Brodie

Damn if that Nara wasn’t one tough customer. If I hadn’t been unable to stop thinking about her gorgeous face, long legs, brains, and smart-ass attitude, I might have thrown in the towel by then.

What was it about her? I mean, she was beautiful and classy, sure. Ambitious, too. And she didn’t give a shit about my money. But what really got to me was that she was making me work for it. And that was something new.

I was trying to head out of work early on a Friday afternoon, unusual for me. Weekends were the cash cows of the hotel business, and I’d normally be busting my ass, making sure everything was in place for the next three days of craziness. Not that we weren’t busy during the week, it’s just that things were calmer…and slower. Weekday guests were normally here for business. Weekend guests were here for pleasure, and they had an entirely different set of expectations. Everything had to be fucking perfect. And it nearly always was.

I hadn’t been in touch with my conniving business partners since I’d found out about their plan to screw me over. I was still thinking through the best way to handle things. But my ass was chapped that those fuckers even thought for one moment they could take away the hotel my dad built from the ground up.

“Dalt,” I said, calling my brother in Sausalito.

“Yo, little Bro. What’s up?”

I heard seagulls in the background. Living the California life. Fucker.

“Dude. I got a story for you. Do you have some time?”

“Sure. I just finished cleaning my brushes.”

I pictured him taking a seat on the old beat up couch in his studio, bright sunlight shining everywhere, a nice ocean breeze blowing through…

I sat down, too. “So, I got this weird piece of mail last week.”

I shared the whole story of how I’d accidentally discovered my business partners’ meeting with a law firm to discuss breaking up the HWE partnership.

“Holy shit,” he said. “Can they even do that?”

“It looks like it.” I shared with him the conversation I’d had with my attorney Joe. Talking about it left me with a grinding burn in the pit of my stomach. I hadn’t experienced anything quite like it since my dad’s trial.

“So what are you gonna do?” he asked.

I sucked in my breath. “Dunno yet. I’m trying to think it through calmly. Maybe find a way to surprise them. I have a few ideas brewing.”

“I’ll get you in touch with those new investors soon. That should open up some options.”

“Thanks, Dalt. I know I can always count on your support. I suppose I could always buy the guys out, but I hesitate to liquidate so much of my investment portfolio.”

“You’ll figure it out,” he said.

He was right. There was no alternative.

* * *

On my way through the hotel lobby, the receptionist, Sonya, eyed me. Since I’d rebuffed her, she’d mostly ignored me, but in an effort to keep her from feeling uncomfortable, I’d gone out of my way to be friendly. I walked over to her after she helped the last guest in line. Scott, the other staff member on the desk, nodded and went back to his work. He was the epitome of discretion. God love him.

“Sonya, how has your day been?” I asked.

She looked surprised. Still pissed, perhaps.

“Very good, Mr. Harcourt. And yours?” She smiled, but there was something hard behind her eyes. Had she thought something would come of our little encounters? I was a freaking idiot. Would I ever learn?

I leaned toward her and said in a lowered voice, “I hope you’ve been well. Again, I’m sorry we couldn’t continue what we started. I’m really sorry.” And I was. Sort of.

I must have said something right, because I could swear her expression brightened. I looked over to see Scott watching us, but he quickly put his nose back in his computer and out of our business.

Sonya looked around and sneaked a finger across the front desk to touch my hand. “It’s okay, Mr. Harcourt. I knew it had to end some time.”

“I appreciate your understanding, Sonya. And I appreciate all your hard work.”

“You’re welcome.” She was smiling now but also looking over my shoulder. New guests were coming in. Perfect timing.

“Talk to you later,” I said.

“Yes, Mr. Harcourt. Of course.”

* * *

I had the limo run uptown to pick up Nara, who still didn’t know where we were going. The driver let me know when they were only a few blocks away from the hotel so I could head out front to jump in and join her.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I said, pulling the car door shut behind me.

And boy, did she look gorgeous. Hair pulled up into a neat ponytail, loose black trousers, and what looked like another of her signature white blouses. It didn’t get much classier than that. And of course, she was dragging around her bag loaded with bricks. I planted a hot one on her delicious lips.

“Brodie! Fancy meeting you here.” She laughed.

“Okay, so now Miss Happy is a joker?”

The late afternoon sun shone in the car window and illuminated her flawless skin. She reached over and clasped my fingers.

“Just keeping you on your toes, Mr. Hotel Guy.” She turned to fully face me. “Now are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

I looked out the window and realized we were nearly there. I nodded toward a sign.

Her brows wrinkled. “What are we doing at a heliport?”

“What do you think, Happy? We’re going for a helicopter ride.”

“No way! I’ve never been in a helicopter.”

“Well, you’re gonna love it.”

Her brows knit together. “I don’t know. Where are we going?”

“We’re flying over Manhattan and then to the Hamptons for dinner.”

Her mouth dropped open just as I’d hoped it would. “No way! But wait a minute. I have to get to work in the morning. Even though it’s Saturday, I have a load of things to do.”

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to me. “Don’t worry. We’ll be in Montauk in forty minutes. We’ll have dinner and head back home. In fact, I bet I’ll have you back home before nine thirty since we’re off to such an early start.”

I opened the door and held out my hand. “Are you coming? Or do I have to have dinner by myself?”

* * *

We were finally thirteen hundred feet in the air, both struck speechless. I’d flown over Manhattan many times, but never failed to be dumbstruck by the view from above. Aside from the bright yellow taxis, the typical noise, movement, and crush of people were invisible from this high up. It all looked so damn peaceful. Which of course was a total illusion.

“Oh my god, there’s the Chrysler Building!”

I leaned forward to tap the pilot on the shoulder and made a spinaround motion with my finger. He knew exactly what I wanted, and got as close as he could to the building to circle it.

“Holy shit. I can see people in their offices!” She pressed her hands against the windows like a little kid.

It amazed me, too. To see the most powerful city on Earth, where it looked about as intimidating as a sleeping baby, was just plain difficult to grasp. Her hand reached for mine as she leaned across me to the other side of the helicopter.

“Are you scared?” I asked.

She thought for a sec and shook her head. “No. Not at all. It’s so peaceful. I’m just blown away. I’ll never have the same perspective on New York again,” she said in a whisper.

That was exactly how I felt.

We finished our tour of the spit of land that was Manhattan and headed east, flying over the bedroom communities of Long Island. Nara’s fingers gripped mine tighter when a burst of wind bounced us around, and I lifted her hand to my lips. She looked at me, quietly settling back into her seat.

“Look at the beaches,” Nara said. They were long and sweeping, and we were low enough to see the tide was coming in.

“It’s so magical,” she added.

We landed a few minutes later and a cab took us to dinner at Flagstone, one of the best restaurants in the small Hamptons beach town of Montauk.

Before we exited the cab to enter the restaurant, I turned and saw her looking at me with those blue eyes. I took my best shot and lowered my mouth to hers.