I smiled, grim. “So imagine my horror when he came to me at the end of the summer and told me that he’d gotten carried away, that he didn’t love me, that it was a mistake, that we were too young. He told me that his parents would never approve because I was a townie. I wasn’t good enough. He transformed in front of me into this person I didn’t recognize. And then he left. I never saw him again. To make matters worse, Vanessa had a crush on him and I didn’t know until it was too late. My relationship with her was already going downhill and it just fell apart after him.”
Jessica took hold of my hand, anger burning in the depths of her hazel eyes. “He was a coward.”
“Yes, he was. But no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, he changed me. I used to think I was special. Maybe in a cocky way, maybe I was a little arrogant.” I smiled ruefully. “But I was popular and loved, living in an extraordinary town, and I felt extraordinary, too. But I let him take that away from me, and I let him make me afraid of allowing myself to be that vulnerable to someone again. Meeting Tom was great because I knew I could love him without losing myself in him. I knew I was safe with him because I’d never feel that passionately about him . . . But Vaughn . . . he isn’t safe.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Dahlia sighed. “Vaughn’s a grown man. He’s not some stupid kid who is afraid of his parents.”
“Then why won’t he tell me anything real about himself? Sure he’ll talk about his mom and his dad and his freaking grandparents, but God forbid anyone should ask him something real about himself.”
“Why don’t you make him?”
Because I’m afraid if I do, I will fall in love with him.
That was the truth. It had been bubbling up inside of me, trying to force its way to the surface ever since Vaughn’s first rejection of me when we had sex.
I knew if he hadn’t rejected me then, I would have given him a chance.
The girls waited patiently on an answer I was too scared to voice out loud.
When it became clear I had no answer for them, Jess spoke. “What about the other thing he told you? About Vanessa and Jack Devlin?”
Em winced at Jack’s name, and I felt guilty. Had I actually tried to suggest something happen with her and Jack?
More than that, I’d been considering how to reunite Jack with all of us.
Only for the son of a bitch to turn around and stab me in the back.
“It makes no sense.” Dahlia shook her head. “Why on earth would he punch Stu for attacking you and then weasel his way into Vanessa’s pants to get to the inn?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed at my forehead, feeling the pressure of a sickening headache. “But according to Vaughn, this is their new plan. And Jack’s the willing whore.”
“Cooper will be pissed.” Jess sighed. “I think he wanted to believe that there’s something more behind Jack’s defection.”
“I still think there is. But he’s betraying friends right, left, and center now, and any forgiving feelings I or anyone else might have toward him need to be kept under lock and key. He can’t be trusted. He’s using my sister.” Anger tore through me. “I know Vanessa and I don’t see eye to eye, but she’s still my family. And I don’t want her to get hurt over this.”
“Hurt over what?”
All of our heads whipped around in unison. Vanessa was standing in the sitting room staring at us. We’d been so deep in conversation that we hadn’t even heard her enter the house.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well?”
I looked from her to Jessica, and she read my silent question in my eyes.
“I think we should give them some privacy . . .” My friend stood up, gesturing to Dahlia and Emery.
The three of them got up, hugged me, told me to call them if I needed them, and generally made me thankful for them, before they hustled out of my house, leaving me to tell Vanessa the ugly truth.
Her reaction was to burst into laughter.
I stared at her, stunned.
“What?” She gave me a bitter smile once her amusement died down. “You think a guy like Jack Devlin couldn’t possibly want me for anything else but my connection to that stupid little inn?”
Her insults pricked. “Watch it.”
“No, you watch it. It may be hard for you to understand this but some men like glamorous, beautiful women who know what to do in bed.” She swished her hair over her shoulder with attitude. “Jack Devlin likes the way I get him off, and that’s the reason he’s paying attention to me. Not because of the inn.”
“I’m sure sleeping with you is a bonus.” I attempted to appease her. “But the Devlins are still using you to get to the inn.”
“Is this what your life is?” She looked disgusted. “Are you so bored that you have to make up these little dramas? Is that why you lied and said Stu Devlin attacked you?”
There was really only so much a person could take in one day, and in that moment, realizing how little regard my sister had for me or the business my family had run for generations . . . I lost my shit. “Get. Out.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Get out!” I yelled, making her flinch. “Gather all of your crap and get out of my house!”
Gobsmacked, Vanessa could only stare at me. “And where am I supposed to go?”
“I could give a flying monkey’s ass! You don’t respect me, you don’t respect this family, and I am done putting up with your shit.” My chest heaved as I struggled to catch my breath.
My little sister’s lips trembled and I could see the sheen across her eyes as she began to turn on the waterworks. In answer to that I snatched up my car keys and strode past her without looking at her. “You have two hours to get your crap and your butt out of my house. If I come home and you’re still here, I’m calling the sheriff.”
I’d barely arrived at the inn, still shaken from my confrontation with my sister, when the phone in my office rang.
And it was my parents on speakerphone.
“You threw your sister out?” my mother squeaked, appalled.
Vanessa certainly didn’t take long tattling on me.
“Yes.”
“Bailey, we don’t treat family like that,” Mom admonished.
I closed my eyes, searching for calm. Thankfully I sounded pretty in control when I replied, “Yes, well, we also don’t disrespect one another but Vanessa has done that continually since her arrival here.”
“She’s a little temperamental but that doesn’t qualify for eviction.”
“She accused me of lying about Stu Devlin attacking me.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Why would she do that?” my father said.
I really didn’t want to discuss their child’s love life with them but . . . “Because she’s sleeping with Jack Devlin. I have good reason to suspect that Jack is trying to use Vanessa to get to the inn. I was trying to make sure she didn’t get hurt. Not only wouldn’t she listen, she was insulting, and considering how insulting she’s been for the past few weeks, that, I’m afraid, was the last straw.”
“Should we come up there?” my dad asked. “Try and talk some sense into her?”
“Dad, I hate to say this because I don’t want to see her get hurt . . . but I think it would be best for her if she did.”
“What does that mean?” Mom asked, worried.
“Vanessa thinks that she can control people, men, with her looks. It’s dangerous to think that for many reasons. Maybe this is a lesson we need her to learn. She’ll find out soon enough Jack is using her, and hopefully it’ll make her grow up and see that she isn’t the center of the universe, and people will prey on her blind conceit.”
“A little humbling might do her a world of good, you mean?”
“Yes.”
My mom sighed. “I d
on’t know.”
“Stacy, I think Cherry is right. At least she’s there for Vanessa if everything blows up in her face.”
After a moment of silence my mom whispered, “Okay.”
We hung up, all of us unsettled by the prospect of Vanessa getting hurt, but knowing it was a lesson my hardheaded, selfish, egotistical baby sister needed to learn.
A little fall back to earth might just knock some sense into her.
TWENTY-TWO
Vaughn
The last thing he wanted to do was attend a wedding.
However, when that wedding was the wedding of his friend and the reception was being held in his own hotel it was a little difficult to avoid attendance.
Plus, Bailey would be there. And despite how horrifically gut wrenching the experience of telling someone you loved them and not having them say it back was, Vaughn was not giving up.
He was Vaughn Tremaine. He hadn’t created a hotel empire by giving up at the first or even the second or third hurdle. It was all about determination and perseverance.
There had to be a way to convince her to give him a shot without dredging up the past and things that didn’t even matter anymore. His plan was to give her a little time, but not a lot, and then seduce her. He’d do this by becoming a constant in her life. He’d keep throwing himself into town life if that would help win her over, and he’d just be there for her. Time would prove that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“How are things going in here?” Vaughn strolled into Cooper’s hotel room. He’d given his friend the room free of charge since Jessica wanted a traditional start to their marriage and had asked Cooper to stay somewhere else the night before their wedding.
Cooper was dressed in his tux. He was a totally different man in a suit. Very distinguished. But he also looked like he was chafing in it. His sister, Cat, and her son, Joey, were in the room along with Cooper’s reclusive chef Crosby.
Crosby seemed five million times more uncomfortable than Cooper in his suit. He sat on an armchair, chewing nervously at his nonexistent fingernails.
As for Cat she was smiling tenderly at her big brother and she looked stunning in a blue summer dress that matched her eyes. Her thick dark hair was pulled back from her face in some kind of messy bun thing, and it was the first time Vaughn really appreciated how beautiful Lawson’s sister was.
“Uncle Coop doesn’t like his tux. I don’t like mine, either.” Joey made a face.
Vaughn grinned at the little boy who was a miniature version of his uncle. Joey was Cooper’s best man. “Well, you look good.” He nodded at the boy’s mother. “You look beautiful, Cat.”
Surprise knocked the cockiness out of her smile, and there was an unexpected shyness to her response. “Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself, Tremaine.”
“None of that,” Cooper groaned. “First my pseudo sister, now my real sister. No, Vaughn. Just no.”
He chuckled. “Apparently a man is not allowed to compliment a woman without it being construed as lascivious.”
Cooper scowled at him. “When it’s you, yeah.”
“Well that’s insulting. I’m a perfect gentleman.”
“When a man has as many friends as you, other men start protecting their womenfolk from you.”
“Womenfolk. Really?” Vaughn smirked. Then he thought about how much Jessica seemed to want him and Bailey to work things out. And whatever Jessica wanted, Cooper wanted her to have. He cleared his throat, pushing past his aversion to discussing personal matters in public. “Well, if it makes you feel any better I have every intention of only having one friend from now on. I just need to convince her of that.”
“Bailey?”
He nodded.
That got him a shit-eating grin. “Good.” Cooper clapped him on the shoulder. “About time.”
“Yes, well, she’s not exactly amenable but . . . I’m working on it.”
Cat smirked at him. “I hope you have a lot of patience, Tremaine. I’ve known Bailey Hartwell my whole life and when she digs her heels in, man does she dig them in good and deep.”
“I’m aware. She decided I was a—” He stopped, considering Joey who was listening intently. “Not a very nice person a while ago, and hasn’t really changed her mind about that.”
“If you can change how the people of this town see you, you can change Bailey Hartwell’s mind,” Cat assured him.
God, he hoped so. “I guess we’ll see.” He looked at Cooper. “Do you have everything you need?”
The nervous groom sucked in a huge breath and exhaled. “Yeah, think so.”
“No nerves, Lawson. No reason for them. She loves you.”
“Yeah, I know, I just want to get married quickly before she comes to her senses and changes her mind.”
“Not going to happen. So you’re set?”
“Crosby might need some new fingernails,” Cat joked. The man hadn’t said a word since Vaughn had entered the room.
Crosby scowled at Cat and dropped his hand from his mouth.
“I’m just going to check everything is as it should be for the reception.” Vaughn strode to the door. “Ceremony is in thirty minutes, so I advise you to make your way down to the bandstand.”
Ten minutes later Vaughn was assured that his staff had everything under way for the reception that afternoon. He wandered back through his hotel, politely greeting his guests, as he made to leave for the ceremony.
In that moment he took a surprising amount of joy in the idea of Cooper and Jessica finding a happy life together, and he had hope that he could turn things around with Bailey.
That hope smashed into smithereens when he walked into the foyer of his hotel and saw who was standing at reception.
“Oliver?”
Dread filled him as Oliver Spence grinned at him and spread his arms wide. He was wearing a tux. “Heard there was a wedding.”
Fuck.
“Oliver, what are you doing here?” He noted the two women standing behind his old friend, and that dread worsened.
“I’m bored.” Oliver strode over to him and slid an arm around his shoulders. “I was out last night at some boring society charity event and I bumped into your father. He said that your friends were getting married at your hotel here and I got curious. So I thought I’d come crash the party, and bring you a present, too.” He gestured behind him to the two women and they strode over in their six-inch heels, their hips swaying in beautiful exaggeration.
“Vaughn, this is Karen.” Oliver slid his arm around the gorgeous brunette’s slim waist. “And that is Petra.” He nodded to the striking blonde. “Karen and Petra are getting ready for New York Fashion Week.”
Models. Vaughn wasn’t surprised. They were both taller than him and Oliver in their six-inch heels, which put their non-heel-wearing height at about five ten, five eleven.
“We need to talk. Alone.”
Frowning, Oliver followed him across the foyer. “What’s wrong?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I told you.”
“I don’t need this right now, Spence. I don’t need a Petra right now. I have a wedding to get to.”
“Give me a break, Vaughn,” Oliver groaned. “I need time away from New York, okay? I’m going out of my mind there. And I haven’t seen this place in a while. I’m not trying to get in your way.”
“You can’t come to the ceremony.”
“Of course not. I don’t know these people. We’re just here for the evening reception. You don’t have a date for the reception, do you?”
“No but—”
“Great.” Oliver smacked Vaughn on the back. “Petra is a sweetheart. She’s Karen’s best friend. Oh, and did I tell you Karen’s surname is De Havilland? Not only is she a successful model but she’s the granddaughter of Frederick De Havilland.”
??
?The shipping magnate?”
“The very one. Blue blood through and through. My mother loves her, which should be a deterrent, but I’m crazy about this girl. She might be the next Mrs. Spence. For real this time.”
“Happy for you, Oliver. But I’m going to be late.”
“Go, go.” He shooed him away. “We’ll be here, waiting for the fun to start.”
Knowing how stubborn his friend could be, and that he wasn’t going to get rid of him anytime soon, Vaughn sighed and walked over to the concierge, gesturing to Oliver to follow him. “Alonso, this is a good friend of mine, Mr. Spence. Would you see to it that Mr. Spence and his friends are provided with a table in the bar? Add whatever they order to my tab.”
“Of course, sir.”
Oliver smacked him on the back. “Did I ever tell you that I love you?”
“Once.” Vaughn nodded, shrugging his tux back into place. “When you were high, and you thought I was a Korean girl called Nari that you left behind on your travels in Seoul.”
“Really?” His friend sounded fascinated. “I can’t remember that. I can’t remember the girl, either. Then again I hardly remember Seoul. God, you’ve got a good memory.”
“You felt me up. Hard to forget.”
His friend threw his head back in laughter and Vaughn couldn’t help but join him. The dread he was feeling eased a little. Oliver was just here to relieve his boredom, but he’d never done anything truly embarrassing in public. He’d left those moments to private times. He’d behave himself. Vaughn was sure of it.
“I’ll see you in a bit.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
By the time Vaughn got to the bandstand the place was packed. All of the chairs that had been lined up in front of the bandstand on Main Street were full. He knew from listening to Jessica, and seeing the chosen decoration for the ballroom, that she was a minimalist. The chair covers were white with silver sashes but that was the extent of the decoration.