“Hey Char…, I mean… me? This is weird. Are you alone? Can you talk?”
I chuckle at her awkwardness. “I can talk.”
“Oh good.” Eloise lets out a huff of relief. “The job interview was amazing. Oh my gosh—I need to tell you everything about the location and the hot mountain climber I spent two nights with.”
She fans her face, then stops. “Actually, we probably shouldn’t talk about that with me being kind of a married woman, I guess.”
My stomach knots with nerves, but I take the opening. “About that… Owen knows.”
Her face falls. “Shit.”
I smile, trying to reassure her, but my grin must be too big, because she gasps. “You had sex with him!”
She barks out a laugh, and the screen turns wobbly like she’s jumping up and down. “I can’t believe it—my big sister finally busted the v-card, and with a stud like Owen Phillips. I’m a little jealous.”
The sun isn’t the only thing warming my skin now. “How did you find out Owen was the groom? Did Dad tell you?”
“No, it was on the report for the resort expansion. He sent it to me the day of the wedding, but I only just checked my email today.”
“How is he expanding the resort?” There’s a road on one side of the resort and the villa on the other.
“I only had a quick glance, but it looks like it’s going to be built up right down to the waterfront. It’s an awesome idea for appealing to a younger crowd like he wants.”
My pulse is racing so fast it’s hard to breath. “To where the villa and Seaside Serenade are?”
Eloise shrugs on the screen. “I don’t know what they are.”
“Can you send it to me? Now?”
“But I wanted to hear all about your week. What did you mean when you said Owen knows? Are you two a couple now?”
“I promise we will talk, but I really need to see the file. It’s important.”
“OK.” Eloise sighs. “I’ll send it now, but you better call me back. I need to know if I’m married or not.”
We end the call, and I refresh my email again and again until the file shows up in my inbox. Clicking it open, my heart sinks.
It’s a plan for a project Owen’s father started, set to begin construction this year. I scan the map, and the locations ofthe villa and restaurant are filled in with sketches of multistory condos.
Emotion wells up inside me.
I storm through the sand, onto the deck, and into the villa to see Owen standing by the printer, papers in hand. “Are those the plans?”
He frowns at me in confusion. “What plans?”
“The plans for the resort expansion.”
His eyes widen in shock. “Charlotte, I…”
“You talked about this place like a second home, but you’re too stuck in the past trying to fill your father’s shoes to see that you’re taking something beautiful and destroying it for profit, just like my father.”
Hurt flashes on his face, but it’s quickly replaced by anger. “You think I’m destroying something beautiful, yet you’re the one not being honest with your father, letting his expectations chip away at your confidence to the point where you have to hide your art and who you want to be. You are beautiful, and it’s awful to waste that in trying to be something you're not."
His words hit me like an arrow, straight to the heart, cracking open the shell I’ve been hiding behind, leaving me feeling exposed.
I need my sketch pad and pencil, but they aren’t here because Owen is right; I’m a liar.
I storm out of the villa and onto the beach, then walk until my feet ache and the familiar weather-worn planks of Seaside Serenade come into view.
