CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
KATY
What was wrong with her?
Did she have to keep running scared? Marcus James was just a man—granted, a gorgeous man—but it wasn’’t like he was crass or a lech or arrogant. For a billionaire, he was actually a nice guy. A nice guy with broad shoulders, a well-built chest, and hazel eyes she could get lost in. That velvet voice, she could listen to him recite eye colors all day.
Hazel.
When he stood behind her, holding her robe, she was tempted to lean back against his warmth. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind to run away.
Which begged the question, what about him, in particular, was she scared of?
Well, for one, she’d only known him for a week. For another, he could have anyone he wanted, surely. Why was he flirting with her?
He isn’t flirting with you. He’s just being nice.
Yes, that’s it.
Plus, he was a billionaire.
Still, she took extra care getting ready for dinner. They hadn’t talked about it, but most likely they would run into each other. There were places in Flores they could go to, or Las Lagunas had its own restaurant.
She went through her clothes and settled on her dressiest outfit. It was a slimming, long-sleeved black shirt dress that could easily give off a dressy vibe in ballet flats or casual if paired with sneakers. She put on her flats and looked this way and that in the mirror. From her luggage, she fished out a thin belt. There. That finished the outfit. Her hair, washed and blown dry, gleamed.
She felt pretty and nervous.
Someone knocked on her door. She opened it, to find Marcus looking gorgeous in a polo shirt folded at the sleeves and dark slacks.
“Hello, Katy.” That voice. So deep and gruff.
And those eyes.
“Hello,” she managed to say.
If she thought things would lighten between them after the tension she felt at the Jacuzzi, she was wrong. She was afraid to reveal herself and resisted the urge to retreat behind her door.
“Would you like to have dinner with me?” he asked.
“No, I want separate tables,” she teased, and they laughed.
“Is here all right?” he asked. “I walked around the grounds. They seem to have a decent restaurant.”
“For the price, they should,” she said. “Let me grab my purse.”
When she stepped out of her room, purse in hand, he gazed at her intently. “You look very pretty, by the way.”
“Thank you.” Warmth crept onto her cheeks.
She pulled her door shut and followed him down the hall. They walked side by side through the building where a couple checked in. Other couples walked past. No doubt Las Lagunas was a popular honeymoon destination, which made her feel even more awkward about keeping company with Marcus.
Until she glimpsed the sunset outside.
Katy sucked in her breath and hurried to the opening into the garden patio that overlooked the Quexil Lagoon. The sun itself wasn’t visible because they must have been facing the opposite way, but it tinged the edge of the water a deep orange. It made Katy think of a flame burning bright when something is lit.
A server approached them. In accented but fluent English, he invited them to sit at a table along the rail so they could continue to watch the sunset.
As the sun set gloriously, the lights over the patio came on.
Katy looked across the table at Marcus, who had been silent this whole time, watching her. His gaze scuttled and they both picked up the menu. She scanned the choices. Authentic Guatemalan fare with an expensive twist.
“What do you recommend?” he asked. “Aside from the strawberries, that is?”
She chuckled.
“The Pepian stew is traditional or the ceviche. Unless you have a weak stomach. The ceviche has raw fish.”
He winced. “I might steer clear of that.”
“Probably smart.”
“What will you try?”
“I think I’ll get their curry.”
When their orders came, they each tried the other’s food and carried on a pleasant conversation. Katy snuck glances at Marcus. Was this the same man who so rudely stole her parking space? Who had declared Christmas to be a superfluous holiday?
“What?” he asked, catching her looking at him.
“I think it’s funny that we’ve lived in New York all this time, never met except that one time in your office, and here we are, sharing a meal in Flores, Guatemala.”
He raised his drink to his lips and set it down. His mouth set grimly, and she worried she’d said something that might have offended him.
He said, “I’m glad you came in that day.”
She nodded to acknowledge his words calmly, even as they made her exult inside.
Putting down her fork, she dabbed her lips with her napkin. “Your wife was beautiful.”
He sat stock-still. “You’ve seen her picture?”
Katy pictured Amanda in her mind: blonde hair swept up in a loose knot, laughing into the camera, happy and in love.
“Online, yes,” Katy admitted. “It accompanied the…the news article. I hope you don’t mind me bringing her up.”
He lifted the back of his hand to his mouth and didn’t answer for a long moment.
Katy began to open her mouth to apologize.
“It’s all right,” he said. He closed his eyes and then opened them again. His mouth trembled.
Katy waited. She could wait the whole night if needed.
Tears filled his eyes, and he wiped at them. “She was an angel. You…you remind me a lot of her, actually.”
A warmth coursed through Katy at the compliment. “Well, thank you.”
“She and I met at the grocery store.” He smiled at the memory. “She wanted a tomato. Not just any tomato, but the one right smack in the middle of the pile, and I was going for a tomato too. I got a tomato, all right. Dozens of them, when they spilled all over me and my shoes.” He chuckled. “It must have been quite the cleanup.”
“Must have.”
“I got her number. I offered to make her tomato soup from scratch.” He smiled. “I had no idea how to make it.”
His eyes went glassy, lost in a memory. “We got engaged right away. Four weeks after a whirlwind courtship. We married two months later. We got pregnant two years afterward. Caleb would have been a beautiful baby.” His voice shook.
He reached for his napkin and then abandoned the movement impatiently.
Her heart ached for him. To have a baby waiting to come into the world, only for him to be snatched out so cruelly.
“I lost them on Christmas Day.” He laughed mirthlessly. “On freaking Christmas Day. Gift-wrapped to me in one horrible package. Two cops came to my door. They told me the news and suggested sit down, like that could have helped. I hurled the coffee table at the Christmas tree.” He shut his eyes at the memory.
The server approached the table, but at Marcus’s forbidding stare, he backed away slowly. “If you need anything…” he started to say before scurrying off.
“I can’t even imagine,” she said, choking back tears.
“I still can’t, after all these years. I haven’t wrapped my head around what happened. Why it had to happen to her and to him. To me. To us.””
Katy wanted to comfort him, but she knew he needed to do it on his own time. Her gaze lingered over his cheek, the little dip on his mouth that she would have called petulant early on now taking on a more noble appearance.
“Now that I told you that,” he said with a shaky laugh, “you probably expect me to push you away, starting…right now.” He raised defiant eyes to hers, sending a jolt through her body.
What did one say to that sort of…declaration? “I don’t expect you to do anything. I……frankly, I don’t have much experience in…love.”
“Love.” His mouth twisted at the word. “I’m not sure I know what that is anymore.”
Neither did she. They were a pair, both wounded. Both unable to heal each other.
He got up and shoved his chair back before disappearing into the hotel.