“Yeah, that’ll go over big,” Rafe muttered.
“Look,” Sean told them both with a tired sigh, “I’ll take care of the details here. You guys get hold of Rico and tell him we’re on. I’ll check out the small construction company here on the island, see what we can use and what we’ll need to bring in.”
“I’ve got a cargo ship putting out to sea in a week or so,” Rafe said. “We can get most of our equipment onboard and get to work as soon as possible.”
“Sounds good,” Sean said, relieved to be back on safer terrain. Talking about the job, the business, he felt more in control. “With the weather here, it being fall won’t be a problem. We should be able to keep the job running right through winter without many weather delays.”
“Sounds good,” Lucas told him with a grin. “Rico’s going to want to jump into this project. Oh, and he’s having us build him a house on the island too. Guess he’s decided to make Tesoro his main residence.”
Sean held up one hand. “All I negotiated for was the hotel property. Rico’s on his own with the house deal.”
“Seriously,” Lucas muttered with a snort, “what do you have left to bargain with? Your soul?”
“Funny,” Sean told him.
“Oh, Rico’s got the land for the house,” Rafe told him. “Walter had no problem with that. It was the beachfront property he was hanging onto. Until now.”
“Yeah,” Sean said, feeling that metaphorical noose tightening around his throat again. “Until now.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Rafe asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sean answered his question with a question and let it go.
“Always were the most stubborn one of us,” Lucas said.
“Yeah, right.” Rafe laughed. “You make Dad look reasonable.”
“No reason to be insulting,” Lucas countered.
“You want insulting?” Rafe argued.
Sean smiled to himself as he watched his brothers fall into a familiar argument. They were in California, but they might as well have been on Mars for as far away as Sean felt from the family he loved. But it was better this way, he told himself.
No reason for them to meet Melinda or to celebrate a marriage that had a two-month expiration date.
He’d made the deal and he’d stick to it. But damned if he’d have an audience for it.
Four
“You’re doing what?”
“I’m getting married,” Melinda said and waited for the crushing, debilitating panic she kept expecting to set in. It didn’t, which was completely weird because if anyone had the right to panic, it was her.
After Sean and her grandfather had had their meeting, she’d spent five quick minutes with the man who would soon be her husband. Sean hadn’t said much, just told her that it was set and that he was going to have dinner with her grandfather. Then he told her he’d call her sometime today. Which, so far, he hadn’t.
She shot a quick look out the kitchen window. It was only late morning. Still plenty of time. So why was her stomach doing a jittery dance and her throat occasionally closing up so even breathing was becoming an Olympic event?
Oh, God.
She had spent all of last night, sitting on the terrace of her hotel suite, staring out at the ocean. The trade winds ruffled through the leaves of the trees and the scent of night-blooming jasmine had wrapped itself around her and still, she couldn’t find any peace.
And she knew why.
Sean King was too attractive. Too…something. He got to her in a way no man had since Steven and just admitting that should have been enough to have her backing out of the deal she had struck. But she couldn’t do that. Not and win her independence.
So here she sat, at her best friend’s kitchen table, trying to convince herself that everything would be okay. Only problem being, now that the deed was done, everything was in motion and Melinda was beginning to feel like she was strapped into a runaway roller coaster. Her grandfather was happy. Sean was…she wasn’t sure how he was feeling. And she was, anxious. But resolved.
“I can’t believe this.” Kathy Clark, Melinda’s best friend and absolutely the only person she could talk to about this, shook her head. “You’re the one who said what your grandfather was trying to do was medieval.”
“I know, but—”
“And you swore that if he ever tried to marry you off again you’d join a convent.”
“Yes, but—”
“And, you said that you couldn’t marry anyone because you’re still in love with…Steven.”
Melinda heard the hesitation in her friend’s voice and frowned. Kathy never had liked Steven and Melinda was never sure why. But that wasn’t the point now anyway.
Kathy frowned at her as she held a baby bottle to her son’s mouth. “So who is this mystery man and why did you agree to something you practically took a blood oath to avoid?”
When she paused for breath, Melinda jumped into the conversation. “This is different. My grandfather didn’t arrange this, I did.”
Her friend blinked big brown eyes and shook her head harder. “Okay, that actually makes negative sense.”
Melinda laughed and reached down to pick up Kathy’s two-year-old daughter. Setting the tiny girl onto her lap, she brushed baby-fine hair off the child’s forehead and said, “It makes perfect sense, Kath. I’m going to marry Sean and get my trust fund and then we’ll get a quiet divorce.”
“Just like that.”
“Yep.” Melinda planted a kiss on top of Danielle’s head and smiled when the little girl slapped both hands together.
“Uh-huh.”
She looked up at the tone in Kathy’s voice and found her friend watching her through narrowed eyes. “What?”
“Getting married, even temporarily, is a huge step. And sometimes divorces, even the ones you want, are more painful than you might think. Are you really sure you want to do this?”
“Of course I’m sure,” she argued, keeping her voice light and singsongy to please the toddler on her lap. “There won’t be any pain in this divorce and there won’t be any hard feelings, either. We both get what we want. Me, my trust fund, and my new husband will get the land he wants. I’ve thought it all out, covered every possibility and this really is the answer.”
“It’s a weird world when you consider marrying a complete stranger a good thing.”