Chapter Five
Dana stared at the journalist, not believing what she was hearing.
“David Cavallo?” she heard herself say from far away. She swallowed, trying to make sense of what she was hearing. “The David Cavallo who is now co-owner of a string of boutique hotels?” she asked, although she already knew the answer.
Sean Murray, the journalist she was talking to, nodded. “Yup, the same. Although, to be fair, he wasn’t going to print the story before he’d…”
But Dana had stopped listening. A pain sliced through her body, making breathing difficult.
She jumped up and frantically looked for the nearest exit.
Why couldn’t she breathe? Pushing past people, she kept her eyes on the door, her only thought to get away from here before she threw up or passed out—or both.
This was not what she’d expected when she’d made the appointment with this journalist. She’d thought hearing what he had to say might bring some sort of closure, give her some idea of exactly what role her father had played in the whole thing. But what she had learned was devastating.
David was the journalist who had run the front-page story that suggested her dad was involved in Bob Hastings’s crooked financial scheme. The story that had led to her dad’s incarceration.
Outside the coffee shop, she looked around helplessly. Where had she parked?
Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside of her. The man she’d allowed to kiss her, to touch her, the one she’d been dreaming and fantasizing about for the past five nights was the very same person who had been responsible for her dad’s death.
She stumbled to her car through a haze of tears. He had been a journalist; she didn’t want to get close to him for exactly that reason, but did she listen to her instincts? No. She’d let herself be seduced by a pair of chocolate-brown eyes and had forgotten to shelter her heart.
She turned the key. Her car coughed, stuttered, and died. Just like that.
“Please, don’t do this to me. Please, please?”
Frantically, she tried again, but this time there wasn’t even a cough.
Her phone rang. It was Caitlin. Taking deep breaths, she answered.
“Hi.” She gulped in some air, trying to cover the hitch in her throat so Caitlin wouldn’t know she’d been crying.
It was quiet for a heartbeat. “What’s wrong?” Caitlin asked, and the dam burst.
Dana tried to stem her tears, tried to speak, but all the pent-up emotions of the last two years had found an escape and wouldn’t let up.
“Dana, sweetie, what happened?” Caitlin was clearly also upset.
Caitlin found a tissue, blew her nose, and tried again to speak.
“I… just spoke to the journalist… the one I told you about,” she said, hiccupping.
“That’s why I was phoning. What—”
“He told me the story on the cover, the one that got my dad arrested? It was David’s story! I… can’t believe he didn’t tell me!” The tears were back. “And now my car won’t start!”
“Where are you?” Caitlin asked.
“In Green Point. I met him at the coffee shop. But don’t worry about me, I’ll figure something out.” She searched for her usual calm.
“I know you can do it all but let me help you. I’m on my way to the Waterfront and am very close to you. Sit tight, I’ll be there in five.” She ended the call.
Dana put her head on the steering wheel and let the tears flow. It wasn’t the end of the world; she’d been in worse situations before, and she had always managed to handle things.
What had happened to her dad was devastating, but two years had passed, and she was getting used to the idea that she would never see him again.
And she had known her car wasn’t going to last; she’d been saving as much as she could and had been hoping she’d have a few more months before she needed to buy a new car.
But she could do it now. It might not be the car she really wanted, but it would be okay.
So that wasn’t why she was so distraught. She felt… betrayed somehow. Betrayed by David.
Betrayed because he had kissed her, touched something inside of her, made her feel special, and he hadn’t told her he was the one who had spilled the story.
She had never even thought of asking him what he knew about the case. But then, they hadn’t really talked much. Before the weekend she’d mostly tried to ignore him, and then at Zoe’s wedding… Well, her lips were involved but not because she was talking.
She frowned. He did say he wanted to talk to her about her dad, but she’d assumed he wanted to tell her what she already knew.
It was probably all he would have done. The journalists she knew never took responsibility for what they’d written, they were only interested in what they could get out of it—the front-page story, the glory, the name.
A car turned into the parking space in front of her car. It was Caitlin. Dana grabbed her bag and got out quickly.
*
David was standing with his back to the office door, talking to one of their clients on the phone, his thoughts not on what his client was saying but on the weekend ahead. For the moment, he was alone in the big office his brothers and he normally shared.
He was going to Hermanus tomorrow. He was going to see Dana, and he couldn’t wait. While he wasn’t looking forward to telling her about his involvement with the story about her dad, hopefully he would be able to explain what had really happened.
Ever since Don had inherited a house from their uncle in Hermanus, the four of them tried to visit the beautiful seaside village regularly. He loved Hermanus, loved Walker Bay, especially this time of the year when the whales were visiting.
But, lately, there never seemed to be time to spend there. He enjoyed working with his brothers, enjoyed the challenges they faced every day, the adrenaline rush when deals were finalized, but he hadn’t had a holiday in… Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he took a few days off.
He would have to talk to his brothers about having a few days to himself. Don took leave for a whole month when he got married, and Dale would also be gone for about a month with his new wife.
Well, he wasn’t getting married, but he would like to be able to take a couple of weeks’ leave.
He blinked. Married? He waited for the usual panicky feeling he got when he heard the word, and lately the word had been used a lot in his family, but he wasn’t freaked out about it as he normally would have been.
Previously, the word would have called up images of husbands gasping for their freedom, hating their new lives, making crude jokes about wives and kids.
But after two of his brothers had gotten hitched, although he would never willingly admit this to them, his usual grim view of matrimony was changing.
Both Don and Dale were better versions of themselves after they became involved with the loves of their lives. They were both besotted with their wives and didn’t bother to hide the fact.
David liked women but had never met one who had stirred more than a mild interest. And he wanted more. Simply put, he wanted what his parents had.
After nearly forty years of marriage, the spark they said brought them together hadn’t dimmed at all. Quite the contrary, actually. He loved the way his mom’s face simply lit up when she spotted her husband, and he adored the way his dad always found ways to touch his mother.
And without conscious thought, ever since he’d started dating, he’d been looking for that spark, that moment when eyes would meet and he’d know.
That feeling that he simply had to touch the woman.
There had been sparks all right. He’d touched his share of women but nothing that lasted.
Usually, after one night he couldn’t wait to leave and the spark, or whatever it had been, was gone.
But then he’d kissed Dana Roux. When he’d seen her for the first time, he thought she was beautiful, and he was intrigued by her obvious dismissal of him, but that was it. He couldn’t remember a spark, didn’t remember his fingers tingling because they desperately wanted to touch her.
But after he kissed her, that had changed. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman, and he wanted to be with her. He couldn’t wait to touch her again, to feel her soft skin, to taste her lips, to—
The office door flew open. David turned around. Don strolled in, a mocking smile on his face.
“You’re in trouble, my dear brother. To quote a line from one of my wife’s favorite rom-com movies, ‘the shit hath hitteth the fan.’” Don grinned and slapped David on the back.
“Why? What have I done?” David asked.
“Well, you remember the story about Hastings? About Dana’s dad?”
Frowning, David nodded. “What about it?”
“Turns out Dana saw a journalist this morning who told her you were the one who spilled the beans. I thought you were going to tell her?”
David stared at Don, struggling to make sense of his words.
“I was going to tell her, but… she fell asleep,” he ended lamely. He wasn’t ready to talk about what had really happened. “Anyway, I’m planning on going to Hermanus this weekend, partly to tell her the whole story. Who did she talk to? Do you know?”
“Sean… something…”
“Sean Murray.” David swore. “He could have told me he was discussing it with someone,” he muttered. “Why was she talking to him?”
“I’m not quite sure.”
“Where is she now?”
“It has been a bad morning for her. On top of hearing her friend’s brother-in-law is the one who spilled the story about her dad, her car also broke down. Caitlin is going to take her back to Hermanus. They’re just picking up Donato’s stuff; he’ll be staying with Mom until Caitlin gets back.”
Before Don finished speaking, David grabbed his laptop and headed for the door. She had to listen to him. He ignored the elevator and stormed down the stairs, a feeling of desperation urging him to get to Dana as quickly as possible.
*
“I feel terrible that you have to drive all the way to Hermanus,” Dana said softly while playing with Donato. Caitlin was packing a huge bag with Donato’s things.