Ex on the Beach (39 page)

“No,” Andie continued. “He doesn’t see me as a partner. He sees me as a responsibility. But the funny thing is, in the end I don’t even think he would take on that responsibility. He has commitment issues. He walked away from me once before, he pushed Beth away last year. And he won’t even consider that both times had anything to do with his hang-ups over Tiffany.”

Andie looked at the two most special women in her life, so glad they were both there for her. “I’m somebody, too. I have a family, too. I have a life. And all of that is more important than hanging on to dreams of his he’s never going to go after. I deserve so much more than that,” she ended on a whisper.

Her mother hugged her again, and Aunt Ginny patted her hand. Both of them were misty eyed.

“I’m so proud of you,” her mother told her. “So proud for you standing up for what you believe in. And for all those years of going after what you want. I always have been.”

Andie gaped at the woman. “What are you talking about? When have you ever been proud of me?”

“Andie,” Aunt Ginny said warningly.

Okay, that was rude, but she couldn’t help it. She’d always believed she’d done nothing to remotely make her mother proud. She held up her hand to ward her aunt off.

“I know,” she said. “I’m sorry, that was rude. But, Mom? I’ve believed my whole life that I’ve let you down because I’m not as driven as you. I chose to live on the beach instead of chasing the American dream.”

Cassie laughed, the sound bitter and ugly, then surprised Andie with her next words. “You think corporate world is the American dream? It’s horrible. All those stickin-the-muds. All that red tape locking things up, keeping any real work from getting done. I hated it. Every single bit of it.”

“But you wanted something out of your life. I didn’t dream that all these years. You worked hard. You had goals. Aspirations.”

“I wanted something, yes,” Cassie said. “I wanted to be successful. And I was. But I was never happy. In fact” — she spoke softly — “I have to admit I’ve been a little jealous of you.”

“What are you talking about?” Andie glanced at Ginny to see if any of this made sense to her. Ginny merely lifted both shoulders.

Pink patches covered Cassie’s cheeks when Andie turned back to her. “Ever since you started this business,” her mother said. “I’ve loved the idea of it. It feels fun. It feels like the me I once wanted to be.”

Andie dropped her head into her hands as she tried to process the information. How had her mother never been happy? And she’d been jealous of Andie?

“There is something I’d like to ask you,” her mother said quietly. “Something I believe would make me very happy.”

Andie lifted her head and asked with her eyes. She was drained at this point, and she still had to go upstairs and talk to Penelope. She wasn’t sure how much more shock she could take.

“I’d like to buy into the business,” her mother stated. “I won’t get in your way,” she added in a rush. “I can be a silent partner if you’d rather. The money can be invested in advertising, or maybe to build a reception hall. However you feel is best. But I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of you and Ginny. And I’d love to help if you’d let me.”

Again the earth shifted.

“Mom…” Andie started. Where did she even begin? “I don’t know what to say.”

Aunt Ginny leaned in. “Say yes, Andie. And tell your mother she can help. She can do your job.”

Andie looked at her aunt. “Are you firing me?”

“No, child. I’m telling you that you have options. You could share the job with your mother. You could go work at Gin’s full-time. You could go to Boston,” she said gently. “If anything there ever changed. Or you can do something totally different. You have choices. That’s all I’m saying. You don’t have to be stuck here just because it was your idea.”

Andie had not once mentioned to her aunt that she wasn’t completely happy with the job she was doing. How did she always know what was going through her mind?

The sound of Mr. and Mrs. Jordan coming in through the back doors from their morning walk brought the conversation to a halt. They listened as the couple crossed the living room and headed for the stairs. As their voices carried away, Andie thought about Penny, and about how she had to go upstairs and break her heart.

She looked at her mother. “Before we decide, there’s something I should tell you first. It might change your mind about buying into the business.

“I’m not going to change my mind, Andie.”

She hurried on. “Seaglass isn’t exactly on solid ground at the moment. We have this loan—”

“Do not tell me Phillip Jordan is refusing to pay that bonus,” Aunt Ginny whispered harshly. She stood from her stool, hands on hips. “I’ll march right upstairs and give that man a piece of my mind if he thinks he can pull that because he’s mad at your mother and me. You and Kayla are putting on a beautiful wedding.”

“No.” Andie let out a real laugh for the first time that day. She would love to see her aunt go after Mr. Jordan. “That’s not it, but I promise if he says anything else, I’ll let you have a go at him. I’m kind of tired of his blustering, myself.”

She paused and looked from her aunt to her mother, realizing she wasn’t as ashamed to admit her shortcomings as she would have been a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t seem so much like failure today as it did a decision that had to be made. Losing the money would hurt Seaglass, but standing up for Penelope was the right thing to do.

Caring for others was the important thing. Knowing that she was making a difference. She couldn’t turn her back on someone just because she needed the money.

“I’m about to have a very crucial conversation with our bride,” she said. “And I suspect that when I get done, the result will be that Penelope will no longer be a bride.”

“Oh no,” Aunt Ginny murmured. “What’s happened?”

“I’ll tell them.”

All heads turned to the doorway, where Penelope stood.

She looked almost as bad as Andie felt. She wore a thin cotton robe that hung open over a short, light-pink silky gown. Bed head and her own set of puffy eyes completed the ensemble. And immense sadness in her features. The anguish tugged on Andie’s heart.

She knew.

Poor thing.

Andie stood and pulled Penelope over, giving her her seat.

“I’m so sorry, Penny,” Andie whispered.

Aunt Ginny slid a fresh cup of tea over, and Penny gratefully accepted it. Instead of lifting it to her lips, though, she simply wrapped long fingers around it. Andie noticed that the engagement ring she’d worn was now missing.

Cassie wet another cloth and began dabbing at Penny’s face. Andie almost laughed. Her mother had found something nurturing, and she wasn’t letting it go.

“He’s cheating on me, isn’t he?” Penny asked. She trained her gaze on Andie’s. “I’ve watched him flirting with Wendy the whole time we’ve been here, but I didn’t think he was that stupid. But my maid of honor…” Penny took a sip of tea and closed her eyes. “She followed him last night after the guys got back. He went to Wendy’s bungalow. And he didn’t show back up at his room until several hours later.”

Aunt Ginny and Cassie both looked at Andie for confirmation. Andie nodded, so sorry to witness this happening to such a sweet person. “I’m sorry, Penny. I saw him last night myself. As I was leaving Mark’s cabin. I was just coming up to talk to you.”

Penny opened her eyes and took another sip. “I appreciate that you would tell me. And I’m sorry you have to cancel everything at the last minute, but I can’t marry him.”

“Oh, honey.” Andie gave her a tight hug. “Of course you can’t marry him. If you’d insisted on going through with it, I might have stood up during the ceremony and protested myself.”

Penny chuckled, but the sound was broken.

“Have you talked to him yet?” Andie asked.

Penny shook her head. “I don’t even want to. I thought of asking my dad to do it. He likes arguing with people. But that would be cowardly. Plus, I want to see if he’ll lie to my face.”

He probably would, but Andie didn’t say it.

“You just let me know what I can do to help,” she said instead.

Penny nodded absently, then reached out and took Andie’s hand. “At least you got Mark out of this. Rob told me you two had once been engaged.”

Andie froze at the mention of Mark. She didn’t want to talk about the fact that she
didn’t
get Mark out of this, but given that her doing so might make Penny feel better, she opened her mouth and told her anyway.

“Actually,” she said, “the reason I was leaving Mark’s cabin was because we broke up.”

“Oh no,” Penny whispered, sounding almost as stricken at that as she was over Rob. “You two seem like such a perfect couple.”

“Yeah, well…” Andie shrugged and felt the tears returning. “What can you do? Some things are meant to be, and some things aren’t.”

She did not acknowledge the lifted brow her aunt gave at Andie’s last comment.

She and Mark were not meant to be. Now she simply had to get over a broken heart once and for all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A
ndie stepped carefully from behind the bar Monday afternoon and crossed the floor of Gin’s, her hands steadying the largest margarita glass she’d been able to locate. She stopped at the table where Kayla sat and studied the top of Kayla’s head as she sat hunched over documents, perusing several lists.

“Ah-hem,” Andie cleared her throat.

“Just a sec.” Kayla held up the finger of one hand while the index finger of the other continued scanning down the list. “I’m making sure we haven’t missed anything for this weekend’s wedd—”

She stopped talking when Andie set the giant drink on top of her papers. Slushy liquid sloshed over the sides.

“Give it a rest, Kayla,” Andie told her. “It’s celebration time.”

“You spilled tequila on my spreadsheets.”

“I spilled top-grade tequila on your spreadsheets. If I can handle that, so can you.” Andie pulled out a chair and sat. “Drink up — this is a party.”

Kayla eyed the giant drink with two straws sticking from it, then looked around the mostly barren room. “I’m not sure how two people constitute a party.”

“Happy Days Are Here Again” suddenly began playing from the corner as Roni joined the party. Andie smiled and motioned to the piano.

“It’s a happy-promotion party,” Andie said.

Kayla leaned back in her chair, her eyebrows disappearing beneath her bangs. “Promotion? We didn’t even have a successful wedding.”

“Which was neither of our faults,” Andie patiently explained. She actually felt good that they hadn’t had a wedding.

“That won’t stop that photographer,” Kayla said wryly. “He’s going to roast us in the magazine for the circus we had here this weekend.”

And it had definitely been a circus.

Saturday morning Kayla had gone into action, letting all guests at the hotel and in the bungalows know that the wedding was off, while Aunt Ginny and Andie had gingerly handled the family staying at the inn.

It had been interesting keeping Rob and Penny apart. Also interesting had been hearing the lies the jerk had tried out on Penny. She hadn’t bought any of them, thankfully, and had been on the first ferry out of there. Last Andie heard, Penny and her maid of honor were sitting somewhere in the Caribbean, enjoying an all-inclusive resort on Rob’s dime.

Phillip Jordan had been ready to skin Rob alive, but Rob’s parents had stepped in to take him out of the firing zone. They’d gotten him out of the house, though they had wisely
not
boarded the same ferry with Penny.

Then there had been the good-byes among everyone else. All had tried to act pleasant, as if they were neither embarrassed nor angry, and after a very long day of helping hold tempers in check, Andie had turned to find Mark standing in the foyer of the inn.

He’d come to say good-bye. And it had lasted for about ten seconds.

She supposed she should be grateful he hadn’t just disappeared as he had the last time, but she’d wished he had. Her nerves had snapped, and she’d had to spend the next thirty minutes in her room getting herself back under control.

When she’d returned, Kayla updated her that a few of the guests were staying for the weekend in the bungalows, most in the hotel were sticking around since they’d already made the trip, but all had vacated the inn.

Which had been great. She’d then had time to herself.

And she’d cried even more.

Yesterday hadn’t been much better on the tear front, but today she was good. Today she’d spent the better part of the day working through details of her mother buying into the business, and had actually caved on her plan of selling the bar to pay off the loan.

She’d felt it was her responsibility to do so, but given that her mother was investing more than the payment amount, Andie had finally been convinced that selling wouldn’t be wise. They made too much money using the bar for wedding events. Not to mention, she was looking forward to spending more time there, now that her mother would be shouldering a lot of Seaglass business.

Andie waved away Kayla’s concerns about the photographer. “I stuck my mother on Michael,” she told her. “We’ll be covering his cost down for another wedding later in the season, and he won’t be writing up anything about the Jordan-Masterson debacle.”

“Wow. Your mother is impressive. Must have some negotiation skills to not only get him to remain quiet but to come back and give us another chance.” Kayla gingerly pulled her folder and the dripping papers from under the drink and moved them to the side. She blotted the alcohol from her lists then enjoyed a long drink of the frozen margarita. “That’s a damned good drink, Ms. Shayne,” she said around a moan of pleasure.

“Why thank you, ma’am.” Andie nodded in acknowledgment, then returned to the conversation about her mother. “And yes, she is impressive. All those years in the corporate world weren’t totally wasted.” She held her breath for a pause. “She’s also your new minion.”

“My what?”

Andie shrugged and smiled. “Minion. She’s buying into the company, so I can’t very well make you her boss, but you’re in charge. She’s going to take over my responsibilities. But I need you to be the one to keep things going.” She studied Kayla, hoping this was what the other woman wanted. She shared Kayla’s new salary with her. “You’re good with all this, right? And Mom has lots of ideas, so we might be growing even more. We’ll hire additional help when the time comes.”