How Forever Feels (29 page)

Authors: Laura Drewry

BOOK: How Forever Feels

2.61Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

How many times had Ro and Finn been forced to pick up the slack for him when he'd been off playing ball? More than he could count. Sure, they'd bitched about it, and you can bet your ass there'd been a few punches thrown, but they'd still done it just so he could go off and chase his dream.

Shit
.

Lifting his head slowly, Liam locked his gaze on Ronan, whose pointed look and cocked brow reflected what Liam was already thinking: It was his turn to pick up the slack for them. He owed them.

He'd barely begun to nod when Ro yanked his phone out and dialed Paul Foster.

For the umpteenth time since takeoff, Kate looked down at her shoes and sighed. All she would have needed was five minutes to wash off her makeup and change into something a little more appropriate, but no. They'd pulled her out of the reception two hours early and whisked her straight to the waiting seaplane, where her big duffel bagâpacked by God knows whoâhad already been secured in the back.

So there she sat, staring out the window and wondering what was the most ridiculous thing about her right then. Was it the tight red cocktail dress and six-inch platform heels, which made her look like she'd just stepped off the set of
Real Housewives of Vancouver
? Or was it that she was being sent to work at a fishing lodge, when the last fishing rod she'd ever touched was the pink plastic Minnie Mouse one her dad gave her for her sixth birthday?

Two strikes against her going in, but neither mattered. The important thing was that Paul was counting on her to do what she did bestâto use her pretty face and charm (his words) to once again get him what he wanted.

For the last eight years, he'd paid her a stupid amount of money to arrange gatherings for potential investors and then glad-hand and charm them into seeing their way clear to signing on to Paul's next big deal.

It wasn't a bad gig for a high school dropout whose previous occupations included such highlights as grocery store clerk and gas station attendant, yet when she thought about itâand she seemed to be doing that a lot latelyâshe kind of missed the life she led back then. Granted, she hadn't had two cents to rub together, but neither did she have creepy old rich dudes staring at her chest all the time.

This lodge was her ticket away from those creepers. Not only would she get to spend the next few months enjoying the amenities of the lodge, but if she somehow managed to convince them to sell the place to Paul, she'd earn one hell of a bonusâenough to finally leave the Foster Group and do something she liked. What that might be was still a mystery, but she'd figure it out one day.

“That's it ahead there, Miss Hadley.” From behind the controls, Walt pointed out her side window toward a triangular island in the distance.

He banked the plane a little to the right, then evened out and headed straight in.

“Wait. What?” Pushing her face closer to the window, Kate peered down at theâ¦noâ¦that wasn't the lodge she'd seen in the pictures.

With only a day's notice that she'd be heading there, Kate hadn't had time to do her own research on the lodge, which hadn't really worried her because Paul's secretary had printed everything out and fastened it inside one of the Foster Group binders for her. If Kate had bothered to do anything more than flip past the first few pages then, as she was frantically doing now, she would have known that those beautiful glossy pictures at the front were pictures of
other
lodges, the ones Paul wanted to steal ideas from, not the one he was looking to buy.

Pictures and specs of the lodge she was about to arrive at were tucked in the back, behind the last two financial statements and property assessments. No spa? No masseuse? Was there evenâ¦
Oh, thank God
â¦Yes, there was indoor plumbing.

Kate skimmed the text quickly as Walt nosed the plane down toward the water. The Buoys had been run by James O'Donnellâ¦recently deceasedâ¦sons took it overâ¦

“O'Donnell.” It wasn't an uncommon name, just not one she heard very often. In fact, she'd only ever known one other O'Donnell, and as the plane touched down she let the name settle against her tongue. She tried to block the memory out before it roared forward again.

No luck.

She'd only actually known him for a few days, and for the most part, those days had been incredible, right up until they turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life.

“Hope you brought bear spray.” Walt cocked his brow as he turned the plane against the current and eased it toward the dock, where a woman in a red-and-black plaid wool jacket stood, ready to tie up. “I'll get your bag out of the back, but then I have to head back. Mr. Foster's waiting on me.”

“Of course,” Kate muttered.

When Paul Foster was waiting for you, you didn't dilly-dally, so she didn't think twice about it when Walt didn't waste time helping her out of the plane. She'd never needed help before, but then she'd never been in this get-up before, either. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that platform heels and ragged docks did not a good pair make, especially with that dusting of snow all over the ground.

Kate scooted her butt to the edge of the seat and cast another wary glance down. There wasn't a whole lot of give in this dress, which meant she'd have to step straight down, right over that gap between the boards, and there was no way that was going to end well.

Screw it. With no other option, she tugged off both her shoes and hopped out in her bare feet, her shoes tucked under her arm. Curling her toes against the frosty wood, Kate tugged the collar of her coat a little tighter and tried to steady herself with a slow breath before she stepped into view. Walt had already relocked the cargo door and set her bag down when the womanâwho couldn't have been much older than Kateâstared for a second, then slowly reached out her hand.

“Jessie Todd,” she said.

“Kate Hadley. Nice to meet you.”

“You too, but please tell me you brought different footwear.”

“Yeah, sorry, they didn't give me much notice.” As she spoke, Kate unzipped her bag and pulled out the bright-yellow gumboots she'd bought two years ago and never worn until that very moment.

With a quick nod and wave, Walt hopped back in the small plane and fired it up, then waved his thanks when Jessie untied him and backed up. The whine of the engine drowned out whatever Jessie was trying to say, so the two of them turned and headed up the dock, Kate taking two steps for every one of Jessie's.

Damn dress
.

Head down so she could pick out the less slippery spots on the dock, Kate didn't look up until they were on solid ground, and by that time a man had started toward them from the main lodge. He was still a ways off, but for a second there he sort of looked likeâ¦
No
. It couldn't be. It was probably only the power of suggestion, because she'd just been thinking about him, albeit briefly.

There was no way it could be him, could it? Granted, they hadn't spent more than a few days together, and that was ten years ago, but he'd never mentioned anything about his family owning a fishing lodge. Of course he hadn'tâneither one of them had shared much about their families. All she'd known about him back then was that he pitched on the Detroit farm team.

She might not have spoken to him in ten years, but she'd followed his career sporadically. Okay, maybe more than sporadically, but it was so easy to follow him once he got called up to pitch for the Tigers. She'd watched him pitch the no-hitter against the Royals and had actually cried when his team got swept in the 2012 World Seriesâpartly because they'd lost the last game in extra innings and partly because he hadn't actually thrown a single pitch in the series, having been on the DL for the last half of the season.

As Jessie led her closer, Kate sneaked another look, trying to keep her face hidden, hoping against hopeâ¦Nope, it was him.

Shit.

She inched over a little so she was walking slightly behind Jessie. Yes, she was hiding, but what else could she do? After ten years, some kind of cosmic hell had just dropped itself on her head like a giant blob of bird poop, and she had about five seconds to figure out what she was supposed to do about it.

With his big jacket on, she couldn't be sure, but she'd be willing to bet that the fact that he wasn't playing ball at the moment hadn't stopped him from keeping in shape. And if her memory was even marginally accurate, that shape was something to behold.

Damn it
.

Inhaling deeply, her brain scrambled for a shred of hope to cling to. It was possible he wouldn't remember her; after all, they'd only been together for a few days a decade ago, and that last night when they'dâ¦wellâ¦they'd obviously both had far too much to drink.

Five, four, threeâ¦

“Liam,” Jessie said. “This isâ”

“Kate?!”

CraaaaaÂaaaaaÂpâhe remembered. Okay, fine. She was a grown woman; she could do this. Stepping out from behind Jessie, Kate lifted her head and stared straight back at him.

“Hello, Liam.” The first time she'd met him, his blue eyes had sparkled like crazy whenever he looked at her. This time, what those eyes lacked in sparkle they sure as hell made up for in disbelief, caution, andâ¦yup, a whole lot of anger.

“Wait,” Jessie frowned. “You two know each other?”

Kate wasn't sure how to answer that. Since her name had never appeared on his Wikipedia page, it was a safe bet he'd kept their mistake to himself, just as she had, and she wasn't going to be the one to screw that up for either of them right there.

Liam hadn't so much as moved an inch since Kate faced him, and when he did finally speak again, it wasn't to answer Jessie's question.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Then, as though he'd just answered his own question, he shook his head hard. “Oh, no. You're not staying.”

“What?” Jessie gaped. “Why?”

“Because. Call someone to come and get her.”

With her hands wrapped around the handles of her duffel bag, Kate moved her gaze from Liam to Jessie, but still she didn't say anything.

“No.” That obviously wasn't what Liam had been expecting from Jessie but before he could argue, Jessie moved right up beside him and lowered her voice; not low enough that Kate couldn't hear, though. “We need the help, Liam, and she's it.”

“No way.” His jaw hardened, as did his eyes. “Find someone else.”

“There isn't anyone else! You three agreed Foster could send one of his people to work here to get some experience, whether you sell to him or not. Well, guess what? She's the one he sent, and we don't exactly have the luxury of being picky right now, do we?”

“I don't care,” Liam said, starting back toward the lodge. “Send her back.”

“Wait!” Jessie roared. “You can't just give that command and walk away. What the hell is going on? How do you two know each other?”

Kate held her breath as Liam stopped and turned slowly. “She's Kate Hadley.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Jessie snarked, her disbelieving gaze shifting between him and Kate. “But who is she to you?”

“According to the Clark County Recorder's office in Vegas,” Liam said, his voice tight, each word dragged from his tongue, “she's my ex-wife.”