she saw a Post-it on a French cabinet that she could only assume was hiding the fridge:
M: Sorry, duty called. Scrabble another time?—R
Of course he had better things to do. Someone to do, more likely, Mara thought with a tiny twinge of jealousy. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed.
“Jimmy? You still up? It’s me, Mara.”
back at resort, jacqui certainly has an eye for fabrics
JACQUI WALKED FAST THROUGH THE CROWD, NOT LETTING those rugby stripes out of her sight. Her heart was beating quickly; she was short of breath. There was no way, was there? This was fate. Kismet. This was meant to be. It was what she had been dreaming about since the day she woke up alone in her room in São Paolo. . . . Those broad shoulders, the fine, baby soft hairs on the neck . . . She had kissed that neck many times. . . .
With trembling fingers she put her hand on his back. “Luca?”
Jacqui couldn’t believe her eyes. It was him! Luca, with his pale, freckled skin, glossy honey-colored hair, and beautiful green eyes behind those nerdy-but-hip eyeglasses.
“Luca?” she choked.
“Excuse me.” Luke van Varick smirked, turning to face her. His eyes widened and he blinked for a minute, unsure of what to do. Then he broke into a lopsided grin.
“Jacarei!” Luke said as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. “What the HELL are you doing here?”
“I work here!” Jacqui laughed, so happy she was almost screaming. Luca! Here! In the Hamptons!
“Here?” he asked, motioning to the floor with the straw from his gin and tonic. He was swaying a little and Jacqui smelled the alcohol on his breath.
“No, up the road. I’m an au pair.”
“How cool is that?” Luke laughed. “I didn’t know you worked with kids. I thought you were just a shopgirl.”
This is making no sense, Jacqui thought. We haven’t seen each other in two months and all he wants to do is chitchat? What about all the stuff they did in São Paolo?
“Listen, you wanna get out of here?” Luke asked as his eyes roamed around the room.
“Sí,” Jacqui replied. That was more like it. She took his hand. She loved him. Her Luca! He could lead her anywhere.
* * *
A few minutes later Jacqui hung on as Luke sped down the Montauk Highway to his parents’ home in Bridgehampton. The place was as expansive as the Perry homestead, and Luke showed her his private entrance and the four-bedroom suite in his “wing.” It was a classic bachelor pad, with a vintage Foosball table, a Miss PacMan game console, dartboards, a basketball hoop, and dirty laundry strewn around the carpet. He pressed a button on a remote, and a sixty-inch television materialized from the floor.
Jacqui sat on the edge of his bed, looking around at all of his things—his soccer trophies, his G4 computer, his bulletin board studded with photos from his travels around the world. So this was where he lived. This was where he slept. She drank it all in—intent to know as much as she could about the guy who’d finally opened her heart and made her feel all jittery inside.
Luke stood in front of her, holding an open bottle of Absolut in one hand. He took a swig. His other hand was underneath his shirt, scratching his stomach. He stared at her hungrily. “You know, you’re even more beautiful than I remembered,” he said, putting down the bottle and reaching for the light switch.
“What else do you remember?” Jacqui asked with a playful lilt.
With the lights snuffed out, Luke splayed himself spread-eagle on top of the goose-down comforter. Jacqui curled up next to him. He tossed an arm around her and she snuggled on his chest. She listened to him breathe, happy to be so close to him again.
“I remember this,” he said, tracing a finger on her cheek.
Soon she felt his hand move down toward her breast, cupping it over her shirt, then slowly inch its way down underneath the neckline. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and his fingers were cold on her skin.
“Oh . . . Luca,” she said, turning to kiss him fully on the mouth.
He pulled her up on him, holding her close so she could feel him getting excited.
They kissed, slobbering with open mouths, so quickly and urgently that Jacqui could barely catch her breath. All the while Luke tugged at her top. Finally he pulled it over her head and threw it to the corner of the