Seeking Forever Read online

  “Next month. End of the month,” Willow said. “A Sunday brunch.”

  She nodded again, trying to process the information even though she didn’t want to. Then she thought about something Max had said earlier. “Um…did they happen to mention what made them come to Mimosa Key for the wedding? Harry’s family is primarily on the East Coast and from what little I know of Monica’s family, they are too.”

  “Well, we are fabulous,” Willow said, going for light and humorous.

  Ellie forced a smile.

  With a sigh, Willow said, “Look, remember what we said the other morning about brutal honesty? Well, here it is – Harry mentioned knowing a woman who used to live here. That made his fiancée make a face like she’d sucked on a lemon. So we quickly changed the subject. I don’t think either of them know you work here, but…”

  “Harry’s never been cruel. Inconsiderate, yes, but not cruel. I don’t think he’d choose to have a wedding here just to rub it in my face. Monica might. She was just that type of person.” Feeling like a complete fool, she said, “Either way, I promise it won’t affect my work.”

  “I’m really sorry this all came up in your first week. Not the greatest way to start off a new job, huh?”

  That had Ellie laughing softly. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I just feel like an idiot that you and Ari and Gussie had to witness this in my first week.”

  “Believe me when I say we all have a history and it doesn’t always come out at the best time.”

  “Thank you for being so gracious.”

  “We’ll all get through this together,” Willow replied with a smile. “So Ari mentioned she sort of pushed you out the door earlier. Where’d you go?”

  “Oh…um…I just sort of walked around a bit outside.”

  “The grounds here are awesome, aren’t they? Every inch of it is perfectly manicured.”

  Ellie swallowed hard, trying hard not to think of Max. “Yes they are.”

  “The crew who takes care of it is amazing. You know it gets done because nothing is ever overgrown and everything is always so pristine, but they’re really never in the way about it. The guests all comment on it – how much they enjoy not seeing and hearing lawnmowers and trimmers buzzing around. Honestly, I don’t know how Max and the boys get it all done.”

  A small shrug was Ellie’s only response.

  Willow’s gaze narrowed. “Are you sure you’re all right? You’re getting all flushed again.”

  Dammit. “I’m fine. Really. I…I should get back to work. I have that seating board idea I wanted to present at the meeting tomorrow morning and I need to finish it up.”

  “Okay…but if you need to step outside or leave early, let one of us know. We have a light schedule this afternoon so we’re good.”

  With a murmured thanks, Ellie let herself out and made her way to her desk and picked up the nearest piece of paper she could find to fan herself with.

  ****

  It was overcast with the threat of some rain and Max and his crew were doing their best to get their work done and the equipment put away before it hit.

  “Hey, Max!” someone yelled out. “We’re getting ready to put number five away but we’ll need to look at it. Something’s clanking!”

  Nodding and giving the okay sign, Max made a mental note to look at the equipment maintenance schedule and get that mower looked at as soon as possible. He had a team of mechanics who handled most of the repairs, but occasionally he did have to take things off the island and over to Naples for work. Either way, it would get done. It always did.

  A breeze blew over him and rather than it relaxing him or cooling him off, Max realized it irritated him. Okay, maybe not the breeze itself. If he were honest, he’d say he’d been fairly irritated for over a week.

  Ellie.

  He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her since he’d kissed her in the lobby.

  And he was still a little out of sorts over the whole thing. At the time, he simply acted on instinct – hadn’t thought it through at all. But once she started kissing him back? Hell, he could not have cared less about who saw them. As much as he kept reasoning with himself that he was doing it to help Ellie out, the truth was…damn. The truth was that it stopped being a distraction tactic the second her lips opened to his.

  A rather un-masculine sigh came out before he could stop it.

  Now he’d gone and scared her off. He was lucky she didn’t report him to Lacey and Clay for sexual harassment. Looking back, Max realized he could have just as easily taken her by the hand and walked in another direction and pretended to be doing something else. There were a dozen different places they could have gone in a pinch to get her out of the way of her ex. But no. That would have been too easy. Nope. He had to go and take something simple and complicate the hell out of it.

  Which meant if Lacey or Clay did come after him about it – or even Willow, Arielle or Gussie – he’d just have to plead stupidity and hope they all understood. Maybe they’d…

  “Hey, Max! You got a minute?”

  Max didn’t need to turn around to know who was calling out to him.

  Clay Walker. Gifted architect and co-owner of the Casa Blanca Resort.

  And…technically…his boss.

  “Oh…hey, Clay,” he said, doing his best to sound casual. He walked over to where Clay was standing and shook his hand. “What brings you by?” Hopefully he was the only one who could hear the nervousness in his voice.

  “Lacey and I are looking to spruce up the property over by our place and I wanted to talk to you about it and see if you could give me a hand with it. I’ve been playing around with some designs and wanted to get some more colors and textures around the place and…”

  A wave of relief washed over Max. Work. Clay wanted to talk about work! If it wasn’t completely inappropriate he would have hugged the man!

  And that would have been beyond awkward.

  Focusing on the design Clay had pulled up on his tablet, Max tuned back in to what was being said.

  “…we’ve got quite a bit of greenery and we’ve made sure we have a selection of plants and flowers around the resort property, but now we want to have some of it closer to home. What do you think?”

  “I think it’s totally doable. Do you have a list of plants and flowers you want or do you need me to come up with some or – if you want – we can totally drive into Naples and go to the nursery there and custom pick what you’re looking for. That would be my personal choice. This way you can see them, feel them and really get a better idea of what you’re going to have and maybe incorporate them into your designs so Lacey can see them too. And then…”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Clay said, chuckling. “Slow down. You’re speed talking right now. Are you all right?”

  “What? Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m good. Really. I’m fine. It’s good.” Smooth, dumbass. Why don’t you say ‘good’ one more time for good measure?

  The look on Clay’s face showed he wasn’t quite convinced. They’d known each other for a long time – long before Max came to work at Casa Blanca – and…hell, maybe he really did just need to talk about it.

  With a weary sigh, Max looked at Clay. “You got a few minutes to talk?”

  Clearly surprised, Clay nodded and the two of them began to walk toward Max’s office. While on the way, they talked about resort business – equipment maintenance and upcoming events that were going to require a little specialized care from the grounds crew. Once they were in the office, Max handed Clay a bottle of water and they both took a seat.

  “So what’s going on?” Clay asked.

  “Have you met Ellie Shaw yet? She’s with the wedding girls.”

  Clay chuckled. “Barefoot Brides,” he corrected lightly. “And no, I haven’t met her. Why? Is there a problem?”

  “There could be…”

  “Uh-oh…do I need to call Lacey?”

  Max rested his elbows on his desk and sighed. “Can we sort of make this…off the record?”
r />   “Shit, Max. Come on. What’s going on?”

  Max gave him the basics on Ellie’s ex getting married at the resort and how she’d been trying to dodge him.

  “That doesn’t really sound like an issue. So she hid out in the tool shed,” he said matter-of-factly. “I suppose that could be an insurance issue if she had gotten hurt, but…”

  “I’m not done,” Max interrupted wearily. “We were walking back through the lobby last week and as we were heading toward the office hallway, her ex and his fiancée were heading our way. It would have been obvious if she took off running and…I panicked.”

  Clay’s gaze remained neutral. “I think I would have heard if you punched a guest.”

  “That might have been the easier route.”

  “Max…”

  “I kissed her.”

  “And?”

  He was confused. “And…what? I kissed Ellie in the middle of the damn lobby.”

  And then it hit Clay. “Ooohhh…she didn’t ask you to kiss her. You just kissed her. Got it. So was she upset about it? Did she complain to Willow, Ari or Gussie?”

  Max shook his head. “Not that I know of.” He raked a hand through his hair and leaned back in his chair. “If she had, I probably would have heard by now, right?”

  Clay nodded. “I take it you haven’t spoken to Ellie since this happened.”

  “Exactly. Haven’t seen her either. For all I know, she quit because of me.”

  “That confident in your kissing skills?” Clay teased, but as soon as Max shot him an annoyed look, he turned serious again. “Okay, you want my advice as your friend or employer?”

  “Let’s go with friend first.”

  “I think you’re making more of this than you need to. It was an awkward situation and you simply reacted. If Ellie were upset about it, you would have heard about it. The gossip grapevine around here would have been all over it and I don’t doubt for a minute that one of the girls would have been over here to call you out on it.”

  Max felt himself relaxing. “Okay. Thanks. Whew…”

  “Now as your employer…”

  “Shit…”

  “Yeah,” Clay began. “You need to go and make sure she’s all right – but talk to her in front of one of the girls if you can. Or I can go with you.”

  “Okay,” Max said. It was no more than what he’d been telling himself. When he looked at Clay he noticed the expectant look on his face. “You mean now?”

  “No time like the present.”

  This time the curse that came out was a little more colorful. “It’s a Friday, Clay. They’re probably in wedding mode. I can’t go walking around them like this.” He motioned to his dirty work clothes.

  Rather than respond, Clay pulled his phone out and typed out a quick text and then waited a minute. Max heard the ding of a response and watched as Clay rose from his seat.

  “Come on. Ari and Ellie are still in the office and they have about thirty minutes before they have to be on-site. Let’s go clear this up.”

  Max followed like a man being led to his own execution and wondered why he even thought that talking about this would be helpful.

  “Stop looking like that,” Clay said, grinning. “It’s not going to be that bad.”

  “Um…it’s going to be awkward. That’s pretty much a given.”

  They walked the rest of the way in silence and were in the lobby when Max spotted Ellie walking at a brisk pace away from the Barefoot Brides offices. He stopped and pointed her out to Clay.

  “I thought you said they were going to be in the office for another thirty minutes. It took us less than five to get here.”

  Clay shrugged. “That’s what Ari texted. Maybe something came up?”

  “Maybe.” Max looked around the lobby area and saw a well-dressed couple walking toward the offices and even though he had only gotten a quick glimpse last week, he was pretty certain it was the ex again. He looked in the direction in which Ellie took off and barely gave Clay a glance as he said. “I gotta go.”

  Maybe Clay called after him. Maybe he didn’t.

  Either way, Max was going to find Ellie.

  Who would have thought hide-and-seek could be this much fun?

  Four

  AFTER ALMOST TWO weeks of working at Casa Blanca, Ellie still had a hard time remembering where anything was. And now when she really needed a place to hang out where guests weren’t allowed, she really wished she had a better grasp of the lay of the land.

  Harry and Monica had shown up unannounced and Ari agreed to handle them – quickly – and told Ellie to take a break before they had to be down on the beach for tonight’s wedding. Maybe she should have just gone down to the beach instead of trying to find a place inside to hide, but she didn’t want to be in anyone’s way down there.

  “Aha!” she murmured, spotting a supply closet. She knew she could just slip in there and check her email on her phone or text her mom to kill some time. With a quick peek over her shoulder, she slipped into the closet and shut the door.

  It was dark in there and she was started to feel around for a light switch when the door flew open. She gasped and was just about to scream when…

  “Ellie, shh…it’s me.”

  Max.

  “Oh,” she whispered and took a step back as he came inside. “I was trying to find the…” The light went on and just the sight of him took her breath away. “Oh.”

  He was smiling at her but he also looked a little…nervous. Shy, almost. “I take it you’re hiding because that was your ex I saw heading down toward your office?”

  “Yup. As usual, Harry has no consideration for anyone’s time. They didn’t even call first. They just showed up. Arielle told them we were getting ready for an event and they swore they just needed a few minutes of her time.”

  “Yikes.”

  “Exactly.” Unable to help herself, Ellie drank in the sight of him. He may have been a bit sweaty and his clothes were dusty from a day working on planting and keeping the grounds manicured but he looked…yummy.

  She hadn’t been able to wipe the thought of their kiss from her mind and as much as she had wanted to seek him out, she was utterly embarrassed by how…enthusiastic she had been with the whole thing. Poor Max was only trying to be nice and help her out in an awkward situation and she had practically mauled him.

  And right now, she wanted to again.

  She felt a little nervous, a little excited and somehow they moved around each other – as if their steps were choreographed – and when Ellie’s back was against the door, Max moved in close. Her heart rate picked up as she slowly lifted her gaze to his.

  Max cleared his throat. “I saw you walking across the lobby and turn down this hall. Then I thought I saw your ex. I wanted to make sure you were okay.” His voice was low and a little gruff and damn if that wasn’t a turn-on too.

  So he was just being a good guy again.

  Damn.

  Looking down at her shoes, she did her best not to let her disappointment show. A small part of her had been hoping he’d followed her in here because he wanted to see her again, kiss her again.

  Clearly, she was wrong.

  Then he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand. God…his hand was so big and the skin was so rough and…she was a complete mess.

  “Ellie?” he said softly. “Look at me.”

  She knew if she did he’d be able to see – he’d be able to tell she wasn’t looking at this as just a casual, friendly thing. All her life people had told her that her eyes always gave her away.

  Max repeated her name.

  And it looked like they were going to do it again.

  Tilting her head back slightly, she looked at him. And was surprised to see the same heat and desire she knew she was feeling. His name was barely a whisper on her lips when he ducked his head and kissed her.

  There was no time to think about asking him why, she was too anxious for the feel of him, the taste of him. Ellie’s arms immed
iately looped around his neck just as his banded around her waist. With the door at her back and Max at her front, she was exactly where she wanted to be.

  Well…maybe not exactly, but it was pretty damn good.

  There was no rush this time. Last week in the lobby it had been a quick and frantic pace – clearly a distraction. But this? This was slow and sweet and oh-so-sexy. She relaxed against him and sighed. Over and over his lips claimed hers and now that her head was clear and she knew he was kissing her because he wanted to, it really did diminish every fantasy she’d ever had about Max Santos.

  He was sweet.

  He was sexy.

  And his kisses were better than any sex she’d had in…well, ever.

  Wow.

  Her hands raked up into his hair and as if of one mind, she hummed and he growled. Nice. Max lifted his head but immediately took a breath and began kissing her cheek and her jaw – softly whispering her name as he moved. His breath on her skin along with his hands which were now moving up and down her back and stopping just shy of cupping her bottom had her on total sensory overload. Another minute and she’d be tempted to lock the door and take this up a notch.

  As his hands began to move a little lower, she was about to say a prayer of thanks when a door down the hall slammed shut. They both jumped and Max instantly took a step back. Their breathing was ragged. Ellie took a step away and turned when Max cursed.

  Not a good sign.

  “Damn, Ellie…your dress…”

  She looked down and sure enough, her yellow dress was now slightly stained with the dirt and grass from his clothes. Her first thought was to try wiping it off, but that only served to smear some of the stains and therefore, made them worse. “Oh no…”

  “It’s on the back too…”

  A quick look at her watch showed she had seven minutes to get down to the beach to help with tonight’s wedding. Showing up with a stained dress was so not the way to make an impression on her bosses or how she wanted their clients to see her.

  Max looked just as panicked as she felt. “Okay, okay, okay,” he began, “tell me what we need to do? Do you have a change of clothes in the office?”

  Ellie shook her head. “Dammit, that’s something I should always have in case of emergencies! Why didn’t I think of that?” She said it more to herself than him but her mind was racing with how she was going to fix this problem.