That was it, she’d said her piece. She waited for his response, but when she got only silence, she raised her head.
The look in his eyes was considering. “You’re saying I should cut back my hours and work part time?”
“That would be a good start, Sir.”
With a thoughtful expression on his face, he nodded. “I’ll take your suggestion into consideration. Thank you.”
As he turned away, Trudy broached the topic that was uppermost in her thoughts. Her future with the firm. “Mr. Readner, can we talk business?”
He turned back, his gaze direct and curious. “Sure.”
Trudy took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “Mr. Readner, I know that you don’t have much faith in my abilities yet, but I want you to know that I’m at the top of my accounting class. I’m serious about my career and my future, and I want you to tell me what I need to do to prove that I’m capable of being Junior Accountant and more.”
He gave her a warm smile. “I admire your need to pursue your career.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“What are your goals?”
“Junior Accountant. And someday I’d like to become a partner in the firm too.”
A doubtful frown flitted across his brow. “Do you think you have what it takes?”
“Yes, Sir, I do.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets, his gaze considering. “I hope you don’t mind, but I need time to think about this.”
Trudy set down the knife, wiped the fruit juice on her hand on her bikini bottoms, and put out her hand to shake his. “If it’s not out of line, I’d like to sit down with you when we return to Serendipity Island and discuss this further.”
“That would be fine.” He shook her hand, turned to go, then turned back. “What about you and Bill? If he becomes partner, how will that affect your relationship?”
She squared her shoulders. “It won’t affect our working relationship, I promise.”
He smiled. “You have backbone, young lady. I like that. Now go have some fun. A girl your age shouldn’t be all work and no play.”
He wandered away, leaving her alone to stare after him.
Elation crept in slowly and she forced herself to contain it. Nothing was a done deal yet, but it was a start.
Someday, she’d have her own office, even if she had to put in twenty hours a day to earn it.
Bill appeared before her, his face molten red. “The condoms. They’re gone.”
Picking up the knife, she refocused on the fruit and started slicing. “I know. I gave them to Marla and the captain.”
A choking noise came from Bill and she didn’t need to look up into his mad face. “You what?”
She hated this ugly side of him. “You heard me.”
There was silence, broken only by the chop of the knife blade against the board. She was determined to remain calm despite the fact that her heart was threatening to pound out of her chest.
“You’ve changed,” he snarled.
Knife in hand, Trudy raised her gaze to his face. She wondered if this was how women warriors in centuries past felt—afraid but forging ahead anyway. “Is that a problem for you?”
“Darn right it is. I liked that sweet kid who got on the boat with me three days ago a whole lot more than I like you.”
Like.
Not loved.
Her heart shattered, but she kept her chin up. “What are you saying?”
For a moment, he appeared startled and she wondered if he’d expected her to cave. Probably. She’d always caved in the past.
“There’s other fish in the sea.”
“Then maybe you should go fishing, Bill.”
His eyes narrowed. “Maybe I will.” They stared at each other until he growled, “You’re on her side, aren’t you?”
There was no question in her mind of who he meant. “I’m on no one’s side.”
The growl turned into a snarl. “When I make partner, you better start packing up your desk.”
She slapped the knife down on the table and gasped. “You’d fire me?”
“Right out the front door along with your new friend.” His chest puffed up, all cocky bastard that he had turned out to be. “And now I’m telling Reed about the partnership deal. Let’s see who comes out on top now.”
She watched him stomp away, and as tears formed in her eyes, she realized that without Bill to keep her company, she was alone and lonelier than she’d ever been.
What had she done?
What was she going to do?
Go back to the way she was before? Or give up the man she loved?
But she couldn’t go back because if she did, she’d have to give up the newfound respect she had for herself, and the respect she’d slowly earned from the others.
And then his words sunk in.
She grabbed the knife and ran to find Marla.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Marla heard a buzz in the sky and shielded her eyes against the glare of the sun to squint into the brightness. “Did you hear that?”
Reed turned his head toward the western horizon. “No. What?”
“A buzz, like a small plane.” But all she could hear now was the gentle lap of the waves against the shoreline. She shrugged her shoulders. “Must be wishful thinking. Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”
With one last study of the sky, he turned to face her. “You were saying something about a mutiny?”
From across the beach came a panicked cry. “Marla!”
Marla saw Trudy sprint across the beach toward her, the knife in her hand held out like she fully intended to shove it into the back of the man a few feet in front of her. “What is she doing?”
At the last moment, their young receptionist tossed the knife aside and threw herself through the air, tackling Bill around the hips like a pro football player, successfully bringing him face down.
Bill hit the sand with the force of a missile, and yelled, “Let me up, you crazy bitch!”
But Trudy clamped her legs against his hips, slammed one hand into the middle of his back to hold him down, then grabbed him by the back of the neck and tried to shove his face into the sand.
There was a sputter before he closed his mouth and tried to buck her off.
Trudy held her spot on his back without any apparent effort. “Bill was going to tell the captain—” Her gaze slid toward Reed before she winced. “Well, you know. The big mouth here wants to tell the Captain everything.”
Marla let her gaze drop to Bill. “It doesn’t matter. I told Reed about the partnership and the bonus.”
“Bonus?” he asked.
She winced. “Ten-K.”
“Wow, he really wants me back, doesn’t he?”
“You are his only son.” The buzzing caught her attention again and she grabbed Reed by the bicep and dragged him around. “Do you hear that?”
Behind her, there was a rustle of clothes, some cursing and grumbling, then Trudy came to stand on the opposite side of her. “What is it?”
“Shhhhh,” Reed said.
They all strained to see and hear, and despite the silence being broken four more times as they were joined by Bill, then Paul, then Mary, and finally Betty, nothing beyond the sun appeared in the sky.
The seven of them stood clustered together, dirty and hungry and thirsty, watching the sky and the horizon for a boat or a plane…any form of rescue would do.
At last there was a glint of metal in the sky, and like a typhoon, Reed launched into action, racing for the camp, retrieving the flare gun which he shot into the air.
Then he rejoined them, put one arm around her shoulders, and tugged her against his side.
Together, they watched the plane change course and head toward them. It flew overhead, dipped its wings in acknowledgement, then turned northwest and disappeared into the sun.
Despite the warmth of the man at her side, Marla knew they were better off apart. Otherwise it was just wanting each other, but always wanti
ng something else too.
And in that moment, she realized that she’d fallen for him—maybe she’d always been in love with him, ever since she’d followed him into the accounting office when she was a kid.
Reed gave her shoulders one more squeeze, then released her as he turned to address the group. “Gather everything into the center of the beach. The rescue boat should be here within a couple of hours.”
As Marla headed off with the others to prepare for their rescue, Bill’s excited voice rang out. “Do you think they’ll have coffee?”
Trudy replied, “Forget the coffee. Go dunk your head into the ocean and don’t come up until the rescue boat arrives.”
As they finished gathering everything together, Marla noticed Reed physically separate from the group, and that’s when she began to wish that this time on the island would never end.
Mary wasn’t talking to Paul at the moment, but she was talking to Marla’s mom. The two women were on the best of terms, their shared desire for a grandchild bridging the gap of too many years of anger and distrust. Would it last beyond the return to Serendipity Island?
Trudy stood nearby, hair pulled into a tight bun, jacket closed to cover her breasts, no longer Bill’s little plaything but a young woman coming into her own. During these few days, she’d earned Marla’s respect and now Marla thought of her as a younger sister instead of the woman who had stolen her husband.
Because really, Trudy hadn’t stolen Bill from her. Marla had lost him on her own.
She looked over at him now, standing to Paul’s right, as anxious as everyone else to be rescued from this tiny island that had imprisoned them all.
Maybe more anxious than anyone else because of his severe coffee addiction.
And then there was Reed.
She sensed him come up behind her. Reed with his big bad attitude and need to be free of the constrains of a nine to five job and a windowless office.
He put his hands on her shoulders, and leaned in so close, she could feel the hard strength of him against her back, leashed power in his muscles.
She closed her suddenly burning eyes.
“So I guess this is it, French Fry. All that’s left is the argument and breakup.” His laughter was hollow, his breath warm against the side of her face. “I’ll talk to my dad about the partnership. Deep down, he’s always known I’m not coming back and that he can’t go wrong with you at the helm.”
As she felt him begin to withdraw, she whirled around to face him, and grabbed on to his t-shirt before he could slip away. The soft material bunched in her fist.
His intense gaze fixed on her face. “You should know, I won’t be getting on the rescue boat.”
“But…what?”
“I’ll wait here for Travis. We’ll salvage the yacht and drag it back to Serendipity Island so that everyone can reclaim their property before we drag the boat back home to decide whether or not it’s worth fixing.”
“Can I wait with you?”
He stared down at her, and she could see the war in his gaze. It gave her some measure of comfort that he was struggling too.
At last he shook his head. “It’s better if you don’t.”
And then he untangled his t-shirt from her grip and walked away to sort through the pile of stuff on the beach.
“Better for who?” she whispered to his back.
Would he believe the partnership no longer meant anything to her? Probably not, because quite frankly, she was having a hard time believing it herself.
How could she have gone from wanting one thing so badly to wanting something totally different in such a short time?
On the boat ride to Serendipity Island, with the memory of his lone figure on the beach burned into her brain, the idea of waking up beside him every day for the rest of her life took root and wouldn’t dislodge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Two days after their rescue, Marla sat in her quiet office, still waiting for news of Reed’s return.
Around her, it appeared everything had returned to normal. Paul was back working as hard as ever—with no sign of making an effort to turn some of the responsibility over to someone else, despite her recent discussion with him—and a part of her was beginning to understand that her boss would never retire.
Bill and Trudy were still on the outs, which was sad for Bill because he actually looked like he missed the younger woman in his life. But it was good for Trudy because she was dressing the part of a professional and finally getting some of the accounting work shifted onto her desk.
From her desk, Marla could look out her office door and see Trudy hard at work answering the telephones, modifying a spreadsheet, and focused on her job.
The young woman looked smart and spiffy in a three piece suit that downplayed her busty bust, and made her look smart and professional. She’d even given up her contacts, choosing instead to wear glasses to draw the eye away from her breasts to her face.
Marla had overheard Paul talking to the younger woman about hiring her an assistant to answer the phones, which would thereby free up Trudy’s time so she could handle more accounting work. His suggestion had temporarily banished the sadness from the younger woman’s face.
A sadness that had been there since the last day on the island.
She liked to think that she had played a small part in Trudy’s development, but as she watched the younger woman work so diligently, she knew that there was more to teach her, something that she herself had just learned.
Marla stared down at her desktop, deep in thought as she rolled a mechanical pencil under her fingers, back and forth, back and forth.
Her mom had been right when she’d said there was more to life than spreadsheets and working long hours. But if Reed didn’t return, there’d be nothing else in her life but work.
A scrape of a chair outside drew her attention toward the doorway, and Trudy poked her head inside. “I’m headed off for lunch, Marla. Do you want me to pick you up anything?”
“No thanks. I’m not hungry.”
“You need to eat.” The younger woman frowned. “Or better yet, go after the captain so that you feel like eating again.”
She shook her head. “If he wanted me with him, he wouldn’t have let me leave the island without him.”
“How do you know? Maybe he’s thinking the exact same thing about you?” When she didn’t get an answer, she shrugged, shoulders slumped, and pushed away from the doorframe. “I guess I’m not very hungry either.”
As the younger woman returned to her desk, feet dragging, head bowed, shoulders sagged, Marla sat back and looked around her office and wondered, now what?
It felt strange to be back where there was traffic and noise and an island full of people, even if they’d only been shipwrecked for less than a week. The first thing she’d done when they’d arrived home was soak in a luxurious scented bath, then applied body lotion to every inch of parched skin she could reach. Now, she felt restless, claustrophobic and somehow desperate to be back on that tiny island with Reed at her side.
What was he doing right this second? Probably back out on the open ocean, off on another adventure, while she was stuck in her old life, pretending that everything still fit exactly as it had before she’d stepped on board the Anchors Away boat and encountered Reed.
A noise at the door caught her attention and the beat of her heart kicked up a notch. The moment her brain registered that it was Bill instead of Reed, disappointment crushed the excitement.
“Just getting in?” she asked as she watched him step over the threshold and close the door behind himself.
“Had something important to take care of.”
“You know how Paul feels about stragglers.”
As he dropped onto the chair in front of her desk, he shrugged as though he didn’t care. “I feel sorry for Aunt Mary. She wanted him to retire and she didn’t get her wish.”
Wistfully, she thought of her budding relationship with Reed. “I guess we have to learn
to take the good with the bad.”
Bill scraped one hand across his jaw. It reminded her so much of his cousin, her heart squeezed painfully.
Silence fell between them, the awkward kind of silence that made her wish he’d leave her alone with her misery. She studied him, for the first time in a long time seeing the man who she had once thought she’d fallen in love with.
But now she knew that what she’d felt for him hadn’t been the kind of love that can break one’s heart into a billion trillion pieces.
Had she unknowingly chosen him because of his resemblance to his cousin?
At last, he broke the silence. “How’s your mom?”
“Good. She’s shopping and cooking, determined to fatten us both up.”
“Yeah, we all lost weight.” He patted his lean belly, gave her a self-depreciating smile, then scratched the back of his neck. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Through the sadness that followed her every second of the day and night, she forced a smile because she didn’t want to part enemies with this man. “I was just thinking about where we went wrong.”
He shifted on the chair and shrugged one shoulder. “You didn’t. I was the one who strayed and now I’m wondering if you can ever forgive me. I’m sorry. Really truly sorry.”
She allowed her smile to grow warmer as she pushed to her feet, rounded the desk, and bent to give him a hug. The last hug she would probably ever give him. “Of course I forgive you.”
“Good.” As she straightened, he laughed nervously and reached up to loosen his tie, only to discover that he wasn’t wearing one. He cleared his throat and gestured toward the chair next to him. “Sit down. I’d like to talk to you.”
As she sank onto the chair beside him, she found his nervousness made her nervous too, so she tried to make a joke of it. “Are you breaking up with me again?”
“No.” He pulled a ring box from his pocket and flipped open the lid to reveal a sparkly array of diamonds in a ring that was far larger and flashier than anything Marla had ever seen. Glumly, he stared down at it. “I don’t suppose you’d care to marry me again, would you? I know now that marriage takes work. That it’s not always going to be a bed of roses. That sometimes I’ll be at home alone while you work late and sometimes it’ll be the other way around. I can live with the everyday humdrum of our life together.”
Caught Between a Rock and a Hunka Man (Caught Between Romance Book 3) Page 17