say she was too tired, but her father insisted the experience would be good for her. Then Walt surprised everyone by turning to Claire. “Would you like to join us?” he asked.
Her mother’s eyes widened. “No, thank you. I think I’ll go read a book.”
April couldn’t believe Claire had just turned her father down. Recognizing the opportunity to finally get them to socialize, she quickly changed her own mind. “Actually, I’ll bet the water will feel good,” she said.
“Then have fun, dear,” Claire responded. She’d just started to walk away, when April caught her by the arm. “You’ll come along, won’t you, Mom?”
“April…”
“Please, Mom?”
Claire hesitated but finally nodded when April tightened her grip.
“Great.” April smiled at Gunner and her father. “We’ll just go put on our suits.”
THE JACUZZI TURNED OUT to be no improvement over dinner. Gunner watched April covertly—she could sense his regard even when he was talking to her father or mother. But he didn’t speak to her directly, and he certainly didn’t apologize for his behavior in town. After a few minutes, he got out, gave her a cursory nod good-night, no more personal than the one he gave her parents, and excused himself.
Then Walt and Claire looked at her as if to say, What’s happened between you two? and April grew so angry with Gunner that she couldn’t stay in the Jacuzzi a moment longer.
Damn him, he wasn’t keeping up his end of the bargain!
Getting out, she threw on the sheer cover-up that went with her suit and marched after him. She was leaving her estranged parents in the Jacuzzi by themselves, but she figured they’d just have to deal with it. She had something to say to Gunner Stevens, and it couldn’t wait.
When she arrived at Gunner’s room, she knocked loudly. He took his sweet time answering, so she banged more insistently and when he finally appeared, he was wearing only a pair of boxer briefs like the ones she’d borrowed this morning. “Can you give me a minute to get changed?” he asked.
She didn’t care that he was standing in the doorway in his underwear, looking like a dream. There was the matter of his behavior to address, and she planned to do that here and now.
“Are you backing out on our deal?” she said. “Is that what’s going on?”
He peered down the hall, then shoved the door wider. “Come inside.”
She stalked into his room.
“Want to sit down?” he asked.
“No. I want to know why you’re upset with me.”
He scowled and pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms. “I’m not upset with you. Our agreement was founded on something that isn’t turning out to be true.”
“What’s that?” she demanded. “I painted a very realistic picture of what was going to happen here. I never lied to you.”
“You said neither one of us would get hurt, April.”
“So that’s it? You think I’m going to get hurt? I’m not stupid, Gunner. I know I’d be crazy to think for a second that—”
“I was talking about me,” he said.
It took a moment for his words to sink in. When they did, April felt as though he’d just knocked the wind out of her. “What?”
His eyebrows drew together, and he suddenly seemed irritated or impatient or both. “Never mind. It’s over, okay? You’re handling Keith Bodine just fine, your parents are getting along better than I ever imagined they would, which is really all you can ask, and if your father wants to sell me the company, he’ll sell me the company. We don’t need to keep up this pretense.”
He opened the door and gestured out with his free hand. “Good night, April.”
GUNNER COULDN’T HAVE been serious. That was the thought that kept passing through April’s mind as she walked numbly down the corridor from his room. Women were a dime a dozen to him, remember? She’d seen the front pages of the tabloids. She knew his reputation with the ladies. Besides, she was so different from the leggy blondes he typically dated. Was he playing some sort of new game with her?
When she reached the lobby, she hesitated. She wasn’t ready to face her mother’s wrath for abandoning her in the Jacuzzi with Walt. So she headed out a side door to avoid the crowded lobby bar and walked down to the water.
An hour came and went while she sat on the cold sand, watching the black waves roar up onto the beach and thinking about Gunner. He confused her, threw her out of her element. She