I slam the ’Stang’s door, then dry my suddenly sweaty palms on my shorts as I head up the walkway to the villa’s front door and knock.
But it isn’t Amanda who answers. Instead, I’m greeted by a tall, thirtyish blond guy with blue eyes, a hundred-dollar dress shirt, and a smooth demeanor.
I rear back. Who’s this guy?
“You Tanner?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I’m suspicious—until I look at his eyes. They’re so much like Amanda’s. “Stephen?”
“Come in.” He steps back to admit me. “My sister thought it was time we have a family meeting.”
So why the hell am I here?
“Coffee?” He leads me toward the kitchen.
I didn’t finish mine in the car, and my head is still nagging at me. “That would be great.”
He peers my way. “Your eyes are bloodshot, and you’re squinting like the overhead light hurts your head. Hungover?”
Fuck, this bastard is perceptive. “A little.”
“Whiskey?”
“Vodka.”
“Toasting my sister, I’m presume?”
This is the weirdest conversation. I didn’t come here to meet her brother…though I have to wonder why he’s yapping at me now. “Where is she?”
“Changing Oliver and getting dressed. Hey, Dad…”
I turn to find an older version of Stephen entering the room. His shoulders have begun to round with age. His slicked-back hair is more than a little silver. He smiles my way and sticks out his hand. “Mr. Kirk, we finally meet.”
I’m just not sure why.
Reluctantly, I shake his hand in return. “Mr. Lund.”
“Douglas,” he corrects.
Stephen offers me a fresh mug. “Cream? Sugar?”
“Black.”
He takes a sip of his own brew with a sigh. “A man after my own heart.”
“Forgive me, but I thought I was here to talk to Amanda. If you two brought me here to threaten, bribe, or bully me into getting the hell out of her life, you can stop. She already tossed me out, and I left. Mission accomplished.”
“That’s not why she asked you to come,” Lund Senior assures. “I want to apologize for busting in like a bull in a china shop and to thank you.”
Am I hearing this right? “For what?”
“Being the kind of man my daughter needs. I misjudged you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Amanda called us here and reamed us out for interfering. Then she explained what you did for her, how you put her first…and I realized I’d judged you wrong. I feared you had the same motives as Barclay.”
It takes me a minute to connect the dots. “You thought I would use my position of power as her protector to seduce her because I wanted a piece of ass.”
Stephen laughs, and Lund Senior has the good grace to look chastened. “Not the words I would have chosen—”
“Only because he’s more blunt,” Amanda’s brother puts in.
The older man concedes with a nod. “But that was my fear, yes.”
I understand a man wanting to protect his daughter, but does he know her at all? “She’s not weak. She’s not a pushover. And she’s definitely not easy.”
At least I never thought she was. But if she’s engaged to Bruce now…
“I’m beginning to grasp that. Last night, she called and unloaded more than a few choice words on me. I happened to be in San Francisco on business, so when she demanded I… What was it she said?” He looks Stephen’s way.
“To stop treating her like a kid, get your ass out to Maui, and listen for once, damn it.”
Lund Senior nods. “Yeah. That sums it up. So I hopped on a red-eye, and we’ve spent the last few hours talking. We know everything about Barclay now. The whole truth. I had no idea…”
Really? “So you know she was just a child when—”
“Yeah.” And the truth is clearly killing him. “I feel so guilty that I never saw it.”
“I had my suspicions,” Stephen admits. “I should have done more. I’ll have to live with that regret. But after she gave us both a tongue lashing, she called you over so we could apologize to you for assuming the worst, butting in, and being pains in your ass.”
“Precisely,” Amanda’s father seconds. “I hope there are no hard feelings.”
It’s damn hard not to have them. “Bruce wasn’t the answer, and you shouldn’t have told him where to find Amanda last night.”
“I know. I just wanted to protect my daughter from more heartache, and I knew he’d never hurt her.”
He’d never make her happy, either.
“She’s perfectly capable of managing her own life.” And dishing out heartache in return.
I ought to know.
“We’re, um…figuring that out.” Stephen laughs at himself.
I wish I had a sense of humor now. But Amanda still hasn’t appeared. Because she didn’t really want to see me? Her family apologizing is all well and good, but who gives a shit if she and I have no future?
“We are,” Lund Senior assures me. “So I hope you’ll accept our sincere apologies. I also wanted to give you this.”
When he thrusts an envelope in my hands, I open it to find a check for ten grand. “What’s this?”
“The money Amanda owes you, plus expenses…and a bonus for putting up with us.”
For him, it’s chump change. And I’m not a chump. I need the money, but not enough to compromise my ethics.
“No thanks.” I push the envelope back at him. “I appreciate the apology, but I don’t need it. I won’t take your money, either. I came to talk to Amanda, but if she didn’t ask me here to talk to me herself, I’ve got nothing left to say.”
With a curt nod, I turn away. I fucking wanted that money when Amanda hired me. I wanted that apology after her family tried to bully me.
Now I just want Amanda.
Sure, I could march to the back of the house and demand that she talk to me. But it would be pointless. She has to want to meet me halfway. And if she doesn’t… Well, forcing her would accomplish nothing. Best to tuck away the memory of our time together and walk
