Chapter 9 My Too-Tempting Neighbor
MY TOO-TEMPTING NEIGHBOR
Bag weight at SFO ticket counter?
Cole: Zero. I carried on.
COLE
“Here you go, Stan,” Bridget said with a grin.
I clocked his stony jaw and his sluggish reach for his card key. Perfect.
Bridget didn’t seem to notice. “Akil, here’s yours.”
Our new CFO was on the phone with his wife, but he took the key from Bridget, then stepped into the shadow of a potted palm tree in the resort’s lobby.
“What do you mean, my mom isn’t there yet?
” he murmured. “She was supposed to be there an hour ago. I’ll call her.
Just make sure you’re resting.” He nodded a couple more times, then ended with a “love you, bye.”
I snagged my card from Bridget, then shuffled closer to Akil. “Is your wife okay? She’s on bed rest, right?”
“Yeah. The other kids are a lot for her to handle.” He frowned. “My mom is supposed to be there, but she’s running late.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “Why don’t you go to your room and sort things out? There aren’t any planned activities until dinner.”
“I know you wanted to, um, strategize.” His gaze flicked to Bridget, who was still acting as our tour director by pointing Miguel toward the elevator bank.
“It’s all good,” I said. “You have important stuff to deal with, and I think, actually, we don’t need to do anything. Everyone’s so pissed off to be here. She’s dug her own grave.”
Even Gina’s smile seemed to pull down at the corners. She’d mentioned on the ride from the airport that she was missing her son’s basketball game today.
Akil nodded. “I’ll see you at dinner.” He wheeled his suitcase away.
Hands on her hips, Bridget watched Gina and Miguel traipse toward the elevators.
Without her skyscraper heels, she looked like a pocket-sized version of her normal, terrifying self, and when she glanced at me, there was a flash of vulnerability before her blue eyes hardened to steel. “Ready?” she asked.
I could swear the block on the color-coded schedule she’d handed each of us in the van said this afternoon was free time. “For what?”
“You and I are in the bungalows at the far end of the resort. They couldn’t get us all in the same place.” She looked even more delicate as her shoulders rounded. “I figured we’d walk together?” She winced when her voice rose.
“You need someone to haul that beast.” I nodded at her suitcase and grasped the handle.
“I can get yours,” she said.
“No need. Just lead the way.”
She pursed her lips—they were the same deep berry shade she wore in the office—then walked through the automatic glass door at the back of the lobby. I trailed behind her, pulling both bags like a porter.
Outside, we walked along a paved path that wound through blooming bushes and trees dotted with clumps of orchids.
Back home, many trees had lost their leaves, but here, everything was lush.
A hummingbird stuck its bill into a red hibiscus, and a bright-green anole scurried across the path in front of Bridget’s sparkling white sneakers.
“Wow.” She stopped abruptly, and I bumped into her back.
“Oops, sorry. But look.” She pointed up the trunk of a palm tree, and a few feet above our heads, a green iguana clung to its side, basking in the afternoon sunlight.
He must have been there a while since he’d turned almost the same brown as the trunk.
Only his striped tail and orangish back spikes gave him away.
Bridget gazed at the motionless lizard. “One good thing I learned in that anger management class was to try to be more present and enjoy the world around me instead of racing ahead to the next goal. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I’d have missed him.
You don’t see those guys in California.”
Guilt prickled under my skin. We’d both been arguing, yet Stan had made only Bridget take that ridiculous anger management course.
And now she’d turned the punishment into a positive.
Her resilience wasn’t the only thing I admired.
The sun sparkled on her glossy ponytail, and her tactical pants hugged her ass in a way that gave me not-safe-for-work thoughts.
“No,” I choked out through my tight throat. “Costa Rica is pretty amazing.”
“Right?” She turned to face me. “So why aren’t people happy to be here?”
I considered lying for a moment, reassuring her that everyone was, in fact, thrilled to be on a corporate retreat.
She might even have enough hope to believe it and ignore the signs of discontent, setting herself up for an even more colossal failure.
But gazing into eyes the same color as the water we’d flown across, round and open and wanting answers, I couldn’t.
I gentled my tone. “Did you consider that people are giving up their weekend, the weekend before a major holiday, to be here? Some would’ve taken the upcoming week off and spent it with loved ones or on a vacation of their choice.
And many have family obligations this week, leaving others to do the caregiving and holiday preparations. ”
“Oh.” A pair of lines formed between her dark eyebrows.
“Everything had to be done in a rush, and this was when the resort had space for our group. I guess I didn’t think of people with family responsibilities.
Which is weird because I have them myself, just not on the daily. I guess we have that in common, huh?”
I twisted my mouth to the side to keep from contradicting her.
Caitlyn’s face fell when I’d delivered the news that she couldn’t come with me to Costa Rica.
Plus, I’d given up a lot of leverage with Zara by switching weekends again.
According to my lawyer, I had to stop doing that if I had any hope of winning a more favorable custody agreement.
But my custody, my family, and my obligations were none of Bridget’s business.
It was better to separate my work and personal lives with a high fence.
Otherwise, I risked someone thinking I had higher priorities than work.
Instead, I nodded and changed the subject. “Why didn’t you bring one of the admins to deal with the front desk and run the schedule?”
“I asked, but everyone had family obligations.” Flashing me a wry smile, she resumed her path to the bungalows. “I guess the admins don’t mind telling a CEO no, even if the executive staff won’t.”
“A prestigious job with a big paycheck comes with bigger demands. At least, that’s how I’ve always seen it.”
The path opened up to a cluster of single-story bungalows.
Some looked large enough for a family, and others were the size of the cabins at my old Boy Scout camp.
I hoped they didn’t have the same bunk beds and flimsy mattresses.
They were painted in pastel colors that reflected the bright lantanas and flowering ginger in the landscaped beds around them.
“You’re right,” she said. “I didn’t assume an admin would want to come, but I assumed the executive staff would be thrilled to spend time together in a beautiful environment for teambuilding.
” She paused, glancing from the key cards in her hand to the bungalows.
“Thanks for being a good sport about it.” She cleared her throat. “It means a lot to me.”
Jesus Christ. The suitcases suddenly felt double their normal weight. She was so earnest. She cared so much about it all. And I was the asshole who’d said nothing, who’d let her pin her success to this disaster of a leadership retreat. I struggled to find an appropriate response.
“It’s okay.” She turned toward a pair of smaller units.
“I know you don’t want to be here either.
Especially not with me. But we’ll get through it.
” She stopped in front of the sky-blue one.
“This is me. You’re in the pink one.” She pointed next door.
“We’re neighbors. At least we don’t have to share, like in the office. ”
I refused to let myself think about sharing a room as she opened her door, giving me a glimpse of a small living room and an open interior door that revealed a bedroom. I cleared the gravel out of my throat. “Want me to roll your bag inside?” I asked.
“I’ve got it. Thank you.” She took the handle and heaved it across the threshold. “For everything.” Gently, she closed the door.
I turned my back to it and dropped my head back, exhaling. She’d fucked herself with this ridiculous retreat.
But apparently, so had I.