She closed her eyes and lifted her face, accepting the sweetest, softest, most beautiful kiss she’d ever had. “I’ll never be—”
“Yes, you will.” He feathered another kiss on her cheek, and her temple, and her ear. “You will be sure and ready and free. And the only tears you’ll shed will be from pleasure and joy.”
For a long time, Mandy just stared at the fire, both of them perfectly still until Zeke fell asleep in exactly that position. She watched him slumber, drank in the sunrise, and somehow managed to fight the tears as his last words played over in her head.
She might be sure. She might be ready. But she’d never be free. Not the way he wanted her to be. And that was the saddest thing she ever knew because sometime in the last few hours, this had ceased to be “pretend.” But it still had to end.
Chapter Ten
Amanda couldn’t breathe. Her heart pounded so hard she could hear each beat in her ears, and both of her palms sweat so much she had to turn them over to get some air on her skin. And she was shaking.
But Lacey Walker didn’t seem to notice any of that as she turned the last page of the proposal.
“I’m impressed, Amanda,” she said, finally looking up. “Simple, smart, incredibly efficient. I know I didn’t give you much time.”
Next to none, in fact. Amanda had called Lacey the day before to ask for a meeting, certain she’d be pushed back a week or more. But Lacey herself had called back almost immediately and invited Amanda to come in bright and early the next morning with her proposal.
Which wasn’t ready. But thanks to Zeke, who’d stayed at Amanda’s house until three that morning helping her put a plan together, she’d arrived here at nine, ready for Mimosa Maids to be considered for the outsourcing. They’d laughed, they’d argued, they’d finished, and somehow, they’d kept true to the letter of their contract. Clothes stayed on, even during a heated goodnight kiss.
A kiss that was going to lead to—
“But you wouldn’t do that, would you, Amanda?”
She might. For three days, she’d been getting closer. She blinked at Lacey, digging for a suitably vague answer to cover her wandering mind. There wasn’t one. “I’m sorry, Lacey, I’m nervous this morning and had about two hours’ sleep.”
Lacey broke into an easy smile. “I love that this means so much to you. I know the feeling.”
She was counting on that. “My plans are a lot smaller than building a resort.”
“Trust me, my plans were small, too.” Lacey tossed back some curls with a laugh. “Then I met the architect, and his ideas were much bigger than mine.” She held up her left hand to show a gold wedding band. “Much bigger.”
Amanda’s already pounding heart kicked up a notch just thinking about that, taking her back to the mantra that had put her to sleep the last few nights. Pretend has to end. Pretend has to end.
After his father’s surprise party, Zeke would head back to New York, and his visits to Mimosa Key would be so infrequent, he’d surely forget her. Would she forget him?
She’d have to.
“My question is about the staffing. A big part of J&T’s plan is to hire existing staff we have now and dedicate them to Casa Blanca. Are you prepared to do that?”
“There are several staff members I’d like to interview and consider, and I may hire new as well. I’m not afraid of working here every day until we have a fully trained housekeeping staff.”
She nodded, considering that. “I like that. I know Jared is planning to move Tori into the office, and she won’t be training staff.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I need to give this some thought, Amanda, but I’m very intrigued by your ideas. Especially this Mega-Green cleaning line, which you’ve managed to make cost effective. Others promise similar things, but the fees for environmentally friendly products are sky-high.”
Because Zeke owned a stake in the chemical development firm looking for beta testers of the new product line, she’d been able to get an amazing price on “green cleaners.”
“I’m excited about that, too,” Amanda said.
Lacey fluttered through the pages again, slowing on a spreadsheet and graph Zeke had created, nodding slowly. “Yes, this is quite an impressive piece of work.” She closed the binder with a snap. “I’ll be making a decision shortly.”
“If there’s anything else I can do, Lacey, just let—”
“Yes, there is.”
Amanda leaned forward, ready for whatever she suggested. A test run, another interview, more numbers. “Anything.”
“Accept my apology,” Lacey said softly.
Didn’t see that coming. “It’s fine, Lacey. You’re running a business.”
“Mr. Nicholas came and personally spoke on your behalf.”
She nodded, knowing he’d done that from the first night he showed up at her house with five thousand dollars in his pocket.
“I shouldn’t have assumed the worst and fired you.”
“I’m not a business owner, yet,” she added with a quick smile. “But I imagine you have to daily weigh what’s best for your company versus what’s best for your employees. I don’t blame you for making that decision. In fact, I’m glad you did. It motivated me.”
“To find the money, yes. How did you do that, by the way?”
“Creative financing,” she said, confident that was no lie.
Lacey’s smile was rueful enough that Amanda suggested she knew more than she was letting on. “Give me a few days, and I’ll get back to you.”
Outside of Lacey’s office, Amanda took a minute to lean against the wall and close her eyes with a sigh of relief. This was all so close now. She started to head to the back door, then checked herself. She wasn’t in uniform; in fact, she’d decided to wear a simple, but crazy expensive, polka dot dress the personal shopper had left when she’d delivered clothes for the surprise party. Right now, there was no reason to avoid the lobby, which was a much faster way out.
Opening the door that took her behind the front desk, she froze at the sight of Tori Drake clicking away on one of the computers. That wasn’t unusual; the head housekeeper of the day often used the front computers to monitor checkouts to get the rooms cleaned while they were unoccupied.
But Amanda really didn’t want a run-in with her now. She moved quickly, hoping Tori wouldn’t notice her.