honey?”
Millie hands me a beer as I sit brooding at the bar and I frown. “Nothing to tell.”
She almost hesitates and then leans forward and whispers, “You miss her, don’t you?”
I say nothing but take a swig of my beer and set it down as she reaches across and takes my hand.
“Maybe you should go and get her, Maverick.”
I raise my eyes and look at her with curiosity. I can see she hates telling me to go and get another girl when she wants to take her place, which softens my heart toward the pretty woman I have spent many a night with.
“Easier said than done.”
“Easier on who? You’re a Reaper, Maverick, not a quitter. If you want something badly enough, you go and do your best to make it right. Use everything you have to find her and convince her to come back with you, only then will you find peace.”
She blinks back the tears and I look at her in a different light. Such a pretty girl who is longing to find her happily ever after. Part of me wishes I could have given her that but fate had other ideas and made my own happiness something I need to work hard to get. I squeeze her hand gently, whispering, “You’re a good woman, Millie. You deal with things the right way and will make some lucky guy very happy one day.”
“Just not you.” She smiles sadly and I look at her with an apology that is long overdue. “I wish it could be but for some reason my heart went in a different direction. You’re right, though.”
She looks surprised and I push the beer away and give her a rare smile. “I’m a Reaper and we never give up. Maybe it’s time I acted like one.”
She smiles and her whole face lights up and then we hear someone calling her name, effectively switching her attention to another Reaper someway down the bar. She smiles ruefully. “Duty calls. I’ll look forward to seeing you both when you return.”
She heads off and I watch one of the guys reach across and whisper something in her ear that makes her laugh. Yes, Millie will be just fine because they always are—here, anyway. One day she will get her happily ever after and now it’s time to fetch mine home.
As it turns out, I must wait another week because Ryder told me the Moretti’s are due to visit Antigua in two days’ time. Sophia is continuing to stay with her brother and his new wife on their extended honeymoon while their house is re-built and their boat, the Island Star, is reported to be docking in The English Harbour the day after tomorrow. Ryder arranged my ticket and so I am checked in and waiting for them to arrive. I am not alone.
As I relax by the hotel pool, a shadow stands in front of the sun and I look up and groan inside. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing, brother but we both already know the answer to that.”
Lucian sits on the sun lounger next to me and snaps his fingers at a passing waiter. “Bourbon, on the rocks and whatever my brother is having.”
“Water.” I shake my head and laugh softly, “What’s this, the pressure driving you to drink?”
Lucian settles back on his bed and smirks. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you? Well, as it happens, I’m here on business, unlike you who is probably here on a fool’s errand.”
“You think?”
“I know because what you don’t know is that I have been busy in your absence.”
I try not to let it show but an uneasy feeling creeps over me at the smug look on his face and I say with a yawn. “I’m happy for you.”
“I doubt it, you see, I am here to meet Tobias Moretti to strike a business deal.”
“Is that so? Then we are on the same page because I too am here to strike a deal with that family of my own.”
Lucian laughs. “Then may the best man win.”
I give nothing away because this is unexpected. Seeing Lucian here raises the temperature and I wonder what he has planned. For a while we just sit in silence and I notice the carefully placed guards around the pool, trying to look inconspicuous but failing miserably.
After a while, I say gruffly, “How are things with the family?”
“Since you left, as normal. You see, Lorenzo, nobody was surprised when you signed your freedom papers.