Sweet Breeze Resort

Chapter 3

Owen pressed his lips to Gina’s, enjoying the warmth of them, the way they fit against his. One second later, he realized what he’d done.

Idiot.

Idiot.He pulled back as panic raced through him. Gina still sat there on the floor, and when her eyes opened, they were filled with confusion.

“I’m sorry,” he said, standing and walking backward. “I…I don’t know what that was.” Oh, he knew what it was. His base instincts had taken over, when he’d been pushing them back for weeks and weeks. Months, even. But running with her in the morning simply wasn’t enough anymore. Inventing meetings where she had to come sit across from him in his office wasn’t either.

He liked Gina Jackson, and it wasn’t on friendly terms. Or maybe too friendly of terms. Owen was pretty confused himself.

“I’ll go see if medical is here yet.” Owen got the heck out of that bedroom, foolishness racing through him with the speed of a stock car.

“What was that?” he muttered to himself. And had she liked it?

“That wasn’t even long enough to like,” he said as he pulled open the door and checked the hallway for medical. He really needed someone in the room with him, or he might kiss her again. Really kiss her, hold on this time, stroke his lips against hers.

He banished the thought, replacing it with the image of his two sons. Two sons. Two teenage sons, one of whom was set to graduate from high school in only a few months.

Two sons.teenageHe let the door close behind him and he rested his back against it. Gina couldn’t possibly like him, not the way he wanted her to. She wasn’t even a permanent fixture on the island.

Yet, his mind whispered, apparently undeterred in its mission to convince him he might have a chance with the beautiful brunette.

YetBut he knew he didn’t have a chance, and not simply because of his kids. Gina had a way of putting up walls between them, and Owen wasn’t even sure she knew she was doing it. But she’d just been hurt, and all her defenses had gone down. He’d acted irrationally, and he closed his eyes and prayed quickly that she wouldn’t say anything to Fisher.

Owen wouldn’t lose his job or anything, but Fisher had been pushing him to date for over a year now. Once he’d married Stacey, suddenly everyone needed to find wedded bliss.

Well, Owen had been there once, thank you very much. And that had ended badly, with another man with his wife, in their bed. No, Owen didn’t need to repeat any of that, and though it had been almost a decade, sometimes his heart still cringed at what his wife had done.

Because she hadn’t just abandoned him for a man with untold riches and yachts and a life of luxury. She’d freely given Owen fully custody of their sons, barely sending birthday cards on time. In fact, she’d missed Cooper’s last birthday by a week. Owen had been doing as much damage control as possible since the day she left.

And he still wasn’t sure why he and the boys hadn’t been enough for her. It wasn’t like they didn’t have money. Owen came from the real estate business, and he had millions in the bank too.

Not billions like Fisher, or Marshall, or even Gina, all members of the Nine-0 Club Fisher hosted at the hotel sometimes. But definitely enough for his wife to take vacations and lie by the pool while he worked.

Ultimately, he’d concluded the flaw was within him, and instead of facing what it might be, he’d buried himself in work.

“Owen?”

He opened his eyes to two men walking toward him, both carrying large duffle bags.

“In here,” he said, opening the door. “She’s in the bedroom, to the right.” He let the medical team in first, following them to find Gina sitting on a folding chair just inside the door.

“You shouldn’t have moved,” he said, barely looking at her. Embarrassment heated his face, and he could not believe he’d kissed her and then abandoned her in a construction zone. For a forty-six-year-old, he should know better.

“I told you, I’m fine.” Her bright blue eyes shot lasers at him, but he absorbed the power of them, wondering what color her hair would be if she didn’t get it dyed every month.

He let the medical team talk to her, check her pupils, and give her some pain medication. When they prepared to leave, Owen pretended to get a very important text and ducked out before them.

He’d barely made it to the elevator when he received a real message. From Gina: I need to talk to you. When’s a good time?

I need to talk to you. When’s a good time?Now, he wanted to type out. Instead, he thumbed Never as the elevator door opened. But he couldn’t send that either. He worked with her. He’d have to see her again. They had twenty-four rooms to work on. Thirty closets. Months and months to go until this renovation was complete.

NowNeverPlus, they were supposed to run together the next morning.

Owen had never particularly enjoyed running, but when the gorgeous woman who’d been the first to make his heart pump faster than normal asked, he’d gone straight to the shoe store and bought a pair of sneakers that should get him through a couple of marathons.

They’d been running together for months now, and Owen still hadn’t found a way to ask Gina to dinner where work wasn’t involved.

“Kissing her probably told her a lot.” He cringed as he got off the elevator and hurried past the check-in counter, Jason who was on security today, and down the hall to his office.

Only then did he delete the never on his phone and type out a much more political and aloof whenever works for you. I’m in my office.

never whenever works for you. I’m in my office.* * *

The day passed, like days do, and Gina didn’t show up to talk to him. Fisher did, several times, and Owen signed things, made phone calls, and filled out his calendar with Cooper’s basketball games. He hadn’t missed a single one since his son had made the team last year, and he didn’t plan to this season either. Besides his job, his sons were all he had, and he’d devoted everything he had to Sweet Breeze, Zach, and Cooper.

Sure, he worked more than he probably needed to. But he liked the way it filled the hours, liked that his sons came and hung out at the pools with their friends, liked that they could grab food from one of the restaurants and eat it in his office.

His radio beeped and someone said, “Owen, there’s a disturbance by the museum.”

He stood, knowing he couldn’t make it through one day without something happening. “On my way. Jason?”

“Meet you at the elevator.”

Jason held the door until Owen stepped on, and he nodded at the man. He and Lexie, a long-time Nine-0 Club member had just gotten married, and he’d proved to be an excellent employee.

“What does disturbance mean?” Jason asked as the elevator whisked them up a few floors.

“Probably someone who’s had too much to drink.” That was the cause of almost all the problems at Sweet Breeze. Owen had given up alcohol a couple of months after Linda had left. It had dulled his nerves and mind until the divorce was final, but then he realized his sons needed him. Only eight and five at the time, they deserved a father. So when he’d come out of his bedroom, drunk, to find Zach had made grilled cheese sandwiches for him and Cooper—and burnt them and filled the house with smoke—Owen had given up drinking completely. And without women, he lived a perfectly pure and chaste life—and was pretty happy doing so.

But it wasn’t someone who’d drunk too much causing a problem outside the museum. It was Gina Jackson.

“Gina?” He approached slowly, pausing altogether and holding up his hand for Jason to stop too when she spun toward them.

Her eyes were wild, and she held up a fistful of papers. “This says I can get in the museum for free.”

Owen remained passive, calm. This wasn’t the Gina he knew. She’d definitely hit her head harder than anyone had thought. When she saw him, she quieted, her hand lowering to her side. “Owen?”

“Those coupons expired six months ago, sir,” the museum attendant said. “I tried explaining it to her.” He looked at Gina with wariness. “She didn’t seem to believe me.”

“It’s okay, Santiago. I’ll take her to my office.” He extended his hand to her, almost like he would a child. “Come on, Gina.”

She came toward him, lacing her fingers through his while Jason watched. Owen wished every muscle in his body wouldn’t sigh, but they did. Then his nerves danced with joy that he was holding hands with Gina Jackson.

holding hands with Gina Jackson.She’s not well, he thought, but the rest of his body—including his heart, which continued to beat out a rhythm that was entirely too excited—didn’t seem to care.

She’s not well“Call Doctor Blithe,” he whispered to Jason once they’d returned to the first floor. “She hit her head earlier, and I’m afraid she might have a concussion.”

Jason nodded slightly, and Owen continued with Gina down the hall to his office. Once they were sealed inside, Owen busied himself with ordering her favorite fried cheese from the bistro on the third floor, sending a text to Zach that he had an issue to deal with and would be home later, and then asking Gina for the coupons.

“I didn’t think you liked the museum,” he said. He’d mentioned it to her once, and she’d shot him down pretty fast, citing museums as “boring.”

She watched him with those blue eyes, and Owen chose not to look away. Seconds passed, and he had to believe she felt something between them too. It was simply too strong not to feel it.

not“I’m sorry I kissed you,” he said, thinking she probably needed an explanation. “I…something came over me in the moment, and it was wrong.”

Gina reached up and brushed her fingertips against her lips, almost like she could remember the barely-there touch of his mouth. “Like something came over me at the museum.” She blinked, confusion rushing through her eyes. “My head hurts.”

“I know.” He smiled at her, what he hoped was a genuine, caring, kind smile. “Doctor Blithe is on her way.” He opened the top drawer in his desk and took out a bottle of painkillers. “And you should take a few of these.” He slid the bottle toward her and reached under his desk to the mini fridge he kept filled with water bottles.

Tears filled Gina’s eyes as she took the ice cold bottle of water and tapped some pills into her palm. “Owen, you always know what to do and when to do it.”

“Oh, that’s not true.” Or he wouldn’t have kissed her like that earlier.

“I was going to tell you this morning,” she said, pausing with the ibuprofen still in her hand. “We need to redesign the closets. They’re simply too big.” Some of the papers in her hands got smoothed onto his desktop. “I’ve redrawn the blueprints for you.”

Owen loved Gina’s handwriting, the clever way she had with space and design, and how she could make something as simple as a closet come to life in black and white. He smiled fondly at the pages covered in black ink and pulled them toward him. “Let’s see what you’ve come up with this time.”