his beach towel over his shoulder, Matthew marched across the beach to her private camp. She had a beach chair on either side of her—probably to keep the happy loving couples at bay—filled with a radio, three books, enough sunblock to ward off a nuclear blast and finally her. She sat in the middle chair, her legs covered by the sarong she wore, her arms covered by the shade of her near-sombrero. The sunglasses that she sported were shaped like cat’s eyes. Purple to match her suit. No doubt she had as many pairs of sunglasses as she had outfits.
His Rinny always knew how to put the package together. Standing before her, he waited for recognition from her that he was blocking her sun, but she was too covered in shade to notice. Beneath the glasses she must have had her eyes closed so Matthew decided to simply plunk his six-foot frame down next to her on one of the chairs. “Hi, Rinny.”
Corinne had been dreaming. Brendan had been down on one knee before her with a ring box in his hand and a loving expression on his face. He had been promising her his love, fidelity and friendship for all the rest of his days. The dream was so powerful she could almost feel the tears well up in her eyes as they might if it were really happening.
Then suddenly, Brendan’s face became Matthew’s face with its deep-midnight-blue eyes and strong chin. And he was calling her Rinny. No one else called her by that absurd nickname. She wasn’t even too sure why she allowed Matthew to continue to use it. Although the thought of trying to break him of the habit seemed exhausting. Matthew was like a steamroller. Slow. Plodding. Inexorable. And difficult to push off course. It made him a phenomenal accountant, but a bit of a bore.
“You asleep, Rinny?”
There it was again. This time Corinne did open her eyes and peer out over her sunglasses. There he was, plain as the sun, sitting next to her as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Matthew Relic was on Paradise Island. Somehow the two didn’t seem to fit, but there was no doubt it was him.
“What are you doing here?” She wasn’t too sure how she felt about his presence. Piqued because he had interrupted her vacation? Confused as to why he would follow her here? Or maybe a little happy to see a familiar face? After only two days, she realized that the next week and a half was going to drag with no one to talk to.
Most of the couples she met only stopped long enough to ask her where her husband was and if they wanted to get together for couples tennis. As soon as she explained that she was on the island by herself, they made their excuses and went on their way, absorbed with each other. She would have found the whole thing utterly depressing if she hadn’t continued to tell herself that the purpose of this trip was to secure the very same happiness that these couples had found.
“Darla told me you seemed a little down before you left. She said something about a lot of brownies.”
Corinne groaned, remembering how sick she’d felt the next day after eating all that chocolate.
“Anyway, she told me where you were staying. And I figured you would still be smarting from your breakup with Brendan, so…”
“Breakup?” Corinne interrupted. “We did not break up.”
“Sure you did. I was in the filing closet, remember? ‘No one is ever going to love you like I loved you.”’ He changed the words, but the meaning was the same.
Corinne laughed her, oh-you-silly-boy chuckle. “Matthew, Matthew. You don’t understand. That wasn’t a breakup, that was an ultimatum.”
“It was? It sure sounded like a breakup.”
“It wasn’t,” she explained. “You see I left him to give him a chance to feel what it would be like if I really left him. No doubt right now, at this very minute, he is at home contemplating what his life without me will be like and he’s wondering how he can get me back.”
Right now, at this very minute, Golden Boy was probably at home romancing Marjorie from human resources. But Matthew kept that opinion to himself. He didn’t want to hurt Rinny. He just wanted her to see that Brendan was no good for her, while he, on the other hand, was perfect. It wasn’t going to be easy. He could see that now. He needed an angle.
“So what does he need to do? What is the ultimatum?”
She shifted a bit in her beach chair. “He needs to stop seeing those other women,” she said tightly.
“You mean the ones that make him virile,” Matthew added in an attempt to show her how misplaced her love was for that man.
“Yes. I’m enough for any man,” she stated confidently.
“You can say that again.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Leaning back on his elbows and stretching his bare legs out to the sun, Matthew took in the view of the ocean. The water spectacularly blue against the iridescent white sand, it was so beautiful it almost hurt. A little like Rinny when she got huffy.
“I was just agreeing with you.”
“Hmm,” she uttered, disbelief evident in her tone. “Somehow I don’t think so. Well, if I’m so difficult then why are you even here? Don’t tell me you came all this way just to cheer me up. Did you follow me down here for another reason, Matthew?”
It was pointless to lie. Even when he tried it, everyone could always guess the truth. “Yep.”
“That’s it? ‘Yep.’ That’s the only answer I get? Sometimes you can be so difficult.”
“I don’t mean to be.”
Corinne tried again. “Would you mind telling me why you followed me?”
“Well…”
“Never mind. I think I know,” she stopped him. She tilted her head in his direction and gave him her, oh-you-poor-boy smile—which was only slightly different than her oh-you-silly-boy chuckle. “It’s really no big secret. The truth is you have a little crush on me. Don’t you?”
“I…”
“I don’t mind,” she offered gallantly. “Truly, it’s not surprising. After all, it’s only natural that someone like you would be attracted to someone like me. For one thing, we are complete opposites. That alone can be enough to stir someone’s interest in another person. You see the qualities that you lack in the other and you want them for yourself.”
He didn’t think so, but rather than try to correct her assumptions only to be cut off again, he let her continue.
“The important thing is not to let it get out of hand. You know that I love Brendan and you know he’s the only man I’ll ever love.”
“Why?” Matthew managed to toss into the conversation.
The question brought her up short for a second, but she recovered and quickly stepped up onto her Brendan soapbox.
“He’s really a very sensitive man. I know sometimes he doesn’t show it, but that’s because of his insecurities. He feels he has to hide his true self. There’s that and he’s a talented salesman. Of course he has excellent fashion sense. And we’re very much alike. We both enjoy the spotlight. We both play to the crowd. We understand each other.”
“If
