Her Holiday Fling

by Jennifer Snow

  “Okay...” He paused. “So...”

  “So...”

  “You have your last meeting now?”

  “In an hour. And you have the wedding tonight.”

  “My plane leaves at eight tomorrow morning.”

  “I’m on the ten.” They were both reaching. She was desperate to see him again. Back in Los Angeles? Did he want that? Too many unanswered questions still lingered between them.

  “Well, um, good luck today. I really hope things work out for you.”

  The strain in his voice was clear and she silently begged him for words she herself couldn’t articulate. A long silence passed. Any indication, anything at all... But of course there wouldn’t be. The week, their fake involvement, was over. She straightened in her chair. “Well, I guess all that’s left to say is goodbye.”

  “Hayley... I’m sorry. Relationships are not something I can do. I’m not sure where we go from here.”

  Her heart raced as a deep disappointment set in. “One week together, that’s all this was, Chase,” she said, her tone cooler than she’d intended.

  “Right... But... No, you’re right.”

  So why didn’t it feel right? “Bye, Chase.” She disconnected the call before another too-long silence could tell her everything she didn’t want to hear.

  Sitting back in her chair, she fought against the disappointment rising in her chest. It was over.

  She wasn’t surprised when her phone rang again moments later and Terri-Lynn’s number lit up the screen. “Hello.” There was no point even trying to inject enthusiasm into her voice—her friend would hear straight through it.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything. I didn’t realize she was his sister.”

  “Terri-Lynn, stop. None of this is your fault. You were right when you said this wouldn’t end well. I should have listened.” Standing, she tossed several bills onto the table.

  “So, what happens now?” Her friend had asked the million-dollar question.

  “Nothing. I’m obviously no longer attending the wedding with him tonight and after this meeting in an hour, I don’t have to pretend to have a fiancé anymore.” At least not until the next company event, but she’d have plenty of time to fake a breakup by then. “We’re done.” The two words tasted like poison rolling off her tongue.

  “Really?”

  “Of course.”

  “But I thought you liked him. You two seemed to be hitting it off.”

  To say she liked Chase was an understatement. There was so much more going on—incredible, mind-blowing sex was at the top of the list...followed by the feelings she was developing for him that she couldn’t deny. “He was...fine, but it wasn’t real, Terri-Lynn.”

  “Liar. I can hear it in your voice. You’re falling for him.” It wasn’t a question and her friend’s voice softened as she said, “Holy shit.”

  Holy shit was the perfect way to describe it. This was why she was always honest with Terri-Lynn. “Yes, I think I might be, but it doesn’t matter. Our agreement was for this week only.”

  “That’s stupid. You both live in Los Angeles—there’s no reason you couldn’t continue a relationship once you return home.”

  “We are not in a relationship.” She’d never been a fan of titles. Girlfriend, boyfriend, fiancé, husband, wife...all served as a different way to categorize essentially the same thing—a union that made no sense, had the ability to tear a person apart and eventually ended in heartbreak.

  “But you’ve slept with him and there’s no sense denying that, either,” her friend said.

  “Okay, but even if I wanted to—he’s seen my article. How could any guy believe that I care about him after I said so many awful things about love, relationships and men in general?” Sure, Chase had said he didn’t believe she was the person the article had portrayed her to be, but up until a week ago, she had been. She wasn’t even sure if she really had changed or if this tropical paradise was messing with her mind. What if her sanity returned when she arrived back in Los Angeles? What if the walls she’d once had around her heart built back up again, blocking him out? It wasn’t fair to him or her.

  “Because he’s gotten to see a different side of you this week.”

  “Even if that’s true, his family hates me now.”

  Terri-Lynn hesitated. “Kate was angry.”

  “See—I’ve done enough to hurt that family. I’m not willing to do more damage.”

  “All I’m saying is I think you should ask him if you can see him again. If he says yes then you know he has feelings for you, whether he’s admitted them or not.”

  She wanted to grasp on to the idea that he might. She’d felt it in his touch, his kiss, the way he’d looked into her eyes when the sun had crested the mountain...not to mention the undeniable connection between them when they had sex.

  But moments before he’d told her he didn’t do relationships. She sighed. Now was not the time to start believing in love when the first time she’d ever felt it, it had all been meant as a lie.

  * * *

  NOTHING WAS AS loud as an unringing phone. As he exited the flower shop half an hour later, Chase checked to make sure he hadn’t missed a call. The silence confirmed what he knew—they were done.

  Man, he’d been a dick on the phone. Why hadn’t he been honest with her and told her he wanted to see her again in LA? To assume she wanted more from him—just because his own heart was demanding something he wasn’t prepared for—had been stupid.

  It took all of his strength to push his hurt aside and focus on the wedding that day. He’d almost forgotten the boutonnieres and he refused to mess up anything more for Kate.

  He checked the traffic before stepping off the curb to go around to the driver’s side. His cell phone rang and his heart raced. Seeing Cooper’s number on the screen, it slowed again. She’s not calling. “Hey, how’s the groom?” he asked, answering the call.

  “I need you to do something for me.” Panic was evident in Cooper’s voice.

  So he wasn’t the only one who’d dropped the ball on some wedding-planning thing. He owed it to his sister to save the day however he could. “Anything, man. What do you need?”

  “I need you to take me to the airport.”

  11

  “OKAY, TALK TO ME. What’s going on?” Chase asked, casting a sidelong glance toward Cooper in the passenger seat. The only way he’d been able to calm the groom down at the resort had been agreeing to drive him to the airport. Of course he was never going to let Cooper bail on his own wedding, but he needed to get the man talking. So there they were speeding along the highway toward the airport, where his partner had actually rescheduled his flight home.

  That last little bit was disconcerting.

  “I’m freaking out. I don’t know what I was thinking.” His knees bounced and he rolled down his window.

  “Walk me through this—you were fine last night?” Cold feet, that was all it was. Right? He remembered the way Cooper had snapped at Kate several times throughout the rehearsal the night before and his stomach knotted. He’d thought they were doing okay, but he’d been so caught up in Hayley that week, maybe he’d missed something.

  “Yes. No. I mean, I don’t know... I thought I was fine, but last night, everything she did, everything she said, just got on my last nerve.” Cooper ran a hand through his hair.

  “That’s Kate!” The guy was about to marry her, so he should know she was irritating sometimes. It was part of her charm.

  Cooper shook his head. “Then this morning, I’m shaving and I look in the mirror and all of a sudden I can’t breathe.”

  Under normal circumstances, Chase could have found a number of tasteless jokes in there somewhere, but he just nodded. Cooper looked pale. This was serious and he was starting to doubt
his ability to turn this around. He glanced at the clock. The ceremony started in two hours. “Okay. Walk me through it.”

  “I started thinking... I’m only twenty-eight and I just started my career with the force. I have nothing to offer Kate and it could be years until I work my way up to detective...” He wiped his palms repeatedly against his shorts.

  “You’re young and just starting out. There’s nothing wrong with that.” At twenty-eight, he’d been where Cooper was. The guy needed to relax. Though, admittedly, Chase hadn’t been considering marriage at that stage in his life.

  “But Kate has it all together already—you know. Her successful business, the new house... She bought the house. You know that, right?” He rolled down the window and stuck his head out, like a dog desperate for fresh air.

  He did know it. As Kate’s brother, he wanted nothing more than a man who could provide for her, take care of her. A cop had never been his first choice admittedly, but they seemed happy together and he’d kept his opinions to himself. “Yes, but as you said—her business is a success, she can easily afford it.” Cooper had to put his own manly ego aside at that moment. His sister needed a groom in two hours and he had to do everything to make sure she had one.

  “We’ve only known each other for eight months. I mean, that’s crazy, right?” He looked at him for confirmation.

  Damn it. How many times had he said that himself? “Look, I don’t think it matters how long you’ve known each other. Like you said before—when it’s right, you just know it.” An image of Hayley flashed in his mind and his chest ached. The words haunted him.

  “The problem is, I don’t know anymore.” Cooper’s gaze was lost somewhere in the distance.

  He was losing him. They were five minutes from the airport. There was no way he could do this. He pulled to the side of the highway and turned to face his colleague, his future brother-in-law. “Do you love her?” he asked.

  Cooper was silent.

  “Coop, look at me, man.”

  The young cop looked terrified as he met his gaze and Chase’s stomach tightened. He knew that look, but he asked again. “Do you love Kate? Enough to marry her and make it work?”

  Cooper swallowed hard. “I’m not sure. And I can’t do this when I’m not sure. I’m sorry, Chase.” He shrugged and rested his head against the dashboard.

  Chase leaned back against the seat, watching the windmills high on the mountain rotating in unison. What could he do? This job tore families apart through divorce and death every day. The only ones that had a chance to survive were the ones that started strong. If they went ahead with this wedding, Kate and Cooper would be doomed from the start. He wanted more for his baby sister.

  “I’m so sorry, Chase.”

  “It’s not me who needs to hear you’re sorry.” He extended his cell phone to Cooper, highlighting Kate’s number, the knot in the pit of his stomach growing bigger by the second. He thought he was going to throw up, and judging by Cooper’s pale complexion and tear-filled eyes, he didn’t feel much better. His partner shook his head. “She deserves to hear it, Cooper. From you, not me.” His sister was going to be devastated.

  The young man swallowed hard, taking the phone with a shaky hand. He hesitated then, laying the phone on the dashboard, he said, “I can’t do it, Chase.”

  He’d had his reservations about Cooper, but never had the man demonstrated such a lack of strength and courage. Reaching across him, he shoved the passenger-side door open. The spineless asshole had exactly three seconds to get out of his sight. “Get out. This is as far as I go in helping to break my sister’s heart.”

  * * *

  THE TURQUOISE WAVES lapping gently over the white sand as the sun set over the ocean was a beautiful backdrop to the wedding set up on the Kaanapali beach, behind the resort. A white gazebo adorned with brilliantly colored tropical flowers stood in the center, where the ceremony would have been held in twenty minutes. Authentic Hawaiian leis remained draped over each white linen-covered chair and a solo guitarist played “Over the Rainbow” anyway, because he’d already been paid for the evening and his fee was nonrefundable. The guests who had made the trip for his sister’s special day had disappeared inside the resort’s restaurant. His brothers stood next to him on the beach walk as they watched their sister, still wearing her antique white wedding dress, her dark hair hanging in loose waves around her bare shoulders, doing the only thing she could to not fall apart—taking care of things.

  “Look at her... Most women would be crumbling right now,” Adam said, his voice hoarse.

  His sister was crumbling, but Chase knew she’d let no one see.

  “I can’t keep watching this,” Eric said, patting him on the shoulder as he turned away from the beach. “I’m going inside with the others. Call me if she needs me, okay?”

  Chase nodded as both of his brothers left him there alone. Kate wouldn’t need them. She would need him, and he would be there when she was ready to talk or yell or cry. Just as he always was. But right now his sister needed no one and refused everyone’s help as she dismantled her own wedding as though it were one of her client’s special days that had ended terribly wrong. She gathered the leis from the backs of the chairs and draped them one by one over her arm... She collected the bridesmaids’ bouquets, carried everything to the trash can and tossed it all inside, including her own bouquet.

  He was relieved to see that she wasn’t holding on to it. He knew the wedding dress would be quickly abandoned, as well. Kate didn’t like reminders of anything tragic...

  Moments later, after the officiant was paid and gone, the instructions given for dismantling the archway and chairs, and the strands of twinkling white lights unwound from the palm tree trunk and placed inside a box of electrical equipment, Kate fell to the sand at her feet. This was it. The moment he was needed.

  * * *

  AS SHE MADE her way down the beach walk toward the Sheraton resort, Hayley’s knees trembled beneath her. Everyone would be there—Adam and Kendall, Eric and Marissa—and everyone knew the truth. She was embarrassed and ashamed for having lied to them all and she swallowed a lump in her throat as she continued on. Despite all of that, she had to see Chase. She couldn’t leave the island the way they’d left things on the phone earlier that day.

  She struggled with the temptation to turn around, but it was too late. Too late for a lot of things, including protecting her heart.

  After only one week.

  How had she let him in? Over the years, through disappointment and countless examples that nothing lasted, how could she have forgotten everything she knew to be true and let Chase take control of her heart?

  As she neared the beach, she scanned the area. Where was everyone? Where was the wedding archway and chairs for the guests? She’d expected to hear music and see the white lights and the colorful flower decorations that Kate had talked about for hours on their shopping day, but there was no sign of a wedding anywhere. What was going on? This was the place Kate said the wedding was being held, wasn’t it?

  “Hi.” Chase’s voice behind her made her breath catch in her chest.

  She turned slowly with a weak smile. “Hi. What’s going on? Where is everyone?”

  “Cooper left.” He buried his hands into his pockets. His dark hair was gelled in a spiky mess that reminded her of how it looked whenever she’d run her hands through it.

  She blinked. “What do you mean left?” Left Kate? Left Maui?

  “He called off the wedding this afternoon. About three hours ago.” Chase’s voice showed signs of so many emotions—guilt, sadness, worry and hurt—that it nearly broke her.

  Her mouth gaped. “Oh, no. Oh, Kate. How is she...?” Dumb question. Of course she must be devastated and heartbroken. How could anyone be okay being left at the altar? And especially a woman who planned weddings as a career... Oh, my G
od, Kate... The heartache she felt confirmed how much she cared about not only Chase but his family, too.

  “She’s acting tough. She dismantled everything herself, refusing anyone’s help.” He looked off into the distance and took a deep breath before continuing. “She’s in my room, sleeping. Or pretending to sleep.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking tired, stressed and anxious.

  She resisted the urge to close the gap between them and hug him tight, unsure if the gesture would be appreciated. He was distant, cool and reserved. His expression was troubled. Different from the man she’d gotten to know that week. She stayed firmly in place.

  “I’m so sorry, Chase.” She shook her head. “What happened? I don’t understand—they were so happy.” Cooper had been nothing but a doting, loving fiancé all week. He hadn’t displayed any sign of second thoughts or cold feet or prewedding jitters. For both of Terri-Lynn’s weddings, Hayley had known things weren’t right and not just because she thought no marriage was right. Things had felt...off... But Cooper and Kate hadn’t been like that. Whether she believed in happy-ever-after or not, she’d have given them at least as good a chance at succeeding as she’d give any couple. Or maybe her own happiness that week had blinded her to what was happening.

  Chase’s jaw clenched and the look in his eyes was one of cruel irony. “That’s how it goes, isn’t it? Didn’t you say that yourself? Couples meet, they fall in love and one way or another, at year one or year fifty, it falls apart. In this case, they hadn’t even gotten a chance to start.” His voice was now void of emotion. Not the voice she recognized, the voice she’d missed hearing all afternoon, the one she was worried she may never hear again.

  She wanted to argue with him, but how could she? She made a living from what he’d described. She’d been antimarriage for so long, fighting for its validity now seemed futile and wrong. And an argument she really didn’t believe in enough to win. “What can I do?”