by Lindsey Hart
Mia shot Lisa an exasperated look. As if she could talk. Their mother might be a shopaholic who loved shoes, but Lisa wasn’t much different when it came to clothes and handbags.
“Well, she needs to get here soon if we want to get there before dark,” Tim said.
Since it was only eight o’clock in the morning, that meant they had a very long drive ahead of them. Wilting simultaneously, Mia and Lisa exchanged wrinkled noses and resigned expressions.
Thankfully, Mia had brought a book to keep herself occupied. She just wished she had thought to bring a pillow as well.
The front door slammed shut, and they all looked up to see Sophie Arnold hurrying toward them. Tall, willowy and blonde, Lisa had gotten all her good looks from her mother. Whenever she was with the two of them, Mia couldn’t help but feel incredibly self-conscious; she was short and not particularly good-looking compared to the two of them.
“Sorry!” their mother said, jumping in the car and closing the door behind her. “The lock on the back door took forever to click into place; we really need to get that looked at, Tim.”
Mia glanced at her mother’s bag and grinned at the sight of a silver heel poking out the top before it disappeared from view. She doubted the lock was the only thing occupying her mother.
“All right, everyone has everything?” Tim asked, starting the car. They all nodded, each of them privately hoping it was true. “Let’s go then!”
Mia settled against the door as the car pulled out of the driveway and headed down the street. She couldn’t help but smile fondly; as suspicious as she was over the true motivation behind this sudden adventure, she couldn’t help but feel warm in the presence of her family. It really had been too long since they were all together.
Hopefully they would find some time to be together over this trip.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
“What is that?”
Lisa’s incredulous voice pulled Mia out of the doze she had fallen into; long travel always made her sleepy, especially when she was undisturbed. She let out an inelegant snort as she woke and yawned widely, stretching as much as she was able to. Then she blearily leaned forward to look out the window, wondering what had caught Lisa’s attention.
The sight of the massive estate they were approaching quickly chased away the last dregs of sleep. Wide-eyed, Mia gaped at the sprawling lands, a huge manor sitting right in the middle, and several different types of cabins spotted around it. She could see a lake, a golf course and even a set of stables.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“Primland,” Sophie said, turning around in her seat with a smile; there was an excited gleam in her eyes, and Mia suddenly knew why she insisted that she and Lisa bring at least one formal dress with them. “It’s a luxury resort on the Blue Mountain Ridge. We’re in Virginia right now.”
“I noticed,” Lisa murmured, eyes locked on the approaching resort. “This is where we’re staying for two weeks?”
“That’s right,” Tim said with a smug smile.
It definitely didn’t look like the sort of place their parents brought them for work ‘vacations’. Mia tore her eyes away from the scene, a creeping suspicion in her mind.
“How are we paying for this?” she demanded, not caring if she was being rude. “I know we’re well off, but this has to be really expensive!”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” her mother said mysteriously. “We’re joining some family friends on this vacation, and they’ve taken care of most of the expenses.”
Family friends? Mia wracked her mind, trying to think of any of their family friends who would have the money to pay for something like this, but came up with nothing. She narrowed her eyes at the back of her parents’ heads. The thought that there was more to this vacation than it seemed was returning two-fold.
Her parents were definitely up to something, but she had no idea what it was. The secretive smiles they exchanged, however, made her wary; she had the sudden premonition that what was coming was not going to be good.
They pulled up into the large car park outside the manor and got out. It was even larger up close, and Mia craned her neck back, squinting up to the top. It was absolutely ginormous. Would they be staying here? Or would they be staying in one of those cabins?
“Bring your bags, girls,” Tim said, clicking open the boot. “We’ll need to check into reception and find out where we’re staying.”
Faint laughter trailed on the wind, and Mia lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight. She could see tiny figures of what looked like the golf course, and she shook her head in wonder. This was definitely a luxurious place, but there were thankfully enough people around to not feel completely alone in such a large place.
“Where exactly are we?” she asked curiously, hitching her backpack onto her shoulders and dragging her suitcase out of the trunk.
“Meadows of Dan,” her mother said, digging a brochure out of her pocket and handing it over. “There is a small town with a number of shops nearby, so we’re not too far out from civilization.”
Privately, Mia thought this was more than enough civilization. Despite being on a mountain range, Primland didn’t look like a resort in the middle of nature. It was obviously made to cater to a certain standard.
Curiously, she took the brochure. Lisa looked over her shoulder as they flicked through it. There was golf and horse riding, as she had guessed. There was also archery, shooting, yoga, a fitness center, and a number of other activities throughout the resort. If they wished, there was no chance of being bored here; there was too much to see and do.
Despite her concerns over who, exactly, they were staying with, Mia couldn’t help but smile as she felt the cool mountain air gently teasing her hair. The air was crisp and clear here, and she couldn’t wait to go for a walk around the mountain range. If she wanted to escape her family’s company, she could easily find a tree to read under or join a bushwalking group.
As far as vacations went, this one wasn’t half bad so far, and there was a part of her already looking forward to the two weeks that they would be staying here.
“This place is beautiful,” Lisa said, echoing her thoughts. “Look, Mia, it’s been such a long time since we went horse riding; we should go at some point.”
“Yeah, it would be fun,” Mia said, thinking wistfully of the riding classes she and Lisa had taken as children; she had enjoyed it, but they had both eventually given it up for other pursuits. “I’m not sure how much I remember, though.”
“I’m sure it’s just like riding a bike,” Lisa said dismissively as they walk into the manor house.
The reception area was warm and welcoming, a fire already crackling away in the stone fireplace to ward off the chilly air. Mia hadn’t realized just how cold she was until she stepped into the warmth.
“Robert!” Tim said with a large grin, stepping forward. “Good to see you!”
Curious, Mia looked toward the reception desk. There was a small group of three standing there, and the tall man with greying hair turned around at the call, smiling warmly. His wife, who had dark, cropped hair, grinned at their approach, obviously pleased to see them, while the younger man beside them, slouching, turned with a scowl.
All the breath was punched out of her, and her bag fell from suddenly limp fingers. She knew that face, even if it had been thirteen years since she had last seen him.
Stephane Hayes.
Her childhood nightmare.
CHAPTER TWO
Stephane Hayes slumped against the reception desk, scowling, as he waited. He checked his watch, irritated to note that only five minutes had gone by since he last checked it.
“When are they getting here?” he asked.
“Soon,” his mother said, frowning at him.
Stephane didn’t care if she was disappointed. He held Josie Hayes personally responsible for the fact that he was even here in the first place. His scowl deepened as he remembered how she had begun to shed tears when he had
first refused, wailing that he never wanted to spend time as a family with them anymore. He had finally agreed to the trip to calm her, and the tears had magically disappeared; he should be used to her manipulations by now, but she still got him every single time.
“Robert!” he suddenly heard. “Good to see you!”
Both his parents turned around, smiling. Not caring how unpleasant he looked, Stephane scowled as he turned to face them.
It was a small family of four. Stephane knew the husband and vaguely remembered the wife; they were business associates of his parents, and he even remembered visiting their house once, in his teens. He sort of remembered two girls, one almost-teen with long blonde hair, and a tiny, pixie-faced girl with her dark hair tied-up in pigtails.
His scowl dropped as he surveyed the two young women standing with his father’s friends. If those were the two girls from back then, they had both grown up very well. His gaze turned appraising; his father hadn’t told him how beautiful the daughters had become.
He felt his scowl turning to a grin. Suddenly, this vacation was looking up.
The dark-haired woman, however, took one look at him and actually dropped her bag, her eyes wide and her face pale. What could have caused that reaction? Stephane did remember that he hadn’t gotten along very well with the youngest daughter when he visited them, but he honestly didn’t remember why or what happened between them.
“Stephane, do you remember Tim and Sophie?” Robert asked, shaking his friend’s hand and glancing at his son.
“We have met once or twice,” Stephane said, stepping forward to offer his own hand. “Tim, thank you for your help on the Gettis deal.”
“It wasn’t a problem,” Tim said with a smile. “Your work was phenomenal, Stephane.”
Stephane preened slightly. He was good at his job, and he knew it. He had worked hard to be where he was, to cast off the stigma of being his father’s son.
“And these are your daughters?” Josie asked, smiling at the two young women.
“Yes, this is Lisa, my oldest,” Tim introduced. Stephane raked his eyes appreciatively over her long legs and up her lean body. “And Amelia, my youngest.”
“I prefer Mia,” the dark-haired woman said quickly, noticing Stephane’s glance and half hiding behind her older sister.
“It’s very good to meet the two of you,” Robert said jovially. “Now, what do you say we get our keys and head to the lodge?”
“We’re not staying in the manor?” Lisa asked, sounding a little disappointed.
“No, we’ve picked somewhere even nicer,” Josie said with a smile.
Robert plucked a pamphlet off the desk, behind which the receptionist was still waiting patiently, and opened it to show them. Stephane leaned forward, curious despite himself, and found himself jostling elbows with Mia. She jolted as though she had been electrocuted and ducked to the other side of her sister.
Stephane’s brow creased in confusion. What was her problem?
“We’re going to stay in this cabin,” Josie said, pointing. “One of the Pinnacle Cottages. It has two floors, and each floor has a Cedar Bluff room and a Dan River suite. The suite includes a fully functioning living area as well as another room, and a balcony. We’ll be taking the top floor of the cottage and your family will be on the ground floor.”
“It’s lovely,” Sophie said, glancing over the pictures. She looked up at them. “Thank you for giving us this opportunity.”
“It was our pleasure,” Robert said with a grin.
They collected their keys from the receptionist and Stephane gave her a wink, which made her blush to her roots. His effect on woman was nothing new. They were always predictable. Except maybe for one. Mia. Maybe she was just not aware how she was supposed to react in front of the gorgeous manliness that he exuded if he could say so himself. Yeah, that must be it. No woman would dare spurn him.
The Pinnacle Cottages were only a short distance away from the manor, and they drove toward them, easily finding somewhere to park when they got there.
From the outside, it looked like a wood cabin. A very well-made wood cabin, but not somewhere Stephane would have chosen to stay voluntarily.
Pulling his suitcase out of the car, Stephane spotted Mia out of the corner of his eye. He still couldn’t get her reaction out of his head. Pulling his suitcase toward her, he leaned in, startling her.
“It’s good to see you again,” he tried.
Mia blinked, looking confused, and then scowled at him.
“Excuse me?” she said. “Do you even remember me?”
“Yeah… you had pigtails, right?” Stephane said, giving his best winning grin. He looked her up and down. “You’ve certainly gotten prettier since then.”
When Mia went red with anger, he realized he had said the wrong thing, though he honestly couldn’t think why. She looked about two seconds away from slapping him, and he smartly took a step back.
“Don’t you turn that charm on me,” she said severely. She scoffed. “You haven’t changed a bit since then, have you? You’re every bit as arrogant and presumptuous as I remember.”
It seemed that she remembered him far better than he remembered her. Something about their encounter when they were younger had obviously gotten stuck in her mind. He rolled his eyes at her.
“Look, I don’t know what grudge you’re holding onto, but just let it go, we were kids,” he said dismissively. “Whatever it was, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
She bared her teeth in a snarl. Somehow, he had just made her angrier.
“Just stay away from me for this trip, and we’ll be fine,” she said sharply, grabbing her bag and stalking away.
Stephane blinked. Well, that certainly hadn’t gone well. He shook his head and resolved to do as she had asked; he really didn’t need her complicating this trip for him.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
How dare he?
Mia stalked toward the large cabin, wishing that she wasn’t so upset so that she could look at it in awe. It really was quite beautiful, and she loved the idea that she was going to get to stay here for the next two weeks.
The encounter with Stephane, however, had instantly soured her mood. What hurt worse was that it seemed that he had barely even remembered her. He remembered meeting her, but he couldn’t recall what had happened at that meeting.
To think that she had held onto his words this whole time, and he didn’t even remember saying them…
“Ha! Duckling? More like Ugly Little Duckling.”
She blinked back angry tears. He was a jerk; he had been a jerk back then, and he was still a jerk now. Thirteen years hadn’t changed that at all.
“You are alright?” Lisa asked, sidling up beside her.
“Yeah,” Mia said with a sigh. She glanced at her sister; she had seen the way she had looked at Stephane with interest. “You should probably keep away from him; he’s no good.”
Lisa laughed and patted her shoulder in a condescending way before walking off. Mia knew there was no hope she would take her advice. After all, why would Lisa, who had dated countless men, take the advice of her little sister, whose only dating experience had been a one-week affair in high school, during which she never allowed him to do more than hold her hand and kiss her chastely.
It had earned her more than her fair share of ugly nicknames, and she hadn’t been keen to try the dating game ever since.
The living area was just as inviting as the outside of the cottage. According to her parents, she and Lisa would share the Cedar Bluff room while her parents would take the room in the Dan River suite. Heading toward that room, she was comforted to find that it was modestly decorated and homey. The large windows gave her a great view of the mountain range outside.
She dumped her bag on the bed closest to the window and sat on it with a heavy sigh. Just when she had been looking forward to this family trip, of course something would turn up to ruin it for her.
‘It isn’t ruined yet,’ she reminded herse
lf. After all, all she needed to do was stay as far away from Stephane as possible, and everything would be fine.
She dropped back to lie on the bed. She could hear her parents and sister exploring outside, and there was movement upstairs as the Hayes family did the same. She stared unseeingly up at the ceiling.
To think she would come across Stephane Hayes again after all this time. She closed her eyes, but she could still hear his taunting voice in her head.
“After all, you’re such an ugly little thing. I think that nickname suits you.”
She couldn’t even remember why they had been arguing in the first place. It might have had something to do with something one of them hadn’t agreed with, but it had gotten nasty quite fast. Then her father had called out to her, telling her they wouldn’t be much longer. He had called her Duckling, and Stephane had burst out laughing.
She grimaced and turned on her side, curling up. What seventeen-year-old so cruelly attacks a ten-year-old like that anyway? In all these years, she had not been able to get his voice out of her head, and it had followed her all the way through school, occasionally joined by others saying the same thing.
‘Ugly!’
‘Who’d actually want to date you?’
‘Sorry… I just wanted a good time. It was a bet, you see?’
She knew she wasn’t good looking. All she had to do was compare herself to her beautiful sister and all the girls she grew up with. She was plain and uninteresting, and that had been made apparent to her from a very young age, starting with Stephane.
For him to turn back up in her life, however, and not even remember the effect that he had had on it? She hadn’t even been memorable enough for him to recall how he had destroyed the first part of her self-esteem as a child, leaving her more vulnerable to bullies at every stage of her life.
She had never told her parents what Stephane had said. What had even been the point? Her father’s fondness whenever he called her ‘Duckling’ had soothed some of the ache Stephane had caused, but the damage had already been done.