by A. C. Arthur
Major walked around from the side of the house and her laptop almost slipped off her lap. He wore dark blue jeans and a crisp, white polo shirt. His hair looked freshly cut and his shape-up was sharp, his thin mustache trimmed. Her pulse rate quickened as her mind whirled with questions.
“Hello, Mr. Fuller. It’s nice to meet you in person, sir.”
She watched as Major walked up onto the porch and immediately went to her father, extending a hand for Jacoby to shake. Her father, the surly old grouch that he’d become, accepted that hand and looked up at Major.
“You mess this up again and I’ll beat you with my crutches.”
Major nodded. “I understand, sir.”
“What’s going on? You two know each other?” She put her laptop on the table because she couldn’t afford to pay for another one and if one more surprise popped off, she was sure to drop this one.
Her father answered. “Got a call from this gentleman early this morning while you were sitting out here rocking in my chair like you thought you could find the answers to your problems.”
“I thought you were asleep,” she said.
“Not with my chair squeaking the way it does when it’s being rocked too fast. And then that cell phone you and your sisters insist I keep close to me started ringing.”
She looked to Major then. “You called my father?”
Before he could answer, Jacoby spoke. “You got something for me, young man?”
“Ah, yeah. I have it right here.” Major reached around to his back pocket and pulled out some folded papers. “All you need to do is read over the lease and sign it. I can take it back to the facility today and you can move in as early as tomorrow.”
Nina stood. “Move? What facility? Will somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Her hands were trembling and her heart was about to pump right out of her chest.
Jacoby took the papers Major handed him and then waved his free hand. “Go on, take her in the house and say your piece before she flips out. She never did like not knowing or controlling everything. Gets that from me, I suppose.”
Major stepped closer to her. “Can we go inside and talk for a minute?”
She didn’t know what to say and still couldn’t believe he was there. “I guess that’s what we’re supposed to do at this point.”
Before Major or her father could say another word, Nina walked into the house. She passed through the kitchen and stopped in the center of the living room, turning to see Major as he followed her inside.
“What are you doing? You got my father into that facility you were talking about, without consulting me?”
“I consulted your father,” he said with a nod. “And before you go off telling me I had no right to do that, I wasn’t going to. When I called your father this morning, it was strictly to ask him if he would mind me coming by to see you. He brought up the facility, asking if I knew of any places in New York that he could afford on his budget.”
“No,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “That’s impossible. His budget isn’t enough to hardly cover the expenses in this house. And his home...our home...is here in York.”
“I wish it could be in New York with me,” he said quietly.
“Major—”
“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand. “Just give me five minutes. Let me just get this out the right way this time and then you can react. You can tell me to kick rocks and leave you alone forever, if that’s what you want. But please, just listen.”
She folded her arms over her chest because the warmth that was now swelling there alarmed her. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Early this morning she’d sat on that porch resigning herself to having fallen in love when that hadn’t been her plan and to making the best of the help she’d gleaned working with his family’s company for the short time she’d been blessed to do so. She hadn’t thought of contacting Major again or going back to New York to see him. She would deal with whatever legal repercussions were brought on by her breaching the contract, but her new plan was to move on.
“I love you,” he said when she nodded for him to continue.
“I didn’t plan on falling in love and neither did you. We planned to do what was best for our businesses. And to be totally honest with you, Nina, I believe in my heart that you and I partnering together in a consulting and development firm that will cater to a full scale of technological needs to the fashion industry is the best career move for us.”
She opened her mouth to speak and Major stepped closer, touching a finger softly to her lips.
“I’m not here to save you, your father or your business. Because you don’t need to be saved. You’re a brilliant, beautiful woman with a bright future ahead of you whether or not you take me up on this offer. But I don’t know how to move forward without you, Nina. You walked into that building all those weeks ago and the moment you bumped into me, you saved me.”
He slid his finger away.
“You saved me from the lonely life I’d resigned myself to because I refused to trust again. You agreed to do what was a crazy job from the start and, every step of the way, all you were concerned with was doing your very best to make that crazy job work, for my family’s company as well as for your own. I can’t thank you enough for your help and I couldn’t let you go without admitting to you that I need you. I want you, for real this time.”
Tears welled in her eyes but she refused to let them fall.
“You knew all I wanted was to take care of my father.” Her voice was shaky and she wanted to stop. She wanted to turn away from him and go somewhere alone to break down under the pressure of emotions that had steadily built with each word he’d spoken.
“You’ve taken care of your family for so long. You thought it was your job, but it wasn’t. Your father asked me to find him a place in New York because he feels that’s the only way you’ll follow your dreams. I did it because I love you and I want your dreams to be my dreams. I want us to do this business thing and the family thing together.”
The first tear rolled down her cheek and she cursed the warm, wet feel of it.
Major used his thumb to brush that tear away.
“You weren’t planning to buy my business,” she said slowly. “You wanted us to be partners all along?”
He nodded. “I would never take anything away from you. I believe what you’ve built can enhance what I’ve started. And my father and RJ loved your ideas about the accessory line for RGF. I told them about it when I was hijacking RJ’s email account to schedule that message you received.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “I knew RJ hadn’t written that.”
“No, but he had a good time saying he told me so while I typed it. My dad appreciated my groveling to you a bit more than I expected, as well.”
He used both hands to cup her face now, tilting her head up to his. “I’m dying to kiss you.”
“Kisses aren’t part of the negotiations this time, Major.”
He froze at her words.
“I want more,” she said, coming up on the tips of her toes to touch her lips to his briefly. “I want a real engagement party where you’ll officially slip my ring back onto my finger, and a huge wedding and when we launch our business, I want it to be called the Gold Service.”
His smile spread slowly and warm tendrils wrapped around her heart. “I think that can be arranged,” he replied.
* * *
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CHAPTER ONE
MIKELINA PRESLEY WALKED through the five-bedroom beach house, making sure everything was perfect for the bachelor party. Checking the list on her phone, she confirmed that the sheets were five-hundred-thread-count Italian percale. The fridge was stocked with steaks and seafood, and the freezer with several bottles of Russian Standard vodka. The bar was tricked out with top shelf liquor, and the bathrooms all had condoms.
The housecleaning team was putting the finishing touches on the toilet paper by folding the edges into neat triangles on the roll, and then spritzing the air with their signature lime and verbena room spray. Mikelina was confident that Bastien Ainsworth would find everything to his satisfaction for his two-week stay.
As she was locking up, she had the customary pang of fear that a group of selfish rich boys would trash the place for good this time.
She was more than just the concierge for this house. This had been her family’s vacation home until her father’s fraudulent stock market trades landed him in prison and her parents’ assets were seized. Luckily, the beach house had been in Mikelina’s name for several years. So when her parents lost their house, her mother stayed here for a while. When her mother needed more money to pay off her father’s lawyer fees, Mikelina should have put the house on the market. It would have solved all their problems. They would have been millionaires.
But she hadn’t been able to let it go. There had been a lot of happy vacations here. Growing up, her father had worked sixty-hour weeks while her mother concentrated on her charities and social events. But when they came to South Beach on vacation, they had been a family.
Mikelina’s phone rang as she was entering the security code to lock up. It was her boss.
“The house is all set,” she said by way of greeting. Kirk Diamonte didn’t waste time with pleasantries like hello and goodbye, and if you let him start off the call, he’d never let you get in a word edgewise. He was the CEO of the global Five Diamond Resorts Vacation Club. You’d think he’d want to check in and get off the phone as soon as possible. But he gossiped worse than her mother. In fact, the only reason Mikelina had been able to convince her mother to move out so she could rent the house was because of the “nice” conversation she had with Kirk where he had spilled the tea about all their mutual friends.
“Good. The Ainsworth family has booked us for the wedding and honeymoon, too, so we want to start them off with an excellent impression.”
Mikelina had chosen to do a rental contract with the Five Diamond Resorts vacation club because her friend Selena worked as a chef for them. Selena got to travel all over the world cooking for the members of the club in whatever home they decided to rent for their vacation. Mikelina, stuck behind a desk in Manhattan, had thought that sounded glamorous and exotic.
When she contacted Kirk about the property, he had been impressed by the house’s wraparound porch and its proximity to the beach, but even more so by Mikelina’s hotel background. When she lost her New York job because she was spending too much time flying out here to keep her mother calm and centered, Kirk had overlooked her father’s scandal and hired her to be the client liaison for his Florida properties. He also gave her a large percentage of the money that came from renting out her family’s home and she gave that money to her mother to live on.
“I think they’ll be satisfied,” she said. “I was able to scrounge up tickets to Christian Dibiasi’s jam session tomorrow night. Very exclusive. It’s one of South Beach’s best kept secrets.”
Kirk whistled. “Nice score. That’s what I’m talking about. Try to anticipate their needs. The Ainsworth family is one of our biggest clients.”
“The bar is stocked, the fridge is packed, and the sound system is keyed up to caliente,” she said. She only hoped they wouldn’t puke in the pool or throw lamps at each other.
It had been hard enough to convince her mother that renting out the house was the best option. The fact that strangers would be touching their things and living in their space made her mother cringe. Mikelina wasn’t too happy about it either, but her father hadn’t left them much of a choice. Either they sold the house or rented it out. And in the long run, they’d still have their house once her father got out of prison in ten years. Reluctantly, her mother had moved in with her sister in Boca Raton, which was a far cry from Miami.
The worst was when her parents’ antique four-poster bed had been broken by an enthusiastic couple. It hadn’t mattered that they paid for the damages, as well as a hefty penalty fee. It hadn’t mattered that Kirk allowed her to ban them from ever renting the house again. Mikelina had to tell her mother that her grandparents’ bed was kindling.
“I’ve given Bastien Ainsworth your direct number,” Kirk said.
Mikelina hated when he gave clients her cell.
“He’ll be calling you shortly. He had a last-minute request, and you weren’t answering your email.”
“That’s because I was at the house.” Mikelina tried not to sound defensive. Bastien had been emailing daily her for the past six weeks. He wanted everything to be perfect for the bachelor party and was determined to micromanage every second. He didn’t even have the decency to foist the responsibility off on a secretary. No, he had to handle this personally.
Mikelina had become accustomed to his 10:00 a.m. emails and even though he was anal-retentive about his schedule, they sometimes shared a joke or some meme. She supposed it was sweet that he wanted everything to be perfect for his brother-in-law, but she had a feeling that some of the activities wouldn’t appeal to a younger groom. Of course, Bastien wouldn’t take any of her suggestions, so what did she know? This was just her job.
“Whatever he wants, get it for him,” Kirk said. “Money is no object. His credit is good.”
Must be nice.
“They’re spending a fortune with us for this wedding, so everything has to be perfect. I’m only stressing this because I need you to be available 24/7 for this party. No matter how outrageous, make it happen. Give them anyth
ing they ask for.”
“I’m not providing them hookers or blow,” she joked. Bastien hadn’t even hinted at anything remotely wild. They were going to do day trips and hang out by the pool. And while that sounded great for a group of older businessmen, it wasn’t what made Miami bachelor parties famous.
Although, she would kill to have Bastien’s planned vacation. Mikelina missed lying out in a lounge chair with a good book. She missed this house. Patting the door affectionately, she turned to get into her car. She had been working killer hours this past year. She was determined that Kirk would never regret hiring her. She wanted to make sure no one thought she was a cheat and a con artist like her father was. It was exhausting, though.
Kirk snorted. “Trust me, these guys don’t have to pay for it. And for the most part, they’re gentlemen, so you don’t have to worry about them getting handsy.”
That was something. Although Mikelina had become rather adept at the step-and-avoid technique. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll keep my phone on.”
“I’m a little nervous. Rumor has it, the groom is getting cold feet. His name is Jace Benjamin, from the Reigning Benjamins clothing line. It’s a good marriage between the two families. But from what I hear, he’s still looking to sow some wild oats and his future bride, Kitty Ainsworth, has been keeping him on a short leash.”
Mikelina couldn’t care less. She had enough drama in her life. She didn’t need any more. “I’m not sure what I can do about that.”
“Just keep an eye on him. No groom, no wedding. And while Five Diamond would still get to keep the fat deposit, I’d rather have the wedding and the honeymoon at our properties.”
“I think that’s more his future brother-in-law’s job.” And Bastien Ainsworth was welcome to it.
“You know the area. Steer him away from trouble when you can.”
Great. Now, she was a glorified babysitter to spoiled rich boys. While she was trying not to sputter into the phone, Kirk hung up.