She’d even thought about replacing the fountains in the lobby with a two-story waterfall. In fact, she was still considering it.
It was halfway through the afternoon, and her legs were starting to cramp. She rose from her computer, crossing the living room to the kitchen, snagging her second Sugar Bob’s doughnut. She knew they were becoming an addiction. But she promised herself she’d add an extra half hour at the gym every day, and she’d kick the habit completely just as soon as the Harper building renovation was complete.
A woman could only handle so many things at once. She took a big bite.
There was a rap on her door, so she ditched the doughnut in the box and tossed the box back into her cupboard, wiping the powdered sugar from her lips.
For a split second she wondered if it might be Zach. Then, just as quickly, she promised herself she wouldn’t open the door if it was.
She wouldn’t.
She had absolutely nothing left to say to the man.
But when she checked through the peephole, it was Lindsay standing in the hallway. Kaitlin opened the door to find her friend balancing a large Agapitos pizza box on one hand and holding a bottle of tequila in the other.
“Pepperoni and sausage,” Lindsay said without preamble, walking forward as Kaitlin opened the door up wide and shifted out of the way. “I hope you have limes.”
It was only three-thirty. Somewhat early to start in on margaritas, but the day was already a nutritional bust, so what the hell?
“How are you holding up?” asked Lindsay as she crossed to the small kitchen table while Kaitlin shut and latched the apartment door.
“I am absolutely fine,” said Kaitlin, her determination putting a spring in her step as she squared her shoulders.
“You are a terrible liar,” Lindsay countered.
That was true enough. But Kaitlin also knew that if she said something loud enough and often enough, sometimes it started to feel true.
Kaitlin headed for the fridge, reciting the words she’d rehearsed in her mind. “So it turned out to be a con. It wasn’t like we didn’t expect it to be one. Zach was fighting to save money. I was fighting for my career. Our positions were incompatible from the get-go.” She paused, taking a moment to regroup her emotions. “Though I have to admit, I didn’t expect him to be quite so good.”
She tugged open the fridge door, fighting to keep her voice even, but not doing a particularly good job. “Still, I was colossally stupid to have fallen for his act. I mean, didn’t you and I call it almost to the detail before we left?”
“I never thought he’d take it as far as he did,” Lindsay ventured from behind her.
“I did,” said Kaitlin with a decisive nod as she bent to scoop a couple of limes from the crisper drawer. “He was trying to use sex as an advantage all along.”
She’d known that. And she had no idea why she’d let herself sink so far into a ridiculous fantasy. She’d figured it out, yet in four short days he had her convinced to do exactly what he’d wanted with the renovations, and she was romping wantonly in his bed every night to boot.
Stupid move.
She snagged the limes.
Yesterday she’d been angry.
This morning she’d been heartbroken.
Right now, she was more embarrassed than anything.
“What about you?” she asked Lindsay, making up her mind to quit talking about it as she closed the fridge.
“What about me?” Lindsay had perched herself on one of the stools at the small breakfast bar with the pizza box in front of her.
Kaitlin set the limes down on the countertop and pulled a long, sharp knife out of the wooden block. “What about you and Dylan?”
“There is no me and Dylan.”
“There was yesterday.”
Lindsay gave her blond hair a quick toss. “He’s dead to me.”
“I like that,” Kaitlin said defiantly, slicing into a lime. It sounded so unemotional and final.
“Have you heard anything from Zach?” Lindsay asked.
Kaitlin squeezed half a lime into the blender as she shook her head. “If I see his number, I’ll hang up. And if he drops by, I won’t answer the door.”
“What about the renovation?”
Kaitlin emphasized her words by pointing the knife tip to her computer on the dining table. “I am doing my full-blown design. I’m adding a helipad and a waterfall. It’ll be fabulous. I’ll probably win an award.”
Lindsay flipped open the cardboard box, folding it back to reveal the gooey, fragrant pizza. “I can’t believe they turned out to be such rats.”
“Dead-to-us rats,” Kaitlin stated, fighting to keep her emotions in check over the thought of never seeing Zach again.
Why had she let herself trust him? Did she think he’d love her, really marry her, have babies with her and turn her life into some fantasy?
She was Kaitlin Saville, penniless orphan. Things like that didn’t happen to her.
Lindsay tore a bite from one of the pizza slices and popped it into her mouth. “You thought he was the one?” she ventured softly.
Suddenly exhausted, Kaitlin set down the knife. “Stupid of me, I know.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It’s all my fault.”
“He played you.”
“And I let him. I encouraged him. I helped him. And now all I have left is revenge.”
“Revenge can be satisfying,” said Lindsay. “Especially when it’s going to save your career.”
“I don’t want revenge,” Kaitlin responded with blunt honesty, turning to squeeze the other half of the lime into the blender. “I hate revenge. I feel like I’m getting revenge against Sadie instead of Zach.” She dropped the lime peel and braced herself against the countertop.
She knew she couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t spend Harper money on a design she knew Sadie would hate. Her laugh sounded more like a cry.
“Katie?” Lindsay was up and rounding the breakfast bar.
“I’m fine,” Kaitlin sniffed. But she wasn’t fine. She was about to give up her career and her future for a family that wasn’t even hers.
“Don’t you love it when you know you’ve been a jerk?” Dylan asked, cupping his hands behind his head and stretching back in the padded chair next to Zach’s office window.
Zach was standing, too restless to sit down while his mind struggled to settle on a course of action.
“I mean,” Dylan continued, “sometimes you’re not sure. But other times, like this, you’re positive you’ve been a complete ass.”
Zach folded his arms across his chest, watching the clouds streak across the sky far away over the Jersey shore. “Are you talking about me or you?”
“I’m talking about both of us.”
Zach turned. He didn’t know about Dylan’s behavior, but he maintained that he’d been put in an untenable position. He never set out to hurt anyone. He was only trying to do right by his company and his family.
“And what should I have done differently?” he demanded.
Dylan grinned at Zach’s upset. “I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t have pretended you were married.”
“I am married.”
“I’m guessing not for long.”
Zach shook his head. “She’s not going to divorce me. It’s her leverage.”
At least he hoped Kaitlin wasn’t going to divorce him yet. He wasn’t ready for that.
Dylan crossed an ankle over one knee. “Conning her into scaling back the renovation was one thing. But you’re not a heartless bastard, Zach. Why’d you mess with her emotions like that?”
Zach felt his anger rise. What he’d done with Kaitlin was none of Dylan’s business. It was between him and Kaitlin. It was… They were…
“And what about you?” he queried, deflecting the question. “You slept with Lindsay.”
“That was a simple fling.”
“And what do you think I had?”
Dylan sat up straight. “I don’t know, Zach. You tell me.” His gaze moved meaningfully to the package of papers on the table between them.
“That’s nothing,” Zach denied. That was simply him being a decent human being, something which Dylan didn’t seem to believe was possible.
“You put nine private investigators on the case.”
“So?” Zach had wanted something fast. More men, better speed.
“So how did that benefit you?”
“It wasn’t supposed to benefit me.” It was meant to benefit Kaitlin, to put a smile on her face, to banish the haunted look that came into her eyes every time the subject of his family came up, which was nearly every second they were on Serenity Island.
But the effort had pretty much been a failure. Despite the high-end manpower, all he’d found of Kaitlin’s heritage was a grainy old newspaper photo showing her grandparents and her mother as a young girl. The family home had burned down, killing the grandparents and destroying all of the family possessions when Kaitlin’s mother was sixteen, two years before Kaitlin was born.
The picture, two names and a gravesite were all Zach had turned up.
“You still going to give them to her?” asked Dylan.
“Sure,” said Zach, with a shrug, pretending it was no big deal. “Maybe I’ll mail them over.”
“Mail them?”