“Hey, Tara.”
“Hey, sis.” The sound of a musical children’s show could be heard playing loudly in the background.
“What’s up?”
“Just calling to see how things are in paradise. Still can’t believe you’re there and not here.” Ah, so this was the routine guilt-trip call. Cynical as it sounded, Celeste couldn’t help the thought given past experience.
Celeste sighed deeply as she shifted to a seated position on the edge of the bed. “Well, it just so happens, I’m beginning to doubt my decision to come.”
Tara’s sudden exhalation came through loud and clear across the tiny speaker. “What’s happened? Spill!”
“Let’s just say there’s someone here I didn’t expect to see. Ever.”
“Details, please. Is it a man?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. But that’s not the import—”
But Tara cut her off. “Ooh, this is getting interesting. Is it someone you had a previous fling with? Can you have another one? Hot and heavy with no strings attached! You could so use that, you know.”
Celeste rubbed a hand across her tense forehead. Honestly, Tara didn’t know her in the least. “I don’t do flings.”
“Well, maybe you should start. Heaven knows your serious relationships don’t turn out so great.” She grunted a laugh. “They don’t turn out at all.”
Ouch. So much for a sisterly conversation to make her feel better. Foolish of her to even entertain the notion. Celeste found herself wondering if she should have answered the phone after all.
“So, who is it?” her sister asked after a heavy pause.
“Never mind. It’s not important. Forget I brought it up. How’s Mom? And little Nat?”
It wasn’t often any of them referred to her niece by her full given name, Natalie.
“They’re all fine,” Tara answered. But she wasn’t having it with the attempted change in topic. “And no way you’re going to try to drop the matter of this mystery man. Tell me who you ran into. And tell me what he means to you.”
Celeste opened her mouth to respond with a resounding and emphatic denial that Reid Evanson meant absolutely anything to her whatsoever. That she’d hardly thought about him over the past three years.
But the lie wouldn’t form on her tongue.
ALEX STILL STOOD in the middle of Reid’s office studying him like a lab specimen. “Is there something I can do for you?” Reid finally asked, ultimately losing the game of visual chicken.
“Yeah. Neither you nor the young lady really answered me earlier when I asked if you two knew each other. It appears you do.”
Reid pretended to type on his keyboard. “Then you seem to have answered your own question.”
“I have more.”
Reid gave up all pretense of trying to get any work done. Leaning back in his leather desk chair, he tried to stretch out some of the tension that seemed to have tied a knot in the back of his neck right at the base of his skull. “Somehow, I knew you would.”
“I do. One of them being, exactly how do you know our esteemed guest? I couldn’t help but notice she’s traveling alone.”
“So?”
Alex grinned. “So does that fact have anything to do with you?”
“What? No! Of course not.” Not directly, anyway.
He hadn’t realized he’d mumbled the last part under his breath until Alex questioned him.
“What does that mean, Reid? Not directly?”
Alex sighed, the tension in his neck traveling farther down his spine. He might have to hit the spa later for some kind of back treatment massage. Though he’d been meaning to do that for weeks, ever since he’d arrived at the start of the season.
“It’s not what you’re thinking, partner.”
“Then what is it? You two obviously have some kind of history and not all of it is positive.
Reid almost laughed at that. Less than positive would be an understatement.
“Celeste was almost the wife of a friend of mine. Let’s just say he hasn’t been the same ever since their relationship ended.”
Alex nodded slowly. “Oh. So she dumped him.”
Reid rubbed his jaw. “Not exactly.”
“Then I don’t understand.”
Reid ran a hand down his face. He hadn’t been sleeping well. There was always something that needed to be done, some detail to attend to. He also had his father’s ill-formed takeover attempt to contend with. Now he’d been thrown another curveball in the form of Celeste Frajedi and he wasn’t sure how to explain to his partner exactly what had gone down three years ago. It hadn’t really had anything to do with him. So it was hard to explain why he’d taken it all so personally back then. Even when it came to explaining it to himself.
“Well, on the surface, Jack was the one who actually did the dumping.”
His friend gave him a blank look. “On the surface?”
“She wasn’t in the relationship for the right reasons. He told me all about it.”
Alex raised an eyebrow.
Reid felt a sensation of discomfort meander down his spine. As if he was betraying a confidence somehow. Though he’d be hard-pressed to identify whose privacy he was uneasy about. Celeste’s or Jack’s?
“Celeste is a shrewd businesswoman. She’s very well known in the industry as one of the most successful marketing executives in New York. The business sites have regular profiles on her. She can be ruthless when she doesn’t get what she wants.”
“You said your friend hasn’t been the same ever since the disastrous wedding that didn’t happen.”
Reid nodded. “That’s right. He’s still traipsing all over Europe, partying in different cities. Living with various women.” Some of those women being wealthy, married socialites looking for a good time on the side.
“Huh. And he didn’t behave like that before he met Celeste?” Alex wanted to know.
The uneasy feeling grew from tingling sensation to an all-out burning down his back as Reid sought for a truthful way to answer. If he was being completely honest, Jack had always had a propensity to be a bit of a partier, something of
