Private Party (28 page)

“Ready to go?” Carla put a hand on his shoulder, and gently prodded him.

Chris sighed heavily and did his best to put on his game face, just as he’d done every week for the past two months. He schooled his face into a polite, welcoming mask, went down to the dock and greeted the newest group of the world’s wealthiest looking for the epitome of luxurious vacations.

And every week, he watched each guest disembark with unwavering intensity. Every so often he would catch a glimpse of a slender, petite figure, a curly mop of blond curls, and his heart would leap in a moment of sickening hope.

And every single time, it was someone else. He knew how ridiculous it was to hope that Julie would tell her father and Brian to take a flying leap. It was even more unlikely that she would then hop on a plane and come back here.

Still, a day didn’t go by when her parting words didn’t replay in his mind. When he didn’t wonder if his decision to push her away was the worst mistake of his life.

“Chris, come on. Try not to look like someone just killed your puppy, okay?” Carla said, her tone gentle PrivateParty

despite her words. “These people are expecting paradise, and paradise isn’t run by some grumpy, lovesick loser.”

“I’m not lovesick.”

Carla snorted. “Moping around? Hermiting up in your house every night? Showing not even a smidgen of interest in the many single female guests we’ve had in the past two months? If that’s not lovesick, I don’t know what is.”

Chris glared at Carla, unable to argue with her painfully accurate assessment of his behavior.

“And if anyone knows about lovesick, it’s you, right?” Chris felt like an ass, throwing Carla’s own painful past breakup in her face, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

“Damn right I do,” she snapped. “And now I realize how annoying I must have been. So just call her, tell her you love her, and get it over with.” She paused to put some papers in a file. “In any case, it’s affecting your work, and we have too much to do for you to be distracted.” They had Julie to thank for their increased workload. Despite her tantrums and complaints, Jane Bowden had raved to all of her friends, including some in the press, about her amazing, wonderful wedding at Holley Cay. Since she’d left before the paparazzi had descended like locusts, she miraculously didn’t have a single bad thing to say about Chris, Carla, and the entire staff at the resort.

Thanks to her, Carla had already booked two more weddings in as many months and Chris was actively courting a crown princess of Sweden who was scouting several locations in the Caribbean. Not bad, considering they had hosted their first wedding only two months ago. If only Julie was here to help, he thought ruefully.

But her hospitality management skills were far from the biggest reason he missed her.

He was in love with her, no question, and his heart got sorer every day that he wasn’t with her.

He’d realized he loved Julie about five minutes after she left. That wasn’t the problem.

“She would never defy her father that way.”

“What is this, the feudal system? Julie loves you. If you asked her to come back, she’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Chris envied the conviction in Carla’s voice. “She’s always done everything her parents told her. She always does the right thing. It’s just the way she is.” PrivateParty

“Clearly she’s trying to change that, or she would have never crawled into bed with you.” He thought about that for a moment, and for a minute he savored the slight tang of hope. But even if Julie did love him, she’d still left, hadn’t she?
Only after you practically kicked her out the door,
a harsh voice reminded him.

But for good reason,
he reminded himself. Women like Julie didn’t walk away from the tight grip of their families—not to mention a mega trust fund—in the name of love. She might have grown up some, but underneath it all she was still the same college girl who didn’t even want her father to know they were friends.

“You don’t understand how it is with her family. She’s lived her whole life under Daddy’s thumb, doing everything he says without question. That’s not going to change in the course of a couple of weeks.” Carla fixed him with an analytical stare. “You know what I think?” she said after several moments.

Chris wasn’t sure he did, but he knew better than to say so. “I think you severely underestimate her. I may not know her as well as you think you do, but she was happy here. Maybe you’re right. Maybe she would have given it all up in a couple of months and gone running back to Daddy, but I really don’t think so. I think you’re looking for excuses because you’re too much of a coward to put your heart on the line. Inside, you’re still that angry teenager who was rejected by his father and everyone in his world.”

“Thanks for the analysis, Dr. Freud,” he snapped, standing from his desk chair with enough force to knock it to the ground. “If you’re done with your bullshitting, we need to go greet the guests.” They walked down to the dock in tense silence. Chris greeted the guests, doing his best to be cordial and welcoming, despite the internal storm Carla’s comments had ignited. She was wrong. He wasn’t afraid, he was practical. What was the use of putting himself and Julie through the emotional torture when he could already foresee the outcome, clear as day?

Unless you’re wrong.

I was ready to take the risk. I was ready to go all in.

A lump lodged in his throat as he remembered Julie’s face, the defeated, resigned look in her beautiful blue eyes. He’d done that. Broken her. Even when she’d come back to his villa after talking to her father, she’d had fight left in her. But when Chris had forced himself to tell her to go, that had been the killing blow.

It made him sick now to think about it. He didn’t want to remember her looking at him with defeated resignation. He wanted to remember her smiling at him, looking at him with the heat of passion when PrivateParty

he’d slid inside the giving heat of her body. Looking at him with love.

He’d thrown it all away. Pain cut through him like a white-hot blade. Carla was right. He was an idiot.

He was a coward. That day at his villa, Julie had been ready to fight, ready to take on her father, Brian, all the people who sought to control her. All she’d wanted was his support, and instead he’d given into his fear of being hurt, his fucking cowardice, and pushed her away.

Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because Carla said, “She loves you, you know.

And unlike me, she’s not a vindictive bitch. I bet if you beg her forgiveness, she’ll give you another shot.”

He managed a half smile and draped his arm over Carla’s shoulder, praying she was right. “You think it’ll be that easy?”

“Your pride may sting a little, but yeah, I’ll lay odds that Julie wants to forgive you. Now let’s get back to the office so you can call her. Beg and plead, but get her back here. I need her help with the princess.” Chris followed Carla, a genuine smile spreading across his face for the first time in two months. Julie. If he called her today, she could be on a plane tonight, and back in his arms by morning.

If only it were that easy. After hurrying back to the office, he’d dialed Julie’s number in San Francisco, only to be greeted by a message that the number was no longer in service. No forwarding information was provided.

Her coworker at the Winston, whom he contacted next, informed him that Julie no longer worked there and, no, she had no information of her current whereabouts.

Chris broke down and called Brian.

“We don’t know where she is,” Brian said. “Grant got an e-mail that said she wasn’t coming back to San Francisco, but it didn’t say where she was.”

His brother’s indifference made Chris’s rage move from a simmer to a boil. Brian had laughed in a way that made Chris wish he could commit fratricide over the phone line. “Honestly, I assumed she was still with you. I don’t expect she got very far without her credit cards and her padded bank account.”

“So Grant cut her off?” Chris asked, pressing his thumb and middle finger against his eye sockets to stave off the impending headache.

“Yep. Completely and totally. It about gave him a heart attack when Julie wasn’t on that plane. But you know how he is—he never lets anyone call his bluff. Not even Julie.” PrivateParty

Chris hung up the phone, a ball of sick rage roiling in his stomach. God, Julie was alone somewhere, with no money and apparently her own father didn’t even care. Contrary to what he’d thought, Julie didn’t need anyone’s support to stand up to her domineering father. Worry, pride, and regret formed a tight ball in his gut. Carla was right. He’d underestimated her. The realization re-doubled his determination to find her and use whatever means necessary to convince her to take him back.

Finally in a last ditch effort to locate her, Chris searched through his past reservations lists, cursing himself again for not taking the time to key the guest information into his searchable database. After sorting through what seemed like hundreds of pages and handwritten notes, he finally located the number of her best friend, Wendy.

Chris sighed impatiently as Wendy’s phone rang a third time. Crap. He was going to get sent to voicemail. Maybe he should just book a flight to visit her in person—

“Hello?” Wendy’s voice was slightly breathless.

“Wendy, this is Chris Dennison.”

“What the hell do you want?”

Chris held out the handset, surprised that icicles hadn’t formed. “I’m looking for Julie,” he began.

“Look, I’ll tell you what I told her father. Julie is fine. She’s taking care of herself. You don’t need to worry about her. Now do her a favor and leave her alone.”

“But I lo—”

“No, you listen,” Wendy raged. “Julie is one of the best people I’ve ever known, and you pushed her around and broke her heart. She finally has the chance to figure out her life, and I won’t let you mess it up.”

Chris swallowed heavily. “Is she happy?”

“She’s working on it,” Wendy replied.

“Will you tell her—” The click of the connection being broken cut him off before he could finish: “That I love her.”

He impatiently hit redial, cursing when he rang into voice mail. Who the hell did Wendy think she was, coming between him and the woman he loved? Still, he managed to temper his anger enough to leave a civil message. No sense antagonizing the only person who seemed to know where Julie was.

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“Wendy, I know you have no reason to trust me. I don’t blame you for trying to protect Julie. I know you think I’m an ass, and you’re probably right. But you should also know this. I love her. I’ve loved her since she was sixteen years old. I love her more than I ever thought I’d love anyone. All I want is the chance to tell her in person. So please call me back and tell me where she is so I can—” a sharp beep cut him off, telling him he’d reached the time limit for his message. “Shit,” he murmured as he hung up.

Now all he could do was stare at the phone like some lovesick teenager, praying Julie’s best friend would call him back.

“…and you can either have the reception out here by the pool,” Julie gestured to the expansive pool deck, currently occupied by several lounge chairs, “or we can set up tents and a temporary dance floor on the beach.”

Christina, the crown princess of Sweden, looked around the grounds of the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas with a critical eye. “I like your ideas, but we will review additional properties in the area before I make a decision.”

Julie smiled, nodded politely. “I hope your search is successful. Of course, we would be thrilled if you chose the Ritz, and we will do our very best to accommodate your every whim.” Julie knew better than to press Christina to make a decision before she was ready.

Even though a royal wedding would be quite a coup, it wasn’t as though they needed the business. In the two months since she’d become the special events director here at the Ritz, she’d already successfully overseen half a dozen nuptials of varying sizes.

As if that weren’t enough, she was currently working on a plan to sell wedding packages for couples with smaller ceremonies, while hosting the larger events at the same time. If her numbers were right, they stood to make several hundred thousand in additional revenue per year.

She headed back to the sales office to prepare for a meeting with the catering manager. Not bad for a woman who couldn’t even get a recommendation from her former employer.

She didn’t even bother asking her father for a reference for fear he’d a) try to sabotage her, or b) fly down here to personally escort her back to San Francisco. Fortunately her resume spoke for itself, and several of her former colleagues had given her glowing reviews, and promised to keep her whereabouts secret from her family.

It still seemed a little surreal. Here she was again, working in another hotel. But this time, no one could accuse her of getting her job through nepotism. And she was finding that when it came to her client’s parties the sky was still the limit, her personal budget had a much lower ceiling compared to what she’d been used to.

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When she left the airport that day she’d taken a cab to a hotel, only to find out that her credit card was refused for nonpayment. She had just enough money left in her checking account to cover a few nights’

lodging. Desperate, she’d called Wendy, who as usual had a perfect solution.

Luckily for her, her six carat diamond engagement ring was of such high quality (she had to give Brian credit—the man certainly knew his jewelry), the jeweler was willing to provide a substantial, if not full, refund. Under other circumstances, Julie might have felt guilty about using the proceeds from the ring, but she had taken the money Wendy wired her and set up a checking account in St. Thomas with nary a twinge of regret. It was the least Brian could do, after all this.

Once her credit card and other bills were paid off, she had just enough to tide her over until she found gainful employment. Fortunately, the Ritz had an opening that was right up her alley.

It didn’t pay a huge salary, but for the first time in her life, Julie was confident that she’d been hired because her employers believed in her ability and her willingness to work hard. The position was a perfect fit—challenging, fun, and it even included room and board at one of the most beautiful resorts in the Caribbean.