THINGS FINALLY SETTLED down and Ellie was feeling positively giddy about her life. She and Max had been together for over a month, there hadn’t been any sightings of Harry and Monica – who seemed content to simply stay in contact with Barefoot Brides by phone – and all seemed right with the world. There was a perpetual smile on her face and it felt so damn good!
It was a Friday morning and for the first time since she started with Barefoot Brides, they only had one wedding scheduled for the weekend. They were all kinds of excited about it because it meant they’d all get at least one day off this weekend.
Sitting at her desk, Ellie was looking over the layout for the new brochures she was working on when Gussie came rushing through the door. “Emergency meeting. My office!” Jumping up, Ellie was on her feet and following her and Ari and Willow.
“What’s going on?” Willow asked, her voice laced with concern.
Gussie looked directly at Ellie and her heart sank.
They were back.
She sat up straight in her seat and looked at Gussie and then Willow and Ari. “I’m done hiding. Let them come in here. Let them see me and let them do whatever it is or say whatever it is they feel the need to do and say. I’m done hiding.” She paused and felt…confident. “I really shouldn’t have been hiding at all from the get-go. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We know that,” Ari said softly. “But…we totally understand if you’d rather just…you know…stay out of sight. We’ll deal with them.” Then she looked over at Gussie. “Why are they even here? Were we expecting them?”
“They booked another weekend trip. Last minute, they claimed when I saw them out in the lobby.” Gussie rolled her eyes. “We’ve had some overbearing couples in our years in business, but these two are really taking the cake.”
“What else did they say?” Willow asked. “The last I spoke with Monica, we were set with just about everything. There wasn’t going to be any reason for her to be here until the week of the wedding which is still…six weeks out.”
“They claim they just love it here and they’re looking at more ideas for the wedding. So they want a meeting with us. Today. I explained I had to check our schedules – since they didn’t give us any advance notice and…”
They all turned at the sound of voices in the outer office.
Ari cursed under her breath.
With a sigh of resignation, Ellie stood. “I’ll go and…”
“No,” Willow said firmly. “We are very accommodating to all of our clients but we do expect a certain amount of common courtesy from them as well.” She stood and smoothed down her skirt and ran a hand over her hair. “And personally, I don’t appreciate someone not respecting our time or that of our other clients. This has gone on long enough. We’ll handle it.”
“But…” Ellie began.
“I think I saw Max heading back toward his office,” Gussie said, her voice soft and her eyes sympathetic. “Go take a little break and maybe have a drink with your man.”
Ellie wanted to argue – she really did – but it appeared her bosses were pulling rank and doing it graciously. With a small smile, she waited until they all walked out to the reception area and then made her way out the back door.
Out in the sunshine, she sighed. This wasn’t how she wanted to spend her day – not that she minded going and having a little time alone with Max – but this whole situation put a damper on her good mood and that really pissed her off.
As she made her way along the path that would lead her to Max’s office, she tried to calm down – to find the happy feeling she had just thirty minutes ago. When his office came into sight, she forced a smile on her face and reminded herself that all was okay. This was just another minor bump in the road. This was…
“They’re back,” Max said as he opened his door for her.
Ellie stopped short. “How did you know?”
“I was mowing by the valet and saw them get out.” He shook his head and stepped aside so she could get out of the heat. “Did they have an appointment with the girls or…”
“Another spur-of-the-moment getaway,” she interrupted. “I told the girls I was done hiding. I’m done playing this childish game of hide-and-seek. It’s not who I am and I’m not going to do it anymore!” Her voice rose with each word and she almost jumped when Max’s hands gently grasped her shoulders.
“And yet…here you are.”
Dammit. She sagged a little. “Not by choice. They pulled rank on me.”
He chuckled and pulled her into his embrace. “So what do you want to do?”
“I want to be able to do my job and come and go around Casa Blanca as I please. That’s not asking too much, right?”
Taking a step back, he studied her face. “Okay then. Let’s do it.”
“Do what?” she asked, looking at him as if he were crazy.
“Let’s go take a walk.”
Take a…was he serious? “They’re in with the girls now and the girls know I’m here with you so…”
He shrugged. “So? We’ll just go and walk around and head down by the beach and just…be seen.”
If she wasn’t already falling in love – hard – with this man, this would have done it for sure. Unable to help herself, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. “How did I get so lucky?” she murmured against his shoulder.
“You didn’t seem like you were feeling so lucky a minute ago,” he teased.
“Yeah, well…then I realized what an amazing man you are and it snapped me out of my pity party.”
He hugged her tightly right before letting her go. Without a word, he walked over and grabbed a bottle of water for each of them and handed one to her.
“You sure you want to do this?”
“I’m game if you are,” he said, smiling.
It was one thing to say she was ready to confront them but it was quite another to actually do it. But when she looked at Max’s face, she knew that no matter what she decided to do, he would support her. And really, it was the only boost she needed.
“Let’s go.” Max took her hand as Ellie took a steadying breath. “Ready or not…”
****
She was tense. Max could feel it radiating off of her as they walked. Maybe he was wrong to push her to do this. Maybe he should have waited until it was Ellie’s idea and not his. But…hell. Enough was enough. Not that he blamed Ellie for feeling the way she did – it had to be rough having your ex pop up unannounced and ready to flaunt his wedding to the woman he cheated on you with.
If it were him dealing with a situation like this, he would have punched someone in the face already and moved on. Then he almost chuckled at the image of Ellie punching good ol’ Harry in the face. The guy totally deserved it. And Max would love to be the one to do it. And that image really made him grin.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked quietly as they walked along the path toward the main building.
“Just thinking about the look on Harry’s face if you hit him. Or I did,” he replied, still grinning.
She shook her head but did laugh. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
They took the path to the right that would lead them down to the beach. Ellie stopped and kicked off her sandals and held them in her hand before they continued on. Max wasn’t sure what to say. This should be nothing – it was just the two of them out for a walk – so why did it feel so…weird?
“So you’ll have off on Sunday, right?” he asked after a few minutes of complete silence. They were on the sand and walking toward a row of cabanas.
“It’s a light weekend. The girls told me most weekends are booked but once in a while we’ll have a slow one. I’m kind of looking forward to it.”
“Me too,” he said as he looked out at the waves crashing on the beach. “I was thinking…I normally go over to Naples and have dinner with my family on Sundays. I mean, not every Sunday but…a couple of Sundays a month.” He paused and felt like a babbling idiot. “Anyway, I’m supposed to go there this weekend and was wondering if you’d like to go with me.”
He didn’t look at her as he asked and they kept walking at a leisurely pace. He was a grown man, for crying out loud. Why did it feel so weird to ask her to go to dinner with him?
Because it’s to meet your family, he chided himself. Big step. Meeting the family is always a big step. And even though she hadn’t asked him to meet hers yet…
“I’d like that,” she said after a moment.
A curt nod was his immediate response. “Good.”
There were people scattered around on the beach and a few of the cabanas were in use and Max suddenly felt as if a great weight had been lifted, like they’d made a big step here. Now if they could get rid of this whole Harry and Monica issue, he felt like everything would be just right. Sure, they wouldn’t have any reason to play around and hide and find themselves in confined spaces – something he really enjoyed – but it would be worth it. Besides, if they really wanted to, they could. It just wouldn’t be out of necessity. And he was going to miss that little bit of silliness for them.
Glancing to his right, he spotted an empty cabana and quickly pulled her inside, wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. He kissed her until she completely relaxed in his arms. Her sandals fell to the sand along with her water bottle. When he lifted his head, her eyes were glazed and her lips were wet and a little swollen.
“Wow,” she sighed. “What brought that on?”
“I just realized that by going on this walk and essentially bringing an end to this game of hide-and-seek, we wouldn’t be doing anything like this again.”
“Well…I wouldn’t say it like that,” she began with a hint of sassiness. “I mean, who’s to say I won’t just be overcome with lust when I see you walking around sometime and won’t grab you and drag you into a closet somewhere and climb you like a tree?”
“Promise?”
Raking her hands up into his hair and pulling him down for another kiss, she murmured, “Definitely.”
Max’s mind was swirling with the thought of closing the sides on the cabana and letting her climb him right here, right now. He knew no one would bother them but…at least he thought no one would bother them.
Oh, hell, he thought. There was no way he was going to take that risk. No one needed to see them…climbing.
“You know,” he said a few minutes later after they’d caught their breath, “I think if you ever get a weekend off, we should make reservations here and check out all the amenities ourselves.”
“Really? You’d want to book a weekend where we both work?”
Taking her hand back in his, he led them out of the cabana and back toward the main building. The beach ahead of them was fairly isolated and if the whole point of this walk was to be seen, they needed to be where people were.
“Sweetheart, have you ever seen the villas here? They’re magnificent. Completely private and have their own pools.”
“Seriously? Each private villa?”
He nodded. “I haven’t been in many, but the few I have seen are amazing. Kind of always wanted to stay in one, but…”
“But what?”
Shrugging, he said, “Never had anyone I wanted to stay in one with.” He saw her eyes go a little wide and then the slow smile cross her face. “It’s true.”
“I bet there have been plenty of women who would have loved to stay in one with you.”
Max playfully nudged her shoulder as they walked on. “Doesn’t matter. There’s only one I want to stay here with.” He waited a beat. “So what do you say? Think you’d like that?”
Ellie stopped walking and waited as Max faced her. “I think I’d love that. As a matter of fact, I may have to go back to the office and look at our calendar for the next couple of months and find a weekend that’s light so I can put in my request.”
Honestly, Max was a little bummed about having to wait that long. What if…
“What about tomorrow night?”
This time her eyes went really wide. “What?”
“Tomorrow night. After the wedding. We’ll see if they have any villas available and we’ll stay here.”
“Max…that’s crazy! And…and we wouldn’t get to fully enjoy it! The wedding will be over by five but then I won’t be done until about seven and then we’d have to check out by noon on Sunday. It’s not a lot of time and…we’re going to see your parents on Sunday.”
“If we checked out at noon, that would give us plenty of time to get ourselves together and over to Naples.”
She looked up at him and as much as he hated it, the look on her face said it all. And she was right. When they did finally get to stay in one of the villas, he wanted it to be for an entire uninterrupted weekend.
“Okay. We’ll wait. But you can’t blame me for being anxious,” he said, hoping he sounded light and not like he was pouting.
“It was a very sweet idea,” she said soothingly. “And I promise I’m going to look into it this afternoon and find us the perfect weekend to stay and relax.”
He sighed dramatically. “I guess that will have to do.”
”I’m sorry.”
“There’s always hide–and-seek,” he teased.
“I knew it! I knew you were hiding around here and now we’ve found you!” Both Max and Ellie stopped and stared as Monica Olsen and Harry Elliott blocked their way off of the beach.