Of all things, Lucy hadn’t expected the exclusive winery’s lavish restaurant to be empty. Though she’d never visited before, she had heard from friends, Steph and Mia especially, just how impressive and popular the Cardinal Winery was. There had even been whispers that a three-month waiting list stood for all new bookings, but clearly Cal had proved that wrong. If you had enough money, you could achieve anything.
She’d known that Cal’s family was well-to-do back in school, but things hadn’t really started to take off for them until Cal was a senior. When Cal was young, his father, Phillip, had owned a few properties, his first being the Calypso on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Being good friends with Cal had meant that she and Maddy had been lucky enough to holiday there numerous times at his dad’s request, keeping Cal and his cousin Tobias Sutton company. It was an idyllic property, right on the beach, and she’d created some extraordinary memories there—playing hide and seek in the lobby, stealing ice-cream from the humongous walk-in freezer in the kitchen, and trying to make a vortex in the swimming pool by going around and around the edge. Yet, it wasn’t until Cal’s father had taken a huge risk by buying a giant skyscraper in Melbourne that he really hit the big time in the property market.
In some ways, Lucy felt she should count herself lucky to have known Cal when he was younger. That Cal had been so down-to-earth, so kind and completely unaffected by his family’s wealth. He’d been tenderhearted and generous, a really great guy, a best friend, definitely not the pretentious spoiled brat many children with money turned out to be. That was, until junior year when he’d come back from the summer holidays, having travelled through Europe with his family, and decided that he was going to date all her girlfriends, save for Maddy. That had been bad enough. Yet now, she could see it had all finally caught up with him. He no longer held the same personality of that sweet, modest child she’d once known, but had become instead a conceited, entitled womanizer who clearly thought he could buy everything—and everyone.
That was, everyone except for her or her friendship, no matter how much of his fortune he wasted in trying.
“I thought we might prefer the privacy.” Cal gestured toward the expanse of the restaurant with its rustic décor, cathedral ceiling with exposed wooden beams and two full walls of timber framed picture windows.
Although the room appeared to be presented in its usual format, selectively spaced chunky cedar dining tables surrounded by wrought iron chairs with decorative scrolls and plush plum colored cushions, only one table in a small, private conservatory-like nook in the far-right corner appeared to be laid with tableware.
Lucy shot him a look of displeasure. “You mean, you think it will be easier to convince me of the sincerity of your intentions without a lot of strange people around.”
With a cunning grin, Cal nodded. “Exactly.”
She huffed in annoyance. “Fat chance.”
As his warm palm met the small of her back in an effort to lead her farther into the room, Lucy skipped quickly from his grasp as though she’d just been burnt.
Him touching her was definitely a no-no. The more distance she could place between the two of them, even at the dining table, the better. She didn’t trust herself in his arms, no matter how slight the physical touch. It had been bad enough yesterday, but at least the shock of seeing him after so many years had fueled her with enough fury to ignore the fiery sensations of his touch on her skin.
Today presented another problem entirely. Alone in an intimate setting, her thoughts constantly drawn back to the depths of those enthralling smoky-blue eyes, that teasing, kissable smile, imagining the feeling of her fingers raking through that soft sandy-colored hair—it was enough to have her panting just at his proximity.
Lucy couldn’t believe she could still feel this way after so many years. Why couldn’t she just grow up and grow out of this phase? It was all he was ever going to be to her. Just a phase, a foolish lustful phase brought on by teenage hormones and nothing more. It was purely mind over matter, that’s what she needed to focus on. But she knew—though it might have been easy enough to talk sense into her mind—convincing her body, her heart, her very soul was like wishing for a miracle.
“Can you stop smiling at me like that? You look like the shark who scored the seal.” Lucy glowered at Cal as he gestured for her to sit on the chair he’d just withdrawn from the table.
“I guess I am,” he told her proudly, helping her to adjust her seat before taking his own. “But this,” Cal continued, his index finger swirling in front of his pearly white grin, “comes naturally when I’m happy and since today is probably the best day of my life, I’m feeling pretty damn happy, so it’s staying.”
Even though she felt that evil organ, her heart, do a little flip-flop in her chest at his admission, Lucy rolled her eyes at him, her expression full of disdain.
Sure, he was happy, she thought to herself, happy to get his hooks into me again.
Once they were both seated, a petite waitress with perfectly styled blonde hair hurried over to their table with a bottle of wine and nearly curtsied as she showed Cal the label. Following his nod of approval, she opened the bottle and filled their glasses with the deep burgundy-colored alcohol.
As Lucy inhaled the rich, intoxicating aroma, she watched the waitress eye Cal with keen interest. Though she angled her buxom chest closer to him, hoping to catch his eye, Cal’s gaze remained firmly fixed on Lucy. Feeling uncomfortable under his stare, Lucy shifted in her chair. His blue-grey eyes seemed to be filled with the promise of dark desires and the sight of them sent a tingling sensation through her core. But she had to be seeing things. Cal had never had any of those desires for her and never would. He’d made that obvious back at school when he’d dated almost every other girl in their clique besides her.
The blonde, busty waitress appeared to be hovering, waiting for Cal to look at her. When he finally pried his eyes away from Lucy, the waitress grinned triumphantly.
“Is there anything else I can get you, sir?”
Cal shook his head politely. “No, thank you. Just leave the bottle.”
Instead of placing the opened bottle of red wine on the table as was customary practice, the waitress handed it carefully to Cal, winked and then scurried off in her black kitten heels.
Lucy frowned at the odd behavior and watched as Cal placed the bottle on the table, a piece of paper separating in his hands as he did so. He glanced at it, frowned, and then crushed it in his palm.
“What is that?” Lucy asked instinctively, unable to hide her astonishment.
Cal shrugged and shook his head. “Nothing really.”
When she reached out for it, he handed it over without argument. As she began to unravel the paper, she glanced over at the tasting bar where the waitress had been waiting and watching since leaving them. Catching her gaze, the waitress looked suddenly spooked and hurried away into a back room.
Puzzled, Lucy looked down at the smoothed piece of torn paper in her hands and it all began to make sense.
“A phone number? She slipped you her phone number even though she could see you were dining with another woman?”
After a nonchalant shrug, Cal lifted his glass and took a sip, swishing the wine around in his mouth like an expert before swallowing. “Ah,” he breathed, his gaze returning to Lucy’s. “Their cabernet sauvignon is my favorite.”
Feeling a little miffed at the nerve of the restaurant’s waitress and by the completely casual reaction Cal had exhibited to such an improper gesture, Lucy felt her expression become stern. “You’re not concerned by this at all, are you?”
An innocent frown pulled at Cal’s lips. “Should I be?”
Lucy’s brows raised. “Don’t you think it’s a tad inappropriate?”
Carefully, Cal placed his glass back on the tabletop and watched Lucy closely, his expression quizzical. Then a smirk twitched at the corner of his mouth and he leaned forward, arms resting on the wooden table. “Are you jealous, Luce?”
It was said so quietly with such goading charm that a shiver tickled up Lucy’s spine and goosebumps broke out across her arms.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Her retort was softer than she’d planned and it was nearly a question, not a statement with bite as she’d hoped.
An eyebrow quirked as if in challenge, but Cal remained silent.
“You’re acting as though this happens to you all the time,” she told him, forcing criticism into her tone.
Cal smiled knowingly. “It does.”
Lucy was too slow to catch her jaw before it dropped. Well, no wonder he believed he was God’s gift to women, when he had attractive women everywhere just throwing themselves at him. The proof was in the pudding, so to speak, and Cal’s pudding was as delectable as hell—even she was having trouble ignoring the handsome, rock-hard outer layer.
Shaking her head, Lucy tried to focus on the task at hand. This was a work-related lunch, that was all, and whatever Cal wanted to do when random women offered up their contact details—like this little, blonde minx had—that was his personal business and didn’t concern her. Even though Lucy felt as though she might growl territorially if the waitress came back, Cal wasn’t hers and she had no claim to him—no, Lucy definitely didn’t want him. Did she?
“Try the wine.” Cal’s deep, tender voice dripped with charm and broke through Lucy’s spiraling thoughts.
Obediently and in an effort to quell her nerves, she took a long sip. The fragrant liquid was warm, spicy, but deliciously smooth. “It’s lovely,” she agreed, before taking another sip, fighting the desire to scull the whole glass and enjoy the languid embrace of tipsiness.
Cal grinned. “I wasn’t sure if you’d like it. I only remember you as a beer and tequila girl from back in the day.”
Frozen, glass poised to lips, Lucy felt her cheeks grow hot and hoped the developing blush was the result of the strong wine, not her embarrassment at his comment. Slowly, she lowered the glass to the table and began nibbling at her lower lip.
“Toby’s parties, you mean?” Her voice sounded nervous, even to her.
Cal’s grin widened and he nodded. “You held the record for the most tequila shots downed in thirty seconds. Nine, if I remember correctly.”
“And a half,” she amended meekly. “But that was a very long time ago. I’d be lucky to get through a third of that now and still survive the hangover the next morning.”
He chuckled. “Know the feeling. I haven’t had a night like that in years. Toby still has wild parties though, but now they’re cocktail parties and the only thing that’s wild is the entertainment.”
Relaxing slightly, whether from the wine or from reminiscing, Lucy smiled. “That’s right, Maddy told me he was some big deal in the Melbourne Theatre Company.”
“He’s their theatrical producer.”
Lucy could hear the pride in Cal’s voice. She chuckled as a memory revealed itself—Toby after one too many drinks performing a monologue as Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and trying to get all of them, some of them drunker than him, to echo. It had been a garbled mess of words from his fascinated, yet highly intoxicated crowd, but that had never dimmed the passion in his eyes.
“Not an actor himself, then?”
Cal laughed. “No, he tried that, but preferred being in control too much. Remember how he used to get us to put on his plays in front of my parents? He even had us create tickets so he could collect them at the door and usher my mom, dad and Mr. Gillies to their seats.”
A grin spread itself comfortably across Lucy’s lips as the memory washed over her. For two weeks, nearly every summer, all four of them would spend at least a few days during their stay at the Calypso planning, then performing Toby’s eccentric productions. They would always take place in the Great Hall, on a makeshift stage before three lonely chairs—one for Cal’s dad, one for his mom and one for Mr. Gillies, the hotel manager. It had been just one of the many things she’d loved about their vacations together and the extraordinary, beguiling establishment that was the Calypso.
Lucy nodded. “They were good times, Cal.”
He looked suddenly hopeful. “We can still have good times together, Luce.”
Her smile faltered slightly and she began to chide herself mentally for getting caught up in the moment and lost in fond memories.
“I guess it’s time to get down to business,” she told him, her tone polite, but more formal.
When his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly from the ache of rejection, Lucy tried to ignore the mirroring stab of pain in her own heart.
No matter what he says, she reminded herself, he doesn’t really care. He’s just using you.
If that was true, then why did he keep looking at her like that—as though he did care about her, as though he’d missed her, as though he loved her?
*
After ordering, they’d eaten not quite in silence, but close to it. Small chatter was all Lucy seemed to be able to offer him now. Although Cal kept trying, asking numerous questions, some sociable, some personal, he’d received only the briefest of responses in reply. Desiring to know what his Lucy had been up to in her past fourteen years without him, he’d persevered gallantly, not wanting to give in to the topic of business until he truly had to. Yet, the more he persisted, the more he began to wonder if the topic of business might be, in fact, just what was needed to help her relax and start to let him in.
Cal had been surprised at how quickly the protective walls around Lucy’s psyche had started to crumble when they’d reminisced about the past, especially their time spent together playing in the hallowed halls of his beloved Gold Coast property. The adventures they had back then had been enjoyed thoroughly by all four of them and Cal was in no doubt that Lucy’s memories of their time together were bound to be as wonderful as his own.
Having given him the briefest of answers to his question about what she got up to on the weekends, with “work” and “exercise” being the predominant words used to reply, Lucy was back to gazing through the tall, clear window beside their table and out into the flower garden, the vineyard and the lush, rolling hills beyond.
Realizing he was left with only one option, Cal sighed. “So, I gather from your indifference throughout lunch that you are keen to know more about why I require the assistance of Insight Marketing?”
Lucy’s gaze jumped back to his at the sound of his more formal tone. Although her smile was pleasant, Cal thought he could see a slight suspiciousness to her expression.
“If you think we’ve got enough of the niceties out of the way, then yes, I’d love to talk business.” Her smile was almost mocking now and her tone a little too triumphant for his liking.
“I need your help to save something we both love.”
Her eyebrows furrowed at his words and she was no longer looking as confident as she had only seconds ago. Cal felt himself smirk at her surprise.
“Something we both love?” Lucy repeated the phrase back to him as though hoping it would clarify itself. She frowned, then shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Cal smiled, feeling something of his own victory in finally being able to have the upper hand again. “The Calypso,” he told her.
Her expression cleared in recognition and then quickly filled with concern. “What about the Calypso?”
“It’s to be put on the market in May.” Cal felt a stab of pain in his chest as he said the words. Though they were still true, he wanted more than anything to deny their truth. He couldn’t lose his father’s beloved property, his second home. Just thinking about it caused more pain to build and the tightness in his chest to grow.
“What?”
He was glad to hear the outrage in Lucy’s voice, the same tone he’d used with Jack when he’d been told the news. It was reassuring to know that at least on this topic, they both cared for a similar outcome.
“You can’t sell it! It’s part of our history,” she continued, becoming further indignant.
“That’s why I need your help and the help of the Insight team. The whole place needs a revamp, both physically and in the sales and marketing sector. I need to increase guest numbers and make a substantial profit by the end of April or relinquish the deed to the board and have them put the property up for sale.”
Wide-eyed, Lucy rested her elbows on the table and laced her fingers together as she nibbled at her lower lip. “A month? We’ve only got a month from tomorrow?”
Cal offered her a small shrug, his hands clasped together on the tabletop in front of him only inches from where hers lay. “A month and a bit.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze hot with annoyance. “It’s the first of April tomorrow.”
He dismissed her comment with a shake of his head. “Fine. A month then.”
As a deep sigh escaped her lips, Lucy removed her hands from where they’d rested near his and covered her face. When she dropped them down to the table again, they were closer to Cal’s.
“I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this. Us,” she corrected herself. “Insight Marketing, I mean. A month isn’t long enough to complete a project like this. A month might be the planning stage.”
“The physical improvements need to be completed within three weeks,” Cal explained. “Less if possible. I want all contractors off the premises by the twenty-first, so that we can put further emphasis on sales and start getting more guests in.”
Clearly overwhelmed, Lucy shook her head and then drank the rest of her wine. “I don’t know if we can do this, Cal.”
He smiled warmly when she said his name. “Julia’s already made her promises and I’ve signed the contract. Your team’s looking over the property’s specifications as we speak. I know you can do it. My marketing guys said you were the best freelance firm around and I’m sure of it. Julia was confident I could sign off on all contractors by Friday, to begin work the following Monday.”
Lucy shook her head again, disbelief clouding her face. “This is insane.”
Finally, Cal took advantage of the opportunity that had been presented to him. Reaching out, he wrapped his big, warm hands around hers, making her fingers look elegant and delicate beneath his. He held her turquoise blue gaze and offered her a tender, honest smile. “Any team that has my Lucy at the forefront is bound to be able to achieve miracles.”
For a brief instant, he saw Lucy’s smile reach her eyes, a blush pinken her cheeks, then her expression dimmed and her face hardened. She pulled her hands free from his and Cal let her, careful not to show the extent of the disappointment he felt at her rejection.
No, it wasn’t a stab to the heart that he felt, he reminded himself, but the spur of the hunt, a proactive pain to prompt him to fight harder.
Composed once more, Lucy casually glanced out the window before carefully returning her gaze to his. “If a month is all we have to achieve miracles, as you say, then you can be sure that all of us at Insight Marketing will do everything in our power to make your endeavor a successful one.”
Cal felt himself sigh at the formality of her tone and the coldness in her polite grin. As Lucy began to turn her attention once again to the picturesque surroundings beyond the winery’s restaurant, Cal recognized another opportunity.
“Let’s take a walk,” he told her. He’d made it a statement, almost a demand, so that there was no way she could squirm out of it.
Worriedly, she opened her mouth to answer, then seemed to think better of it. She frowned. “Where?”
Trying to contain his victory, Cal smiled mildly and motioned out the window to the striking scenery beyond. “You seem to be captivated by the place, so let’s take a better look around.”
Lucy swallowed. “Are you sure? Shouldn’t we be getting back to the office? Don’t you want to see how the others are progressing?”
Her tone was abuzz with nerves and Cal couldn’t help but take some satisfaction in unsettling her. He hoped that maybe this time, maybe during their walk through the wilderness she would finally start to let him in. He wanted her to be comfortable with him again, have the ease of the close friendship they had once shared, have something solid to build on before he confessed his love for her, before he told her that he couldn’t live without her and that he wanted to share the rest of his life with her.
“I’m confident they can handle things without us for a while longer,” he said. Then he stood and offered her his hand. “Shall we?”