Jilted: Promise Harbor, Book 1 (13 page)

He didn’t even know what was wrong, but his words somehow did help calm her a little. Then his hands turned her. She tried to keep her face averted, but he pulled her into his arms and wrapped her up in them, and she pressed her face to his chest. One of his hands rubbed up and down her back in such a tender, calming gesture, but that only made another wave of emotion rise up inside her, and she sobbed again, this time helpless to stop the storm of tears.

He held her and rubbed her and whispered soothing words to her as she cried. He rocked her a little and pressed his cheek to her hair until she was done, exhausted and limp and embarrassed.

“I need some tissues,” she mumbled against his damp shirt, lifting a hand to swipe her face.

“Sure.” He released her and moved to the bathroom, returning with a handful of tissues he handed her. “Here, sweetheart.”

At hearing Josh call her the affectionate name he used to call her when they were together, more sadness swelled inside her and she broke into more sobs. She hated being like this, out of control, showing her emotions, but it seemed like she just couldn’t keep it all in any longer.

Josh’s eyebrows sloped down and his mouth straightened into an unhappy line as he observed her being so distraught. “Dev, Dev, sweetheart, it’s okay. Please tell me what’s wrong. I’ve never seen you like this.”

“I know,” she sobbed, mopping her face, but more tears streamed. “I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” he said, his voice low. “It’s okay. I just wish I knew what I can do.”

“Nothing.”

“Come on. Sit down. Tell me what’s wrong.” He led her to the couch and picked up the blanket he’d used to sleep with last night. He wrapped her up in it and his arms again, and she couldn’t stop herself from snuggling in to his big, warm body. She let out a long, shuddering breath. He waited.

“I lost my job,” she finally said in a small voice.

His body tensed against her. “What?”

“I lost my job,” she said again.

“I don’t get it. Just now? Did they call you or something? On a Sunday night?”

“No.” And she actually chuckled a little at his confusion. “It happened a month ago.”

He slid a hand between them and nudged her chin up. He looked at her with adorable confusion and worry. “A month ago? Why didn’t you say something? Jesus, Dev.”

“I-I don’t know. It’s humiliating. I didn’t want you to feel sorry for me.” She’d been worried enough about showing up at the wedding as the rejected girlfriend, never mind the rejected, unemployed, loser girlfriend.

“What happened?”

She met his eyes. “The company had to downsize. They decided I was one of the ones who had to go.”

He stared at her in stunned surprise. “How can that be?” he said slowly. “You’re so good at what you do. They need you.”

She lifted one shoulder. “Apparently not.”

“Fuck. That is unbelievable.” He shook his head, a perplexed crease still between his eyebrows.

“I didn’t really want to talk about it,” she mumbled. “It’s humiliating.”

“It’s not humiliating. It’s their mistake.”

One corner of her mouth kicked up. “Sure.”

“Tell me about it.”

She found herself pouring it all out to him, and he listened, shaking his head.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “I know the economy is still shaky and businesses are still making tough decisions. But hell, Dev.”

“I know.” She sighed, crumpling soggy tissues in her hand. “I know it’s a business decision. But still.” She swallowed.

“You gave that company everything you had.” He frowned. “Long hours. You took all kinds of courses, and did all that networking. You worked your butt off for that company. Unfuckingbelieveable.”

“Loyalty doesn’t count for much,” she said. “I guess I’ve learned that lesson.”

“Okay, but why were you all of a sudden crying about it tonight? Obviously you knew about this all along. I don’t get it.”

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and looked down. This was even more humiliating. “Oh. Well. I spent the last month job hunting. I tried everything. There just aren’t many jobs out there. I haven’t even had one interview. I’ve done everything I can think of, called everyone I know who might be able to help me. I’ve even started looking at smaller companies. I talked to a friend last week who told me his company is hiring, but I needed to talk to the HR director. But he’s on vacation. Only I found out…he’s here.”

Josh blinked. “How’d you find that out?”

“I found out before I came here, from the friend I had lunch with. That’s why…” she gulped, “…I decided to come to the wedding. So I could come over here to the island and see if I could find him and maybe try to talk to him about a job.”

He tipped his head. “Huh.” She watched him processing that in his head. “So…when you suggested coming here to look for Allie, you were really thinking about finding this guy?”

“Yes. But it was like killing two birds with one stone. I really thought this might be somewhere Allie would come. I mean, it was a possibility. Right?”

“Right,” he said slowly.

Her heart launched into a rapid percussion against her ribs. “I made that impulsive suggestion, but I never thought you’d come with me. And then I didn’t really think it all through, about what would happen after we got here, and…” She shrugged. “It hasn’t worked out. I found William Mudge tonight. In the lobby. It didn’t go so well.”

He studied her. “No job?”

She shook her head glumly. “They just hired two people. I was too late. And he was pissed because I interrupted his vacation, so I’m pretty sure I’ll never get a job at Heffington International.” She bowed her head briefly, then looked up at him. Her vision blurred with tears again. “I felt so desperate. I’ve never been in a situation like this. I got recruited right out of college. But now things are tough everywhere. And I don’t have tons of experience.”

“Huh. What…six years?”

“Yeah. That’s nothing compared to a lot of other people searching for jobs. And you know how important my career is to me. Plus…” Once more she hesitated. “I haven’t been that great about saving, so I don’t have much money left to live off.”

He gave a dry chuckle. “You do realize the irony of you being an investment banker and not managing your own money?”

“Yeah. It’s hilarious.” She rolled her eyes. “Believe me, I’m mad at myself about it. I just got caught up in all the…stuff. You know.”

“The clothes. The shoes. The dinners.”

“My beautiful new apartment.” She gave him a crooked smile.

“That’s who you’ve been looking for. When we went to the pool and the beach and…I got the feeling you were looking for someone.”

“Yes.”

“Wow.” He shook his head. “Jesus, Dev. That’s shitty. I know how important your career is to you. I know how much you gave them to them, and how much you loved working there.”

Enough of this pity party. She couldn’t believe she’d broken down and cried in front of Josh and then spilled her guts, all her humiliation and disappointment and frustration. She never did that. She worked up a smile, sat up and straightened her shoulders. “But I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”

“I know you’ll be okay,” he said softly. “Because you’re smart and educated and hardworking and passionate.”

She blinked.

“What?” Then he laughed. “Now
you’re
looking like you’re surprised I’d compliment you.”

Her bottom lip quivered just a bit. “Yeah. I am actually. I seem to remember you calling me something like a coldhearted workaholic. Way back when.”

He stared at her. “Really? I said that?” He shook his head.

“Yes. I believe it was during one of the many circular discussions we had about moving back to Promise Harbor and all the reasons you had to do it, and all the reasons you couldn’t stay.”

“And all the reasons you couldn’t come with me,” he added. Then he closed his eyes briefly. “I’m sorry. If I said that. I mean, I guess I did say that, but…” He rubbed his forehead, then looked back at her. “What are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know.” Her mouth twisted a little. “Now that I found him and blew my only chance to connect with him, I don’t know what to do next. Go back to Boston, I guess. Keep looking for a job.”

“A month isn’t really that long,” he said. “You have to give it time.”

“I suppose.”

They sat there looking at each other.

“When’s the last time you took a holiday?” he asked.

She thought about that. “I’m not sure,” she finally admitted.

“Probably that week we went to the Dominican Republic.”

That had been…three years ago. She looked at him up through her eyelashes. “It might be.”

“So stay. Keep me company for the rest of the week. Consider it a free holiday.”

She let his words sink in. “I should go back. Keep looking.”

“You’ve sent out résumés. Maybe now you just have to wait.”

“So you’re going to stay all week?”

He shrugged and looked down. “I guess. I’ve got nothing to go home to. Mom’s got Owen helping her find Greta, who doesn’t want to be found. I’ve got a week’s holidays booked off.”

It was probably a bad, bad idea. But she had nothing much to go home to either. And she found herself saying, “Okay.”

Somehow Devon made it through the week without giving in to the overpowering desire to throw herself into Josh’s arms. They kept busy with activities. Josh liked to do physical things that exhausted her, things like playing tennis, cycling and swimming, both in the pool and in the ocean. She managed to avoid the golf course, but he went golfing a couple of times while she lay by the pool reading.

On rented bikes, they explored some of the island, including the beautiful bluffs. They sat on the dunes and admired the old lighthouse. Devon took a couple of pictures with her phone. “I wish I had my camera,” she said wistfully. “It’s so pretty and charming.”

“You’ve been here before,” he reminded her, smiling.

“I know. But not for a long time. I kind of forgot how beautiful it is.”

They went whale watching, walked on the beach, and explored some of the shops and restaurants and galleries in Silverport.

By Friday, their last day, she was more relaxed than she’d been in years, but also incredibly sexually frustrated. Only by having some leisure time with no pressure or stress, other than the pressure she felt to jump on Josh and ride him like a pony, did she realize what a toll her busy lifestyle had been taking on her. The headaches she’d had nearly constantly had disappeared. She no longer had that aching tightness in her neck and shoulders and upper back. She no longer had that tight feeling in her stomach, although it returned every time she thought about going back to Boston and resuming her job search.

Probably Josh had been right. This vacation had been good for her.

“You pick the restaurant for our last dinner,” Josh said to her that evening. After a sweaty game of tennis, they’d gone back to the suite to shower and change. He lounged on the couch, looking at a book of area attractions, opened to the restaurant section. “We haven’t tried this place…The Lighthouse.”

“Let me see.”

She peered over his shoulder at the advertisement. The photograph looked lovely. “Okay. Sure.”

“Wear that dress.”

“What dress? Oh.” She only had one dress with her, the one she’d worn to the wedding. “I guess I can.”

“I didn’t bring much to dress up in, so I won’t look as good as you,” he said, rolling to his feet and stretching.

In the bedroom, she slid the dress over her head until the layers of chiffon floated around her knees. She smoothed it down over her hips and checked her reflection in the mirror. Spending a week in the sun had given her a light tan that made her eyes glow, along with a few freckles on the bridge of her nose, which she now frowned at. The peach color of the dress looked nice with the new tan, though, and the dress left her arms bare and dipped in a low V in front and back. She put on make-up for the first time in days, shadowing her eyes a little and shining up her lips with a peachy gloss, and she spritzed on a little of her favorite perfume.

She felt like she was getting ready for a date.

But that was ridiculous. Over the week, she and Josh had managed to ignore the heat between them. She knew he felt it too. So many moments, their eyes meeting, their hands touching, when the sparks sliding through her veins made her hot and achy.

She’d also managed to avoid
the talk
he’d wanted to have about them.

Now this was their last night there, and she wasn’t actually sure why they were fighting it anymore. She’d almost convinced herself that just giving in to it and having one hot night before they went their separate ways yet again might be worth it. There was just one little niggling problem in the back of her mind…

Allie.

With a sigh and one last glance in the mirror, she opened the bedroom door and stepped out. Josh had changed too, into a pair of black chinos and a white button-down shirt that he left untucked. It fit his body perfectly, the sleeves rolled up on his strong, tanned forearms. When he looked up at her, his mouth opened and his eyes heated.