A Holiday Romance (18 page)

A cheer went up. “Surprise!”

She stood, staring.

The room was filled with everyone she’d met at the resort. Rivka and Fred and the catering manager, several well-tanned couples she’d chatted with at the pool, numerous acquaintances from the condos. There was Denver and Lani and Ramon the bartender and the desert guide, plus a bunch of other staffers she’d met along the way. Even the editor and photographer from the bridal magazine and several of their models.

Everyone!

Except Kyle.

Chloe bounded toward her, tossing a streamer in the air. There were also balloons, champagne and a banner that read
We’ll Miss You, Alice.

“It’s your farewell party,” Chloe exclaimed. She was hopping with energy. “Are you surprised?”

“I’m completely stunned.” Alice dragged a couple of streamers out of her hair. “I don’t know what to say. There are so many of you.”

“Of course. You’ve made a lot of friends.”

Harrie and Mags pushed to the front of the crowd. In his stentorian voice, Walter St. Gregory was trying to organize a sing-along of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” but most of the guests were too busy swarming Alice to notice.

Mags gave Alice a voluminous hug. “You didn’t
think we’d let you get away without a party, did you? We are the Cocktail Shakers, after all.”

Harrie handed her a glass of champagne, confiding, “Hank’s here. He can’t wait to see you.”

Alice was flying high enough that she nodded happily and looked for him, but the unassuming little man seemed lost in the crowd.

Unlike Denver. He’d worn his cowboy hat and the silver buckle with a new pair of jeans. His shirt bore piping and fancy embroidery.

He doffed the hat. “The old place won’t be the same without you, Miss Allie.”

She giggled. One swallow, and the champagne was already getting to her. “I suspect you’ll get along fine, Denver.”

“Yeah, but Loco’s missin’ you already.”

She touched his cheek. “How’re you doing?” The cut on his lip was red and swollen.

He gave her a one-sided grin. “Not fired yet.”

“You and Kyle need to make up to each other.”

“Don’t worry.” He lowered his voice. “Unless he catches you’n’me kissin’ again, we’re gonna get along just dandy.”

She gave him a playful push. “Then you’d better stay away.”

Denver lifted his head. “Where
is
Kyle?”

“I’m sure he’s busy.”

There was an apology in the way Denver looked at her. “For a smart man, my brother’s awful dumb.”

Alice could only shake her head. She was trying not to think of Denver’s warning about how Kyle would cut her out of his life. She definitely didn’t want to admit her fear that it was happening right then and there.

She downed her champagne in between greetings and hugs. The crowd propelled her toward the tables set up along the wall. Rivka and Fred, in their chef coats, presented her with a cake in the shape of a saguaro cactus. The chorus of “Jolly Good Fellow” finally got off the ground. Afterward, everyone called for a speech.

Their warmth and hospitality had overwhelmed Alice. “I’m at a loss for words,” she admitted. “Years ago, I used to stand in front of a class of ten-year-olds and I never—”

“This ain’t much different,” called Denver.

Alice laughed along with the crowd. “In those days, I had lesson plans. I’m not so good off the cuff.” She took a big breath. “All I can say is thanks to every one of you for being part of my vacation. It’s changed my life.” Her eyes welled. “I’ll never forget my time at the Oasis.”

There were more cheers, a round of toasts, jokes and laughter. The guests swarmed the lavish buffet, but Alice didn’t have much of an appetite. She helped herself to a plate of food and nibbled at it, but mostly she talked, snapped photos and took down addresses and cell phone numbers. She was invited to visit Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and Oxford, Mississippi, on her next adventure. Ramon brought in several pitchers of what he called Alice-in-Oasisland prickly-pear rum punch. The talk and laughter grew even louder.

After a few hours, the party began to break up. Some employees had to report for work, a number of the guests wanted to go on to the nightclub, while others decided to join the moonlight trail ride.

Alice was supposed to go on the ride, too, but she was
reluctant. She’d hugged Chloe goodbye and was slowly making her way to the door when Kyle’s secretary tapped her shoulder. “May I have a word?”

Alice’s heart leaped into her throat. “Of course.”

Lani drew her aside. “I wanted to speak to you all evening, but not with so many people around.”

“What can I do for you?”

Lani’s head bobbed. “Kyle doesn’t know about this.”

“The party?”

“Oh, no, he’s aware of the party.” At Alice’s crestfallen look, the secretary gave her a quick squeeze. “He wanted to come, but he simply couldn’t.”

Alice’s murmur of understanding got stuck in her throat.

“You see, coming here would have put him in a compromising position he just can’t risk right now.”

“Or ever,” Alice said stiffly.

“You know about the rumors?” the secretary asked.

“Chloe told me. Tell Kyle I’m sorry. I didn’t want to cause him trouble.”

“You’ll see him yourself.”

“No, it’s best if I don’t see him, don’t you think?” Although the farewell party hadn’t been the quiet dinner she’d hoped for, it had turned out okay. No one had mentioned Kyle. Not even Harrie.

“I couldn’t say what’s best.” But Lani looked as if she was biting her tongue.

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Like I said, Kyle doesn’t know I’m speaking to you. He wouldn’t want me to, but—” Lani shrugged “—I’m a busybody. I had to make sure you knew what was happening, that he wasn’t neglecting you on purpose.”

“But it
is
on purpose.”

“Well, then, it’s for the right purpose. But as soon as the review is over, things’ll be different.”

“I’ll be gone by then. I’m leaving in the morning on the ten o’clock shuttle.”

Lani was nonplussed. “Does Kyle know that?”

“I think so. He definitely knows I’m leaving tomorrow.” Alice made a helpless gesture. “So you see, between the rumors and the board and my departure, there’s no time left. But that’s all right, really. I don’t expect…expect him to—”

She clamped her lips together. “It’s all right,” she blurted again, when it was glaringly obvious that it was not.

“Oh, honey.” Lani’s dark eyes filled with sympathy. “I’ve only made it worse. When will I learn to keep my big mouth shut?” She patted Alice’s arm. “Don’t give up. Kyle might come through for you. He really is a good man. It’s just that he’s a stickler about reaching his goals. He’s had to be, coming from where he did.”

Alice stopped the secretary’s dithering. “I know all about that. I really do understand.”

Lani cocked her head, bright-eyed again. “You know? About the mess with his sister, and how he got his mother to retire? About him buying the house for them in Elk River?”

Alice nodded.

“Well, my goodness. If he trusts you that much, he
must
be—”

“There you are! Kyle’s Alice, isn’t that right?” The editor from the bridal magazine looked her over with more approval than she’d previously shown. “I have a little memento for you.”

Alice was still stuck on the phrase
Kyle’s Alice.
“I, uh—”

“There’s no need to deny it.” The woman’s laughter boomed, making several employees, who were clearing the buffet, look up. She waved the large manila envelope in her hand. “I’ve got the proof right here.”

She presented Alice with the envelope, then tossed her long knotted scarf over one shoulder and sailed out of the room while Alice was still stammering her thanks.

Alice tore it open and took out a photograph.
The
photograph. She and Kyle, kissing on the bridge. There were no brides in the picture, just them.

“It’s lovely,” Lani said.

“We were supposed to be background.” Studying the photo, seeing the love between them, Alice was glad that for once she hadn’t been background. Not the substitute.

The real thing.

Whether or not Kyle knew it, she did.

She held the photograph against her chest. “Thanks, Lani. I’m going to be okay. Even if I don’t see him again, Kyle knows how I feel.” She glanced at the photo again. “I promise you, I’m not leaving sad.”

Alice walked out.
Courage,
she told herself as she entered the dining room, still the onesome but not quite so lonesome.
I’ve got it.

She stopped beside an empty table to pick up the streamer that was trailing off her shoe. A woman’s sultry laugh drew her attention across the room.

Jenna Malloy. She hadn’t come to the party and now Alice knew why. The model was seated at a table with several obviously important people.

And Kyle.

Jenna reached across the table to touch his hand, but
her eyes were on Alice. “Look, Kyle, we’ve missed the party.”

He yanked his hand away.

“Is it over already?” Jenna asked Alice. “We intended to stop by.”

“Yes, it’s over.” A peculiar sense of numbness had overcome Alice. She couldn’t feel her body, only the rasp of air in her throat as she tried to breathe. She dropped the streamer.

She looked down. The photograph.

Why hadn’t she seen it before? The pose was similar to the one printed in the newspaper back home, the portrait of Alice’s supposed fiancé announcing his engagement to another woman. She’d been numb then, too. Numb and dumb.

“What party?” said one of the men at the table, his deep voice instantly commanding attention. He was an older version of Kyle—well groomed, tailored, authoritative.

Kyle stood. “It’s nothing, Mr. Walmsley. A going-away party for one of the guests.”

Nothing?
Alice winced.

“I see.” The man’s gaze went past Alice to Lani, arriving beside her. “Mrs. Steen. How nice to see you again. You must join us.”

Kyle walked toward Alice. His eyes were dark, beseeching. “What’s that?” he asked, looking at her hand.

“It’s nothing.” She knew he wasn’t rekindling a romance with Jenna, but for the moment, that didn’t matter. All she could think about was how much this felt like she was being jilted all over again. Only this time, she was losing out not to another woman, but to a promotion.

Without looking, certainly without feeling, she tore the photo in half. The pieces fell to the floor.

She fled.

A
LICE GROANED
.
Water under the bridge?
How appropriate, given the photo she’d torn in half. That seemed like an action worthy of a drama queen now. She was already sorry she’d done it in front of members of Kyle’s
board. But at the time there’d been nothing unreasonable about the action. All she’d felt was loss.

She wrote her address on the postcard—Pine Cone Cottage, 18 Shore Road, Osprey Island, Maine—and stuck on a stamp.

There. Finished.

Her clothes were packed. She was ready to go.

She only had to get through the next ten hours without coming apart. After she was safe at home, she could begin to untwist the knots in her heart, and maybe she’d find that she wasn’t wrong. The vacation
had
changed her.

In a good way.

The doorbell rang. She dropped the postcard.
Don’t answer it.

Then the loud knocking began. She flinched. He must be using his fist, not caring who heard.

“Alice?” Kyle called. “Please open the door.”

She walked toward it.
Stay strong.

“Alice, please. I know it’s late. I wanted to come right away, but…”

Aha.
Standing beside the door, she covered her face.
There’s the rub. With Kyle, there’d always be a but.
His need for more success would always come first.

“I can explain. Let me in.”

No.
She put her hand against the wood.
Not this time.

“Are you there?” She heard a soft thud on the other side of the door, which moved beneath her hand. “At least let me know you can hear me.”

She turned her back, leaned against the door. She didn’t make a sound, but she couldn’t walk away, either.

“Alice, I know you’re there. I went to the stable. Denver said you didn’t show up for the trail ride. All I’m asking is that you listen, okay? Will you listen?”

She’d listened to Stewart. His excuses for hurting her.
He’d
felt better afterward.

“I went into the restaurant to drop by your party. But Walmsley saw me and asked me to join them for a drink. I couldn’t say no. Then Jenna came along.” He exhaled. “We weren’t together.”

Alice had figured that out, more or less. Even if he’d
wanted
to have her join them, it wouldn’t have been appropriate. She was the guest. The holiday romance. On her way to checking out. Why should he risk going public with her?

There was a long silence. “Alice?” Kyle said, practically in her ear. She shivered. He’d put his mouth to the door. “Are you there?”

She crossed her arms.
I’m here. But not for much longer.

“Please,” he said. “Let me in. I’ll make it up to you.”

Oh, no. Not that way.

“Alice?”

Don’t open it, don’t open it. Not this time.

“Alice.” He pushed. The door pulsed against her. “I can’t see you tomorrow. This is our last chance.”

Last chance. Last risk.
Did she dare take it?

“All right. I don’t blame you.” His voice was low and grating. He sounded beaten. “I’ll say goodbye. I hope you’re listening.” His hands moved across the door. “I know you’re listening. I can feel you.”

“I can feel you,” she whispered too softly for him to hear.

“This is goodbye, but it’s not forever. Please don’t let it be forever.”

It’s not my risk to take. It’s his.

“After tomorrow, I’ll know where I stand.” There was a catch in his voice, but he cleared his throat and
went on. “If I get the promotion, I’ll be moving to the company’s headquarters in New York. That’s closer to you, if you stay in Maine. We could see each other.”

He was making an attempt, but he’d be a big wheel, expected to uphold a certain image. She couldn’t imagine fitting into that world. Jenna Malloy, though, she’d make the perfect executive wife. Polished and confident where Alice was shy and uncertain.

“Don’t you think?” he asked, sounding uncertain himself.

Honestly? I don’t know what to think.
Maybe she was being too hard on him. She hadn’t exactly worn her heart on her sleeve, either, after the disaster that had been Stewart.

But she had been ready to move forward. Unlike Kyle.

She tilted her head back, closed her eyes. Still, why not open the door? Talk to him?

She heard him take a breath. “Or if I don’t get the promotion…”

Her eyes flashed open.
It’ll be my fault. Or partly mine. I can’t live with that.

The truth hit her hard, even though at the back of her mind she’d known all along. They could talk all night, but he wasn’t going to commit. He was still too careful, too guarded.

This really was goodbye.

Alice dropped her face into her hands, stifling a sob. On the other side of the door, Kyle went on for a while longer, but she’d stopped listening.

He wasn’t going to say what she needed to hear.

K
YLE STARED DOWN
the boardroom table. Proctor, Garson, Obermeyer and, at the foot, Walmsley. He knew
their first names, their middle names, their spouses’ names, their children’s and pets’ names. He knew their hobbies, their sports teams, their political affiliations. Hell, he knew what snacks they wanted stocked in their minibars and what drinks they ordered at the bar. He did not know what color and style of underwear they preferred, but he could have made a good guess.

Did he know Alice as well?

The underwear, yes. He almost smiled. Comfortable cotton, but not old-lady-style. Matching bras. Bikinis in pink and lavender.

But her family? Her mother’s name was Dorothy, but he’d forgotten the names of the brother and the niece and nephews. She had a cat, he recalled, a cat that used to be her mother’s.

He squinted. He
did
know her. The details were coming back to him.

She’d have a glass of wine or champagne now and then, but two made her tipsy. The night he met her, she’d ordered prickly-pear rum punch at the bar. She liked healthy snacks such as granola bars and trail mix, but she ordered a fancy dessert every time she ate out. Her favorite movie was something with Johnny Depp. But what was the title again?

Benny and Joon,
that was it.

The cat was called Snowball.

Her middle name was Georgina, after a great-grandfather who’d died in a war.

She was a Scrabble and Parcheesi whiz and she’d once run a 5K marathon for charity to prove to her students she could do it. She’d been voted Teacher of the Year the year before she had to quit. Her oldest friend had married a marine and moved to a military base
overseas. Alice regretted that they’d lost touch. Her best friend ran a bakery on Osprey Island called Suzy Q’s.

Each detail Kyle remembered came with a growing sense of awareness. By the time he’d finished, he was a goner. He started to rise, realized where he was, and sat down. But he had to do
something.

Iris Proctor cleared her throat. The silence after his opening speech had grown too long.

Walmsley was giving Kyle the stink eye. He wished he could give it back, the way he’d stood up for his family as a schoolboy, before he’d become so law-abiding.

Instead, he nodded at Gavin. “Gavin Brill, my assistant manager, will present the first report.”

There was a smattering of applause as Gavin rose from the executive staff lined up on the opposite side of the table. He shot a look at Kyle before turning to the flat-screen monitor where their charts and graphs would appear. “If you’ll turn to page seven in your report…”

Kyle didn’t open his booklet. He knew it by heart.

His gut gave a kick. Did he know Alice by heart?

He put his hands on the table, then folded them near his chin so the cuff of his shirt would inch away from the face of his watch. Nine-forty-eight. The meeting had started late, what with Walmsley hovering near Lani at the coffeepot.

Nine-forty-nine. Alice had said she was leaving in the morning. For all he knew, she might already be gone.

Nine-fifty. He didn’t know the exact time of her flight, but this meeting would last for hours. Lani had arranged a catered lunch. There was no possibility of making it to the airport in time to see Alice off.

He’d known that. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t tried
to make amends. He’d talked until his throat was raw, standing outside her door like a dog begging for a bone.

What more did she want from him?

Gavin droned on. “On page twelve, you’ll see the overview of amenity expenditures…”

Walmsley looked bored. His gaze drifted toward Kyle, who hurriedly flipped open the report to make himself seem invested in the proceedings. The first page was heavy with a paper-clipped photograph and a Post-it from Lani.

The photo had been torn in two pieces and then taped back together. With a jolt he remembered Alice in the restaurant, ripping something in half. He’d been focused on her disappointed face. He hadn’t thought to look at what she’d torn.

Lani had.

Kyle stared at the photo, only vaguely mindful that Iris Proctor, on his immediate right, was doing the same. It was Alice and him, on the bridge. Kissing. Just barely. Their lips had touched, but she hadn’t yet closed her eyes. She was looking up at him with love and longing. The unadulterated hope in her expression stole every molecule of oxygen from his lungs.

The sounds of the boardroom became muffled. He could only hear the thud of his pulse, the ragged noise of his gasp for air, the
ping
of the flying paper clip as he yanked Lani’s note free.

She’d written: “Alice is on the 10:00 a.m. airport shuttle.”

His watch read nine-fifty-six. Kyle slammed his hands down on the table and thrust up from his chair. He seemed to be speaking into a wind tunnel. “I have to go.”

Walmsley’s head snapped back. His mouth opened and closed, and he said something that Kyle couldn’t hear.

Kyle gestured to Gavin. Air rushed past his ears. Was he speaking?

Gavin grabbed him by the shoulders, following Kyle out the door. “You. Can’t. Go.”

“Take over for me. Say it was an emergency.”

Suddenly Lani was there. “Where are my car keys?” he yelled, before realizing how loud his voice was. He shook his head, ready to apologize, but she was gone.

“Walmsley’s a pit bull.” Gavin’s voice was also raised. “He’ll demand to know—”

“So tell him. I don’t care.”

“Tell him what?”

Lani was back. She tossed him the keys. Kyle raced through the hallway to the emergency stairs, shouting over his shoulder as he ran. “Tell him I’m breaking all the rules. Tell him to take the promotion and shove it. Tell him I’m going after Alice.”

A
BAKER’S DOZEN
,
Alice thought as she looked around the shuttle bus. Twelve senior citizens and me.
Isn’t this where I came in?

That wasn’t strictly true. A middle-aged married couple—the Callahans—were also on the bus. She’d met them by the pool. They’d won a seven-day stay at the resort in a sweepstakes contest, then discovered in the fine print that the prize was only good for the off-season. They were still disgruntled but now also sunburned, saying loudly that they couldn’t wait to get back home.

Alice wasn’t leaving in the greatest of moods herself.

Mags, Mary Grace and Harrie were seated nearby, trying to engage her in conversation. They’d insisted on coming along to see her off. Said they enjoyed airport goodbyes, second only to wedding receptions.

She smiled fondly at them.

“Look,” Mags announced, flinging out an arm ringed with bracelets that clacked like castanets. “She smiled!”

“Ah.” Harrie squinted over the top of her sunglasses. “Now I recognize you as our Alice.”