Barefoot Bay: Hold On To Forever (Kindle Worlds Novella)

Hold on to Forever

Maria Geraci

Table of Contents

Welcome to Barefoot Bay Kindle World

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Thank You for Reading

Acknowledgments

Dear Readers,

Welcome to Barefoot Bay Kindle World, a place for authors to write their own stories set in the tropical paradise that I created! For these books, I have only provided the setting of Mimosa Key and a cast of characters from my popular Barefoot Bay series. That’s it! I haven’t contributed to the plotting, writing, or editing of Hold on to Forever. This book is entirely the work of Maria Geraci, a talented author I handpicked to help launch this new program.

Another Florida girl like I am, Maria was one of my first choices for the Barefoot Bay Kindle World program. I have loved every one of her books, which are consistently lush, layered, and chock full of characters who get under your skin and into your heart. I was thrilled to learn Maria had chosen the backdrop of destination weddings for Hold on to Forever, giving readers a chance to revisit the beloved Barefoot Bay Brides again. If you haven’t discovered Maria Geraci, you are in for a rare romance treat. If you have, then you know you’re about to laugh, cry, smile and sigh on every page.

Roxanne St. Claire

PS. If you’re interested in the rest of the Barefoot Bay Kindle World novels, or would like to explore the possibility of writing your own book in my world, visit
www.roxannestclaire.com
for details!

Chapter One

Felicity Reed took one look at the Casa Blanca Resort and Spa and nearly lost her cookies. Not literally, of course. She’d had a salad for lunch, but she’d never heard of anyone losing one’s carrots. The elegant resort in Mimosa Key was everything the website promised. Beautiful, secluded, and reeking of expensive. How on earth was she going to pay for a destination wedding in this place?

“What name did you say the reservation was under?” the valet asked.

She took a deep breath and willed her stomach to behave. “Nicole Reed,” she said.

He peered down at the tablet in his hand. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything under that name.”

“Oh, try Felicity Reed, or maybe—”

“The reservation is under Martinez,” interrupted a male voice from behind.

Great
.
It was the ambulance chaser
.

Felicity plastered her most professional smile—the one she used with a particularly prickly client—and turned to face her future brother-in-law. Correction: her
sister
’
s
future brother-in-law. She wouldn’t actually be related to this jerk. Would she?

“Jack, I didn’t hear you come up. What are you doing here?”

“I assume the same thing you’re doing. Attending the wedding of my brother to your sister?”

She flushed. Put that way, yes, her question did seem rather silly. “That’s almost a week away. I didn’t think you were the type to take a vacation.”

“I don’t think we know each other well enough to make those kinds of assumptions, do we?”

“Nope. You’re right. We don’t really know each other at all.”
Thank God
.

“Hopefully this week will change all that. Considering that our families are going to be related.” He smiled, and Felicity was hit with a wave of disingenuousness.

It was the same smile she saw every morning staring down at her on her drive to work into downtown Orlando. Every two point five miles, to be exact. Florida was littered with hundreds (thousands!) of billboards splattered with Jack Martinez’s face.

The billboards were all the same. His parents, the founding partners of the state’s largest and most lucrative personal injury law firm, stood stone-faced in the background, each holding a legal brief in their hand, while Jack was front and center, his arms crossed over his chest smiling down at the world like a pit bull on steroids. Beneath the intimidating pose were the words,
Martinez and Martinez, Watching out for The Little Man.

Every time she saw one of those billboards she gagged. Who had come up with that
awful
tagline?

But, like thousands of gullible women everywhere, Felicity’s best friend and work partner, Aubrey, was enamored of those same billboards. “Is Jack Martinez as gorgeous in person as he is up large and far away?” she’d gushed after discovering that Felicity’s baby sister Nicki was dating Jack’s younger brother Mitch. “I think he looks just like Matt Bomer!”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Felicity had lied, because of course, she’d
noticed
. She wasn’t dead. She met Jack two months ago at a family dinner to celebrate Nicki and Mitch’s graduation from undergrad at The University of Miami. Up until then, she’d only known him through his reputation. Handsome, rich, and powerful, he was rumored to be as ruthless in person as he looked on those billboards. At thirty-three, he was at the top of his game. The heir, and current managing partner, to the richest law firm in the state.

But the Jack she’d met that night at dinner had been quietly charming. So despite his reputation and those sleazy billboards, Felicity couldn’t help but be mightily attracted to him.

After dinner, he had invited her to stay behind for a nightcap and she’d accepted. And yes, she hated to admit it, but she’d been disappointed when he hadn’t flirted with her. So after an hour of polite chitchat, she’d pitched him her small but smart (that was
her
tagline) public relations firm, because opportunities like that came along almost never.

She’d been less than two minutes into her spiel when Jack had cut her off mid-sentence. He’d motioned to the bartender to close out their bill, stood, and looked down at her with the same cold green eyes she saw every morning on those billboards. “Thanks, but no thanks.” Then he’d walked off, leaving Felicity alone at the bar, her cheeks flaming with heat.

In the aftermath, it wasn’t hard to understand his reaction. She’d crossed the line and tried to use a personal connection to sell him, and Jack Martinez, apparently, didn’t like being sold to. But really, it wasn’t like she was trying to sell him crack cocaine. And she only wanted a
little
part of his advertising dollars. Martinez and Martinez had offices all across the state. Their advertising budget must be in the millions. She’d have been a fool not to have tried. Yes, she’d messed up. But it wouldn’t have killed him to have been more gracious about the whole thing.

After that embarrassing debacle, a part of her had hoped she’d never have to see Jack again. But then a few weeks later Mitch had proposed to Nicki, and now they were going to be
family
.

Mitch Martinez was sweet and unassuming and just as smart as Nicki. They’d both been accepted into the University of Miami’s prestigious law school. Felicity liked Mitch, she really did, but he and Nicki were only twenty-two. She was still trying to wrap her head around the idea of her baby sister getting married so young when Nicki had called a couple of days ago to tell her that the wedding would be this Saturday.

“
This
Saturday. As in, a week from now?”

“Isn’t it great? There was a last minute cancellation at the Casa Blanca Resort in Mimosa Key and…oh, my God, Felicity, you’re going to love it! It’s absolutely gorgeous!”

“But…why not wait till next summer?” Or better yet, why not wait until they’d both graduated from law school? What was the big rush? Unless…

“I’m
not
pregnant,” Nicki had said, already guessing where Felicity’s mind had gone to.

“Okay. So, again, what’s the big hurry?”

“Because when you know who you want to be with for the rest of your life, you want forever to start right now.”

There were a million reasons Felicity could use to argue that sort of romantic nonsense. Between the two of them, Nicki had always been the dreamer. It wasn’t that Felicity didn’t believe in a forever kind of love. It was possible, because after all,
anything
was possible. But it seemed so much more prudent to wait till they were finished with law school and had established their careers before getting married.

Felicity was six years older than her sister and nowhere near ready to think about marriage. Besides, she was already in a committed relationship—to her job. Fourteen-hour work days at the PR firm she’d inherited from their father didn’t leave much time available for dating. She didn’t regret pitching her firm to Jack Martinez. It was what any savvy business person would do. She only regretted that she hadn’t taken the time to approach him in a more professional manner.

Not much she could do about that now, though. All she could do at this moment was smile back at Jack and try to pretend the incident had never happened. It would be awkward, yes, but despite her reservations about their upcoming marriage, this week was about Nicki and Mitch. If Jack could put his game face on, then she could too.

The valet glanced between the two of them. “I have two villas under the Martinez reservation. Are you both staying in the same one?”

“Absolutely not,” she said at the same time that Jack said, “No.”

The valet raised a brow. “O-kay. Now that we’ve got that settled, can you tell me who goes where?”

Jack handed him a set of keys. “You can have my luggage brought to wherever Ellen and Luis Martinez checked into this morning. Miss Reed will be staying in the other villa with her sister.”

Nicki checked into a villa? It sounded a lot more expensive than a regular room.

She followed the valet’s envious gaze to a snappy red sports car. Something foreign that probably cost more money than Felicity had made in her entire lifetime.

The valet grinned. “Ah! Of course. This Saturday’s big wedding. I’ll have both cars parked and the luggage sent to the correct destination. Don’t worry, sir. Here at Casa Blanca Resort and Spa, we aim to please.”

“Good to hear that.” Jack slipped the valet a bill that made the guy’s eyes bug out.

Show off
.

Wait. Did the valet say
big
wedding? When Nicki phoned to tell her that she and Mitch had decided on a whirlwind ceremony, she’d indicated it would be a small, family-only affair. One look at the resort and Felicity knew that even an intimate wedding here would cost a fortune. And a not so intimate wedding?

She mentally went through her meager savings. She hadn’t been completely honest with her sister about the family finances. If Nicki thought they had the money to pay for this wedding it was because Felicity hadn’t dispelled her of the notion. When their father died three years ago, he’d left them a lucrative public relations firm. Now, that same firm under Felicity’s management was on the verge of financial ruin. It wasn’t for her lack of work ethic, but she just didn’t seem to have the same knack David Reed had brought to the business world. It was embarrassing to think how in just a few years she’d mucked it all up.

Still, there was enough left over in the small life insurance policy their father had left to pay for a nice wedding. Just not a nice wedding
plus
three years of private law school tuition.

“After you.” Jack motioned her through the entrance to the Casa Blanca lobby, which was just as impressive inside as outside. More so, because its simplicity only enhanced its elegance. The spacious lobby was three stories high and faced the crystal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, giving the entire place a light and airy feel.

Her flip-flops made a squishy sound against the marble tile floor. It was Monday and she’d opted to try to get a half-day of work done before she’d gotten in the car to make the five-hour drive from Orlando to Mimosa Key. She’d changed out of her work clothes and into shorts and a T-shirt, and despite having the air conditioner on high the whole way over, she still felt like a piece of lettuce that had been sitting outside in the sun for too long.

Jack, on the other hand, wore what looked like a five-figure power suit. Miami wasn’t as far a drive as Orlando, but he still had to have spent a few hours in the car. Yet, here it was late July in south Florida and he looked crisp and completely put together, not one dark hair out of place. Felicity could see him now, one hand on the steering wheel, zipping through traffic while he barked out orders into his Bluetooth to some poor overworked secretary back at the office.

An attractive woman in her late thirties smiled at them from behind the desk. “Welcome to Casa Blanca. I’m Lacey Walker, the resort’s owner. I understand you’re both here for the Reed-Martinez wedding?”

“That’s right.” Jack’s gaze slowly took in his surroundings. “This is a beautiful place.”

“Thank you. My husband designed it,” she said, not bothering to hide the soft pride in her voice. “With a little guidance on my part.”

“Then you and your husband have excellent taste. You probably get asked this all the time, but did you name it after the movie?”

Lacey pointed to a Moroccan tapestry on the side wall. “What do you think?”

“I think I could happily spend the rest of my life here,” Jack said.

Lacey looked at Jack like she’d just met her new best friend. “That’s exactly what Clay and I intend to do.”

Wow
. This schmoozer Jack was a close relative to the man she’d met at dinner two months ago. But Felicity knew from experience that he could turn off the charm just as quickly as he could dole it out.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Lacey said, realizing that they’d excluded her from the conversation. “We’re talking about
Casablanca
.”

“So I gathered.” She reached across the reservation desk to shake Lacey’s hand. “I’m Felicity Reed, sister of the bride and maid of honor.”

“Jack Martinez, brother of the groom and the best man,” Jack added.

“Let me say that on behalf of myself and the rest of the staff at Casa Blanca, we’re very excited to have you here. I’ve seen the plans for the wedding and I have to say, I think the whole thing is going to be just lovely.”

Felicity felt her smile wobble.
Nicki had already consulted the wedding planners
? She had thought they’d draw up a preliminary budget, then she and Nicki and Mitch would talk to the Barefoot Bay Brides wedding planners together.

“It will just take a few minutes to check you both in,” Lacey said.

“You go first,” Jack said to Felicity. She expected him to wander away from the desk, or at least stand behind her and give her some personal space, but no, he planted himself right alongside her, like he was the boss of the world.