“Come on, boy,” she called to Radar, but he stayed where he was, watching her, tail low, as if he were worried about her.
“Forget it then,” she said, a stabbing feeling low inside her. She was worried about herself, too.
This was better, though, she tried to tell herself. For a while there, she’d forgotten who she was. She was at the beach on vacation, dammit. She was a party girl. If she’d stuck with that, she wouldn’t be fighting tears this minute.
This was a lesson, dammit, and she would learn it.
MATT STOOD ROOTED to the spot, his insides churning, his mind frozen, until Candy was out of sight. She was right and wrong, but it would take him a bit to sort out which was which. He shouldn’t have offered her the job to make her feel better. She was right about that. That was bad for her and SyncUp and no way for a vice president to behave.
She was right that being together would change things at work. He was no good at secrets, how he felt about her would show. Ellie said he was transparent as glass.
Would staff respect him less? And what about Candy? Already, employees thought her wild. Would being with him help or hurt her reputation?
The affair had been irresponsible. He should have known better. He had an obligation to be discreet. He should be fired. He would have to resign. Not right away, of course, because he wouldn’t strand Scott and he’d make sure Candy was in good shape first. She’d been so hurt about the team-leader issue.
He was suddenly exhausted by the whole thing. What was he doing standing here, his heart burning with loss? He was an idiot, dressed like some surfer dude, blinking to see through these stupid contacts. He needed peace and quiet, time online and his damn glasses back. If he’d stuck with who he was, none of this would have happened.
At his place, the quiet didn’t help the way he’d expected it to. He missed Candy as if something had been cut out of him. He stayed clear of the bedroom where the sheets were tangled from all their lovemaking, but he could still smell her perfume everywhere.
He fought the urge to chase her down, kiss away their doubts, make love until it all made sense again.
What about when we break up? She’d said it as though it were inevitable, just part of the package. It angered him that she could be so casual about something that was so big to him.
That was the point, wasn’t it? To Candy it was casual, not life-altering.
She was Heather all over again. Crazy fun, then the crash that hurt like hell. Maturity would not lessen his pain. How had he even thought that?
He’d been an idiot. He knew better. Stick to your strengths, don’t take chances. If you had too much fun, there was hell to pay-like that Tsunami for Two he’d paid for with a hangover. He was paying again, all right. This time, the lesson would stick.
CANDY WOKE THE NEXT morning to a fuzzy brain and the sound of someone snoring. She turned her head and saw two big, sand-streaked feet sticking up from beneath the sheet.
Whoops. She whipped back the covers and found Carter asleep on his belly, stark naked, his head at the foot of her foldout bed.
Omigod. Had she? She looked down at herself, relieved she still wore her dress. She would have remembered sex, of course, regardless of how much alcohol she’d drunk. They’d had winner shots of tequila after they’d won the darts contest and she’d downed a blue martini to further numb her sadness.
As a result, her head was killing her, but she had no regrets. She’d been pure party girl-danced on the bar, on a table, even on Carter’s shoulders while he loped down the beach to burn off the booze. She’d laughed a lot. Whenever she reminded herself she was having a good time, anyway.
She peeked again at her snoring bedmate. What a golden male specimen he was. Normally, she’d wake him and screw his brains out.
But not today. Today, the idea was so wrong it made her feel queasy. She covered him up.
It’ll be fine, she told herself. There would be plenty of Carters around when she was ready again. But Matts? Where would she find another Matt? Despair made her sink into the mattress. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to get out of bed.
She heard steps on the stairs and looked up to see Sara descending in a beaded minidress-obviously from the night before. Her friend looked as miserable as Candy felt. Her eyes were red, her hair tangled.
When she caught sight of Candy in bed, she pointed at the feet and mouthed, “Matt?”
Candy shook her head, fingers to her lips, then motioned Sara toward the kitchen, where she would join her to talk. She didn’t want to wake Carter-couldn’t take his eager energy at the moment. What do we do now? Huh? Huh? He was the human version of Radar, always ready to play. And she was pretty sure sex would be his top-of-mind idea.
She climbed out of bed, sweaty and sandy, her dress a wrinkled mess and followed Sara to the kitchen, where she would make her hangover mix, though she knew it would take more than protein powder and B vitamins to ease her pain.
“What happened, Sara?”
“Never mind me. Who’s that?” She pointed toward the bed.
“That’s Carter. We hung out last night after…Matt and I broke up.” The words hurt to say. “We won a bunch of points playing darts, though.” Candy reached into her bodice for the voucher slip, which she handed to Sara.
“Forget the points,” Sara said, tossing the paper on the counter. “Can you and Matt straighten things out?”
Tears welled in Candy’s eyes and she could only shake her head.
“Oh, hon. I’m so sorry.” Sara hugged her.
“It was impossible from the start and we both knew it.” Candy tried to collect herself. “Listen, can I borrow your laptop?” She’d saved all her files on her key drive, so she could do some work, despite everything.
Sara hesitated. “I guess so. Sure. I’ll leave it here.” She turned, looking confused. “Look, I’ve gotta go…” She motioned toward the stairs, then headed off.
“Wait. What’s wrong?” she whispered, but Sara waved her away. Something was upsetting her. Candy would find out once she’d taken her hangover cure.
Footsteps on the stairs made her look up to see Ellie barreling down to her. “Hey, girl! What happened to you two?”
Candy put her finger to her lips and motioned at the bed.
Carter let out a loud snore, not bothered by the noise.
Ellie tiptoed into the kitchen. “Sorry,” she said. “What’s up? Hangover?” She nodded at the cure ingredients Candy was combining.
“Yeah.”
“Poor Matt.” Ellie nodded affectionately toward Carter’s feet.
“That’s not Matt, Ellie.” She turned to her friend. “Matt and I broke up.”
“No!” Ellie looked horrified. “Was it because I told Matt about the teams? I’m so sorry. I know better than getting into other people’s lives too much. I-”
“No. It was not you, Ellie. Matt wouldn’t even consider me for the team-leader spot. He doesn’t respect me.”
“Sure he does,” Ellie said. “This is just a misunderstanding. Let me talk to him. I’ll straighten this out.”
“No, you won’t. It’s our problem. We should never have gotten involved. It was a mistake to bring work out here. It didn’t change a thing.”
“I’m so sorry, Candy,” Ellie said. “It was my idea.”
“You were just trying to help me, Ellie. At least now I know where I stand.” She drank the mix she’d made.
“Do you want me to stick around today? Hang with you?”
“No. Go enjoy yourself. Enjoy Bill. I’ve got work to do.”
“Work? Don’t get crazy with all that now.”
“I’m not. I’ll be fine. I’m sorry I crapped out on the party events. At least I got the darts points.”
“We’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Ellie said.
“Maybe I’ll try to draft the essay about why we deserve the time-share.”