didn’t even know Giovanni could speak more than a few words of English,” Zack began, but the telephone rang and he paused to answer it.
When he hung up a few minutes later, he had an odd, thoughtful expression on his face.
’s up?” Julie asked.
was Mitchell. Evidently, he’s met someone in the islands, and he has to leave her there and go back to Chicago. He asked me to call Prescott and arrange for her to go aboard and cruise the islands while he’s gone.”
Julie studied his amused expression. ’s the part you haven’t told me?”
best part. Mitchell intends to fly back and forth every day to join her on board.”
you serious?”
serious. And so, I think, is he.”
Zack sobered and added, reason he has to go back to Chicago is because they’ve discovered his brother’s body.” He glanced at his watch and reached for the telephone to call Prescott. ’s one-thirty in St. Maarten,” he said, Mitchell said he’d be bringing her aboard at five.”
we have a name?” Julie teased.
Donovan.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
KATE ZIPPED HERsuitcase closed, carried it into the living room, and put it down next to her garment bag. She’d gone over what she wanted to say to Evan so many times that she was afraid it was going to sound like a well-rehearsed speech, even though she felt anything but unemotional about the hurt she was about to cause him.
With nothing else left to do, she stepped outside onto the patio, and a sense of nostalgia and well-being began to bloom inside her. Only three days ago she’d stood in this spot, talking to Holly on the phone and feeding Max strips of bacon. The future had seemed so bleak that morning, and now it was dazzlingly bright and filled with poignant promise. Everything had changed in three short days. She’d fallen in love.
Smiling, she walked forward and ran her hand along the patio’s stone balustrade while sweet memories drifted through her mind. At the edge of the garden near the beach was the clump of palms she’d been standing under when Mitchell relented and came back to answer some of her questions . . .My brother’s name was William.
On the patio, exactly where she was standing right now, they’d danced together for the first time. She’d mistakenly thought he intended to kiss her and ended up laughing and chiding him:“You might have mentioned you intended to dance with me, not try to ravish me.”
I do intend to ravish you,”he’d whispered.
He’d really been outrageously frank about his intentions that night, but he’d wanted her badly enough to change his mind and come back to her in the garden. He’d been just as frank the next day in the suite at the Enclave, Kate remembered with a smile . . .
In Chicago, there’s an eligible man who wants to marry you. Here, in this room, there’s a man who wants to take you to bed and make love to you until neither of us has the strength to move anymore. But it can’t go any further than that. It would get much too complicated.
A few moments later—a compromise. And when Mitchell compromised, he was utterly irresistible.
’s get complicated, Kate . . . The truth is that I felt all the same things you did last night, and you know I did.”
?” Evan’s voice made her whirl around in time to see him closing the door—a tall, fit, attractive man with brown hair and gray eyes who’d been part of her life for four years. A good man she was going to hurt. didn’t think you’d have a key to get in,” she said, as another surge of nostalgia, this one painful, hit her.
you’re never here,” he said, striding toward her, stopped at the front desk and—” His gaze riveted on her suitcases and ricocheted back to her face. ’s going on?”
Nervously rubbing her hands on the sides of her pants, Kate tried to smile as she nodded toward the sofa and said, over here, and let’s sit down. We need to talk.”
’s go straight to the summation instead,” he said coolly. ’re angry because I left you down here, and I’m just as angry because you paid me back by ignoring my calls and putting me through long periods of daily hell, worrying that your headaches were incapacitating you and thinking about things like brain tumors. Does that about sum it up?” he demanded. Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and walked over to the bar.
And in that bizarre moment, when Kate knew it was over between them, she watched him and understood the reasons he’d appealed to her from the beginning—his intelligence and self-assurance, his ability to go right to the heart of the matter and see it from both sides, and his ability to keep his head when everyone else was losing theirs. These talents made him a superb lawyer and a terrific companion.
She watched him take a swallow of his drink, and when he lowered the glass and scowled at her, she smiled a little and made a fervent wish that he’d find someone wonderful right away.
are you smiling?”
’m hoping you get exactly the woman you deserve.”
don’t do sarcasm well,” he observed flatly. comes off as sincerity and loses its edge.”
Torn between laughter and tears, Kate bit her lip and looked down. He’d been more than her lover; he’d been her friend. She was losing a friend and about to hurt him, too. Lifting her head, she drew a long breath and said softly, wasn’t being sarcastic, Evan. I meant that with all my heart.”
His hand stilled in the act of raising the glass to his mouth. With his gaze riveted on her, he reached out and put the glass back on the bar. are you talking about?”
met someone here, and there’s something special between us. I have to give it a chance.”
He was so still it was unnerving. did all this happen?”
days ago. Two and a half days ago,” Kate corrected, trying to make what she was doing seem less insanely impulsive.
is he?”
one you know. He lives in Europe and New York.”
did you meet him?”
, please—”
me understand how a man you’ve known for two days can make you throw away a four-year relationship. Give me some details!”
met him in a restaurant here.”
does he do?”
—I don’t know exactly.”
’s his name?”
doesn’t matter what his name is.”
damn well matters to me. I want a name to curse in private. That’s what men do, Kate. We pretend we’re taking things very well, and that our hearts aren’t being broken, and then we get roaring drunk and we curse the bastard who stole the woman we loved.”