be a perfect match.
Even her family liked him. And Brendan liked the fact that he knew someone with “famous” connections. When they married, her parents would throw her a gala wedding to rival Myra’s first wedding. Or almost-wedding. That particular fiancé she had left literally standing at the altar.
Regardless, she and Brendan would live happily ever after. Corinne was sure of it. If not, if she couldn’t straighten his arrow, well then she was just going to have to deal with being single for the rest of her days, because she wasn’t going through this agony again for anyone. And she highly doubted, anyway, that there was anyone else out there waiting for her.
Brendan was her mate. Her future. The other half of her soul. Without him she would live like old Miss Havisham of Charles Dickens fame. Alone. In a decrepit wedding dress and a room full of spiders. Forever.
Well, maybe not spiders. She didn’t like them so much.
Ding-dong.
The doorbell startled Corinne out of her musings. That’s strange. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Instantly, her heart began to race. What if it was Brendan, she thought as she skipped through the house to her front door.
What if he had come to his senses? What if he was ready to give up all the other women so that he could be with her forever?
What if it was just Darla?
Corinne’s face fell and her shoulders slumped when she opened the door to find Darla on the other side of it. “Oh, it’s you.”
“And hello to you, too,” Darla greeted her with a sarcastic tone. “I figured you might be down so I brought some comfort food.” She lifted the brown bag she carried in her hand.
“What is it?” Corinne asked.
“Brownies and vodka.”
“Okay.” Corinne took the bag and wandered back to the kitchen. “Only one brownie for me though. I’ve got to get this body into a bathing suit in less than forty-eight hours.”
“Fine by me.” Darla never had any problems with finishing off brownies. She made her way to the over-stuffed couch in the living room and sat down. “So Matthew told me that you told Brendan that if he doesn’t give up the other women that it’s really going to be over between you two. Is that true? This isn’t just a ploy to get him to straighten up?”
“Matthew has a big mouth,” Corinne said, returning from the kitchen with a tray of brownies, two martini glasses and a bottle of Cosmopolitan mix. She set the tray down on the coffee table, splashed the mix into the two glasses, then topped them with the vodka that Darla had brought. She handed a glass to Darla and lifted her own.
“Here’s to a successful plan.”
“Here’s to your vacation,” Darla said.
“Here’s to my showing Brendan how much he’ll miss me.”
“Here’s to looking good in your bathing suit,” Darla said instead.
Corinne lowered her glass. “I’m not sensing I have your full support of my plan.”
Instead of answering, Darla took a sip of her drink.
Gasping, Corinne stood up and pointed at her friend. “You don’t support me,” she accused her.
Wincing, Darla put down her glass. “I just don’t understand what you see in him. He’s been nothing but awful to you. I mean, Marjorie from human resources? Really! The only thing I can figure is he must be fantastic in bed.”
Slowly, Corinne sank back down on the couch and took a sip of her drink. “I wouldn’t know,” she muttered.
“What!” Darla shouted, practically spilling her drink. “You’re telling me you’ve never slept with him?”
“Do I look like the sort of woman who would sleep with a man while he was sleeping with other women?” Corinne asked, offended at the mere idea.
“No.”
“When I’m finally with Brendan I want it to be special. I want it to be perfect. After all, he will be my first.”
“First what?”
“My first lover,” Corinne clarified.
Darla snorted at such an outright lie. “Are you kidding me? I know of at least one. What about Carlos?”
“Who?” Corinne asked, feigning ignorance.
“Carlos. The guy with hair and the motorcycle who you…”
“I know who Carlos is,” Corinne snapped. “I’m just choosing to forget him. I’m revirginizing myself for Brendan.”
Darla’s brow scrunched. “Can you do that?”
“Yes, it’s done all the time,” she replied breezily. “I read it in a magazine. The point is, Brendan is my future. My destiny. My one chance to have the kind of life I’ve always dreamed of. If this trip away from him doesn’t convince him of that, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“You could always, oh, I don’t know, maybe find someone else,” Darla suggested. “What about Matthew? This may be out of left field, but I think he might like you.”
Corinne dismissed that suggestion as if she hadn’t even heard it. It was ridiculous. Matthew Relic liking her. Matthew Relic and her together. Impossible. It would be like putting the sun and the moon together.
“No. I refuse to turn into my mother or my sister or my father or my brother. All of them like to just flit and fly from one love to the next like bumblebees in heat. That is not going to be me. No, I’ve already decided that if things don’t work out with Brendan, then I’m through with men forever.”
Darla’s eyes widened. “Wow. Forever? That’s a really long time.”
“Yes,” Corinne choked out, feeling the fear building inside her.
“I think that calls for at least one more brownie.”
Corinne did, too.
2
SHE STOOD OUT like a ripe plum in a white bowl.
Okay, so he wasn’t the best at analogies but Matthew understood what he meant. With her red hair billowing out from underneath a grand straw hat, wearing her purple bathing suit and matching sarong, and stretched out in her chair on the powdery white sand, she was exactly as he had described. It just didn’t sound as good when he tried verbalizing it in his mind. Good thing he’d tried this one out silently before he used it on her.
What he wanted to say was, boy she sure did look pretty. It was clear to Matthew, and surely to every one else on the beach, that Rinny was the most stunning girl on the stretch. In the clutter of people—most of whom were happy loving couples—camped out on the beach outside the Paradise Hotel and Casino, Matthew had no problem spotting his girl. If he were less
