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Their Unfinished Business
Jackie Braun
Even after ten years Ali Conlan's heart still beat too strongly for the man who had left without a goodbye–and her body still responded to his bad-boy confidence and winning smile. But she knew his visit was all about business and his partnership in her family's resort.Or was Luke's real reason for returning to Trillium about unfinished business of a different sort…with her?
Harlequin Romance® presents…
Jackie Braun
Her believable characters and fresh voice will pull you into the drama…and have you turning the pages all night long!
Saying Yes to the Boss #3905
Books by Jackie Braun
HARLEQUIN ROMANCE
3897—A WOMAN WORTH LOVING* (#litres_trial_promo)
Dear Reader,
A woman’s first love holds a very special place in her heart. All these years later, I can still remember what I was wearing when I received my first real kiss, as well as the maudlin songs I played over and over on the stereo when that boy dumped me for someone else.
Ali Conlan’s childhood sweetheart broke her heart, too. First loves never last. Or do they? In exploring that question I came up with Their Unfinished Business.
As the title implies, Luke and Ali have not quite gotten over their past relationship. Of course, both of them like to think they have. Luke is now a successful businessman, but when he returns to Trillium Island as an investor in the Conlans’ resort, he soon realizes that what he and Ali once shared is exactly what his life has been missing the past ten years. My headstrong heroine takes some convincing, though.
I hope you enjoy the second story of my CONLANS OF TRILLIUM ISLAND trilogy. Just wait till you find out what I have in store for Dane. His story, Saying Yes to the Boss, is coming from Harlequin Romance in August.
Best wishes,
Jackie Braun
Their Unfinished Business
Jackie Braun
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Jackie Braun earned a degree in journalism from Central Michigan University in 1987 and spent more than sixteen years working full-time at newspapers, including eleven years as an award-winning editorial writer, before quitting her day job to freelance and write fiction. She is a past RITAВ® Award finalist and a member of the Romance Writers of America. She lives in mid-Michigan with her husband and their young son. She can be reached through her Web site at www.jackiebraun.com (http://www.jackiebraun.com)
“I envy Ali Conlan her lake view. Okay, Trillium Island is fictional, but Lake Michigan is real. Anyone who has had the privilege of watching the sun sink into that vast Great Lake knows that no camera has yet been invented that can capture the pure magic.”
—Jackie Braun on Their Unfinished Business
This one’s for the girls: Monica, Kelly and Teresa. Enduring friendships are a rare gift.
Thank you.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE (#u6c90ae44-8d0a-5bab-9e31-9dc28495c470)
CHAPTER ONE (#u2634aaea-ebde-54ef-aebd-9f4396439d47)
CHAPTER TWO (#u981754eb-9336-5777-8f41-76028a00ff5d)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE
“NO. NO way. Absolutely not!”
Ali Conlan crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her twin sister across the dinner table.
“What’s the big deal?” Audra asked. Arching her brows, she added, “I mean, unless you’re not over him. Alice.”
It turned out a person really could see red when mad, Ali realized as her vision tinted crimson.
Through gritted teeth, she said tightly, “Don’t call me Alice. And I am over Luke Banning. I was over him five minutes after he left town with you eleven years ago.”
If her sister wanted to fight dirty, she would fight dirty right back, Ali decided.
But Audra didn’t so much as blink before replying blandly, “And you’ve forgiven me for leaving and for that little…misunderstanding. Why don’t you give him the same break? It was a long time ago. You need to move on.”
“I have moved on!” Ali hollered, tossing down her napkin and rising slightly from her chair. She sounded defensive even to her own ears, but it didn’t help that her one-time, two-bit actress of a sister said sotto voce, “Me thinks she doth protest too much.”
Reeling in her temper, Ali glanced around the table where her brother, Dane, and Audra’s husband, Seth Ridley, sat. Clearing her throat, she said more calmly, “I am over Luke Banning. I haven’t spent the past eleven years pining for the man. In fact, I’ve hardly given him a second thought. I’ve been too busy.”
“Oh, yeah? When was the last time you had a date?” Audra asked.
It felt good to be able to say, “I have one this weekend, as a matter of fact. With Bradley Townsend.”
“The developer?” Dane made a face.
“Actually, he’s a man,” she drawled.
“I’m not sure I like him,” her brother said. Audra, amazingly, did not offer an opinion. In fact, she had become suddenly engrossed in rearranging the cutlery at the side of her plate.
Her husband, however, seconded Dane’s view. “Me, either.”
Ali exhaled sharply in frustration. “Look, my personal life is not the issue here and neither is Luke Banning. The resort’s future is what’s important right now.”
Dane, always the voice of reason, smiled and nodded. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Ali returned his smile, glad to have him on her side in this matter. That made it two Conlans to one. End of discussion. She picked up her coffee cup and had just taken a sip when he added, “I think the resort needs Luke Banning.”
Somehow she managed to choke down the hot liquid, but an undignified coughing fit ensued. When it had passed enough for her finally to speak, she demanded, “How can you say that, Dane?”
“We need another investor, Ali. It’s as simple as that. If we want to buy that extra acreage when it comes on the market and put in a championship-caliber golf course and clubhouse, we need more capital. So our choices are either take out a loan to finance the expansion or take on another partner.”
“There is a third option,” Audra interjected sweetly before winking at Ali. “I could bankroll it.”
Ali felt her lip curl at the suggestion. Audra knew Ali wouldn’t allow her sister to sink any more of her vast personal wealth into their three-way partnership.
“Don’t even go there, Aud. We’ve discussed it before. The answer is still no.”
Glancing at her sister, Ali wondered again how it was possible for two people who had once shared a womb to turn out so differently. Not just physically, although even in that regard they were night and day. Audra was a blue-eyed bombshell of a blonde who had more curves than should be legal, while Ali was tawny-eyed, brunette and athletically slender. They barely looked like siblings let alone twins. In temperament, though, they were even more divergent. Ali was generally the more sedate, studious and practical of the pair. She left being flamboyant, frivolous and outrageous to Audra. In fairness, though, her sister was really none of those things any longer.
Since returning to Trillium Island a year earlier after a life-altering and nearly life-ending event, Audra had become much more subdued and centered. Now she was also much happier thanks to her recent marriage to Seth Ridley.
Audra and Ali had ended a decade-long estrangement, and Ali was delighted to have her sister back. Even so, the two women managed to lock horns on everything from fashion to politics.
Differences aside, though, Ali knew Audra and Dane were right about Saybrook’s. If they hoped to make the resort not just profitable once again, but to put it back on the map as a hot vacation destination, then they needed a golf course. It was the only way to compete with the upscale mainland resorts that had lured away so much of Saybrook’s business over the past decade.
A bigger investment from Audra was out of the question if the Conlans’s business venture was to remain on relatively equal footing. As it was, Audra had sunk in more money than either one of her siblings.
A loan wasn’t in their best interests either since the economy remained soft, gas prices were up and the experts were already predicting traffic would be down when the summer tourist season officially kicked off at the end of the month.
“We need another investor,” Dane said quietly.
Ali sighed in defeat. “I know we do, but Banning? Does it have to be him?”
Dane shrugged.
“When we first talked about this idea, we agreed we wanted someone with ties to Trillium Island. Someone who would appreciate Saybrook’s charm, as well as its importance not only to the island’s history but to its overall economy. Luke fits the bill, especially since he’s done very well for himself since leaving,” he said patiently.
“I know.”
Of course she did. Not because the man who’d broken her heart had called or written to her, but because she couldn’t pick up a magazine or turn on the nightly news without seeing just what a huge success he’d become.
Dane wasn’t finished driving the point home.
“Luke Banning’s name on this project will give Saybrook’s the kind of international exposure it hasn’t had since the resort’s heyday in the 1940s and 1950s when members of the Rat Pack and other Hollywood legends made it their Midwest destination.”
“I thought that was part of Audra’s appeal,” Ali said nastily.
But her twin didn’t rise to the bait. “I’m old news, sweetie. Now that I’m married and haven’t appeared on a tabloid cover in nearly a year, I’m a has-been.”
Audra grinned at her husband of three months after saying it, clearly pleased to be passГ© after nearly a decade of generating headlines with her infamous antics.
Ali damned herself for being so practical. Their arguments made perfect sense, and if it weren’t for her personal history with Luke, she would be the first to suggest approaching him. The fight had nearly gone out of Ali, but she decided to make one last stand.
“Who’s to say Luke will want to have anything to do with the island? He left here more than a decade ago and has been pretty happy to stay away from it since then,” she pointed out. “Now that he’s such a big shot, he’s probably forgotten all about this place. It certainly doesn’t hold many happy memories for him given his childhood.”
Dane cleared his throat and glanced toward Audra, who said, “Luke’s interested.”
“You’ve spoken to him?” Ali’s incredulous gaze cut to her twin. “So this family dinner to discuss the future of the resort is really just a formality. You and Dane made the decision for Conlan Corporation behind my back.”
“Not behind your back, Ali. We…um, actually, I made a phone call to Luke about a month ago and merely tossed the idea out to him,” Audra said. “He got back to me a couple weeks ago, having decided the idea has merit, at which point I told him I needed to discuss it with the pair of you before things could go any further. I discussed it with Dane last week and now we’re discussing it with you.”
“You guys talked about this last week and you’re just now getting around to clueing me in? How thoughtful,” Ali muttered.
“I can always call Luke back and tell him you can’t handle the idea of doing business with him,” Audra offered.
Ali’s vision blurred red once again.
“I can handle doing business with him,” she snapped. “Although I doubt I’ll actually have to. I’m sure Mr. Entrepreneur of the Year will delegate this project to some minion or another. We might not speak to him other than a conference call every now and then.”
She was feeling better already about the prospect. Surely a businessman of Luke Banning’s stature would not jet in from NewYork City to dirty his hands with a project as relatively small as this one, even if sentiment apparently had him opening his wallet to help finance it.
“So, it’s agreed,” Dane said. “The Conlan Corporation is offering Luke Banning a stake in the resort.”
Ali begrudgingly grunted her consent while Audra flashed a triumphant smile.
It wasn’t until Ali was pulling on her jacket at the end of the evening that Audra said, “By the way, the meeting will be a week from Wednesday.”
“What meeting?”
“The meeting with Luke. That was the earliest he could get here to look over our plans for the golf course and clubhouse.”
Ali didn’t waste her breath giving voice to the scathing retort that came to mind. She banged out the side door and was in her car before Dane could rush after her and attempt to play peacemaker.
“I think that went rather well,” Audra said, grinning at her brother as they stood by the side door and watched Ali’s car speed up the long driveway that led back to the main road.
“Yeah,” he replied dryly. “No one’s bleeding.” Audra’s thoughts turned to Luke Banning. “Not yet anyway.”
CHAPTER ONE
THE sun was hot for mid-May, but Ali tipped back her head as she knelt in the small flower bed that ringed her mailbox and took a moment to enjoy the way it felt on her face. Northern Michigan’s winters were always long, especially when lake-effect storms were added in. This winter had felt interminable. Just a few weeks earlier the last of the snow had finally melted from the woods that bordered the northern edge of her property. Trillium, the three-petaled flower for which the Lake Michigan island was named, bloomed there now, offering a much warmer carpet of white.
It was Sunday, which meant she had just three days to reconcile herself to seeing Luke again. She was over him, no matter what Audra seemed to think. But he’d been Ali’s first love, which made him impossible to forget. And he’d left her behind after three years of dating without a second thought, which made his desertion impossible to forgive. So of course the prospect of seeing him again had her on edge. That was only natural.
It didn’t help that Audra had ideas for this reunion that clearly went beyond business. In the past week, her twin had hinted broadly that Ali might want to do something with the shoulder-length hair she always wore pulled into a simple ponytail. And she had tried to convince Ali to wear more fashionable clothing than the conservative button-down blouses and straight, below-the-knee skirts that populated her wardrobe.
Ali ignored the unsolicited advice. This was business, not a social call. She wasn’t going to doll herself up for Luke Banning’s return. No, indeed.
Indifference, that’s what Wednesday’s meeting called for. Nonchalance.
Ali yanked a weed out of the flower bed and tossed it atop the small heap of wilting interlopers next to her, warming to her strategy.
She would be ruthlessly polite and exceedingly casual when she and Luke were finally face-to-face. She would show him, Audra and everyone else who thought otherwise that the past was ancient history, and that the fact he’d spent the past decade in New York City growing wealthy and respected and enjoying the tabloid-documented attentions of supermodels and liposuctioned socialites was of absolutely no concern to her.
She snatched up her gardening trowel and hacked at the hard ground with its daggerlike metal point.
On Wednesday, she would be professional and businesslike. She would be cordial, but in a detached—hack! hack!— and disinterested—hack! hack!— way.
She swiped at the sweat beading on her brow and then set aside the trowel so she could wrap her fist around the base of another weed. As she knelt there locked in an intense tug-of-war with a deep-rooted dandelion, she heard the motorcycle. The mere sound of the engine reeled her back in time, as it always did, resurrecting the bittersweet memories she’d just convinced herself were safely buried and of no threat to her emotional well-being.
Even as her heart seemed to kick out an extra beat, she told herself she was being foolish. It wasn’t Luke. It couldn’t be Luke. She still had three days, nearly seventy-two hours, before she would see him again. Besides, he wouldn’t still be driving a damned motorcycle after all these years. He probably traveled in a limousine, a stretch one so long it would barely fit on the ferry that brought vehicles over from the mainland.
But as she shielded her eyes from the sun with one grimy hand, a Harley Davidson Sportster crested the hill and rumbled into view.
In the years he’d been gone, sightings of Trillium Island’s most famous son seemed to be about as common as sightings of Elvis, and they’d proved to be as reliable. There was no mistaking the Harley rider’s identity, though, especially since he was flouting state law by forgoing a helmet.
Even with the space of thirty yards and the span of more than a decade separating them, Ali knew him at a glance. Wind ruffled the almost-black hair she’d once run her fingers through. He was wearing it shorter these days, looking more like a respectable adult than the rowdy teenager and young man he’d been. Aviator sunglasses obscured his eyes, but she remembered that they were the same shade of blue as the cool waters of the great lake that surrounded the island.
A dozen feet from her driveway the bike slowed and all hope that Luke would somehow fail to spot her evaporated.
Indifference, she reminded herself.
Disinterest.
Nonchalance.
And yet all she felt was mule-kicked when he brought the bike to a stop in front of her mailbox, grinning for a long moment in that sexy way that had haunted her dreams and taunted her heart.
Finally he switched off the engine and swung one denim-encased leg over the seat.
“Hi.”
The sparseness of his greeting jolted her back to her senses. He’d been gone nearly a dozen years and the first word out of his mouth was hi? She wasn’t sure what she had expected him to say, but he didn’t even have the decency to look contrite or uncomfortable or babble his way through an apology, which she would of course decline to accept. No. He was smiling, as handsome and overconfident as ever, and acting as if he hadn’t sped away on that same damned Harley more than a decade earlier without so much as a backward glance.
Studying him, Ali wondered what she had ever seen in the man…beyond his staggering good looks. Those, she noted sourly, had only improved with age. It wasn’t fair. He should be balding or overweight, but the photographic images she’d seen of him over the years hadn’t been airbrushed or otherwise doctored. His hair was still thick, his physique lean and muscled, and his face chiseled and gorgeous.
It dawned on her then that she was still on her knees gazing up at him like the same starry-eyed girl whose heart he’d broken.
Pride fired Ali to her feet. She wiped her soiled hands on her jeans and inwardly cursed her habit of not wearing gardening gloves. There was no help for her dirty cuticles or her perspiration-damp appearance beneath the ball cap she wore, but she damn well wouldn’t kneel like some supplicant before Luke Banning of all people.
“Hello.”
To her relief her voice sounded normal, its tone just this side of cool, but he was smiling as if he thought she were delighted that he’d rumbled down her lane, disturbing her peace and nature’s quiet on this sunny Sunday afternoon.
“God, you look the same as I remembered…give or take a dirt smudge.”
Laughing, he reached out and touched her cheek, presumably to wipe away some errant soil. His smile dimmed when Ali backed up a step and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Believe me, I’ve changed.”
“I guess we all have.” He slipped off the glasses and she felt lost in those blue eyes until he added, “Ten years will do that.”
“It’s been eleven.”
He nodded and one side of his mouth crooked up. “Eleven. How have you been, Ali?”
“Fine.”
“I read in the paper last year that Audra had married again. When I spoke to her on the telephone a couple weeks ago, she seemed very happy.”
“Yes. Apparently the fourth time is the charm,” Ali replied. And because the words seemed somehow disloyal given the vast metamorphosis her twin had gone through, she added, “Seth’s a great guy. I think this one will stick.”
“I’m glad for her. What about you? Anybody special in your life these days?”
She hadn’t expected him to come right out and ask her such a personal question, and so she spluttered, “I—I’m seeing someone.”
Did one date actually count as “seeing”? Bradley had asked her out again since then, twice in fact. But she’d put him off. Standing in front of Luke, she decided there was really no reason she shouldn’t take Bradley up on his offer of dinner the following Saturday.
“Is he an islander?”
“No. In fact, he’s relatively new to the area. He lives on the mainland, just outside Petoskey.”
Luke nodded. “Speaking of the mainland, there’s a lot of new development along the waterfront. I barely recognized parts of it when I flew over.”
When Ali glanced in bafflement at his bike, Luke caressed the motorcycle’s handlebars. On a shrug he said, “One of the perks of having my own aircraft is that I always have room for my Harley.”
His priorities apparently hadn’t changed, but she kept that thought to herself. No reason to dredge up the past. Indeed, she planned to keep the conversation as impersonal as possible.
“Those new developments on the mainland are giving Saybrook’s some stiff competition, which is why we want to buy the property adjacent to the resort and add a golf course as soon as we can manage it.”
Luke shook his head and grinned again. “I still can’t believe you guys bought the resort.”
The comment rankled, so much so that her determination to remain impersonal began to waver. After all, he wasn’t the only one who had made something of himself. Ali had graduated cum laude with a degree in business and was now part owner of one of the Midwest’s most storied resorts.
“It’s prime real estate and despite the fact that the previous manager drove it to the brink of bankruptcy, it’s already starting to rebound,” she said. “A couple of good seasons and we’ll be operating in the black. But then I’m sure you already know that or you wouldn’t be considering entering into a partnership with us.”
“I’m not questioning the soundness of the investment,” Luke said, holding up a hand. “It’s just that back when we were kids who would have guessed that the Conlans would someday own Saybrook’s?”
“Yes, and who would have guessed that a high school dropout would go on to be called Entrepreneur of the Year by a respected national business journal?” she replied.
The words came out snide rather than tinged with the begrudging admiration she felt. Ali could tell Luke realized that. He slipped his sunglasses back on, his happy-go-lucky grin receding into a taut line of compressed lips.
“Yeah. I guess the kids at Trillium High who voted me most likely to wind up incarcerated are eating their words about now. Makes me almost sorry I didn’t make it for the last class reunion.”
Ali felt too small for reminding him of his rocky adolescence to point out that since he hadn’t graduated, technically he would not have been invited to any of his class’s reunions.
“That was a long time ago,” she murmured, realizing even as she said it that she certainly hadn’t let go of the past.
It was a moment before Luke broke the awkward silence. “I did get my diploma, you know.”
She blinked in surprise as much at his words as at the quiet pride with which they were spoken. He’d dropped out of high school during his senior year, and although Ali was three years his junior and they hadn’t started to date until she was nearly a senior herself, his lack of a diploma had been the cause of more than a few arguments. She had urged him repeatedly to go back to night school or earn a general equivalency degree. He was too smart not to, she’d told him.
“I didn’t know,” she said. Then, “I’m glad.”
“I took adult education courses after I left. It didn’t take me very long.”
“What made you decide to do it?”
He shrugged and glanced away. “It was just after I’d made my first million with the dot-com I’d founded. I guess I didn’t want people to think I was a fluke or…stupid.”
“I never thought you were stupid.”
“No.” The grin was back in a flash of white teeth. “You just thought I was reckless and impulsive. I still am, by the way.”
And because the grin had sent a shower of sparks through her system, she retorted crisply, “I can tell. You’re driving that damned Harley without a helmet. That’s illegal, you know.”
“Not in every state. Besides, you can’t get the full experience with a bucket strapped to your head.” A pair of dark brows rose over the top rim of the sunglasses. “Want to go for a ride, Ali? I can go real slow if you’d like, or take you fast.”
His silky tone and the double entendre implied along with his raised brows had gooseflesh appearing on her arms.
“Fast or slow, I never liked your bike,” she answered primly.
“No. But you used to like me.”
What she’d felt had gone a great deal beyond “like,” and he damned well knew it. Ali notched up her chin and let the chill seep into her inflection when she said, “So, what are you doing all the way out here today?”
She asked, but she thought she knew. Surely he had driven to this secluded shore of the island to speak with her in private before the midweek meeting at which Dane and Audra would be present. An apology would be coming any minute…an apology she still planned to decline.
Ali’s stone cottage, which had once belonged to her grandmother, sat on Trillium’s western shore, affording it a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan. It was tucked in amid a huge parcel of state land, making it the only private residence for miles. The only private residence except for…
Even before she could finish the thought, Luke was pointing to the slight rise at the northern edge of her property. Since the leaves on the trees were still sparse, Ali could just make out the pitch of the neighboring cottage’s roof and she cursed her hubris.
The place had belonged to Luke’s grandmother. Elsie Banning had raised Luke after his father, an alcoholic, had died while Luke was still in grade school. Luke’s mother had already abandoned the family by then. As Elsie’s only surviving kin, the cottage and the seven wooded acres on which it sat technically belonged to Luke.
“I thought I’d swing by the old house and see how it’s fared since I’ve been gone.” He took off his sunglasses again and fiddled with the ear pieces. Regret colored his tone when he added, “I should have had someone taking care of it over the years.”
Elsie had died just three months before he’d left Trillium. If the man had one redeeming trait, Ali knew it was that he’d loved his grandmother without reserve. Her death had devastated him.
“I’ve looked in on it from time to time,” she admitted.
She’d done more than that, actually. She’d kept the grass mowed, the carpet roses trimmed back and the cobblestone path that led from the driveway to the front door free of weeds. She’d done it for Elsie, not for Luke, or at least that’s what she’d told herself. But sometimes, after finishing the yard work, she would sit on the rear porch that faced the big lake, rock slowly back and forth in the wide swing where she and Luke had long ago shared their first taste of passion, and wonder what he was doing and if he ever thought about her.
The fact that he’d run into her today by accident seemed to answer that question now.
“I appreciate it,” he said.
“It’s no trouble to walk over,” she replied on a shrug.
Luke motioned toward the house behind her. “Does that mean you live here now?”
She nodded. “My grandmother deeded it to me when she moved to Florida with my parents six years ago.”
He smiled slowly and despite Ali’s closed posture, laid one warm hand on her upper arm and squeezed. The casual contact caused her traitorous pulse to shoot off like a bottle rocket and had her irritated all over again. He seemed not to notice, lost as he was in reminiscing.
“I think I spent as much time in your grandmother’s kitchen as I did in my own. She made the best sugar cookies on Trillium. Remember how when we were kids we would sneak them off the baking tray before they even had a chance to cool?”
Ali didn’t want to be reminded of the ways in which their lives had once twined together so sweetly since his abandonment had caused her heart to fray apart afterward. And so when he asked, “How is Mrs. Conlan doing these days?” she announced baldly, “She died last winter.”
“God. I’m sorry.” He slipped the glasses back on, making Ali wonder if she had just imagined that fleeting shadow of what had looked like self-reproach. “I didn’t know.”
“How would you?”
“Ali.” He said her name quietly, and then stroked her cheek. This time she didn’t back away, if only to prove to herself that his touch meant nothing.
A bee buzzed past and overhead a blue jay’s shrill cry rent the silence as they regarded one another.
Finally, motioning in the direction of his grandmother’s property, Ali said, “Don’t let me keep you, Luke. I know you’re a busy and important man.”
He hesitated, and she thought for a moment he was going to say something, but then he dropped his hand and straddled the bike, firing it to life with a swift downward kick of his booted foot. Over the engine’s throaty growl he hollered, “See you Wednesday.”
Wednesday, Ali knew, would come much too soon.
Luke slowed the bike as he approached the driveway to his grandmother’s cottage, but in the end, he sped past it, instead following the rutted road as it wound through the woods and then spilled back onto the main drag a dozen miles later.
He hadn’t felt up to seeing the cottage and confronting any more of his past. Not after seeing Ali.
He’d known her right away. She hadn’t changed much. Even the baseball cap snugged over her crown was the same. He snorted out a laugh that was lost to the wind. The woman just couldn’t give up on the Detroit Tigers even though they hadn’t won a World Series since 1984.
Despite her poor taste in baseball teams, she looked good. Better than good, actually, even with her dark hair sprouting from the back of the cap, perspiration dotting her upper lip and dirt streaking her right cheek. Her eyes were still a couple shades darker than caramel and she’d kept her figure, that long-legged, slim-hipped athletic build that had given him many a sleepless night in his youth.
He frowned, realizing that none of the women he’d dated during the past decade had looked anything like her. There had been blondes and redheads, but not a single brunette. Certainly none of those women had been a fan of baseball much less able to pitch one low and inside while the bases were loaded in the bottom of the ninth.
That had been only one of Ali’s talents, of course. Remembering the others nearly had him crashing his bike into the unforgiving trunk of a sugar maple.
He’d thought he’d forgotten her. No, that wasn’t true. He’d never forgotten her. But over the years he’d convinced himself that adolescence and inexperience had magnified and romanticized the feelings he’d once had for her. In a way, she’d been the girl next door, since their grandmothers had lived side by side. He and Ali had always known one another and hung around together since Luke and her older brother, Dane, had been good friends.
Then, the summer she was seventeen, the pigtails he’d once pulled had become the sleek tumble of hair he’d weaved his fingers through. God, he still remembered the magic of that first kiss and the way her slim arms had wrapped around him and held tight when he would have backed away. He’d been twenty at the time and Luke had known that everyone on the island, including her family, thought their match was a mistake.
Looking back now, he didn’t blame them. He’d had no prospects at all, just big dreams as he’d pumped gas for the luxury cabin cruisers that stopped at Whitey’s Marina. Ali, on the other hand, was set to graduate top in her class and had plans to go away for her degree after completing a couple years at the community college on the mainland to save money.
He’d always figured his leaving had been as much a favor to her as a way out for him. Despite being accepted at the University of Michigan a few hours’ drive downstate, she’d begun to talk about staying on Trillium, taking correspondence courses or transferring to a less prestigious university near Traverse City and commuting a couple days of the week. Both of their futures had seemed so doomed.
Then his grandmother had died.
Luke could still hear the words Elsie Banning had spoken to him as she lay in a hospital bed, hooked up to an assortment of beeping, buzzing machines.
She’d gripped his hand with her knobby fingers and in a voice barely above a whisper she’d commanded, “Be happy, Luke, and make me proud. You’re not your father. It breaks my heart to see you settle for being less than what you were meant to be.”
Even now, her words drove him. He revved the bike’s engine, catching air as he crested another hill. Before touching down again on the other side he caught a glimpse of the big lake glittering in the midday sun. His grandmother had always loved that lake and the limitless potential she said she saw in its sheer vastness.
“I’ve made something of myself!” He shouted the words as he raced against the long shadows of his past.
At thirty-four, he enjoyed the distinction of being one of the few dot-comers who’d gotten rich and then wisely gotten out before the bubble burst. Since then he’d invested in more traditional ventures, primarily real estate, cultivating a reputation as a shrewd dealmaker. He’d accomplished every goal he’d set and exceeded even his own very high expectations.
He was Luke Banning, successful businessman, respected entrepreneur. No one pitied him now or looked askance at him when he walked into a room. Hell, people paid him large sums of money and sat shoulder to shoulder in crowded auditoriums just for the privilege of hearing him share his expertise.
“I’ve made something of myself,” he shouted again, wondering why his triumphant return to Trillium didn’t feel quite as sweet as he’d imagined it would.
And wondering why it was that for all he had accumulated over the years something still seemed to be missing.
CHAPTER TWO
ALI thumbed through the clothes in her closet once again. Even though Audra wasn’t in the room, she swore that every time she selected something, she heard her twin whispering, “You’re not going to wear that, are you?”
And so it was that with a mere forty minutes before the Conlans were to meet with Luke Banning, Ali found herself standing in her bra and panties, and dithering between a navy skirt and a black skirt that were the exact same conservative cut and by the same maker.
Gazing at the garments, she muttered aloud, “When did I become so damned boring?”
Exasperated, she tossed both skirts onto the small mountain of clothes on her bed and stuffed her arm into the far reaches of the cramped closet. After a minute of fruitless fishing, she finally produced what she was looking for: A suit the color of freshly spilled blood.
The jacket cut in sharply at the waist and then fell away at the hip. As for the skirt, it was a little shorter than the rest of her closet’s offerings. Instead of ending primly just below the knee, it skimmed to the middle of her thighs. She’d bought it on sale last fall while shopping with Audra, which explained the vivid color and more daring cut. She’d planned to take it back. In fact, the tags still dangled from one sleeve. Now she was glad she’d kept it. Black, tan and navy just didn’t suit her mood today.
Blood-red did.
Half an hour later, she stood in front of the full-length mirror that was affixed to the back of her bedroom door and surveyed her appearance.
None of this, she assured herself, was for Luke’s benefit. She’d been thinking about making some changes, paying a little more attention to small details like putting on eyeliner and a faint sweep of blush to highlight her cheekbones.
Besides, she didn’t want the man thinking that all she owned were blue jeans and ball caps. She wanted him to see her as a professional and an equal. And okay, she could admit it. She wanted him to see her as a woman…a woman who was off-limits.
She’d left her hair loose. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t yanked it all back in some sort of clip or another. When they were girls, she had envied Audra her wild tumble of curls. The grass always being greener, her sister had complained mightily that Ali had lucked out with her stick-straight mane. Today, Ali had to admit, she rather liked the way it fell to her shoulders in a sleek cascade the same color as the antique mahogany bureau that had once belonged to her grandmother.
The suit fit as well as she remembered, accentuating curves she hadn’t known she possessed. She would die a slow and painful death before admitting it to Audra, but Ali really liked the way it looked and the way it made her feel: professional and put together, with the side bonus of sexiness.
Then she glanced down at her shoes. The serviceable black pumps with the rounded toe looked like something an arthritic grandmother would wear now that they were matched with a chic suit and a white silk blouse.
She didn’t want to do it, but Ali finally broke down. Picking up the telephone, she dialed Audra’s number, praying that her perennially late sibling had not become suddenly punctual and already left for the resort. A breathless Audra picked up on the fourth ring.
“Aud, you haven’t left.” She sighed in relief.
“I’m on my way, I swear. Practically out the door as we speak. Seth just…and then I…” She trailed off on a throaty laugh that made words unnecessary. Ali swore she felt herself blush.
“Newlyweds,” she muttered. “Don’t go into detail. Please. I have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to a play-by-play. I need a favor.”
“A favor? What kind of a favor?” Audra asked.
“I’m having a bit of…a problem,” Ali hedged. Then, “Oh, hell, I need to borrow a pair of pumps.”
“You’re having a shoe emergency? God, I love it.” Laughter bubbled through the phone line. “I suppose it would be small of me to remind you that last month when I showed off the new pair of Kate Spades I’d purchased, you asked how many feet I had that I needed another pair of shoes.”
“I knew calling you would be a mistake,” Ali snapped.
Audra wasn’t insulted at all. “No, sweetie, not calling would have been the mistake. I may have changed my life around and gotten rid of a lot of the fluff, but I still have more fashion sense in my pinky than you’ll ever have in your entire bony body.”
Damn, Ali thought, wasn’t that the pathetic truth.
“So, will you help?”
Audra made a dismissive sound. “Of course I will. What are you going to wear?”
“The suit I bought when I went shopping downstate with you last fall.”
“The red one?” Audra whistled low. “Good choice and aren’t you glad I talked you into buying it?” Before Ali could answer, her sister was saying, “Please tell me you didn’t pair it with one of those starched oxfords you seem to own stock in?”
“No. I do have a white silk blouse.” Exactly one, and again it had been purchased while out with Audra. “Could we get back to shoes? All I have are the black pumps I normally wear to work.”
Through the receiver came Audra’s low moan. “How can we be sisters let alone twins?”
“Aud, the minutes are ticking away here. I really don’t have time for a discussion on DNA. What have you got for me?”
“Let me think about it. I’ll go hunt through my closet and see what I can come up with. Come straight to my office when you get to the resort.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen. And, Aud?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for not rubbing it in too much.”
Her sister snorted. “Who says I’m done?”
Luke had already seen Ali since returning to Trillium, so he didn’t expect their meeting today to be awkward. Then, recalling the cool way in which she had regarded him during their chance encounter on Sunday, he amended his opinion. It probably still would be awkward, but not as awkward as it could have been had they not already come face-to-face.
But then she walked into the conference room decked out in red and exposing a pair of long, toned legs that any Rockette would be proud to insure, and he nearly forgot how to breathe.
Who was this woman?
Three days ago, Ali had looked almost unchanged to him wearing a ball cap and faded jeans, with no makeup on her face and her hair pulled back the way she’d always worn it. He’d found comfort in that fact and, when he’d had a chance to think about it, it made his lingering attraction to her understandable, maybe even a little nostalgic.
He wasn’t feeling nostalgic now, or comfortable. When she rolled back her shoulders to let the jacket slip down her silk-covered arms, he shifted in his seat and had to stifle a groan. No, he wasn’t feeling comfortable at all.
“Hello, Luke.”
They were alone in the room. Dane had just gone to take a phone call and Audra had yet to arrive. Luke stood because the moment seemed to require him to be on his feet. Once he was upright, he hastily pulled closed his suit jacket, more than a little appalled by his body’s embarrassing reaction.
The other day when he’d come upon Ali as she’d knelt pulling weeds, he had enjoyed the advantage of surprise. Today, the shoe was on the other foot—and what a sexy little number it was, too, black and open-toed, allowing a tantalizing peek at red-painted nails. God help him, but he’d always had a thing about women’s feet. And this woman, he remembered, had a very sensitive instep.
As his gaze connected with hers, something about the way her lips twitched told Luke she knew she had him shaken…and stirred.
“You clean up well,” he admitted.
“Thank you.” One slim dark eyebrow notched up when she added, “I try to dress for the occasion.”
He nodded, wondering just what he should infer from her bold color choice this day. And then, because he wanted badly to touch her and test himself, he held out his hand.
A long moment passed before she reached to shake it. At the contact, Luke felt the wild sizzle he thought he had either outgrown or simply imagined.
“Some things never change,” he murmured, taking a step closer.
She pulled her hand free, stepped back. “And some things do.”
He acknowledged her words with a nod. She was different and the same all at once, the girl he remembered wrapped in the body of an alluring and mysterious woman.
An alluring and mysterious woman who was all business when she said, “Why don’t you have a seat? Dane and Audra should be along shortly.”
“Okay.”
“More coffee?” she asked, as she reached for the insulated carafe and mugs that were on a tray in the middle of the table. Her blouse fell open a little as she leaned forward and reached, affording him a fleeting glimpse of something lacy and white and the gentle swell of flesh that disappeared inside it. He sucked in a breath, drawing her attention.
“Everything all right?” she asked, those not-quite-brown, not-quite-gold eyes narrowing.
“Fine.” Then Luke couldn’t resist. He let his gaze dip down again and said with a little more emphasis, “Very fine.”
She straightened instantly, her posture rigid as she filled her coffee cup to the top and then slid into the seat opposite his. She didn’t bother with cream or sugar, he noted. He got the feeling if she were to walk into one of the trendy coffee shops in Manhattan she would bypass all of the frothy concoctions listed on the order board and go for plain French roast. She’d always been practical. As he studied her, she snagged a handful of dark hair and tucked it behind her ear and out of the way. That move was practical, too, but that didn’t make it any less sexy.
“I’m sure you’ve had a chance to read through our plans for the golf course. I’m curious to hear what you think,” she said.
Business, Luke reminded himself. That’s why he was here. And so he straightened in his seat and decided to get down to it.
“Three hundred acres is ample space for a course the size you’re talking about, but if we could pick up additional acreage we could make the holes relatively secluded from one another. We could leave in a lot more trees that way, too. It makes for a picturesque experience and golfers appreciate not having to worry about hearing �Fore!’ hollered while they’re in the middle of their back swing.”
“How much land are you talking?”
“Another hundred acres would be ideal.”
“What’s this about another hundred acres?” Dane asked as he walked through the door. Audra was right behind him, her face breaking into a grin even before she had cleared the threshold.
Where Ali had acknowledged Luke with cool reserve, Audra wrapped him in a hug and gave him a smacking kiss on the lips.
“It’s good to see you, Luke.”
“Good to see you, too.” And he meant it. He suddenly realized how much he’d missed this place and these people.
Dane had been his best friend since grade school, remaining such despite some tense moments after Luke and Ali had started dating. He’d always figured Dane didn’t think Luke was good enough for his sister, even though Dane had never come right out and said it. Even so, they’d stayed tight. That their friendship had fallen by the wayside, another casualty of his leaving, was Luke’s fault, and he knew it. Dane’s cool greeting when Luke arrived on Trillium told Luke he knew it, too.
As for Audra, she’d always been a kindred spirit. Luke had never fantasized about her, despite her Marilyn Monroe curves and come-hither smile, the way he’d fantasized about Ali. Clasping Audra’s hand now, he didn’t feel that crazy current of electricity shoot up his arm, either, just the pleasant warmth of remembered friendship.
“Sorry I couldn’t get by to see you before now, but Seth and I have been pretty busy,” she said.
“Newlyweds usually are,” Luke teased.
A glimpse of Ali’s tight expression told him she wasn’t all that pleased with her twin’s enthusiastic greeting. Given the fact that Audra had been on the back of his Harley when he left Trillium, as eager as he to get the hell out, he figured he understood that. And still, he couldn’t keep from hugging her back.
Dane’s exclamation ended Luke’s reverie.
“Whoa, Al, look at you!” Dane whistled. Luke couldn’t be sure but he thought Audra poked her brother in the ribs, after which Dane coughed and said, “I mean, I’ve always liked that outfit.”
Ali flushed, but then settled back into her chair. After taking a sip of her coffee, she said, “Luke was mentioning that he thought if we could add some acreage to the golf course, it might make it more aesthetically pleasing.”
“And safer for golfers,” Luke inserted. “Insurance premiums being what they are, that’s something to take into consideration.”
“But another hundred acres,” Dane began, pulling out the plat map from the stack of files he’d brought with him. “Where would we pick up that kind of land?”
“It doesn’t have to be a single parcel,” Luke said, following Dane to the table.
He stood just between Ali and Dane’s chairs and his arm brushed her shoulder when he leaned over for a better look at the map. He was wearing cologne, the same crisp yet subtle scent he’d always favored. It had Ali inhaling deeply and remembering. She forced her attention back to the map. They had shaded in the acreage they planned to purchase. It was a sizable tract that snaked along one edge of the resort’s property line.
“Do the Dohertys still own this chunk of land?” Luke asked, tapping his finger on a pie-shaped chunk.
“Yes and they’re not budging,” Audra commented. She leaned one hip on the table on the opposite side of Dane and sighed. “We’ve already dangled the carrot.”
“There’s a rumor that the Tollmans are interested in getting rid of the thirty-five acres behind their beach-front cottage,” Dane said. “A good portion of it is wetland, though.”
“For a golf course, you need to think of it as a hazard, not a wetland,” Luke said, smiling. “Do you think some of it might be usable?”
Before her brother could answer, Ali gave voice to the idea that had been kicking around in her head since the conversation began.
“What if in addition to the acreage we’re planning to purchase, we use part of the resort’s property?” She angled in her seat so she could look at Luke. One glance at those liquid eyes nearly had her forgetting what she was planning to say.
“Go on,” he coaxed and his gaze dipped to her lips as if in anticipation of the words.
“We—we’ve been thinking of adding half a dozen cottages in the woods. I was just thinking, what if we reconfigured the entire setup of the resort’s existing three hundred acres, factoring in the golf course and the additional land? We could give some of the old cottages fairway views and add new structures to some of the other holes once the course is complete.”
His eyebrows notched up and then he grinned in a way that stole her breath.
“Do you play?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Golf. Do you play?”
“I don’t really have time for games,” she replied even though she did indeed play. She could feel her face heating under his scrutiny and knew without looking that her sister was smiling smugly and Dane had crossed his arms over his chest.
“Pity.” Luke shrugged. “Life’s not much fun without a little recreation. What do you do to relax?”
“I work.”
“Hmm. I wonder what your boyfriend thinks about that?”
“Her boyfriend?” Audra blurted out.
“Bradley Townsend isn’t…bothered in the least by the fact that I enjoy my job,” Ali replied.
None of it was a lie. She hadn’t called him her boyfriend. And during their one date he hadn’t complained at all about her demanding career.
“Are you going to see Townsend again?” Dane asked.
“Saturday.” She cleared her throat. “Can we get back to business? Please.”
Luke straightened and walked back around to his chair. “I like the idea,” he said, settling onto the seat. “The reason I asked if you played golf, Ali, is I think you hit a hole-in-one with that plan.”
She flushed again, this time for a very different reason. She almost hated herself for it. What did it matter what he thought of her? She wasn’t out to please Luke Banning. She crossed her legs, tugged at the hem of her skirt and tried to convince herself she wasn’t lying.
Three hours later, Luke and the Conlans emerged from the room with a partnership forged and their signatures drying on the thick stack of paperwork their various lawyers had had a hand in drawing up.
“When will you be heading back to New York?” Audra asked.
Luke had planned to leave Trillium that afternoon. He had two meetings scheduled in Manhattan on Friday and plans to attend an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Rochelle Bullard on Saturday.
Now, the thought of returning to his penthouse held no appeal. He told himself it was just that he hadn’t had much time off in recent months. He was due a vacation and, besides, he’d never made it out to his grandmother’s cottage. He should check on it and then look into putting it on the market.
The thought of selling it made him unexpectedly sad. He wasn’t a sentimental man. In business, he couldn’t afford to be. In his personal life, he just plain didn’t care to be. His relationship with Rochelle, for instance, was casual and hardly headed in the direction of serious. He glanced at Ali and wondered if her date with the developer on Saturday would end with a chaste peck or a sweaty tussle between the sheets. He felt a muscle tick in his cheek at the disturbing visual his thoughts conjured up.
In response to Audra’s question he heard himself say, “I haven’t decided when I’ll leave.”
Ali sat on the rear deck of her cottage that evening and watched the setting sun shimmer in hues of pink of gold over Lake Michigan. Dane and Audra had gone to dinner with Luke. Seth would be meeting them. Ali had made excuses and headed for home, eager for some time alone.
As soon as she’d walked through the cottage’s door, she’d poured herself a glass of wine, turned on some vintage Bonnie Raitt and shed her clothes along with Audra’s killer shoes. They’d looked great, but they had proved anything but comfortable.
Now, dressed in blue jeans and an oversize University of Michigan sweatshirt, she sipped merlot and thanked God that even before knowing Luke would be on Trillium, she had scheduled a couple of days off from the resort. She saw no reason to change her plans now. She wasn’t a coward, but the less she saw of Luke Banning, the better.
Having made that determination, her gaze drifted down to the beach and she nearly bobbled her wine.
“Hey, Ali!” Luke called out, hiking up the grassy incline to the deck wearing a cocky grin that put her teeth on edge.
Wouldn’t it just figure that she was back in jeans with her feet bare and her face scrubbed free of every last speck of foundation? She’d felt powerful and in control wearing that savvy red suit and a subtle touch of makeup. Now she felt like Cinderella must have after midnight struck. Damn the man, but he still looked like royalty even without the designer clothes he’d worn earlier. She had to admit, the suit had surprised her. Despite his wealth, she’d figured Luke would stroll in to their meeting wearing jeans. But he’d looked plenty at ease decked out in what she suspected was Armani.
“I thought you’d gone to dinner with Dane and Audra.”
“I took a rain check.”
“I didn’t hear your motorcycle.”
“Probably because your music’s kind of loud.” He grinned, nodding toward the house where Bonnie Raitt’s sooty voice wailed from the speakers. Ali wanted to kick herself as she realized the singer was now crooning about how she couldn’t make somebody love her.
She shrugged. “I always play my music loud. I don’t have any neighbors to worry about.”
“That could change,” he said. But before she could ask what he meant, he was motioning toward the pastel-flooded horizon. “I’d forgotten how beautiful the sunsets are here.”
“One of the reasons I could never see myself living anywhere else,” she replied.
Even so, as she took another sip of her wine, she tried to be objective. She tried to see this small slice of the universe from Luke’s perspective. She tried to understand for the millionth time what had made it so impossible for him to remain all those years before. She couldn’t, though. Not then, and not now. And because of the way he stirred up her emotions Ali discovered that as much as she’d wanted him to stay when she was a naïve twenty-year-old, now she just wanted him to go away and leave her alone.
Luke didn’t go away, though. He settled onto the top step that led to the deck, and then leaned back on his elbows. He was the picture of a man at leisure even as Ali felt wound up tight and ready to spring.
“Are the winters still as hard as I remember?” he asked.
“Worse.”
“Kids still go sledding down Palmer Hill?”
“Yep.”
She’d hoped by not contributing much to the conversation he would take the hint and leave, but he didn’t appear to be put off by her laconic replies.
“Remember the time we crashed our toboggan into that oak tree near the bottom?” he asked, shaking his head and chuckling softly. “You were what, seven?”
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