Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (120 page)

It took a different kind of effort not to look at Will’s clothes hanging there beside hers. Looking like they belonged together, when they didn’t. When that, like everything else, was an illusion that was over.

When a bubble popped, there was no magic and no power in the world that could put it back together again. That was why a bubble was so beautiful. Because it was so fragile, and because it was temporary.

She heard the knock at the door, and brushed a hasty hand across eyes that still insisted on leaking. “Come in,” she called, and braced herself. If this was Will’s mother coming up to tell her something else she’d forgotten to say, well, she had the right, and Faith was just going to have to endure it.

It was Talia.

“Hi,” the girl said. She looked at the suitcase on the bed. “Um, I just wanted to…”

Faith sighed. “Sit down. And you can say it. Whatever it is.” She tried to smile. “He’s a pretty good brother, I know. You’re allowed to defend him.” She kept on packing, though, because it helped. She had no choice but to listen, but she couldn’t stand to look at Talia while she did it.

“I didn’t come to say anything bad,” Talia said. “I came to say…I don’t get it. So you wrote a story that has sex in it. Is that so bad? I mean,” she hurried on, “I know Mum thinks so. But people do it, don’t they, and if they like to read books about it, well…” She looked down and picked at the comforter a little. “I don’t think it’s so wrong. You can’t help…thoughts. And,” she said, looking at Faith again, “I think it’s kind of cool that you wrote a book, actually.”

“Well, that’s how it felt to me.” Faith was unable to resist the cowardly relief. At least
somebody
didn’t think she was the devil personified. “It was about the coolest thing I’ve ever done, and I loved it, and it wasn’t,” she couldn’t help saying, “It really
wasn’t
about Will, so you know. I know people will think so, but it wasn’t. It was my story, and my characters. I shouldn’t have used him on the cover, and then it would have been better, but that was how the site started off, so…” She was running out of steam a little. “And he’s so handsome,” she admitted. “The book covers—he was the best.”

“Yeh. He is. All my friends think so.” Talia smiled at Faith a little proudly. “If you’re going to write a sexy book, you have to use a sexy fella.”

“But it was wrong not to tell Will about it,” Faith went on hastily. “Don’t let me off the hook that easily. Too many secrets, and the secret coming out to bite him, hurting him like that, well, of course he’s upset, and of course your mother’s upset for him.”

“Mum’s always upset,” Talia said simply. “She worries something will happen, and then when it happens, she thinks she was right. So what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to leave.” No point in not saying it. It was obvious.

“Well, I knew that.”

“No, I mean I’m going to leave sooner. Tonight. Maybe it’ll help. It’s all I can do, so I’ll do it. I’ve got to be at the airport in an hour, in fact. I guess I’d better call a taxi, because I don’t think anybody’s driving me.” Faith hesitated for a moment. “You could do a favor for me, though, if you wouldn’t mind. It would mean going as far as the bank with me, and mailing something to Will. Would you be willing?”

“Course. I could ride to the airport with you, too, see you off.”

Faith choked up a little at that. “Thank you,” she managed to say. “But I don’t want to upset your mother and grandmother any more. But…the bank. That would be good.”

Die Trying

Will shuffled off the plane with the others and headed down the steep, narrow steps to the tarmac, following Koti’s back. Just one of thirty-three blue dress shirts straggling in a queue across to the terminal, everybody moving a bit stiffly, three hours of sitting having tightened abused muscles once again.

He waited until the cameras had had their moment, and then he was pulling out his phone and ringing Faith, not even sure what to say.

No answer. Of course there would be no answer. She’d be on the plane to join him already, or waiting to board. And being Faith, she’d have turned off her phone, because that was the kind of good girl she was. He’d just have to wait until he saw her, would have to trust that feelings that strong couldn’t have been destroyed by his anger, by the mess that was their situation just now, by the fact that he couldn’t see exactly how they were going to get out of it.

If he had been right, that is. If her feelings really
were
that strong. If it were real.

He couldn’t wait for one thing, anyway. He needed to find out whether Hope could believe in Hemi.

Of course she could. It was a romance. It could only end one way. But all the same, he needed to read it for himself. Maybe what he needed to see most of all was whether Faith could believe. If he read it, he would know, because Faith couldn’t tell anything less than the truth.

He was standing with the other fellas at the carousel, waiting for his bag, but he had his laptop out again, held in one arm, and was waiting impatiently for Book Five to appear on his screen.

“Cuz,” Koti said beside him. “All right?”

“Huh?” Will looked up, blinking.

“You look … a bit odd,” Koti said cautiously. “Something the matter? Bad news?”

“Nah,” Will said. “I’m all good.”

He wasn’t. But he needed to read. So he went on and did it, all the way to the end. And the answer still wasn’t there.

Hemi paced from the living room to the bedroom once again, not taking in one bit of his surroundings, unable to concentrate on the emails he should have been answering, the campaign he should have been overseeing. The suite at the Four Seasons Milano could have been the Holiday Inn, for all he was aware of it.

He should have heard from her by now. Had she hated it? Had she thought it was over the top? Or had she…He turned on a heel again on the thought as if walking faster could allow him to outrun it.

Had she decided, after all, that what he was offering wasn’t enough? Now that Karen was out of danger, was she looking at her situation clearly for the first time, deciding that she didn’t want a man who could never be there for her the way she needed him, could never say the words she needed to hear? Whose silences and absences were more than she could bear? All Hope’s warmth, the shining force of her spirit—had it hit the wall of his reserve one too many times?

He should have called her more. He should have gone back sooner, no matter what. Or not have gone at all.

But this was who he was. This was all he had. His drive, his ambition, his success. What if it wasn’t enough?

The phone vibrated in his hand, and he glanced at the caller ID. The leaping hope was there for a second, then gone in an instant.

“Te Mana.”

“Mr. Te Mana, this is Charles Farquar at Tiffany,” he heard. And then, damningly, the hesitation, and even before the man spoke again, he knew. He knew. “I’m sorry, sir, but the necklace…came back.”

“Came…back.” His blood was ice. “How?”

“The messenger said…” More hesitation.

“Just tell me,” Hemi snapped.

“Yes, sir. He said that he was still in the lobby when she came…flying out of the elevator. Agitated, he said. That she shoved it at him and said, ‘Take it back.’ I’m sorry, sir,” he said again. “We’ll credit your account of course.”

Hemi didn’t answer. He was already hitting the
End
button, getting his pilot on the phone.

“Warm it up,” he said. “We’re going home.”

Maybe he couldn’t do it. Maybe it was going to be the thing that defeated him. The thing that crushed him.

But he was going to do it anyway, or he was going to die trying.

***

Will looked up again, blinking. Koti was setting his duffel next to his feet.

“One too many knocks last night?” his teammate asked. “Need a ding-dong test? When the bags come along on the wee roundabout, we pick them up.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Need a lift? Kate will be out there.”

“Nah.” Will brought himself back to earth with an effort. “Hanging about here for a bit, meeting Faith’s plane in an hour or so.”

And then he’d be saying…something. He wasn’t sure what. But surely he could think of something by then. He had an hour to do it. 

Except that he didn’t. An hour later, he was standing outside Security, and the flight had landed twenty minutes ago, and Faith wasn’t here.

He couldn’t have missed her. He’d scanned every face, had tensed with every new group that had come through, had rehearsed what he planned to say again and again. But she had never come out. He’d rung her twice, and his phone had gone straight to voicemail both times.

Finally, he walked to the Air New Zealand counter, stepped up behind the single person in the queue at Premier Check-in, and waited some more, until the woman behind the counter was looking up and beckoning to him.

“Hi,” he told her. “My partner was meant to be on Flight 2354 from Rotorua, and she didn’t come out. Can you check for me?”

He gave her Faith’s name, and she looked at her monitor. “She’s not listed on the flight,” she told him.

“What?” Cold fingers of dread were creeping up his spine. “I know she was. I saw her make the booking, and she sent me a copy of the itinerary.”

“I’m sorry.” She knew who he was, he could tell. “But she’s not on it.”

“Then…what? Another flight?”

“I can’t check that. Against the rules. Sorry.”

“Please. I’ve rung her, got no answer, and I’m worried.”

“Sorry,” she said again. “I can’t. I would if I could.”

He wasn’t going to get anywhere, and anyway, he didn’t have to, because, he realized, he could just ring his mum. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of that.

He did it, and that was when the fun didn’t start. It took ten minutes of listening, of trying to explain, to get her past it.

“So she left early,” he finally said. “Why? And to go where?”

“I don’t know,” his mum said. “We weren’t exactly having a cozy chat, were we.”

He finally rang off in frustration, thought a moment longer, and rang Talia.

“D’you know where Faith is?” he asked her. “She left early, eh. So where did she go? Did she come here? I can’t get her to answer, and I’m worried.”

A long silence on the other end.

“Talia?” he prompted. “You there?”

“Yeh,” she said slowly. “But I’m not sure if I should tell you.”

“Tell me. Tell me what she said.”

“Well…she’s going back to the States.”

“I know that,” he said impatiently. “Of course she is.”

“I mean, she’s going today. She got an earlier flight, so she could. Flying to LA. I saw the boarding pass, when she…when we were in the taxi.”

“What?”

“She gave me an envelope. To post to you.”

“And? Did you post it?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Then get it. Please,” he thought to add. “Open it. Read it to me.”

“I guess if she gave it to me, it doesn’t matter if I post it or open it now. I mean, if it’s for you anyway.”

“Of course it doesn’t.” He did his best to soften his tone. “Please, Tal. Please read it to me. I need to know what it says.”

She exhaled. “Right, then. Hang on.”

He waited, pacing in front of the windows near the ticket counter, oblivious to the occasional curious glance of recognition.

“OK,” he heard at last. “I’m back. I’m opening it.”

A rustle, and he was pacing again.

“Money,” she said.

“Money?
Why money?”

“Dunno. Looks like…six hundred dollars. That’s a
lot
of money. And a note. D’you want me to read it?”

“Yes.”

“OK. Here you go.” She cleared her throat and began.

“Will—

This is all I could take out of the ATM. I’ll get you the rest when I’m home. I shouldn’t have taken it. I shouldn’t have come at all. I know it, and I’m sorry.

I’m flying home tonight. I hope that’ll make it easier for you to do what you have to do.

Faith.”

“Something else,” Talia said. “Written at the bottom. Can hardly read it. It’s a bit—scrawly.”

“Read it,” Will commanded. “Much as you can.”

“Being with you wasn’t about the money, or the books,”
his sister read slowly.
“It was about you.”

“What money?” she asked him when she’d finished. “I don’t understand. Did she steal from you? I can’t believe Faith would do that.”

“No. I’ve got to…” He was having trouble with his voice. “Got to go.”

“I think you should find her,” Talia said. “I think she loves you. When she gave me this…she was crying.”

***

He rang off, tried to ring Faith again in the hope that she might have turned on her phone. Voicemail again, but he knew where she was now. She was here.

Back to the Air New Zealand counter again, back in the queue, behind two other passengers this time. A middle-aged couple who fumbled for passports, then seemed to be buying a cruise, based on the amount of time the agent was spending tapping details into her computer, and Will was bouncing the phone in his hand, seething.

At last, though, it was his turn.

“I still can’t tell you,” the agent said, eyeing him suspiciously.

“I don’t need you to tell me,” Will said. “I need you to get me on tonight’s flight to LA.”

More tapping from long red-varnished fingernails, while he shifted from foot to foot and waited.

“Sorry,” she finally said. “Sold out.”

“What? No.”

“Sold out,” she repeated. And then, as if he might be too dim to get that, “No seats left.”

“I know what sold out means. Sell me one anyway. Somebody can volunteer to be bumped, right? Get a lovely voucher for a free journey. Happens all the time. I’ll pay for it myself, but I need to get on there.”

She stared at him. “No.”