Treading Water (11 page)

He tugged her down on top of him and held
her tight against him with one arm as he reached for the bedside
phone with the other. His eyes never left hers as he dialed the
phone and kissed her again while he waited for someone to
answer.

“
Hey, it’s Jamie. I won’t
be in today.”

Frannie gasped.

“
Ask Jack to reschedule it
for me.”

She hid her face at the mention of her
brother’s name.

Jamie poked her ribs. “Tell him I’ll call
him later. Okay, thanks.” He clicked the off button, tossed the
phone aside, and rolled them over in one smooth move. “Now, you
were saying?”

She had forgotten what she was going to
say.

Jack was greeted by a melee of voices when
he walked into the office. Andi and her team had commandeered the
conference room, and they all seemed to be talking at once.

Quinn handed him his messages. “Quite a
ruckus, huh?”

“
I guess all that energy
bodes well for the hotel.” As he read through his messages, one
caught his attention. “What’d Jamie say when he called?”

“
He asked if you could
reschedule his conference call with Tokyo because he has something
to take care of today.”

Yeah, my
sister
, Jack thought on the way into his
office. Not that Jamie hadn’t earned a day off after running the
business on his own for more than a year. It was
how
he was spending the
day that put Jack on edge. Maybe he should’ve taken Frannie’s
concerns more seriously last night. She was right—it
would
be awful for
everyone if things didn’t work out between her and
Jamie.

Andi knocked a few minutes later while Jack
was on the phone rescheduling Jamie’s meeting. He waved her in and
signaled for her to close the door.

“
Did you sleep well?” he
asked after he finished the call.

“
I worked for a couple of
hours and then slept like a dead woman. Must be the sea
air.”

Jack smiled but didn’t tell her that he’d
tossed and turned for most of the night, thinking about her and his
conflicted feelings.

Quinn buzzed in on the intercom to let him
know his coastal resources people had arrived for their
meeting.

“
I guess that’s my cue.”
Andi got up to leave. “We’re off to the Redwood Library
today.”

“
That’ll be a
blast.”

“
All in the name of
research.”

He wished they could spend another day
together. “Don’t let me keep you. Call me if you need
anything.”

“
Thanks, I’ll see you
later.” She left him with a dazzling smile on her way
out.

After she’d gone, he sat down and released a
long, tortured sigh. He’d spent ten minutes with her, and she’d
left him breathless with yearning. He was getting in deep and felt
as if he was outside himself watching someone else. A minute or two
later, he couldn’t have said how long, Quinn buzzed him again to
remind him his guests were waiting.

Getting up, he ran a hand through his hair
and gathered the drawings he needed for the meeting. When he opened
the door, Quinn shot him an inquisitive look.

He walked by her without a word.

The day dragged as Jack and his staff went
round and round with the coastal engineers who were looking to
ensure the hotel’s drainage and septic systems had been designed to
protect the fragile environment. They worked through lunch and into
the afternoon to address the engineers’ lengthy list of requests.
Jack made one design concession after another to clear this
all-important hurdle in the permitting process. But more than once,
his mind wandered elsewhere.

When all the items on the list had been
addressed, Jack stood to shake hands with the engineers.

“
We should be ready to put
the final proposal before the coastal council at its next meeting,”
the lead engineer said.

“
I’ll be there,” Jack
assured them.

After he had seen them out, he went back to
his office. “My God, I thought it would never end,” he groaned to
Quinn. “It was like a day-long colonoscopy.”

She laughed. “Thanks for the visual, Jack.
That part should be done after today, right?”

“
We have to take it before
the full council next month, but it looks good for approval.” He
stretched out the stiffness of the all-day meeting.

She cocked that eyebrow of hers at him.

“
What?”

“
What’s going on with
you?”

“
Nothing.”

“
All righty, if you say
so.”

“
I say so,” he retorted on
his way into his office where a pile of messages awaited him. He
flipped through them and put aside those that could wait until
tomorrow. After he returned the calls that needed immediate
attention, he gave his email the same quick glance.

Jack had just returned his attention to the
hotel plans when Jamie walked in with a sheepish grin on his
face.

He leaned against the closed door. “How much
trouble am I in?”

Jack crooked his head to give Jamie the once
over. His friend looked happy and dopey at the same time. “How much
trouble should you be in?”

“
Quite a lot, I
suspect.”

Jack held up a hand.
“Do
not
tell
me.”

Jamie grinned and pushed off the door to
flop in Jack’s chair. “I love her, Jack. I really do. I think I
always have.”

“
Seriously?
”

“
I swear to
God.”

“
Wow… After all the crap
you’ve both been through with other people, especially
her.”

“
I hate to even think about
all the time we’ve wasted, but the timing was never right. She was
married and then everything with Clare…”

“
Of course I have to give
you the ‘if you hurt her, you’re dead’ speech.” Jack lightly
punched Jamie’s shoulder on his way past him to close windows he
had opened that morning.

“
No, you don’t, because I’m
going to marry her.”

Jack spun around to gape at
him. “Did Jamie Booth just use the ‘
m
’ word? Get the hell out of here!
Just like that?”

Jamie laughed. “It’s been ‘just like that’
for years. We’ve spent a lot of time together since she moved in
with you, and I guess something I’ve always suspected was there
just finally clicked into focus.”

“
She said she’d never get
married again after the last disaster,” Jack warned him.

“
I’ll get her to change her
mind.”

Jack grinned. “If anyone can do it, you
can.”

“
Before I ask her, though,
I need to know… Is it okay with you?”

Jack considered making him suffer and then
thought better of it. He had never seen such vulnerability on
Jamie’s face, and he had certainly never heard him use the “m” word
before. “You’re already my brother. Why not brother-in-law, too?”
Jack offered his hand.

The relief showed on Jamie’s face as he
shook Jack’s hand. “Thank you.”

“
I just can’t believe
this,” Jack said, amazed by the turn of events.

“
It’s crazy, but it feels
good.”

“
I’m glad for you—both of
you.”

“
Best thing to ever happen
to me, that’s for sure. What’s going on around here?”

“
Nothing much. Just
tweaking the hotel plans a bit.”

Jamie had headed for his office when another
thought stopped him. “I forgot to ask if you got a chance to talk
to Tokyo today?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “It’s all set. I
convinced them your personal emergency was unavoidable.”

Jamie winked. “Thanks, I owe you one.”

“
No, you don’t. Five years
from now I’ll still be paying you back for all you did around here
when I was gone.”

“
No, you won’t.”

When he was alone, Jack picked up the
business card Andi had given him and flipped it back and forth
between his fingers, debating whether he should call her for
dinner.

But then he thought of Clare and how she’d
looked that morning in the hospital bed. Tossing the business card
on his desk, he left the office and went home to have dinner with
his daughters.

Chapter 8

Jack was bent over the hotel plans on his
drafting table the next afternoon when Andi tapped him on the
shoulder.

“
How goes it?”

Ridiculously happy to see her, he smiled.
“Hey, I didn’t hear you come in.”

“
I was spying on you. I
like watching you work. You’re very intense,” she said, making a
serious face. “What’re you doing?”

“
Some fine-tuning, nothing
major. What’ve you been up to?”

“
We just went through the
Tennis Hall of Fame. It was wonderful. What a city this is! There’s
so much history to draw from. The suites will be
amazing
.”

“
I’ll bet you can already
picture them.”

“
But of course. I sent the
others on to Hammersmith and St. Mary’s for the Kennedy
tour.”

“
I thought you’d like the
Hall of Fame. Was anyone playing on the grass courts?”

“
We watched two matches
before we dragged ourselves back to work.” She consulted her watch.
“I have meetings with some artists today. Commissioning local art
is a big part of our site visits.”

“
I remember the lady in
Alaska with the triplets.”

She groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“
After we talked about
that, I was thinking you might want to look at some of Frannie’s
stuff. She’s an amazing artist, and since she moved here, she’s
done a lot of local work.”

“
I had no idea! I’d love to
see her work. Can we do it now? I have about ninety minutes until
my next meeting.”

“
Sure, I’m done here.” He
rolled up the plans that were scattered about on his drafting
table. “At this point, I’m just obsessing anyway. Let’s
go.”

“
Oh, Frannie, these are
amazing!” Andi declared as she flipped through the stack of
canvases propped against the wall in the former tool shed Jack had
converted into a studio for his sister.

“
You’ve been busy, Fran.”
Jack leaned over Andi’s shoulder to get a look at some of his
sister’s recent work for the first time. “They’re
great.”

“
Thanks. I’ve had more time
with the girls on vacation, so it’s been a productive
summer.”

“
I’ll say!” Andi went
through the canvases again. There were scenes of boats under sail
in Narragansett Bay, a few of the mansions at unique angles, tennis
players at the Hall of Fame, and children frolicking in the surf.
“What’re you planning to do with them?”

Frannie shrugged. “I haven’t gotten that
far. I’ve been meaning to talk to some of the local galleries about
a show, but I’ve been so busy.”

Jack felt a pang of guilt over how much
she’d sacrificed to help his family.

“
What if I told you I’ll
take them all for the hotel?” Andi stood to face Frannie and named
a high six-figure price that made the siblings gasp.

Frannie’s mouth fell open in shock. “For
real?”

“
Your work is magnificent
and brings just the local flavor we seek for our hotels. I can’t
imagine why I’d look any further.”

Jack hugged Frannie. “Congratulations!”

“
Who represents you?” Andi
asked.

“
Um, I do.”

“
That makes things much
simpler. I’ll take everything here and will commission about ten
more specific pieces. I’ll talk to you about them once I get back
to Chicago and we confirm the final plans for the
suites.”

“
I can do that,” Frannie
said.

“
You two sure have artistic
genes, don’t you?” Andi asked.

“
Just don’t ask our father
about that,” Jack said. “He has no idea where the two of us came
from.”

Frannie smiled in agreement.

After they cemented their plans, Frannie
hugged Andi. “I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“
I should be thanking
you—I’ve stumbled upon the best there is on my first stop. Which
reminds me, I need to cancel my afternoon appointments.” Andi
started to go but turned back. “You aren’t planning on having
triplets in the near future are you?”

Jack laughed.

Frannie looked at Andi like she was crazy.
“Ah, no plans for triplets.”

“
Excellent, you’re hired,”
Andi said and went to the pool deck to make her calls.

After she walked away,
Frannie jumped up and down with a whoop and threw herself into her
brother’s arms. “Oh my
God
, Jack, isn’t this
crazy?”

“
I’m so happy for you,
Fran. You deserve it.”

“
I can’t wait to tell
Jamie. Oh, and what’d she mean by triplets? I don’t get
it.”

“
They lost the last artist
they hired to pregnancy with triplets.”

Frannie shuddered at the thought.

“
Go celebrate. Have a good
time.”

“
You, too.” Frannie looked
over at Andi, curled up on a lounge chair as she talked on her cell
phone. She had kicked off her sandals and appeared relaxed in the
late afternoon sunshine. “We need to talk one of these days. A
lot’s happened.”