Summer SECRETS Read online

  “We have the conference room all ready.” Chris motioned behind them. The lawyer was a fit and young-looking man in his early sixties who appeared to be in far better shape than his son-in-law.

  She followed the two men into the conference room and was slightly surprised when Owen followed her inside and sat directly beside her. She raised her eyebrows at him in question.

  “I have a little at stake in this mess. After all, it was my brother she tried to shoot,” he said softly. “Besides, I was there when Elle fired Ryan. Remember? One of the Costas needs to be here.”

  She took a deep breath. “Fine.” She opened her folder and tried to make sure everything was in order again. For the most part, she had everything she needed on her phone as well, including notes, but she’d made copies of all of Ryan’s employee records for the lawyers, including several complaints about her while she’d worked at the camp.

  For the next hour and a half, she tried to ignore Owen’s presence next to her. It seemed like he would be occupying the same role she was in the case. He sat back, silent for most of the meeting, as the lawyers explained that it would most likely be a cut-and-dried case since everything appeared to be in order. But there was still a hint of doubt in Chris Schumer’s voice that sent her nerves spiking again near the end of the meeting.

  “We’ll get working on the next steps and let you know as soon as we hear back from Ms. Kinsley’s lawyers.”

  Hannah thought of Elle’s ex-fiancé, Jeff Springs. The man had called Elle to say he was representing Ryan in the case. She and her friends wanted to hog-tie the man and leave him on the side of a dirt road somewhere, but Elle had talked them out of their daydreaming, wine-induced schemes.

  “I’ll walk you out.” Owen stood up and waited for her to gather the new paperwork the lawyers had given her. After putting everything back into the folder, she tucked it under her arm and stood.

  “That won’t be . . .” she started to say, but the look in Owen’s eyes told her that it hadn’t been a request.

  “Thank you.” She turned to the other two men.

  “We’ll be in touch,” Jonas Cobbs said before they disappeared down a long hallway.

  “How have you been?” Owen asked as they walked toward the elevators.

  She jerked her head toward him. It was the first personal thing he’d said to her since she’d arrived.

  All the anger of how he’d left her—and left the camp—surfaced again as the worry of the legal battle faded into the background.

  She wanted to yell at him, to zap him with a quick retort, but instead, she answered with a short “Fine.”

  His eyes ran over her face as he hit the button for the elevator. “How are things at River Camp?”

  “Fine,” she answered again and crossed her arms, holding the folder tight over her chest like a shield over her heart.

  She watched his eyes narrow slightly as the two stepped into the elevator.

  She was so preoccupied with tracking his emotions that when they started moving upward instead of heading down to the lobby, it took her a moment to realize what was happening.

  “Why are we going up?” she asked.

  “Because,” he said, “my office is upstairs, and I think we need to have a talk.”

  This time it was her eyes that narrowed. “I have nothing to say to you.” She moved to punch the button for the lobby, but he stopped her by putting a hand gently over her arm.

  “Hannah—”

  She turned to him, waiting, expecting more, but instead, he just said her name one more time.

  “What?” She shook her head. “What do you want?” she asked, hating that she could hear her own hurt in her tone.

  Instead of answering, he moved closer, tucking her into the corner of the elevator and backing her up until her shoulders hit the mirrored walls. Then his lips were covering hers as his hands gripped her hips and pulled her body up tight against his.

  Yet by the time the elevator doors had slid open, he’d moved back across the small space as if nothing had happened.

  She had to blink a few times and breathe slowly until her heart settled back in her chest. How could the man irritate her and turn her on so much at the same time?

  “This way,” Owen said calmly, motioning to the right. A large reception area met the elevators as they opened, and as they walked by, a thin woman stood up and handed Owen a few notes.

  “Your calls,” she said to him as she eyed Hannah.

  “Thank you, Nora. I’ll be in a meeting for the next hour. Hold my calls.”

  “Yes, sir.” The woman sat back down and turned back to her work.

  She followed Owen down a hallway until they reached the corner office. The view of the gulf and its crystal-clear teal waters captured her attention, driving away thoughts of anything else.

  It still got to her, the beauty of the area. From up here, twenty floors above the water, she could see sharks swimming in the deeper, darker waters while tourists and beachgoers played, happily unaware, in the clearer, shallower surf.

  Hearing the office door shut behind her, she turned and looked at Owen. She’d never believed she could have easily fallen for a man like him before. After all, he was everything her parents had wanted for her in a husband: wealthy. Extremely so.

  “So,” she said, deciding to stand her ground. The kiss in the elevator hadn’t been their first, but she was still finding it hard to recover from.

  “So,” he said, slowly moving toward her. She wished the room were larger than it was, since she felt like she was being stalked by a carnivore, ready to jump and gobble her up. She needed to take control of the situation. After all, he was the one in the wrong.

  “You left,” she accused him. Her words stopped him midstride.

  “I did.” He nodded. “You know why.”

  “Because your father called?” She set the folder down on a massive glass desk that sat in front of the wall of windows. When he nodded again, she cocked her head to the side. “No excuses? No explanations beyond that?”

  “You know why I had to leave.” As if realizing for the first time that he was about to reach out and touch her again, he turned away and looked out the window. “You know why this could never work. You knew it then.”

  Since he was no longer facing her, she allowed her shoulders to slump. If she’d just kept her mouth shut, maybe he would have stayed. Maybe things would have been different between them.

  “Because you’re stubborn?” she suggested. She moved to pick up her folder again, but he easily blocked her.

  “No, because you’re . . . you,” he muttered as he tucked his hands into his pants pockets. “Damn it, I thought . . .” His hands emerged and ran through his hair, messing up the perfectly gelled style. “I thought you’d understand.”

  “Oh,” she drew out, so as to make her point clear. “I understood.”

  “Hannah.” He started to move closer, but just then his office door swung open.

  “Hey, Owen, I need your signature . . .” The rest of the man’s words trailed off as he spotted her from across the room. “Hannah?”

  Pure shock forced a gasp from her throat at seeing the man who had broken her in so many ways walk into Owen’s office as if he owned the place.

  “Joel?” She hadn’t thought of the man in years. Hadn’t thought that there had been a hint of familiarity in Owen’s appearance, but now, looking between the two, it was obvious that they were related.

  Owen took her arm when she swayed as memories flooded her mind.

  “You two know each other?” Owen asked, and somehow just hearing his voice helped settle her a little until she could regain her control.

  “Yes,” she said, again holding the folder against her chest. “We used to date.” She jerked her arm out of Owen’s hand and started walking toward the door, avoiding Joel’s eyes as she went.

  “Hannah,” Joel started, but at a look that told him to shove off, he closed his mouth, glanced back at Owen, and let he
r pass.

  She made it all the way to the elevators before the shakes started. After punching the button for the lobby, she braced for Owen to follow her. When he didn’t and she stepped into the elevator alone, she relaxed as the doors shut her inside. Resting her head back against the glass, she held in the tears for all that had come before—the two men were like night and day, personality-wise. She would have never pegged them as related until she’d seen them together. They had the same dark hair and eyes. She’d been so young back when she’d been with Joel, so naive. What had happened between her and Owen must have been a step back—maybe she hadn’t really grown at all, once again falling for the wrong man.

  As she drove back to the camp, she took the half-hour-long trip to settle her nerves and focus on what was important: River Camp.

  When she parked in her normal spot, two of her co-owners and best friends, Zoey and Elle, were waiting for her.

  “So?” they both said at the same time.

  “How did it go?” Elle asked.

  “It went,” she said. “They think we have a good chance of fighting her civil case. We have all the documentation, not to mention the complaints from the other employees.” She pulled out the folder and handed it to Elle. “So, from here on—”

  “Not with this.” Her friend pushed the papers back at her. “With Owen.”

  “Oh.” She sighed. “That went too.” She rubbed her forehead.

  “What was that?” Elle asked, sounding a little bewildered.

  “Complicated!” Hannah said, leaning against her car and glancing around. It had been almost six months since they had reopened River Camp as an upscale escape for wealthy snowbirds. It was a little shocking at first, seeing how much trouble the older couples and singles could get into. She knew there were such things as swingers and wild sex parties, but she’d never imagined they would have to play host to any of that.

  After the first group of guests had come and gone, they quickly revamped the camp rules and regulations. Damages were now calculated and included in guest deposits, and they’d posted many signs about nudity in public and pool areas. Designated smoking areas had been put in place, and all cabins were now smoke- and drug-free zones. She knew these steps couldn’t stop all the parties, but at least they discouraged most of the wilder ones.

  “That look,” Elle answered finally. “I’ve never seen it on you before.” She moved closer to her and took her shoulders.

  Elle had been her best friend since she’d met her that first summer at River Camp, when Hannah had been a little girl so unhappy about her life that she’d been thinking of hurting herself. Her parents had expected perfection from her from the start. When other kids had been allowed to wear shorts and get scraped knees, Hannah had been required to remain demure and clean.

  Seeing worry in her friend’s eyes now had her taking a few cleansing breaths. “I’m fine,” she said after a moment.

  “You’re not. I have a few errands to run, but then I’m going to bring up a bottle of wine, and we’re going to talk. All of us.” Elle threw an arm around her shoulder. “We’re sisters, and we’re here for you, like you’ve been here for all of us.”

  “Right,” Zoey said as she walked over and added another arm to the hug. “You look shaken. It’s obvious.”

  She relaxed into her friends’ arms. “I could use some wine.”

  Elle giggled. “Okay, give me an hour. Go change into something more comfortable, and we’ll be up soon.”

  “Thanks,” she said, handing the folder to Elle.

  “I’ll put this in your office,” Elle promised her. “Take a bath and relax.”

  She did what her friends suggested and headed up to the apartment she’d shared with Scarlett and Aubrey ever since Zoey had moved into one of the new cabins with Owen’s brother Dylan and Elle had moved up to her tree house with Owen’s other brother, Liam. The apartment felt lonely with the population reduced to her, Scarlett, and Aubrey. Almost two years ago, she’d had her very own apartment in New York City. She’d been working at a high-paying job at one of her father’s investment firms and had, so she thought, been on her way up the ladder on her own. Then she took a business trip to Europe, and everything changed when her father sprang it on her that he expected her to make a move she wasn’t prepared to in life. Being forced to merge with one of her father’s business partners in her personal life was crossing the line, in her book.

  Her father informed her that he was moving her to a different position, one with less freedom and directly under one of the many prospective husbands her parents were forcing on her.

  She was thankful she received Elle’s call the day she got back into town. Even though Elle conveyed the bad news of her grandfather Joe’s death, Hannah needed to see her friends.

  She expected the trip to Florida to be a fresh breath that would allow her time to recover and decide the next steps in her life. What she hadn’t bargained for was that it would end up being the chance of a lifetime. The possibility for her to escape her parents’ clutches once and for all.

  After filling the bathtub and dropping one of Scarlett’s homemade bath bombs into the warm water, she peeled off her heels, skirt, and blouse and sank below the pink-and-purple-colored fragrant water.

  She didn’t even tie her long hair up like she normally did when taking a bath but just let it float in the water around her face. Every time she closed her eyes and tried to relax, she thought about wanting to kiss Owen again. Memories of how she’d pretty much attacked him that last time surfaced, and she tried to avoid them even more by sinking deeper into the water.

  She attempted to get the feeling of Owen kissing her from her memories by focusing on something else, but her mind kept flashing back to the first time they’d kissed.

  It had been a little over a week after she’d bumped into him that first time. She’d been walking back to her apartment after dinner. Her long summer dress allowed the evening air to cool her off, and she decided to make her way around the grounds and enjoy the night.

  She walked past the pool house and spotted a dark figure leaning against the wall, watching her. At first, she was prepared to approach whoever it was to shoo them out of the darkness, but then she realized he wasn’t watching her. Quietly approaching, she followed his glance and noticed the deer in the clearing.

  “She’s giving birth,” he said. “It looks like she’s having a difficult time with it.”

  She moved closer to him and tilted her head to watch the doe. Sure enough, the small deer was making grunting noises in between heavy pants. Its large belly moved occasionally with the effort.

  They watched in silence as the frogs croaked in the darkness and bugs buzzed around them. When the fawn finally arrived, Hannah let out a sigh of relief as the mother leaned in and started licking it clean.

  “Amazing,” she whispered. She touched his arm. “Look—it’s standing already.” The small fawn was trying to get up on wobbly legs.

  “He,” he corrected her as he tilted his head for a better look.

  They watched in amazement when, after only five more minutes, both mother and fawn wandered off into the brush. She hadn’t realized she’d kept her hand on his arm until he turned his head and glanced down at it.

  Dropping her hand, she moved to take a step back, but he stopped her by cupping her face and quickly kissing her.

  “I’ve wanted to do that since I got here,” he whispered, then turned and disappeared into the darkness. She was so shocked by the kiss that she didn’t move to stop him from leaving. Nor had she responded the way she’d wanted.

  It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been kissed before. One moment he was leaning against the wall, and the next she was in his arms, as if he’d been planning it the entire time. No man she’d ever kissed had been that smooth before.

  Feeling heated all over again, she had slowly made her way back to her apartment that evening and dreamed of Owen, much like she was doing now.

  “Did you drown in t
here?” Zoey’s voice came from just outside the bathroom door.

  Chuckling, she sat up and called out, “No, but I was thinking of spending the rest of the night in here.” By myself, she thought to say, right as the bathroom door opened and her friends spilled in. Sliding back down into the bubbles, she groaned.

  “What?” Elle said, handing her a glass of wine. Elle’s blonde hair lay over her shoulders in two long braids, reminding Hannah of the first summer she’d met her. “We’ve all seen you naked.”

  “You’ve seen all of us naked,” Scarlett teased, sitting on the countertop and tucking her long legs into the sweatshirt she’d pulled over her shorts. Hannah noticed that Scarlett’s brown hair was showing highlights of blonde streaked through it from all the time she spent outside in the sun.

  “We know all the secrets,” Aubrey said between sips of wine. It kind of frustrated Hannah slightly that of all of them, Aubrey currently didn’t have a hair out of place on her head. She was wearing black yoga pants and a trendy top and looked better than any of them. She even still had earrings and makeup on. Which had Hannah thinking about how big of a mess she probably looked.

  “Spill! We’re all dying to hear what happened,” Zoey added as she sat on the edge of the tub.

  Hannah tucked her legs up and rested her elbows on her knees while she sipped the wine. “Well, the lawyers—”

  “Nope,” Elle broke in. “We don’t care about the lawsuit.”

  “We do care about the lawsuit,” Zoey corrected her with a mild glare at Elle. “We have to, but we’re up to date on that and want to hear what went down with you and Owen first.”

  She thought about lying to her friends. Telling them that she hadn’t seen Owen. After all, she wouldn’t have thought twice about lying to her parents, but these were her best friends, her sisters. They had set one rule that first summer after finding each other: no lies.

  Just knowing the secret she had kept from them all these years ate at her insides.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Why had he kissed her? Hell, for that matter, why had Owen gone down to the lawyers’ floor in the first place? When he’d found out Hannah was going to be in his building, he’d lost the last strings of his control. He’d sat through the meeting knowing he had a million other items he should be doing but was focused solely on Hannah and being close to her again.