CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FOUR
“I’m sorry ... what?”
For a second I thought I was having an auditory hallucination, but it was such a weird thing to say that I knew I hadn’t made it up.
“A spy,” she repeated.
“Like ... he thinks I’m in the CIA?”
“No.” She took me by the hand and led me away from the party and the cameras. “I told you about how he and Dan run that tech company. Dan’s designed this doohickey thing that makes computers go faster. The company’s going public next week and they’re going to make a lot of money. So apparently other companies are engaging in corporate espionage and trying to steal information.”
“Can’t they just patent their device? Doesn’t that protect it?”
“Not in some foreign countries, where the companies there will ignore patents and make stuff anyway. Plus, a patent is only good for like, twenty years, and then anybody can take your design. Dan says he’s thinking long-term, so they are keeping it secret.”
“Have people already tried to steal it?”
Her eyes lit up, like she was enjoying telling me this. “Definitely. It’s happened like, three different times. One guy went into a cubicle of an employee that was on vacation and tried to use his computer. Another got hired as an executive assistant and wasn’t aware that their keystrokes were being logged. The last one dated their lead engineer. She was the one who came the closest to getting what they were looking for.”
This had all taken a hard turn from what I’d thought she might say. Finance had so many rules and regulations we had to be careful to follow so that we didn’t end up in prison. I couldn’t imagine trying to steal something from another company. “This is all so ridiculous. That he would think that about me.”
“If anybody new comes into their circle, Camden’s suspicious. He even doubted me for a while, but my whole life is online and available for public consumption.”
None of mine was. Taimani had made sure to scrub every image and every reference about me off the internet. I wonder if that had set off alarm bells for him. “So, why would he flirt with me then?”
“To find out whether or not you are a corporate spy and get information from you.”
“What, like I’m a German soldier and he’s a hot French girl?”
She elegantly shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t pretend to understand everything that Camden is thinking. I’m sure it made sense to him.”
“That makes one of us.”
“You know, I set him up with my friend Sharlene and they dated for a hot minute, and according to her, Camden’s an amazing kisser. I mean, as long as he’s trying to woo you into admitting something that’s not even true, you should enjoy yourself.”
There was absolutely zero chance of that happening, and she could tell that from the expression on my face.
“Oh no, I’ve ruined things, haven’t I?”
“There was nothing to ruin,” I told her. “Nothing was going to happen, anyway. I’m here for you, and nothing else.”
“Okay.” Sadie looked unsure, so I put on my bridesmaid smile.
“Don’t worry about me. It’s my job to worry about you.”
She hugged me tightly. “Sometimes I forget that we’re not really friends.”
“We’re really friends,” I said as we released one another. That wasn’t always true; there were plenty of brides I was happy to put in my rearview mirror. But Sadie? I liked her and could see myself staying friends with her. Especially since we both lived in New York.
“I better go check in with Troy and my husband-to-be to see if there’s anything else I need to do. You are officially off duty for the rest of the night. We can catch up tomorrow at the fitting.”
I said I’d be there and watched her walk away to rejoin her fiancé. Even though she’d been gone for only a few minutes, Dan picked her up and swirled her around like she’d just returned from active duty.
Well, now I knew how to explain Camden’s treatment of me. He had been suspicious and the full-court press had come about because he thought he could romance me into telling him all of my secrets.
Of course he wasn’t really interested in me because, hello, my life.
“There you are.” Camden’s voice was low and warm against my ear, making me shiver slightly in response.
How could I still get tingly feelings when I knew that he was trying to trick me?
He thinks you’re keeping a secret. And you are.
I told my Mom Voice to shut up. I wasn’t interested in her opinion on this subject.
“Here I am,” I said tightly. How could I be both pissed off and wanting his lips on mine? Now all I could hear was Sadie’s words, that he was a great kisser, and I desperately wanted to test that out myself.
Which was pathetic.
“So, Rachel Vinson, what do you say to taking a stroll on the beach?”
Yes.
But that wasn’t what I said. “I have to get back to my room and send some work emails. I have had some fascinating conversations tonight. I gathered up some great intel. Good night!”
His face fell, but I didn’t stay to see what he thought about my blatant attempt to bug him. Since he’d already jumped to a stupid conclusion, he could twist in the wind and spend the rest of the night worrying about what I might have “discovered.”
I hurried across the lawn, wanting to get back to my bed and put this night behind me. To think that I’d actually considered letting my walls down with him, maybe getting to know him better.
How had I gone from being wary of him to thinking he was cute to being crushed that he was only being nice to me because he thought I was trying to steal from him?
My gut had been right. I needed to steer clear of Camden. He had been playing with my emotions because he was paranoid. Before Sadie had told me the truth, I would probably have been excited to go on a midnight stroll with him. Now? His offer felt completely hollow.
If this was the game he wanted, two could play.
I woke up in a mood and was grateful that today had been designated as a free day. Sadie and Dan were leaving it up to their guests to fill their day themselves. They had left a sheet of information listing local tourist attractions, restaurants, the number for the spa downstairs, things like that. I ended up depending on room service for the day, not wanting to venture out and accidentally run into Camden. I wasn’t interested in his false overtures.
There were two things scheduled that I had to attend—the final dress fitting and the bridal shower later in the afternoon.
Trying not to think about how much the Camden situation still annoyed me (a spy? Seriously?), I focused on work for the day. We had some inquiries about hiring our services and I spent my morning responding to emails and checking in with my girls in New Jersey to make sure they hadn’t ritually murdered their bridezilla yet. She’d chosen our company because all of her friends had refused to be her bridesmaids, a fact that didn’t surprise me in the least given what my employees were going through.
Thinking about my own unpleasant situation with Sadie’s mom, I got in touch with the hotel concierge and requested that they not refill the mini-bar in Brandy’s room. Maybe that was overstepping my bounds, but I was going to do what I could to protect Sadie. I also asked him to speak to the bartenders about not serving her. He gave me his phone number and requested a picture of Brandy. I found one on social media and sent it to him. He promised that he would do his best to take care of it and that, if Brandy did get out of control, the hotel had security.
But that was all we needed. Brandy being escorted out of an event by security because she had made some kind of drunken scene while Sadie’s camera crews captured every humiliating moment.
I didn’t know how I was going to prevent that from happening, but getting the bartenders and housekeeping service on board felt like a good place to start.
In the afternoon, just before the fitting, I called Krista and asked her to join me to go over our game plan.
She arrived quickly, looking fresh-faced and dewy. She’d spent the morning in the spa and I was glad she’d gotten the chance to relax. I should make sure that Sadie had the same chance. I reached for my big organizer, where I kept my to-do lists, and for today’s list I wrote suggest to Sadie she spend some time in the spa.
The women at my company often teased me about my lists, about how I would add things that hadn’t initially been on my daily checklist just to have the satisfaction of crossing them off. I loved lists. They made me feel in control of my life.
My master to-do list was kind of like a more practical bucket list. It was filled with things I wanted to accomplish, some of which I’d already been able to cross off. Like start my own company and help someone else start over.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I added find a soul mate to the list. It seemed important to include it. Not because I was giving in to my mother’s siege attacks, but because the first man I’d been attracted to in like, a year was only flirting with me because he thought I was trying to steal information about his company.
I needed to put myself out there more.
After I wrote it down, I added three stars to it. I rated all my entries from one to three, three being most important. I was going to focus on this next when I got back home.
I was usually surrounded by happy brides and grooms, but there was something about Sadie and Dan that seemed special. Something that made me really want that in my own life.
My internal Mom Voice said, Maybe it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the best man.
Someday, in the far distant future, when my mom died, I wouldn’t need to worry about missing her because I was pretty sure I was forever going to have her voice in my head.
I flipped my pages over to today’s list. “Okay, so Sadie’s stepdad, Geoff, arrives today with his fiancée, Maybelle. Our mission is going to be twofold. We’ve got to keep Brandy sober and showing up for events and we also have to keep her away from Geoff and Maybelle and those livestream cameras.”
Krista nodded. “I have potentially good news on that front. The director, Hank? I think he might like me. He keeps making googly eyes at me. Like the ones you make at Camden.”
“I do not—” I cut myself off before I started protesting too much. “I have never made googly eyes at anyone in my entire life.”
“I know! That’s why it’s so exciting because now you are.”
“You shouldn’t be excited,” I said, setting down my planner. “You don’t have all the information.”
Her eyes lit up with interest as I started telling her the entire Camden saga, leaving out the parts where I’d been intrigued by him. After I’d given her most of the details, she laughed for longer than she should have and when she finally calmed down I asked, “What do you think I should do going forward? I’m planning on avoiding him completely. He’s already trying to uncover my background; we can’t let him find out about us.”
There were still tears of laughter in her eyes as she responded, “What should you do going forward? I think you should have a good time!”
“What?”
“Girl, if he wants to woo you, go get your luxury car!”
“Why would I get a luxury car?”
“Because he’s rich and the way to a woman’s heart is with a luxury car. At least that’s the way to my heart.” She went into my mini-fridge and grabbed herself a bottled water, twisting off the lid. “Usually you’re an undercover bridesmaid, but Camden thinks you’re undercover as a spy. That’s pretty fun.”
“Or not fun,” I retorted. This could be a huge issue if we didn’t come up with a way to handle him.
There was a loud crashing noise from next door. I raised both of my eyebrows at Krista and whispered, “That’s his room.”
She excitedly whispered back, “Do you think he has someone in there? Like of the female persuasion and they’re knocking over furniture?”
My heartbeat increased rapidly. “What? No!”
Why did that bother me so much?
“That would definitely solve your problem. If he was interested in someone else.”
But I didn’t want him to be interested in someone else.
What was wrong with me?
Krista tiptoed over to the wall and put her ear against it. “I can’t hear anything,” she reported. “Hand me one of those glasses.”
“This isn’t a cartoon. That doesn’t actually work.”
“Come on, we’re supposed to be spies, remember? Have some fun with me!”
One of the reasons my working and personal relationship with Krista had been so great was because of situations like this one—where I was caught up in my own inner drama and she was reminding me to have fun. Because our job was fun. Even when it was stressful, we still got to get our hair and makeup done and get free dresses and eat excellent food and dance the night away.
We could spy on a boy for a moment.
I tiptoed over and put my ear against the wall but couldn’t hear anything, either.
“We need to get going to the fitting,” I told her. “Down at Sadie’s villa.” The hotel had provided her with a private villa that sat right on the beach.
“Fine,” Krista said with an exaggerated sigh. “Let’s go.”
I checked to make sure I had both of my keycards on me as we left our room. Some small part of me hoped Camden would come out when he heard my door shut, but he didn’t.
And I was disappointed.
As we walked down the hallway Krista said, “Just tell him you’re not a spy.”
“I’m sure he’ll believe that. Because he seems like the trusting type.”
“I don’t know what else you can do. There’s no way he can find us online.”
That was true. Taimani made sure of it, and her ability to scrub our names was one of the reasons I’d hired her in the first place. She made certain that our real names were never connected with any pictures of us that were online. I had stopped using aliases because Taimani was just that good.
“Or,” Krista said, “you could just play along and flirt back.”
“I don’t think I want to do that.” Because so far my body couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake, so even if my brain knew it didn’t mean anything, I didn’t think I’d be able to convince my heart.
“It will be fine,” she told me. “Just grab that bull by the horns and see where things go. We’re in Hawaii. Let’s do our job, but let’s also keep having a good time.”
She pushed the button for the elevator and we waited in silence for it to arrive while I considered her advice.
Grabbing a bull by its horns wasn’t a great analogy because I wasn’t up for being gored if things went sideways.
And working at weddings had taught me that stuff always seemed to go sideways.