Their Festive Island Escape. Nina Singh

feeling of guilt from earlier blossomed once again in Reid’s chest. Celeste was indeed his guest. A paying customer. He hadn’t meant to come off as boorish as he had out on the beach. But he’d just been so thoroughly disconcerted at seeing her again after all this time. If he was being honest with himself, he’d imagined encountering Celeste Frajedi more than a few times over the years. Not that he’d ever been able to explain to himself exactly why that was so. He had no reason to be thinking of her at all.

      “But that’s exactly what you are,” he answered. “An appreciated guest. Hence, my desire to apologize for my behavior earlier. I hope the gesture served as an adequate apology. I should never have let…our history, so to speak…affect in any way how I treat a guest at my establishment. There’s no excuse for my having done so,” he added with complete sincerity. He really didn’t have any kind of excuse. Not even considering the morning he’d had. On top of the missing Santa and the shock of seeing Celeste again, he’d started the day with another aggravating, infuriating phone call with his father, who was once again trying to take over the company he’d almost single-handedly destroyed.

      Celeste looked far from convinced by his words.

      “I can assure you such behavior on my part won’t happen again,” he told her. “In fact, you can forget I’m even here.”

      The skeptical look she speared him with clearly said he hadn’t done much to convince her any further.

       You can forget I’m even here.

      Hah! As if she could forget his presence for even a moment. What a mistake it had been to come here. Of all the resorts she could have chosen as a substitute for her regular vacation spot, how in the world had she landed on this one? The cruel fates were clearly laughing at her.

      Celeste flopped herself down on the wide king bed back in her suite and draped an arm across her face. No, she couldn’t so easily forget that Reid Evanson was right here on this very island. Nor could she forget the way he’d made her feel three years ago. As if she could never be enough for the likes of his best friend. Never mind that Jack had turned out to be a reckless, disloyal excuse for a fiancé who had eventually left her stranded at the very altar where they were to have made their vows. Sure, now she realized just how much of a favor he’d done her. Aside from saving her from what could have been years of betrayal and heartbreak, he’d helped her come to a conclusion about herself. She clearly wasn’t the type of woman who was meant for a family or a steady relationship. He’d enabled her to avoid the mistake of a lifetime.

      A mistake that could have led her straight down the same path her mother had traveled.

      But that knowledge hadn’t stopped the sting of rejection, nor the burn of embarrassment as she’d faced down a whole church full of wedding guests to tell them that the ceremony had been suddenly called off.

      Reid had been there every step of the way. He’d witnessed her humiliation in its entirety. And she’d received the distinct impression that he felt she’d only gotten what she’d deserved.

      An incoming message on her phone pulled her out of her thoughts. The screen lit up with the profile picture of her sister smiling as she held her toddler niece. Celeste groaned and debated whether to answer. On the one hand, she felt drained and conversations with her sister could often be one-sided; Tara’s side. On the other hand, Celeste could really use someone to talk to right about now.

      With no small amount of doubt, she pressed her thumb on the icon to answer.

      “Hey, Tara.”

      “Hey, sis.” The sound of a musical children’s show could be heard playing loudly in the background.

      “What’s up?”

      “Just calling to see how things are in paradise. Still can’t believe you’re there and not here.” Ah, so this was the routine guilt-trip call. Cynical as it sounded, Celeste couldn’t help the thought given past experience.

      Celeste sighed deeply as she shifted to a seated position on the edge of the bed. “Well, it just so happens, I’m beginning to doubt my decision to come.”

      Tara’s sudden exhalation came through loud and clear across the tiny speaker. “What’s happened? Spill!”

      “Let’s just say there’s someone here I didn’t expect to see. Ever.”

      “Details, please. Is it a man?”

      “Yes, as a matter of fact. But that’s not the import—”

      But Tara cut her off. “Ooh, this is getting interesting. Is it someone you had a previous fling with? Can you have another one? Hot and heavy with no strings attached! You could so use that, you know.”

      Celeste rubbed a hand across her tense forehead. Honestly, Tara didn’t know her in the least. “I don’t do flings.”

      “Well, maybe you should start. Heaven knows your serious relationships don’t turn out so great.” She grunted a laugh. “They don’t turn out at all.”

      Ouch. So much for a sisterly conversation to make her feel better. Foolish of her to even entertain the notion. Celeste found herself wondering if she should have answered the phone after all.

      “So, who is it?” her sister asked after a heavy pause.

      “Never mind. It’s not important. Forget I brought it up. How’s Mom? And little Nat?”

      It wasn’t often any of them referred to her niece by her full given name, Natalie.

      “They’re all fine,” Tara answered. But she wasn’t having it with the attempted change in topic. “And no way you’re going to try to drop the matter of this mystery man. Tell me who you ran into. And tell me what he means to you.”

      Celeste opened her mouth to respond with a resounding and emphatic denial that Reid Evanson meant absolutely anything to her whatsoever. That she’d hardly thought about him over the past three years.

      But the lie wouldn’t form on her tongue.

       CHAPTER THREE

      ALEX STILL STOOD in the middle of Reid’s office studying him like a lab specimen. “Is there something I can do for you?” Reid finally asked, ultimately losing the game of visual chicken.

      “Yeah. Neither you nor the young lady really answered me earlier when I asked if you two knew each other. It appears you do.”

      Reid pretended to type on his keyboard. “Then you seem to have answered your own question.”

      “I have more.”

      Reid gave up all pretense of trying to get any work done. Leaning back in his leather desk chair, he tried to stretch out some of the tension that seemed to have tied a knot in the back of his neck right at the base of his skull. “Somehow, I knew you would.”

      “I do. One of them being, exactly how do you know our esteemed guest? I couldn’t help but notice she’s traveling alone.”

      “So?”

      Alex grinned. “So does that fact have anything to do with you?”

      “What? No! Of course not.” Not directly, anyway.

      He hadn’t realized he’d mumbled the last part under his breath until Alex questioned him.

      “What does that mean, Reid? Not directly?”

      Alex sighed, the tension in his neck traveling farther down his spine. He might have to hit the spa later for some kind of back treatment massage. Though he’d been meaning to do that for weeks, ever since he’d arrived at the start of the season.

      “It’s