“He doesn’t have a right to be jealous.”
“Maybe not. But he was seething.”
Shannon had told Avery that he’d kissed her the second they walked away from the bar. Avery’s response was a hard look at her lips and a comment about bruises.
“He asked me to wait for him, Avery.”
“What do you mean?”
“Three months. He asked me to wait three months and allow him to see me.”
Avery pushed to the other side of the small pool and looked her in the eye. “What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything. I mean, I didn’t agree, didn’t disagree. He isn’t what I expected. He was a total piece of work when I met the man, and now . . .”
“Not so much,” Avery finished for her.
“Not so much.”
“What do you have to lose?”
“What if it doesn’t work? What if he turns back into the selfish guy he was on the plane?”
“Then you cut him off and go back to your other plan. Consider this: What if you’d met him a month from now, two months from now, and Steve-o at the bar ended up being Mr. Baby Daddy? Call me naive, but a pregnant girlfriend who is carrying a child that isn’t yours is a little harder to juggle.”
Avery’s logic rang true.
“I haven’t been touched by a man since Paul, and I’m considering letting this guy put me on the hook, pushing off my plan for three months based on one kiss.” One spectacular kiss.
Avery shrugged. “I guess when you put it like that . . .”
“See?”
They were both silent for a few breaths.
“How good was the kiss?” Avery asked.
Shannon closed her eyes and shivered. “I’ve never been kissed like that. With such abandon and need. It was like he had this one shot of making his point, this one moment, rolled up in a single kiss.” She opened her eyes, found Avery smiling. “I think it was the best first kiss I’ve ever had.”
“Doesn’t your best first kiss deserve a chance?” Avery asked.
“Why are you so congenial about Victor? The man was engaged to another woman less than a week ago.” A big red flag in anyone’s book.
Avery kicked her feet up in the water. “Oh, that’s easy.”
“Why?”
“You. Because of you! The First Wives Club is going on, what, three years? I have never seen the kind of smiles on your face that I have since we’ve been here. Even when Victor ticks you off, there is a glow in you. So if he ends up being the selfish douche guy you spoke of, right now the man is pulling you out of the muck that Paul drug you through. And I’ll take it. You’re quite the catch, Shannon. I don’t think you’ve ever allowed yourself to acknowledge that li’l fact. Hell yeah, I’m gonna promote Victor. For worse or for better, the man is empowering you.”
“I don’t want to get hurt.”
“Then don’t let him.”
“How do you do that?”
“By keeping it honest with yourself. You fell for Paul, but he didn’t fall for you. You couldn’t just walk away because of the marriage contract. I get it. But that isn’t the case with Victor. If you start diving off the heart-filled cliff for the guy and he’s waving as you’re going over, get out. If he wants to date you and other women at the same time, then be sure and do the same. Enjoy what he has to offer, and don’t take any crap that you’re not okay with.”
“Should I wait for him?”
“In a normal situation, I’d say hell no. You just met the guy, you’ve had one kiss . . .”
“A fabulous kiss.”
Avery grinned. “. . . he just got out of a serious relationship, and the chances of him jumping around right now are pretty high.”
Shannon heard a however coming.
“But,” Avery continued, “I’ve never been on this ‘get pregnant with a stranger’ bandwagon, and the last thing you want is an accident with the wrong guy. Therefore, waiting a little longer, three months . . . I think that’s the way to go.”
“I had a plan,” Shannon said.
“Change the plan,” Avery suggested.
Three months . . .
Shannon stood in the reception area of the hotel, her suitcase by her side. Avery stepped away so they could talk without an audience.
“You’re a surprise I wasn’t expecting this week,” Victor told her.
“I would hope so, considering.”
He wanted to pull her in his arms and kiss her but decided that a public display might not be what she wanted quite yet. He reached out his hand. “Can I see your phone?”
She removed it from her purse and handed it to him.
He typed in his number and pushed a call through. His phone rang and he hung up. “I’m going to call you.”
Her ride to the airport pulled into the drive.
“If you change your mind . . .”
He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t count on that.”
She sucked in a breath. “One thing.”
“Name it.”
Vulnerability crossed her face. “Don’t play me.”
He wasn’t sure he’d know how to play a woman like her. “I won’t.”
She leaned in, kissed the side of his cheek, and moved to the waiting car.
He held the door open for Avery and accepted her hug. “Congratulations,” he said in her ear.
“I’ll thank you when I stop throwing up.”
He laughed.
She lowered her voice. “Absence makes the heart forgetful,” she told him. “You might want to remember that.”
“I will.”
Victor watched the car drive away and felt the sunshine all around him dim.
Chapter Seventeen
A mausoleum would have been noisier than Victor’s office the day he returned. He purposely walked in late in the morning, yet a week earlier than he’d told Stephanie that he’d be back.
He walked past the receptionist in the main lobby, smiled, and said good morning. As he walked through the maze of halls and cubicles of desks and various employees, his presence seemed to stop all chatter midsentence.
By the time he walked into the foyer of his office, Stephanie was standing by his door, folders in hand, with very little expression on her face.
“Good morning, Mr. Brooks.”
“Morning, Stephanie.” He walked past her and into his vast space.
“Did you tell me you were returning today?” she asked, following him.
She knew he hadn’t.
“No. I did not.” He sat behind his desk and glanced at the open stack of mail. But all of that could wait. “Call a meeting with the executive team in one hour. Is anyone out today?”
She shook her head. “No. You asked that no one take time off when you were gone on your honeymo—” Stephanie stopped midword and dropped her eyes to the floor.
“Right. Good . . . one hour. You and I will meet directly after to go over anything I’ve missed.” He picked up the first paper on his desk, dismissing his assistant without asking her to leave.
Stephanie hustled out of his office, closing the door behind her.
Victor dropped the mail in his hand, leaned back in his chair, and sighed. The images of surprised faces surfaced in his head. Of all the people in the office, their silence.
None of them had been at his botched wedding. Why was that? Oh, that’s right, he needed things to run while he was gone, and asking staff to attend could stop the machine he’d put into motion.
His plan seemed to have worked.
Everything appeared to be running as normal in his absence. The closest Victor came to checking in was when he left a voice mail for Stephanie to reschedule his Tuesday appointment. A meeting he had no business making during his honeymoon. A fact Shannon had pointed out before he’d gotten off the airplane.
The thought of her brought a smile.
He wondered how she would handle a staff that refused to look her in the eye after a personal disaster. With grace, he determined.
His fascination with the former first lady of the state had prompted him to look up as much information as he could about her once he’d returned from Tulum and had been sitting in his quiet, empty home alone. The staff at the governor’s house had reported that they never knew of any problems with the couple, and that they were all very sorry to see her leave. No one had anything negative to say about the woman. Gossip magazines tried to find dirt, and all they came up with was a pretty hefty payment that a prenuptial agreement spelled out in detail before the couple married.
Her ex-husband had been seen with other women socially during his term, but none were pegged as the reason for the split.
Shannon was only seen with friends, or husbands of friends. Twice he found images of Shannon and Paul speaking cordially at an event after their breakup. Both times the magazines talked of a reunion, which obviously didn’t manifest.
Victor was pretty happy about that. Not only would he have never met Shannon, since he highly doubted she’d be running around taking pictures of other couples’ weddings . . . she wouldn’t have been available to flirt with him and hold him in her arms.
The look on her face when he’d kissed her would live with him forever. Surprise, excitement . . . yielding. She’d been as wound up as he. He was shocked that she didn’t push him away the second he touched her, and even more stunned when she told him she couldn’t go any further because of him.