27. Paige
PAIGE
The next few minutes are some of the most humiliating in my life, and that’s saying quite a lot.
I didn’t know they were arriving so early today.
I keep lying on my stomach, because I’ve tossed my bikini top aside, and there’s no way to sit up and say hi without flashing my new sister-in-law and her fiancé. It looks like the same man who served as witness at the courthouse.
So I give an awkward little wave.
This is the sister he mentioned earlier. The one my uncle antagonized to get beneath Rafe’s skin, to get payback on the Montclairs.
Terrible strategy. Vindictive, small-minded, and yet another reason why Ben can’t remain in charge of Mather & Wilde. I already knew I’d done the only thing I could to save the company. But this is further proof it was the right decision.
Rafe leaves to greet them, and I watch them all disappear inside the house.
I pull on the shirt Rafe left on the chair. The linen is buttery soft, and I turn to face the lake so I can work on my bikini top beneath it. Coming out here was impulsive.
Raphael Montclair has seen me cry.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t run from that fact, and I hate it. One point for him. I spent the morning distracted from work by the feeling of his hand running over my hair and being held while I cried.
Now he has the upper hand.
And I want to change that.
Being wild and crazy means not thinking about your own muddled feelings, and it works every damn time. Including today. I lay outside his window and basked in the power of luring him outside.
If he is attracted to me, I can exploit that. It’s a leg up. But then our argument devolved into barbs and trades, like it always does, and I taunted him about the sunscreen.
And his hands felt good on my back again.
I walk down to the dock. The lion statue sits where I last saw it, dutifully holding a mooring ring through its mouth. I walk down the stone steps and into the cool water of the lake. It laps at my feet, cold compared to the sun warming my body.
I shrug out of Rafe’s shirt and dive into the water.
It’s freezing cold. So cold it stings my skin. I hate it. But it helps chase away the nerves of the last fifteen minutes and calms the storm inside.
I turn around and float on my back. Let the cold pass through me and over me. Even in the middle of July, the lake doesn’t get warmer than this. Maybe it never does. I read that it’s one of the deepest lakes in Europe, at over a thousand feet at the center.
That’s what happens when you’re shaped by the Alps.
This entire place is bigger than me, deeper than me, older than me. The city of Como itself was founded by Julius Caesar, if my Internet research is to be believed.
I spread my arms out in the water. The sky above is painted with thin, wispy clouds. They’re far, far above me, governed by forces outside everyone’s control.
My breathing starts to slow. Maybe everything will be all right.
There’s a splash nearby. I look up to see a woman walking down the steps and into the water. Her brown hair is tied back, and she’s in a navy blue swimsuit with white stripes. The giant sunglasses are gone.
Nora.
Rafe’s sister.
I’ve seen pictures of her in magazines, on billboards, where she modeled Maison Valmont’s luxury brands. She has a sharp elfin chin and high cheekbones, and she’s intimidating in a very different way than Rafe.
I shift in the water and tread below the surface. “God, it’s cold!” she says.
“Yeah. Is it always like this?” I call back.
“Yes. I should be used to it, but it gets me every time.” She takes a deep breath and then pushes off the steps and into the lake beside me.
I smile at her huffed breaths. “It gets better.”
“I really hope so.” She turns in the water and gives me a tentative smile back. “I’m Nora, Rafe’s sister. You’re Paige, right?”
“Yes. It’s nice to meet you.”
She nods, shoulders pulled up high. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
I wonder if that’s true, but I don’t dare ask it.
“We flew in early to surprise Rafe,” she tells me. “He looked surprised.”
“I’m not sure your brother likes surprises.”
Nora grins and dips her head back to wet her hair. “No, he really doesn’t.”
I take a deep breath. My nerves are treading water inside me, too. “He’s told me about what my uncle did. You know, the team he hired to make it seem like you were…”
Nora has the same green eyes as her brother, and they feel just as sharp. “Yeah.”
“I’m so sorry about that. I didn’t know it was happening, and it was a terrible decision on his part. In so many ways.” I take another deep breath. “He’s not in charge of the company anymore. I know that doesn’t matter, probably, but I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” she says. “It sucked. I believe you, by the way. That you didn’t know.”
Another breath escapes me. “You do? You’ve just met me.”
She smiles. “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s the sort of thing a woman would consider doing. Or approve of.”
“No, God no.”
“I’m freezing. Want to get out?”
I nod. “Yes, please.”
She swims ahead, and I follow her up the worn stone steps to the dock. She had much more foresight than me and brought herself a striped towel. I only have the shirt Rafe gave me.
I pull it on. The sleeves cover my hands, and I sit on the edge of the warm stone dock.
Nora sits beside me. Her eyes clock my shirt before she looks out over the lake. Boats zip across the deep blue, leaving waves in their wake. “So you married my brother.”
“Yes,” I say. “I’m guessing you know all the details?”
The deal. The contract. Mather & Wilde becoming a Maison Valmont brand.
“I do. But I didn’t before. He kept me in the dark. They both did, really, my brother and my boyfriend.” She looks down at her feet, hanging above the water’s surface. “I’ve just told them both off. That’s why I had to come down here to cool off.”
“You did?”
“Yes.” She shrugs. “That part is pretty new for me, actually. You know, getting angry. I’m not used to telling people off yet.”
“It’s a rush, isn’t it?”
Her smile widens. “Yes. I really enjoyed that, but I don’t think they did.”
“What did you tell them off for?”
“Well.” She holds up a finger. “I’m angry at my fiancé for attending the courthouse ceremony in New York, where my own brother got married, without telling me. That’s one. I know he got almost no notice, but that’s no excuse.”
She puts up another finger. “Then I’m angry at Rafe. He’s convinced himself that he needs to defeat Ben Wilde in order to avenge me. Or keep me safe somehow.” Her sigh is heavy. “But he’s doing it for other reasons, and I hate it when he uses me as pretext.”
“He’s a frustrating man,” I say. It might be the truest thing I’ve said all day.
“You’ve noticed that, have you?” Nora says.
I chuckle. “Just a bit. He needs to relax.”
“He’s great at many things, but not that.” She pulls up her legs and turns to look at me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot,” I tell her. Maybe this isn’t a woman I should feel camaraderie with. She’s a Montclair and I’m a Wilde. But sitting here in the sun, I don’t feel the irritation that’s constantly buzzing inside me when Rafe is around.
“Why did you marry him?” she asks me. “Why did you send him that email?”
“To save my family’s company,” I tell her. “We have hundreds of employees who depend on us, and my uncle was driving us toward bankruptcy. I didn’t have a choice, really. But I wasn’t just going to hand it over to Rafe. I want a seat at the table.”
She looks at me for a long few seconds, and then she nods. Like that solves everything. “I know a little about wanting a seat at the table,” she says, and she nudges my shoulder. “Tell me, do you have a bachelorette party planned?”