in a low voice. “If Dad knew how much you covered for me, he wouldn’t even think of promoting me higher.”
“I don’t cover for you,” Reece said, sort of meaning it. “We each have our strengths. You can do the CFO job so long as you recognize where you need help, and surround yourself with people who can fill in the gaps.”
“You’ll be right there with me, you know. You’ve pushed me most of the way up the corporate ladder-I’m not going to the top without you. The first thing I’ll do if I get the job is give you a better title and a whopping big raise.”
They had reached Reece’s office, which was half the size of Bret’s down the hall and in bad need of a paint job.
“And a better office,” Bret said, looking around.
Reece just shook his head. “I’m happy where I am.” Or maybe he’d gotten complacent with his mediocre position. “Hey, are you going to Cooper’s wedding?”
“I wanted to. But Dad scheduled a golf game for Saturday with some bigwig hotel owner. Command performance. He’s trotting me around introducing me to everyone like a damn show dog.”
Reece couldn’t blame Bret for choosing the golf game over the wedding. He had a lot more at stake than Reece did.
Reece looked grimly at the stack of paper waiting for him in his in-box. “Guess I better get to work.”
SARA THREW herself into the last-minute wedding plans, grateful that Reece had left his car, because it turned out she really needed one. She was going to have to do something about her transportation problem soon.
“I can’t believe Reece left his car for you to drive,” Allie commented as they drove back to the B and B, the Mercedes’s trunk filled with all the ingredients Sara needed to make the lavish Mexican buffet planned for her friend’s wedding. “I think the boy is smitten. Men typically don’t let women drive their expensive sports cars after they wreck them.”
“The wreck wasn’t my fault. And Reece isn’t smitten. If he were, he would still be here.”
“Oh, Sara. He can’t just abandon his job. That would be irresponsible, and we both know Reece is anything but irresponsible.”
“But shouldn’t love be more important?”
Allie made a frustrated noise. “It’s not that simple. Let’s turn it around. Say you’d been the one on vacation, and you’d met Reece in New York. Would you have just stayed there, abandoning Miss Greer without a second thought?”
Sara took a few moments to think about her answer. “No, I guess I wouldn’t. But Reece hasn’t asked me to come to New York, so it’s a moot point.”
“What if he wanted you to go there, and stay there?”
“I’ve done stupider things for a guy. Yeah, I think I would do it.”
“I thought you only liked big cities to visit.”
She shrugged. “I could be persuaded to change my mind. But I would make sure Miss Greer was taken care of. I’d find someone good to take my place.”
“So maybe Reece has to take care of things back home. Give him time to miss you. If it was meant to be, you’ll find a way.”
They arrived back at the Sunsetter, and Sara immediately got to work mixing the masa harina for homemade corn tortillas.
“So what should I do when I see him?” Sara asked. She hadn’t felt this insecure about a guy since…well, she never had. Even when she was a teenager she hadn’t angsted about guys.
“Make your feelings known. Do you love him?”
“Yes, I think so,” Sara said miserably. “I think about him all the time. I fantasize about being with him. I picture what our children would look like.”
Allie smiled. “Sounds like love to me. Could you commit to him? As in, the rest of your life?”
Sara couldn’t answer that question quite so easily. “The rest of my life is a very long time.”
“So you’re asking Reece to give up everything he knows, everything that’s familiar-including his family and a six-figure income-to hang out with you for as long as it lasts? Think about it.”
Sara didn’t have to think about it long. Reece was a man uncomfortable with uncertainty. If he made a major life change, he wouldn’t do so unless he was able to map out the next fifty years. Sara, on the other hand, had never been able to commit to anything-not a job, not a man, not even a hairstyle. Once, when she was a little girl, her mother had made her cut her hair for a swim class at the Y. She had cried for a week because she’d been forced to wear her hair the same way every single day until it grew out.
She’d been expecting Reece to live life the way she did. If she saw something she wanted, she went for it and worried later about all the consequences. He could never conduct his life that way and maintain his identity.
“Are you thinking?” Allie asked. “Or have you tuned me out?”
“I’m thinking.” And she was trying not to cry. She’d been doing that a lot lately. Who knew falling in love could be so painful?
REECE LANDED at the Corpus Christi airport at eleven o’clock Saturday morning on Cooper’s wedding day, two hours before the actual ceremony.
“You’re cutting it close,” Max said as Reece climbed into his cousin’s red Corvette outside the baggage claim.
“I know. I had a meeting Friday afternoon that lasted for hours and I missed my original flight. This was the best I could do on short notice. You have the tux?”
“I have the tux.”
“How did the rehearsal go?”
“We didn’t really have a rehearsal. We just had a big party on the private deck at Old Salt’s Bar and Grill.”
“Was Sara there?”
Max snorted. “Of course. She’s Allie’s maid of honor.”
“Did she have a date?”
“No…” Max flashed a sly smile. “Oh, yeah. I heard about you and the flower child. Bit out of your league, wouldn’t you say?”
At least Max didn’t mince words the way Cooper had. Cooper, being older, had been protective toward Reece when they were growing up, an attitude that lingered into adulthood. Max, who was younger, had been the one to tease, though in a good-natured way. He still did.
“She’s so completely out of my league,” Reece said glumly.
“Aw, now, don’t be like that. I just meant she’s different from the type of girl you usually date. When you date.”
“I know.” Which was why he should cut it off clean. Cooper, who would soon be on his honeymoon piloting the
The next couple of hours were filled with frenzied activity at Cooper’s house as they all got ready for the wedding. However, Cooper, Max and Reece did find time for a private toast with a very good Scotch Cooper had been saving for whenever the first one of them got married.
“Well, this is it, guys,” Cooper said. “The end of the Three Musketeers. I’ll be married, and Reece will be half a country away.”
“We’ll still see each other,” Reece argued. He was happy for Cooper, happy that his two cousins had made the leap away from Remington Industries, where their older brothers would forever have prevented them from reaching the peak of their professions.
But he hated thinking about being the sole survivor at the family company, without the other musketeers for support.
When it came right down to it, he didn’t like change.
“Yeah,” Max said, “but it won’t be the same. Once or twice a year at Christmas or Thanksgiving…”
“Hey, let’s not get maudlin,” Cooper said. “I’m getting married. Wish me well.”
They drank a toast to the groom, and to the bride, and it was only after Reece had drained his glass did he remember that he wasn’t supposed to drink with his seasick medicine, which he hadn’t yet taken.
