Their Festive Island Escape

Reid gave him a nod. “Got it. I’ll go make some phone calls.” He pivoted toward his office.

“And then there’s your father,” Alex called out after him.

Reid stopped in his tracks and turned back to face his friend. “What about him?”

“He’s been calling the office all morning. Says he got tired of leaving you messages on your cell just to have you ignore him.”

Of course his father would say that. The truth was, Reid had given him every opportunity to change the course of the disastrous path they currently found themselves on.

“How’s that whole thing going anyway?” Alex asked.

“About as well as can be expected. He wants full control of the company back.” What made it so much worse was that Reid knew his father was ready to retire. The only reason he was doing this was to please his new bride-to-be.

“Any chance of that happening?” Alex wanted to know.

Reid shrugged. “He has some cronies on the board who are ready to vote as he wants.” Reid would risk an all-out battle before he let that vote go his father’s way—if it ever came to a vote.

Alex let out a low whistle. “Hostile takeover attempts can be brutal under any circumstances.”

“Let alone amongst family,” Reid finished his thought for him.

“I’m here if you want to talk,” Alex said to his back as Reid walked into his office.

Once there, with the door shut, he finally let out the full brunt of the frustration he’d been feeling since leaving Celeste’s bed this morning, by launching his priceless signed Red Sox vintage baseball across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thud and sent chips of paint flying.

Great. One more thing to have to fix. This time, he’d done it to himself.

If Alex heard the noise outside in the foyer, he was too astute to knock and ask him about it. Not that he ever actually knocked.

The angry calls from his father served as a reminder that he was right to leave Celeste this morning without lingering any further the way he’d wanted to. He’d so badly wanted to. The right thing to do was to leave her alone.

It wouldn’t be easy, and it would take a great deal of effort, but eventually, he might even stop thinking about the way she’d felt in his arms last night.

An internal voice immediately mocked him. Yeah, right. He’d be thinking about her touch for the rest of his natural life. He could only hope to stop missing her at some point during it. Forty or fifty years apart might do it.

But she deserved to be able to move on. He didn’t have the right to stand in her way.

* * *

He was going stir-crazy in this office. Reid cursed and threw his pen down on the desk blotter so hard it bounced off and landed on the carpet. He had to get out for a while. There were a dozen more calls to be made. Several documents to be signed and countless emails to answer. But he couldn’t concentrate. Before the start of this week he might have boasted about his superior focus skills. It didn’t help that he kept checking his phone to see if Celeste had sent him the text yet. As of three minutes ago, she had not. The short time frame didn’t stop him from checking yet again. Nothing.

Not from her, anyway. By cruel contrast, his phone was buzzing with texts and voice mails left by his father.

He stood up and stormed out of his office. The desk attendant in the concierge area smiled at him when he approached. “Reid. I was just about to come knock. Someone left a file for you.”

She handed him an envelope. He removed the papers within. Celeste’s report. But she was supposed to have sent it electronically.

“How long ago was this dropped off?”

“Just a couple of minutes. The young lady used the business office to print it then dropped it off here. She said you were expecting it.”

She couldn’t have gotten far. Reid knew he shouldn’t do it, but he found himself following the path she would take if she were to head back to her room from the concierge lobby. The least he could do was thank her.

The mocking voice reemerged. As if that’s the reason you’re trying to catch her.

He saw her moments later on the path by the kiddie pool. She stopped to retrieve and toss back an inflatable ball to a toddler when it rolled by her feet. The action stalled her long enough for him to catch up.