Garry, bless him, said nothing but gave me an encouraging smile and took me to a penthouse suite to get showered. When I had finished in the shower, I found a complimentary breakfast tray from Garry and a note. Chin up and smile. You’re better than him and deserve way more. I smiled. I had arranged for Garry and his fiancé to get a nice bonus for all they had done for Hayley and Drew’s wedding.
I ate my breakfast and left. Garry and his fiancé were there to see me off as I climbed into the town car and headed to the airport. I refused to let myself cry or even think of Damon. What was done was done. I had to move on, besides I had a lot to do when I got home as my parents were leaving in six months to go retire in Florida. I would miss being near them but it was their time now. They’d dedicated most of their married life to me and the business. Now, it was my turn to take over the hard work.
By the time I’d boarded the plane, there were over seven messages from Damon. I ignored them all, and as the seatbelt sign came on, I blocked his number. That was what I was going to do with him. Block him from my life. I was going to go to the office and draw up the lease agreement but I would have my assistant take the meeting with the Winters family. I wouldn’t be attending or even be in the building when it took place.
I pulled out a brochure my father had sent me. It was a wine tour of some of the wine farms in California. He wanted me to go on the tour to meet our fellow wine makers and immerse myself in the Californian wine culture before taking over the running of Reynolds wine and vineyard.
The tour was in nine weeks’ time, so I had time to recuperate from this Hawaii trip and shadow my father before leaving for the ten-day bus tour.
I sighed, put my head back, and drifted off to sleep as the plane took me back to California.
***
I’d managed to get a few hours of sleep on the plane on the way home. But I still felt exhausted. I was going to go home and call my mom and dad to let them know I arrived home safely and would see them tomorrow. Then I was going to order takeout from my favorite restaurant, have a hot bath, and curl up on my couch to watch a movie until I fell asleep.
By the time I’d got home and switched on my phone, I had a whole of unread messages. I couldn’t deal with them right now. I’d go through them later. I kicked off my shoes before the door closed and padded barefoot into the laundry where I dumped my suitcase. Again, I would deal with that tomorrow.
I ordered my takeout and called my parents. By the time I’d finished talking to them, my takeout had arrived. I ran a hot bath and climbed in. It was so nice to soak in the bubbles in my own tub. I put the jets on and let the water massage my aching muscles and I dozed off.
Where the jets of water touched my skin, I dreamed of Damon’s touch, his kisses, and how he’d managed to bring me pleasure I’d never even dreamed a person could feel. My eyes shot open when the shrill ring of my phone echoed through the tiled bathroom. It was not my ringtone but rather the sound for my incoming notifications. Someone was blowing up my phone with messages. I sat up and put off the jets, wiping my hands on the towel I had beneath my head. I picked up my phone and the first message to pop up was a picture of Damon and Celeste kissing passionately next to his rented Ferrari. It was time stamped today.
Anger and hurt boiled up inside me. I deleted the pictures and blocked Celeste. I don’t even know how or why I had her number on my phone. But most of the messages I’d had when I got home had been her sending pictures of her and Damon’s happy reunion.
Well, good luck to the both of them. That was a match made in hell if ever there was one.
I washed and got out of the bath. I wrapped my big fluffy towel around me and walked through to the kitchen to heat up my takeout that had gone cold.
***
I was curled up on the couch with my half-eaten takeout and watching some sad romantic movie when my doorbell rang. I frowned and looked at my phone. It was just after eleven. Who’d be ringing my bell at this time of night. I had put my robe on a little while ago and taken off the wet towel as I was getting cold. I hadn’t bothered to put anything else on as I liked the feel of my fluffy robe on my skin.