“Do you often meet him for drinks?”
“No. I was kind of surprised that he set it up. Hand me that comb, will you? There’s a knot in this gelding’s mane.”
“Did he have a reason?”
“He didn’t say. Funny thing was, I had the feeling he wanted to ask me something. Maybe talk to me about something.” Caleb brought the heavy metal comb slowly through the horse’s mane. “He was in a weird mood. Quiet. Like he was there, but not there. Smiled on cue. Spoke on cue. Kind of like Jaimie’s been, you know?”
Lissa knew.
Now, absolutely, she knew.
“Anything else?”
“Yeah.” Caleb chuckled. “I tried to pay him. I said, at least let me cover your expenses for what you did for Jaimie.”
“And?”
“And, he damn near decked me. After I calmed him down, we had this strange conversation. He asked me how she was, if she was OK, if she was happy…”
Lissa looked at Caleb’s face. It was like watching a light go on in a dark room.
“Oh, man,” he said.
“Very good, Doctor. This time, you just might have the diagnosis right.”
“James? And Castelianos?”
“Does that trouble you? Is he not a good enough guy for our sister?”
“He’s a great guy. Honest. Decent. Moral. But closed off. Nobody ever gets inside his space. I don’t think I ever saw him open up to anybody or anything.”
“What a surprise,” Lissa said dryly.
“Liss. You think our Jaimie is what’s the word, pining for Zach?”
“You mean,” Lissa said, even more dryly, “‘pining’ wasn’t the medical diagnosis you guys came up with?” She saw a blush steal over her brother’s face. “Caleb? What was the Wilde doctors’ diagnosis?”
Caleb’s Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed.
“Well, you know. PMS.”
Lissa laughed. And laughed. It felt good; she hadn’t laughed in a while.
“Don’t be pissed off at us,” Caleb said. “I mean, what do we know about women?”
“Not much,” Lissa said, “but that’s fine as long as you know how to keep us happy.”
She rose on her toes, pressed a kiss to her brother’s cheek, and strolled out of the stable.
* * * *
Two separate secret discussions went on at El Sueño late that night.
The Wilde brothers met in one of the outbuildings. Their excuse was a poker game.
Their topic of conversation was Jaimie and Zach Castelianos.
Once Caleb had convinced Travis and Jacob that Zach was worthy of their sister, talk turned to setting up a plan of action.
Finally, they had one.
It involved a phone call to Zach from Caleb, an invitation, and just a little subterfuge.
“Can you pull it off?” Jake asked.
Caleb nodded. “Absolutely.”
It was a good thing that Travis chose that moment to lay down a royal flush or one of them might have noticed that, under the table, practical, pragmatic Caleb had crossed his fingers.
* * * *
The other secret meeting took place in Lissa’s room.
The Wilde women figured they had to let Jaimie know that they were getting together or she might be suspicious, so Sage knocked on Jaimie’s door and said, “Lissa, Jennie, Addison and I are going to talk about what to serve when at the reception. You know, those little meatballs at the same time the servers put out the little egg rolls, or is that too great a contrast?”
“Thanks,” Jaimie said, through the closed door, “but I’m going to make it an early night.”
Sage hurried to Lissa’s room.
“Well?” Addison said.
“It went just as we figured. Jaimie passed on the brilliant opportunity to talk egg rolls and meatballs.”
The women grinned. Then Lissa blew out a breath.
“I spoke to Caleb…”
Five minutes later, they were convinced that intervention—a Wilde intervention, Lissa had dubbed it—was not only called for, it was necessary.
“Lissa,” Jennie said, “the next step is in your hands.”
Lissa nodded. They had all agreed. A phone call, an invitation, a little subterfuge.
“Tomorrow morning, first thing.”
Silence. Then, Jennie chewed on her lip.
“I just hope this doesn’t backfire,” she said softly.
They all sighed and said they hoped the same thing, but what choice was there?
If things went well, Jaimie would be happy for the rest of her life.
It things went badly…
“If they go badly,” Lissa said, “at least we’ll know that we tried.”
* * * *
Shadow Inc., Caleb had said. Lissa Googled it, and called the number she found.
“Shadow Inc.,” a pleasant female voice said.
“Zacharias Castelianos, please.”
“May I ask what this is about?”
Lissa picked up a pencil and doodled a circle.
“It’s personal.”
“I’m afraid Mr. Castelianos is in a meeting, Miss…Miss…”
“I think he’ll want to take my call.”
“Ma’am. As I said—”
“My name is not ‘ma’am,’ it is Wilde. Lissa Wilde. Tell him that I want to speak to him about my sister, Jaimie. I’ll hold.”
A gusty sigh came over the phone.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Lissa looked at her watch. Ten seconds. Twenty…
“What’s happened to Jaimie?”
The voice was male, low, rough with alarm. Lissa almost smiled—but not quite.
“Nothing’s happened to her, Mr. Castelianos.”
“But you told my PA…” Zach looked at his PA, who was looking at him as if she’d never seen him before. He scowled and motioned her out of his office. “Who is this?”
“My name is Lissa. Lissa Wilde. I’m Jaimie’s—”
“Sister. Her older sister.”
“Only by a year,” Lissa said, just a little defensively.
“If something’s happened to Jaimie…”
“Nothing has.” Lissa paused. What the hell. “Except you.”
Zach yanked the phone from his ear and glared at it. When he put it to his ear again, he had gone from scowling to glowering.
“Why are you calling me, Ms. Wilde?”
“It’s Lissa. And I’m calling because I love my sister and she’s hurting.”
“Dammit, stop talking in circles. You said nothing’s happened to her. Now you said she’s hurting.”
“There are different kinds of hurt, Zach,” Lissa said quietly.
Zach sank into the leather chair behind his desk.
“Please. Tell me what’s going on. If Jaimie needs me—”
“You broke my sister’s heart.”
“Bull!”
“She thinks she was just another assignment to you…but I’m betting that she wasn’t.”
“Frankly, Ms. Wilde—”
“Lissa.”
“Frankly, Ms. Wilde, whatever happened between your sister and me is none of your business.”
“But something did happen.”
“I did a favor for a friend. End of story.”
“Mr. Castelianos. I’m going to be very direct here. Did you have an affair with my sister?”
Zach rubbed his hand over his forehead. “You’re out of bounds, Ms. Wilde.”
“Did you fall in love with her, Mr. Castelianos?”
“Jesus H. Christ, woman—”
“Because I’m pretty sure she fell in love with you.”
There was a long, long silence. Then, Zach sighed. When he spoke next, the irritation had left his voice. He sounded exhausted. Just like Jaimie.
“I thought so, too. Turns out, I was wrong.”
Lissa smiled, picked up the pencil and turned the circle she’d doodled into a heart.
“Are you familiar wi
th El Sueño, Zach?”
“The Wilde ranch? Sure. I was there a couple of years ago. I do business with two of your brothers. Caleb and Travis.”
“Ah.”
“Ah, what, Ms. Wilde?”
“Ah, that’s why I’m calling you. My sister Emily is getting married at El Sueño the day after tomorrow.”
“How nice for Emily.”
She winced. Could a voice be any colder?
“It’s going to be a big wedding.”
“Call the Announcements page at the New York Times.”
“Jaimie will be there.”
“What a surprise—that James should be at her own sister’s wedding.”
Lissa smiled. That James gave her hope.
“You’re on the guest list.”
“I am?”
“But you haven’t RSVP’d.”
Surely, her nose was going to start growing any second now.
“Ms. Wilde.”
“Lissa.”
“Ms. Wilde, I’ve had no invitation to a wedding. Even if I had, I’m leaving the country tomorrow.”
“Your work for The Agency?”
“Is there anything about me you don’t know?”
“I don’t know if you’re worth all the pain Jaimie’s going through, but I do know that my brother Caleb thinks you walk on water. I also know that my sister can’t seem to get over you.”
More silence. Then a long, unhappy sigh.
“What do you want from me, Lissa?”
“I want you to come to El Sueño the day after tomorrow, Mr. Castelianos. I want you to see Jaimie, see for yourself how unhappy she is. How much she needs you.”
“If I’d wanted to set myself up for another fall,” Zach said, again in that icy voice, “I could have called her a dozen times, right here in New York.”
“But you didn’t,” Lissa said. “And this is the solstice. Did you know the Druids believed the solstice is a time of magic?”
“No,” Zach said wearily, “no, I didn’t.”
Neither did she, but so what?
“Mr. Castelianos. Zacharias—”
“It’s Zach,” he said brusquely. “Zach. The only one who calls me Zachariah is—is—”
“Fly down,” Lissa said softly. “For your sake. And for Jaimie’s.”
She hit disconnect. There was no point in waiting for his answer.
She had done all she possibly could.
* * * *
Back at Shadow Inc., Zach’s PA knocked warily at the door her boss had closed after that last strange phone call.
'”Come in,” he said.
His PA stepped over the threshold.
“Um, Mr. Castelianos…I know you said you didn’t want to be disturbed, but—”
“But?” Zach said impatiently. He was not in the mood for this. For anything. That damn phone call. Was it true? Was Jaimie hurting? Because, goddammit, he was hurting. He was aching, big-time.
“But you have a call…”
“I told you, I’m not taking—”
“It’s from a man, sir. With the same name as the last caller. Well, not the same…” Zach’s PA moistened her lips. “His name is Wilde, too. Caleb Wilde. He says it’s urgent.”
Zach grabbed the phone, motioned his PA to leave.
“Caleb? What is it? Is it Jaimie?”
Caleb, standing at his brother, Jacob’s, desk in the office at El Sueño, looked at Jacob and Travis, and pumped his fist in the air.
“No. Hell, no. Why would I call you about Jaimie?”
Zach let out a long breath. “She’s OK?”
“She’s fine.”
“Yeah. Good. Good. I don’t know. I just thought—”
“I’m calling about the invitation we sent you.”
Zach’s eyes narrowed. “What invitation?”
“To the, ah, the Winter Solstice party Travis, Jake and I are throwing at El Sueño.”
“Let me get this straight. You and your brothers are throwing a solstice party?”
“Sounds weird, right?” Caleb said, and forced what he hoped was a hearty laugh. “But we always do.” Jake snorted; Caleb glared at him. “Did you know that leprechauns thought the solstice was a time of magic?”
“It’s Druids,” Zach said cautiously. “And yeah, I think I heard that someplace.”
“Druids, leprechauns…The thing is, we want you to come.”
“So, this party you’re throwing…it’s to celebrate the winter solstice?”
“You got it, dude.”
“It’s not something else?”
“What else could it be? Hey, midnight poker games. Beer. Hot dogs and hamburgers. Wouldn’t be the same without you. It’s the day after tomorrow. Can you make it?”
Zach rubbed his forehead.
“And Jaimie?”
“What about her?”
“Will she be there?”
“No,” Caleb said quickly, “no, she won’t. She, uh, she had to go out of town On business.” He hesitated. Told himself not to ask. And asked anyway. “Zach? There was never anything between the two of you, was there?”
“Nothing,” Zach said quickly. “There was never anything between James and me.”
A few more words and they ended the call.
“Well?” Jake and Travis said.
Caleb smiled. “He called her James.”
“Ah.”
“And his voice cracked when he did.”
High fives all around.
And then, they began the long, one-and-a half-day wait.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The day of the wedding dawned bright and sunny.
The wedding itself went off exactly as planned. The bride was beautiful; the groom was handsome. The house was alive with red and white roses; ribbon garlands hung along the bannisters of the wide staircase.
The general gave the bride away. And, at the end of the ceremony, all the guests made their way into the enormous great room and the adjoining dining room where tables had been set up for dinner.
Everybody was having fun.
Jaimie looked as if she were; she danced and drank champagne, but toward the end of the day, when she and Lissa escaped from the crowd to a corner of the living room, Jaimie grew quiet.
“What?” Lissa said.
Jaimie shrugged. “They’re right together.”
Lissa nodded and went for broke.
“You think it’ll ever be like that for either of us?” she said, and the look that swept over her sister’s face told her she’d had it right all the time.
Now what?
Could she be certain Jaimie was in love with Zacharias Castelianos, and that he was in love with her? And where was he? If he cared, wouldn’t he have come here? She’d put things as bluntly as she could. She’d all but told him that Jaimie loved him.
Had she guessed wrong?
Did Jaimie not love him?
Did he not love her?
“James,” Liss said…
Jaimie glugged down a glass of champagne.
“Come on,” she said, her voice so bright it glittered like glass, “let’s dance.”
Lissa downed her champagne, too, and followed her sister onto the dance floor.
* * * *
“She’s dancing,” Jacob said.
Caleb looked at him. “A brilliant observation.”
“Maybe we were wrong. Maybe she isn’t carrying a torch for Castelianos.”
“Nobody’s used that expression in a hundred years,” Travis said, “and where the hell is he? You said this would work. That he’d be curious enough about a solstice party to fly down.”
“What I said was that it might work. Anyway, Jake’s right. Jaimie’s dancing. She’s having fun. So maybe we were all wrong. Maybe she doesn’t give a crap for Castelianos, and he doesn’t give a crap for her.”
“Yeah,” his brothers said, but none of them looked as if they believed it.
* * * *
A little later, Emily went upstairs to chan
ge. The drummer of the six-piece band began a drum roll.
“Here it comes,” somebody shouted, as Emily stood at the loft railing and sent her bridal bouquet flying.
What seemed like every woman in the room rushed to catch it.
Every woman except Jaimie. And, with unerring accuracy the bouquet sailed straight at her.
“Catch it,” someone yelled, and she did, reflexively. Lissa saw her stare at the flowers. Then she shuddered, turned, and shoved them into the hands of the woman standing beside her.
Somebody laughed.
Not Lissa.
She saw not scorn in Jaimie’s eyes but something darker.
“James,” she said softly, when she reached her..
Jaimie shook her head, hurried past her. Lissa would have gone after her but laughing guests surrounded her and by the time she broke free, Jaimie was gone.
“Go after her,” Caleb said, as he came up beside her.
“I called him,” she said softly. “I asked him to come here tonight.”
“Castelianos?”
“Yes. And he didn’t come.”
“Hell, Liss. I did the same thing.”
Brother and sister looked at each other.
“Dammit,” Lissa whispered.
Caleb put his arm around her shoulders.
The good thing was that Jaimie would never know about those calls. She’d never know that Zacharias Castelianos had sent out a clear message.
He was not interested. Period. End of story.
Lissa sighed. So did Caleb.
Sometimes, the best thing you could do for someone you loved was leave them alone.
* * * *
Jaimie’s lips hurt from smiling. Her feet hurt from wearing stilettos dyed the same color as her gown.
Her heart hurt because she couldn’t stop thinking about Zacharias.
Especially now.
Emily and Marco were so happy.
She was happy for them, but seeing Em look into her groom’s eyes as she repeated her vows, seeing the way Marco had taken his bride in his arms to kiss her when the ceremony ended…
And that bridal bouquet. That miserable bunch of flowers…
Catching it had been a reflex. What else could you do when a thing flew straight out you? Giving it away had been a reflex, too.
Now, she was acting on reflex again, making her way through the crowd. People were laughing and talking; they spoke to her and she smiled and said yes, it had been a wonderful wedding, and yes, the lightly falling snow was the finishing touch until, finally, she reached the back of the house.
Jaimie: Fire and Ice Page 22