Chapter 23
Martha met him outside the conference room when the editors’ panel was over.
She was leaning against the wall, her focus on her phone.
Julien took a moment to allow his gaze to sweep over her.
It was a rule he lived by—and a good one—not to mix business with pleasure, as the saying went.
A rule that protected both himself and every woman whom he worked with.
In all honesty, it hadn’t been difficult before.
Yes, he’d worked with attractive women in the past and even a few in the present, but he’d never given any of them more than a fleeting glance.
But Martha was more than a pretty face. She challenged him.
No one else would’ve called him out on his poor behavior during this trip.
She’d not only held him accountable, but she’d also been willing to give him something personal—a wound from her past—in order to make him see the damage he was doing and force him to be a better man.
So, he’d allow himself this moment to imprint her on his mind. To remember how she felt like a gift he didn’t deserve. And maybe even torture himself in the future when he was alone and thinking of what might have been and how he’d chosen a path where they couldn’t be together.
The flowy sundress hugged her curves, and the way she had her curls piled on top of her head accentuated the elegant slope of her neck.
Her skin was flushed, the hue even redder now than it had been during the panel.
Julien winced. He should’ve warned her not to go outside without sunscreen.
The hotel might have some aloe vera lotion.
If not, it would be easy to find in a store.
More difficult would be Martha trying to apply the lotion to the hard-to-reach places along her back.
Julien gulped. Talk about a slippery slope. He mentally backed away from the edge before he started picturing things in his mind that he shouldn’t. Like his hands caressing Martha’s back. Even if it were innocent and he’d only be helping her relieve the pain of her burn.
Taking a deep breath, Julien realigned his thoughts.
Dad. His health issues. The reason Julien was there in the first place.
The consequences if he failed. Back on track, he pulled all the arguments he’d compiled to the forefront of his mind to convince Martha his plan to publish her work was solid.
Back in the business headspace, he determinedly strode forward.
Martha lifted her head, her gaze roaming his face as he walked toward her. He stopped in front of her, ready to launch into his first point and not waste any more time.
She raised a hand in a halting motion. “I promised to think about it, and I am. I don’t need a spiel.”
Julien closed his mouth. It was really disconcerting when she did that, knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“In fact,” she continued, “I emailed the manuscript to Caroline to get her opinion as well as to a few other people who are well versed in children’s literature.”
Julien frowned. “You don’t trust my opinion?”
“It’s not that I don’t trust it. It’s just . . . tell me, who is Patricia Polacco?”
“Who?”
“Exactly.”
Julien crossed his arms over his chest. “So, Caroline and these other people get to read the full manuscript, but I don’t?”
“No, I emailed it to you too.”
Julien’s arms fell to his sides. “Great. Let’s order room service, and I’ll start reading it right now.” He started to walk forward when she reached out a hand to his arm.
“Not so fast.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I have some stipulations.”
His arms went back to creating an X in front of him. “I’m not sure if I want to ask what these stipulations are or remind you that we aren’t at the point of contract negotiations.”
She shrugged. “Maybe stipulation was the wrong word.” She looked down at her feet for a few seconds.
When her gaze rose to meet his again, there was a small shine of desperation in them.
“Can we take the night off? Please? We’re in a tropical paradise, and you’ve barely stepped foot outside this hotel since we got here.
You can’t even remember the last vacation you took, and you seriously need to work on your work-life balance.
As for me, I don’t know when or if I’ll get to come back to Florida.
I want to play tourist for the evening. The problems with Squire and whether or not my books are worth risking everything for will still be there tomorrow. Please?”
It wasn’t a good idea. He needed to start doing a better job at compartmentalizing Martha, and spending time with her outside a work setting wouldn’t help him keep those boundaries that were growing hazier by the second.
But how could he tell her no? All she wanted was a few hours away from the stress he’d dragged her into. And her heart was so pure, she wanted that as much for his benefit as hers.
A slow smirk formed on his lips. “You know, you gave your bargaining chip away too soon. You should’ve promised to send me the manuscript after you got what you were asking for.”
“Maybe. But I don’t want to manipulate you.” She looked him straight in his eyes. “It’s your choice. No ultimatum.”
Not like his dad. She didn’t say the words, might not even have been thinking them, but they rang in his head just the same.
She hadn’t said, if you want this, you have to do this first. No, she’d just seen a need in him—in this instance, a need for a reprieve, to take a full breath—and she’d offered him an opportunity, no strings attached.
He kept his smirk in place so she wouldn’t see how much her offer had affected him. “I was just teasing. You’re a terrific negotiator.” He swallowed hard. “Let’s get out of here. Where did you want to go?”
“Really?” Her face brightened. “You’re really going to stop working for a little bit?”
“Am I that bad?” He winced.
She shrugged. “You have a lot on your plate right now, so it’s understandable. But I think you even called yourself a workaholic.”
Well, she wasn’t wrong there.
“What do you think about checking out a lighthouse?” she said. “I’ve never seen one in person, and I heard that the one south of here has a museum in the keeper’s cottage. They even let you climb to the top. Can you imagine what the view is like from up there?”
“Probably pretty spectacular.”
“I think so too. So, what do you say?”
“I say, let’s do it.”
There were two lighthouses nearby, one north and one south.
The one north was located on a military base and required advanced reservations, but the one south was open to the public and only a ten-mile drive down the cape, so it didn’t take them long to reach it.
The keeper’s cottage was hidden behind a growth of trees, but the lighthouse itself spired straight and tall into the sky, the glass cylinder on top reflecting the sun’s rays.
Martha shaded her eyes with a hand to her brow and stared up at the beacon of maritime life as soon as she got out of the car. “I know this is stating the obvious, but it’s really tall.”
Julien chuckled. “Afraid of heights as well as flying?”
“Nope. You?” She looked over her shoulder at him.
He grinned. “I think I’ll be okay.”
They made their way across the parking lot and down a walkway shaded with scrub trees.
On the other side, a small white house stood near the base of the lighthouse.
An informational placard was posted at the front, and Martha stopped to read about the history of the lighthouse.
Her lips moved silently as she read, her face taking on several interesting expressions from surprise to wonder as she ingested the information.
Julien told himself he shouldn’t stare, that he should read the placard too, but she was more interesting to watch than learning about a historical monument.
She looked up at him, her eyes bright. “It’s really interesting, isn’t it?”
He had no idea what it was—something to do with the lighthouse, obviously—but he wasn’t going to admit that he’d been distracted watching her instead of reading. “Quite.”
They followed the path into the cottage museum, and Julien paid the entrance fee.
“Are you folks planning on going up to the top of the lighthouse?” the museum worker asked as he handed Julien the receipt. “A rocket is scheduled to launch in about forty minutes from Kennedy Space Center. You get a really good view from up there, if you’re interested.”
Julien met Martha’s gaze, and her eyes widened in excitement. He put the receipt in his pocket and turned to the man. “Thanks for the information. We’ll make sure we’re up there around that time.”
It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes to look around the keeper’s cottage.
The place was quaint and set up as it would have been in the late 1880s.
Julien did manage to pry himself away from watching Martha long enough to read a few of the historical features of the place.
Apparently, this was the second location for the lighthouse.
They’d had to move it and make restorations more than one hundred and fifty years ago due to a severe storm and beach erosion.
“Ready to head up?” Julien asked as they stepped back outside the small museum.
Martha shielded her eyes again as she craned her neck back to look at the top. “Let’s do it.”
A sign at the entrance said there were 204 steps to the top. Once inside, they both looked up. Stairs spiraled above their heads.
The view had better be worth it.
“After you.” Julien swept his arm out in front of him.
Martha eyed the stairs, then him. “I’m probably going to slow you down. Why don’t you go first and at your own pace and I’ll meet you at the top?”
He frowned. “I’m not going to leave you behind.”
She opened her mouth as if to argue, but she must have read the resolve on his face because she snapped her mouth shut and rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Without another word, she grabbed hold of the banister and started making her way up the stairs.