Authors: Judy Angelo
But he’d embarrassed her. He’d barked orders at her in front of
Aurelio and that was why she’d lashed out. After the way she’d acted tough in
the jungle she couldn’t let their guide think she was a wimpy wife.
Lani heaved a sigh and walked out onto the balcony overlooking the
garden. She’d done a stupid thing. She knew that now. She had to apologize and
she had to come clean and tell Ridge the truth about what really happened in
the forest.
But how, when he wasn’t talking to her?
Her ringing cell phone cut into that thought and made her dash
inside. Maybe it was Ridge, tired of their feud. Maybe he was calling her to
join him on his walk. She gave a hiss of disappointment when she saw that the
call had nothing to do with Ridge at all. It was Aurelio. “Hi, Aurelio,” Lani
said, trying her best to sound cheerful but not doing a good job at it.
“Hello, Doctor. I call to wish you safe travel back to the United
States.”
“Oh, thank you. That’s sweet of you.” If Lani were perfectly honest
she would say, after she’d paid the guide the balance of his fee, she hadn’t
expected to hear from him again. His call was truly a pleasant surprise.
“But you do not sound very happy, Doctor. I know why.”
Lani rolled her eyes. Yeah, he would know, all right. He’d been
there to witness the not-too-subtle quarrel between her and Ridge and the silent
war that raged between them all the way back to the city. She was just
surprised he’d actually brought it up.
“And I know what you must do.” There was an enigmatic quality to
Aurelio’s voice.
That made Lani curious. “You do?”
“Yes. You must rock the boat, throw it off balance. You must do the
unexpected.”
Now what was that supposed to mean? “Ookaay.” Lani dragged out the
word, trying to decipher the meaning behind the old man’s cryptic statement.
Before she could ask him to clarify he spoke again. “I will say no
more. Now I bid you a good evening and a good trip back to America.”
Long after Aurelio had hung up Lani sat there, thinking on his
words. Rock the boat, he’d said. In short, do something surprising. She was
good with surprises. She could do this.
And just like that an idea came to her. But could she pull it off
before Ridge got back?
Quickly, she grabbed the hotel phone and asked to be connected with
the restaurant manager.
“Yes,” he said, “we can do that but not before seven o’clock.”
Lani glanced at the clock. Six-eighteen. Ridge would be back by
then. She hoped. “Great,” she said. “Go ahead and book them for me.”
As soon as she hung up the phone she dashed into the bathroom. She
wanted to be ready. There was not a moment to lose. Twenty minutes later she
was dressed in a midnight-blue cocktail dress, an outfit that always made her
hair look its blackest and shiniest. She was wearing her dangly earrings that
accentuated her slender neck and she’d decided to wear make-up – one of her
rare moments, but tonight she wanted to look super-special for him.
And not a moment too soon. At sixteen minutes before seven the door
to the hotel suite opened and Ridge walked in. When he saw her he froze. Then
his eyebrows raised and he gave a low whistle. “You look sensational. What’s
the special occasion?”
From the other side of the living room she smiled and gave a little
shrug. “Oh, nothing much. Just a little…engagement. There’s a gentleman I know,
I'm supposed to meet him tonight for dinner."
Ridge’s brows fell. “What gentleman? You didn’t tell me you were
going out to dinner.”
“Oh, it was sort of…sudden. An impromptu arrangement, you could
say.”
“Oh.” Ridge’s face was now so dark it was thunderous. “Let me not
keep you, then.” Not sparing her another glance he marched off to the bathroom.
Lani grinned. So far so good. If all went well he would be good and
well-roasted in his rage by the time the seven o’clock hour came around.
She heard when Ridge exited the bathroom but then he took a long
time in the bedroom, probably stewing over her words while he dressed. Lani
didn’t mind because by the time he came back into the living room all would be
ready.
True to the manager’s word, at one minute before the seven o’clock
deadline she heard a tap at the door. She rushed over and opened to a
black-suited, bow tied man pushing a dinner trolley laden with the most
sumptuous fare anyone could want – wild Norwegian salmon in cream sauce, filet
mignon with baby carrots and potatoes and chicken cordon bleu. There was also a
dish which the manager had called ‘Chef’s Surprise’. She had no idea what it
was and she hadn't bothered to ask.
Lani directed the server to the dining table she’d decorated with
softly-burning candles and a bouquet of tropical flowers and there he laid out
the dishes, filling the air with a mouth-watering aroma.
As he straightened and turned to push the trolley away Lani raised
her eyebrows. “The rest of your crew?” she whispered.
He smiled. “They were instructed to come up fifteen minutes after
the hour to give you time to settle down.”
“Okay. That makes sense.” She rubbed her hands together. Things
would be perfect if Ridge would leave the bedroom just as soon as the server
left. He would be surprised by the romantic dinner she’d arranged which would
put him in a mellow mood before she executed part two of her plan. With that
thought in mind she gave the man a hearty tip then quickly rushed him and his
dinner trolley out the door and turned off all the lights in the room. The only
illumination was the soft glow from the candles.
With everything in place, Lani went to sit at the table and wait for
her husband to appear. Five minutes passed but there was no Ridge, which made
Lani frown. What was taking him so long? She didn’t want the food to get cold. After
another two minutes she decided to go check on him. She found him sprawled out
on top of the bed in nothing but his boxer shorts. He was lying on his back,
arms folded across her chest. He was staring up at the ceiling, a dark scowl on
his face.
“What are you doing?” she asked, stepping into the room. “Aren’t you
going to get dressed?”
“For what?” he growled. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere.” Then his
glare left the ceiling and he trained it on her. “Who’s this guy you’re going
out with? And why the heck did you set up this date? You’re my wife.” His eyes
narrowed. “Or did you forget that part?”
Ridge was really jealous now, which was the effect Lani had been
going for. The more riled up she got him the hotter their lovemaking would be
once she’d wined and dined him. At least, that was her theory.
If she ever got a chance to do the wining and dining… He looked like
he’d taken up permanent residence right there in the middle of the bed. She
decided to try another tactic. “I have a surprise for you. Why don’t you get
dressed and come out to the living room?”
He gave her a suspicious glare. “I’m not interested.”
“Oh, come on,” she said, exasperated. “Stop being so stubborn. You
know you want to see what it is.”
“Actually, I don’t.” He gave her a cool look. “If you want to get me
out there so you can introduce me to your date, it ain’t happening.”
“Will you stop being an ass and get yourself into the living room?”
Lani gave a hiss of annoyance and turned toward the door. There was just so
much patience she could exercise. “You get your butt outside, do you hear me?
You have two minutes.”
With that she stalked off to plop herself back into her chair at the
dining table. She was mad. After she’d gone to all this trouble her fabulous
dinner was getting cold and it was all because of that obstinate, unreasonable
man. She folded her arms across her chest, gritted her teeth and waited. She
would give him two minutes and no more.
But after two minutes there was no sign of Ridge. Lani let out an
exasperated sigh but she kept her bottom glued to the chair. She was not going
to run after Ridge. She sat there, refusing to look at the clock, and she
waited and waited. And still no Ridge.
Finally, no longer able to resist, she looked up at the clock on the
wall. Seven-sixteen. Ridge had kept her waiting over ten minutes and on top of
that the cursed musicians were late.
The tap at the door came just on the tail end of that thought, just
when she’d decided she didn’t want any damn music, anyway. But when she opened
the door there they were, three of them, and they were grinning from ear to
ear.
Lani gave them the less than welcoming greeting of a groan. “Is it
too late to cancel you guys?”
“Yup,” the short one said and before she could even think of closing
the door he walked in, his two tuxedoed buddies behind him.
It seemed that things were out of her hands. She was about to be
serenaded, whether she wanted it or not.
With a sigh of resignation she went back to the table and sat. Talk
about a waste of time. But she’d ordered them so she guessed she would just
have to sit through it. Alone.
“Ready, madam?” the one who looked like the leader asked.
Lani grimaced. “Yeah. Go ahead.”
***
What the heck? Was somebody holding a concert in the living room?
Although Ridge’s scowl had disappeared long ago, now it came back
full force. There were violins playing in the living room and he had no idea
why.
He gave a grunt of annoyance. Lani must be desperate, resorting to
playing classical music to get him to leave the bedroom. Well, it wasn’t going
to work.
But then the music got louder, almost sounding like it was live. But
it couldn’t be.
His curiosity getting the better of him, Ridge got up off the bed
and padded across the floor to throw the bedroom door open. What he saw made
him draw back in surprise.
Three violinists stood around Lani where she sat at the dining table
and they were playing with such concentration and feeling you would think they
were performing in front of an audience of a thousand.
And there was Lani, sitting at the table laden with dish upon dish,
and she had her head down and it looked like she was…crying?
He’d made a couple of steps forward when she looked up, her eyes
widening as she saw him. “Ridge,” she gasped. “You’re not dressed.”
He looked down and saw that she was right. He’d walked out into the
living room in nothing but his boxer shorts. But how could he have known she
had real live musicians performing in their hotel suite?
But when the men saw him they did not pause in their serenade. True
professionals, they swung their attention back to the woman at the table and
continued playing.
So this was the surprise Lani had spoken about. She’d arranged
dinner and music for them. And, he now realized, the man with whom she’d
planned on having dinner, was him.
That knowledge made him feel like the biggest jerk there was. His
main concern the beautiful woman sitting at the table, Ridge strode toward her,
not even bothered by his near naked state. He had other, far more important
things to think about like how to get back into the good graces of his wife. As
soon as he got to her side he went to drop to his knees, ready to shower her
with apologies, but before he could do it she pulled him down and practically
shoved him into the chair beside her.
Before he could move, before he could even speak, she’d left her
chair and was climbing onto his lap, the tears sliding down her cheeks to fall
onto his bare chest. “I’m sorry, Ridge. It’s my fault we’re not speaking. All
my fault.”
Ridge lifted his arms to gather her close but then the violin music
and the ready-made audience got to him. He looked up at the men of music who
were performing like mad even though their ears were obviously cocked to hear
what would come next.
Ridge cleared his throat. “Thanks, guys,” he told them. “You’ve done
a great job. You may go now.”
Abruptly, they stopped playing then one of them had the audacity to
make his disappointment obvious. “Aaw,” he said, dropping his violin from where
he’d hooked it on his shoulder. “We were just getting to the good part.”
Ridge couldn’t tell if he meant the good part of the musical piece
or of the scene unfolding before his eyes. Whichever it was, the show was over.
He jerked his chin toward the door. “Please show yourselves out.”
They couldn’t leave fast enough as far as Ridge was concerned. As
soon as the door closed behind them he looked down at the woman in his arms.
“What were you saying now, honey?”
Lani was calmer now and she snuggled in his lap and leaned her cheek
against his chest. “I was telling you how awful I was.”
Ridge chuckled. “We both know that’s not true. You’re the sweetest
girl in the world.”
Instead of thanking him for the compliment Lani gave him an
irritated look and swatted him on the shoulder. “That sounded so corny,” she
said crossly.
He shrugged. “What can I say? It’s true.”
She dropped her head back to his chest and wrapped her arms around
his waist. “Anyway, I was telling you I was a stupid jerk for not telling you
what really happened when Aurelio and I went on our hike.”