembered. This was it. This was why she liked being around Nick. No pretension. Lots of smiles. Total relaxation. The way he tilted his head when he looked at her, as if he loved what he saw and couldn't wait to see more.
"I miss you," he said. "I missed you the moment you were gone."
"Please don't say things like that."
"Do you have any idea how much I want you right now?"
A warm shiver undulated between her shoulders.
"All I want to do is take you inside your room and make love to you all night long."
"Nick—"
“Are you blushing?”
“No!”
“You’re lying.”
“How would you know? It's dark out here. You can barely see me.”
“I can hear it in your voice.”
“You can hear me blush?”
“Yes. I can also see your heart race. And I can feel you thinking. I know you, Sarah. Inside and out.”
“You can’t possibly know somebody that well in three days.”
“Look at me and say that.”
She turned to meet his eyes, and once again she felt it, just as she had that weekend. Only three days had passed, but it was as if all the “getting to know you” of the dating process was unnecessary. Nick said they’d probably known each other in a past life. Reincarnation had always struck Sarah as silly superstition, but when Nick said it, it actually sounded plausible. What else explained her feeling that from their first glance, he knew her more intimately than any man ever had before?
"Two days ago I landed in paradise," Sarah said. "Now all I can think about is whether my fiance's brother is going to destroy my wedding."
She waited for him to deny it. He didn't, and that made her more nervous than ever.
"I have to go," she said. "And so do you." She rose from the lounge and slid the patio door open.
"Sarah."
She turned back.
"You still haven't answered my question."
"What question?"
"I assume you love Randall or you wouldn't be marrying him. The question is, why do you love him?"
Sarah's mouth went dry. Damn it. Why didn't she have an answer to that question that would satisfy him?
"Good night, Nick."
She went inside and closed the door behind her. Turning back, she saw Nick in silhouette, rising from his lounge and jumping to the top of the wall. For a split second, she imagined him falling three stories to his death. She literally didn't breathe as he made the leap across to his own balcony, then touched down to the floor.
He's crazy. And the last thing you need is crazy!
She went into her bathroom and got ready for bed, repeating that mantra to herself. Ten minutes later, when she'd tucked herself beneath the covers, she'd just about made herself believe it. Then she heard it.
Three soft knocks on the wall.
Warm shivers skated between her shoulders, spurring thoughts of midnight kisses and laughter in the dark. She remembered the tiny chill in the air, offset by the warmth of Nick's hands, stroking, soothing, searching, pleasing…
No. He's just a fantasy. He's not reality.
Just a fantasy.
So why did she feel more confused than ever?
9
The next morning Randall and Sarah met her family for breakfast. The women oohed and ahhed over the beautiful buffet, zeroing in on cinnamon rolls that were big as saucers. Dickey and Murphy tried two of everything on the buffet. Literally. They went back so many times they practically wore a furrow in the floor. Sarah's father found plenty to like, piling his plate full of eggs and bacon and hash browns. Fortunately, Mona stayed in her suite and ordered room service for breakfast.
After her parents and the others headed out on the Rose Hall tour, Sarah changed into her swimsuit and met Randall at the pool. They settled onto a pair of lounges, and Sarah sighed deeply. The morning sun, the soft reggae music in the background, the surf sounds wafting up from the beach…finally it was just the two of them spending time together.
"Now, isn't this nice?" she said. "So warm, so relaxing…"
She glanced at Randall, who lay on his lounge with his arms crossed. His phone sat on the small table between them, and every once in a while, he'd steal a longing glance at it.
"Randall."
"What?"
"You're looking at your phone."
"No, I'm not."
"Good. Then you won't mind if I put it away." She grabbed it and slipped it inside her beach bag.
"You don't have to do that."
"It was between that and tossing it into the deep end of the pool. Did I do the right thing?"
He glared at her, then looked away. She reached across the space between them and took his hand. "Can you just relax for a little while? Sooner or later you're going to burn out. You need to play once in a while."
"I will. Very soon. But right now I have a lot on my mind. The reorganization—"
"No more about the reorganization."
"But—"
"Let's take a swim."
Sarah rose from her lounge and dragged Randall to his feet. They went to the edge of the pool and slid down into the water. Sarah took his hand again
and floated across the pool, pulling him along, then turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. The late morning sun bathed them in a warm glow.
"See?" she said. "Isn't this nice?"
Randall grasped her hips and pulled her closer, then leaned in for a kiss. She moaned softly, and he tightened his hands against her, deepening the kiss. Okay. This was good, particularly coming from a man who didn't like public displays of affection. Only a few people were scattered in lounges around the pool, but for Randall, kissing her here was as outrageous as doing it on a kiss cam in Times Square on New Year's Eve. If she could get him to keep this up, pretty soon he might be interested in coming back to her suite with her, locking the door, getting naked, and—
"Bombs away!"
Sarah yanked away and spun around just in time to see Nick leap off the edge of the pool, holding his knees to his chest. He hit the water with an enormous splash, dousing her and Randall. A second later he came to the surface, slinging his wet hair out of his face and giving them a big smile.
"Good morning," he said cheerfully.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Randall sputtered, shoving his own now-wet hair out of his face.
"Getting in the pool."
"It's against the rules to jump off the side!"
"Oh, no! Did I miss the sign?"
"No, you didn't miss the sign," Randall snapped. "It's just common sense."
"Well, there's the problem," Nick said. "Contrary to popular belief, common sense is very uncommon." He sank to his neck in the water, swishing his arms back and forth. "Hey, Sarah. Have you ever done a cannonball?"
In spite of the fact that Randall was horrified by the whole thing, Nick's question sparked one of her happiest memories from her childhood. When she was about ten years old, she and Liz used to swim in one of the ponds on her parents' farm. They'd swoosh out on a rope swing, then let go at the top of the arc and cannonball into the water, over and over and over, their laughter filling the humid summer air.
"Of course she hasn't," Randall said. "Cannonballs are for kids who don't have the sense not to disturb other people. Most teenage boys outgrow that."
"Yeah, I know. That's a real shame, isn't it? So…what do you guys have planned for the day?"
"My bridesmaids are arriving later," Sarah said. "Until then we thought we'd just relax. Right, Randall?"
He looked at her as if he didn't know the meaning of the word. "Yeah. Right."
"Hey, I have an idea," Nick said."Why don't we all go parasailing?"
Sarah winced. Why are you doing this to me, Nick? Why?
"Only idiots parasail," Randall said.
"The only people who say that are those who haven't done it."
"It's dangerous. In the States, maybe not. But I sincerely doubt the operators here carry proper insurance."
Sarah cringed when she heard her words coming out of Randall's mouth. Is that what she'd sounded like? All negative and uptight?
Then Randall jerked his head around. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Sarah said.
"My phone's ringing. I hear my phone ringing."
"That's not your phone."
"Yes, it is. That's my ringtone."
"Half the planet has that ringtone."
"No. I know it's my phone."
Randall waded through the water, then hopped up to the side of the pool. He went to their lounges, swiped his hands across a beach towel, then dug through Sarah's bag and extracted his phone. He took one look at it and frowned. He poked at it a few times, then stood up and paced as he talked.
Nick chuckled. "He's just like Pavlov's dog. He hears that ringtone and starts to salivate."
"He just wants to make sure it's nothing important. Then he'll come back."
"Nope. He'll have to go handle something."
"No, he won't. We're spending the morning together."
"Wanna bet?"
"No, I don't want to bet."
"If you're right, I'll leave you two alone all day. But if he leaves…"
"What?"
"You have to go parasailing with me. Deal?"
Her heart skipped at the very thought of that. Being with Nick as they whooshed over the bay, the sea air in their faces…
No. No parasailing.
Then again, it would be great not to have to worry about Nick bothering them all day. But if Randall did leave and she had to hold up her end of that bargain…
She glanced at him and made a quick assessment. She'd seen him when he took calls that required action. He usually waved his arms around and looked pissed. She didn't see any of that now, so she decided to roll the dice.
"Deal," she said.
"Okay," Nick said, as Randall hung up. "Here he comes."
As Randall walked back, they floated toward the side of the pool and looked up at him.
"Come back in the water," Sarah said, with as inviting a smile as she could muster.
"Sorry," he said. "Can't. That was Smithers in HR. Anderson is balking at the redistribution of territories and is threatening to walk. I can't do without him. I need to call and talk him off the ledge."
Well, hell.
"What a shame," Nick said. "I know how you hate to let business interrupt your social life."
Sarah wanted to smash that phone on the concrete, grab Randall by the ankle, and drag him into the pool. But Nick was there, getting all judgmental on his brother, so of course she couldn't be judgmental.
"He has to do what he has to do," she said. "Some things can't wait."
"I'll call you when I'm finished," Randall said. "It may be a while." Then he went back to their lounges, put on his T-shirt and sandals, and headed for the building.
"Wow," Nick said. "He must really be thinking about the job. He forgot to tell me not to defile his fiancee while he was gone."
"Will you stop?"
Nick grinned. "Looks like I won."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not going parasailing with you."
"Now, Sarah. I would have held up my end of the bargain. You need to hold up yours."
"It was a dumb bargain."
"Which you agreed to."
"No. No parasailing." She headed for the side of the pool.
"Where are you going?" Nick asked.
She didn't respond. She just kept walking through the water, and fortunately Nick didn't push the issue. But just as she'd almost reached the side of the pool, she heard a small swish of water behind her. A few seconds later she felt a hand close around her ankle and give it a hard jerk, yanking her feet out from under her. She barely caught a breath before she was pulled under the water.
Nick. She was going to kill him.
He pulled her backward several feet before he let her come to the surface again. She rose from the water, spinning around and slinging her drenched hair out of her face.
"What are you doing?" she shouted. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Can I help it if you can't stay on your feet?"
"What if I'd sucked in a lungful of water? What then?"
"Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Trust me—I'd have hopped right to it."
"Pulling somebody under the water is dangerous!"
"Forget the guilt trip, Sarah. When we were in Park City, you happened to mention you were on your high school swim team. You spent all kinds of time under water."
She glared at him. "I must look like a drowned rat."
"No, you don’t,” he said, his smile softening. “You look beautiful."
You look beautiful.
Randall hadn't spoken those words to her once since they'd arrived in Montego Bay. In fact, he hadn't complimented her at all when he didn't have the ulterior motive of making sure she wasn't angry about something. If they weren't even married yet and that had already gone by the wayside, what was life going to be like in five years? Ten?
Stop thinking about that.
"That was a rotten thing to do," she muttered.
"Yeah, it was, wasn't it? Reminds me of the
time in Park City when you squirted me with shaving cream."
"Hey! I only did that because you shot me with the hand-held shower head while I was brushing my teeth!"
"Do you remember what that led to?"
She did. Every scorching moment of it. A cascade of hot water, soapy hands, steam filling the air, Nick kissing her senseless. And then…
And then a trip to heaven.
Nick inched toward her. “You're fun,” he murmured. “Warm. Exciting. Imaginative. And sexy as hell. If you marry Randall, he’ll make you just like him. You'll remember how you used to be and you'll want that person back, but by then it’ll be too late.”
"You think you know me. You don't."
“I do. Randall's the one who's in the dark."
"We can't talk to each other like this."
"Nobody can hear us."
"That's not why."
"Because it makes you remember?" Nick said.
"Yes. And it's time for me to forget. It's time for both of us to forget."
"I'll never forget. Not until the day I die. Maybe not even then."
Nick's hair was plastered against his head and water dripped off his nose, but he was still so handsome he glowed. He came closer still, dropping his voice to a soft murmur. "Do you know how much I want to kiss you right now?"
Sarah swallowed hard. "That's crazy."
"Take off that ring and I'll show you just how crazy I can be."
Suddenly her heart was beating like mad. She needed to get out of there, and she needed to do it now. His family was right. He was wild and impulsive and there was no way to know what he might do next.
No. That was wrong. He'd told her very clearly what he wanted to do next. The thought of that made her gaze drop to his lips, and when those lips curled into a knowing smile, she knew he'd read her thoughts as clearly as if she'd shouted them.
"Hey, Sarah!"
Sarah spun around, moving away from Nick at the same time. A woman had called her name. Who in the world—
Liz?
She stood at the side of the pool, smiling and waving. Kelsey was with her. Sarah had been waiting impatiently for them to arrive, but now all she could think was, Oh, God. Was I too close to Nick? What did they see?