Gentle Persuasion (21 page)

And then, because she knew she had to do it quickly, before she could allow any fear to make her hesitate, she looked Cole straight in the eye.

“I’m so sorry, Cole. But I can’t marry you.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

D
ANE
FELT
EVERY
bit of tension drain from his body as Ophelia rejected Cole’s proposal. Before anyone could react, Ophelia snapped the lid of the ring’s box closed, stood and fled the room. He waited only a split second before he rose to follow her.

He caught up to her as she was heading for the restaurant’s foyer, her face flushed and her eyes wide.

“Ophelia.” He called her name softly at first and then, when she didn’t respond, a little louder. “Ophelia!”

He sensed others turning to look—Indigo’s patrons as well as staff, but he ignored them as she turned to face him.

“I can’t breathe,” she announced. “Dane, I c-can’t breathe.”

“Here.” He placed his hand on her back and steered her into the foyer and then outside the restaurant. Ophelia began gasping, drawing in great gulps of the cool night air.

“It’s okay,” he said, his hand making small circles of reassurance on her back. “You’re okay.”

She shuddered slightly and then stilled. “I didn’t expect that.” She drew another deep breath and then ran a hand over her hair. Her fingers brushed her ears, and she gasped. “The earrings. I need to give him back the earrings.” She moved like she was going to go back inside and then stopped in her tracks. “I can’t face him. I can’t face
her.
”

“You mean your mother?”

She met his eyes. “Dane, she’s going to kill me.”

He frowned. “Because you turned down a proposal from a man you don’t love?”

“You don’t understand.”

He didn’t respond to this. “You can return the earrings later. Ophelia. Ophelia, look at me.”

She did as he commanded. “I think you did the right thing.”

Whatever she saw on his face must have arrested her attention because she stopped her nervous fidgeting and held on to his gaze. “I did,” she affirmed. “I don’t love him.”

Dane couldn’t help it. He grinned. “No. I didn’t really think you did.”

She relaxed, whether in relief or in response to his words, he couldn’t be sure.

“Dane—”

“Ophelia—”

They both exhaled and laughed softly. A couple emerged from the restaurant and eyed them curiously before moving on down the sidewalk. Dane took her hand and pulled her away from the Indigo entrance.

“You first,” he said.

“I...um, no, you go ahead.”

“Oh. All right.” He cleared his throat, debating where to begin. “I’ve missed you.”

She took a step closer to him. “I’ve missed you, too.”

He still held her hand and now he reached for the other one, as well. “I wanted to apologize.”

“Apologize?”

“For everything I said about Paris. That’s your dream, and I had no right to grill you so hard about it. You don’t need to be able to explain it or justify it. If you believe in it, that’s enough.”

She stared at him.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“And I wondered...” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “If you’d be willing to share it with me.”

Her eyes widened once more, and he found himself automatically squeezing her fingers in his.

“Ophelia, I mean it. I’ve missed you these last few weeks, more than I ever could have imagined possible.” He drew a breath. “When I first met you, I didn’t really see you. I only saw your purpose in coming to Hawaii and the fact that you were from New York. But during that week in Kona, I had the opportunity to get to know
you,
and after that point, there was no going back. I fell in love with you. I’m in love with you, Ophelia.” This was it. “I love you.”

She didn’t respond so he forged ahead.

“I’ve never met anyone like you before—you challenge me at the same time you let me know you care about me. You have faith that I can find my way to any solution. You...make me better, as cliché as that might sound. And the thought of you leaving, of being separated from you...it’s more than I can stand. So...” He licked his lips. “I’d like to come to Paris with you. If you’ll let me.”

She pulled her hands from his and took a step back, her lips parting in surprise. “You want to come with me? To Paris? But...you can’t. You have to stay here, with Bianca.”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll give it all up. I’ll sell the coffee plantation. I’ll go back to square one. I’ll do anything I have to if it means I can be with you.”

“Oh, Dane.”

“Ophelia.” He took a step forward and reached for her hands once more. “You changed everything. I could never imagine the woman I’d want to wake up to every day for the rest of my life. But you’re that woman. And if I have to go to Paris to prove it to you, that’s what I’ll do.”

“No. I can’t let you do that.”

His grip on her fingers tightened as he tugged her close. She didn’t resist.

“You said it yourself. Paris is my dream, not yours. I can’t let you give everything up like this. What about Keahi, Leilani and Pele?”

“I’ll make sure they’re provided for somehow.”

“And your contract with Towers Resorts?”

“I’ll break it. I’ll return the signing bonus.”

“How? Hasn’t it already gone to pay back Masters?”

“Then I’ll sell the plantation to pay back the bonus.”

“What if I gave you the money?”

“What?”

“I have some money set aside. It might not be quite enough to pay back the bonus, but we could find a way.”

“No, Ophelia. No, I’m not taking your money.”

“Dane, listen to yourself. Think about what you’re doing—you’d be giving everything up.
Everything.
”

“Not you. I’d still have you.” He reached up to wrap his palm against the back of her neck and leaned his forehead into hers. “Please, Ophelia. Let me come with you.”

He could feel her tears falling onto his own cheeks.

“You would hate me,” she whispered. “Maybe not at first, but eventually...it would change everything.”

“No. It wouldn’t.”

“It would.” She pulled back to meet his eyes.

“You love me.”

She didn’t deny it.

“Tell me you don’t love me.”

“I can’t,” she said, the tears continuing to well in her eyes. “But, Dane, I can’t ask you to do this, either.”

“You asked Cole,” he pointed out.

“It wasn’t the same. It’s
because
I love you that I can’t ask you to do this. You can’t give up on the plantation, not for me.”

“Ophelia.”

She shook her head, and he held her all the tighter.

“Then what happens next?”

“I’ll go to Paris, and you...” She sniffed. “You’ll do what you came here to do and then, in another few years, you’ll retire again to run your coffee plantation, which will be known all over the islands as one of the best farms in Hawaii.”

“And where will you be when that happens?”

She frowned and finally pulled out of his arms.

“Ophelia.” He said her name again.

“I have to go, Dane.”

He watched her for a long moment before she turned to leave.

“Ophelia.”

She turned back.

“It was a pleasure.”

It might have been his imagination, but it looked as if fresh tears rose into her eyes just before she turned away and hurried down the sidewalk.

* * *

W
HEN
D
ANE
TURNED
to reenter the restaurant, he found Bianca Towers standing several yards away.

“That was painful to watch.”

He felt a prickling of irritation, knowing he and Ophelia had had an audience.

“No one asked you to,” he stated.

“I know. I’m sorry. But I couldn’t leave.”

He gestured toward Indigo’s entrance. “Did the party break up?”

“Oh, it’s a whole roomful of awkward in there. I already asked for the car to be sent around. I don’t think you want to go back inside.”

“Cole’s licking his wounds?”

“Lillian is doing damage control. Maybe you were right, about not feeling sorry for her. I don’t envy Ophelia Reid. My mother may be a raging alcoholic, but at least she’s not trying to control every aspect of my life. I have a board of directors for that.”

Her dry tone caused him to smile despite the lingering ache in his chest. “But you’re handling them like a pro.”

She gave a little bow and just then, their town car pulled up to the curb. Dane took care of tipping the valet before he slid behind the wheel. He drove in silence, even as he felt Bianca’s eyes occasionally studying him.

“Is it true?” she asked after a while. “About your plantation? Is that really your dream?”

He glanced her way. “You didn’t know that?”

She looked out the window of the passenger’s side. “I didn’t think you’d be that serious about it.” She turned to study him again. “It’s a big change from what you used to do.”

“That’s exactly why I love it.” Perhaps he shouldn’t have been speaking so freely in front of his young boss, but after the conversation he’d just had—the loss of yet another dream—he no longer had the energy to be tactful.

“So why give it up?”

He focused his attention on the road. “I needed the money.”

“Oh.”

In a family like hers, he couldn’t imagine that money was ever an issue.

“So...it wasn’t because you wanted to work for me?”

He hesitated, uncertain how to respond to this. Suddenly, Bianca laughed.

“I’m just teasing you, Dane. It’s okay. Only...I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” He knew his tone was incredulous.

“I am. Is that so hard to believe?”

“Why should you be sorry?”

Bianca shrugged. “I didn’t think about it—about you having to leave behind your own life to come here. I guess it was selfish of me, but you’ve actually really helped me.” She drew a breath. “For a long time, all I’ve wanted was to contribute to the family business. I guess that was
my
dream, but the board of directors seemed pretty determined to push me out.” She looked at him. “Your coming here made all the difference.”

“Someone once told me that no one should be bullied into giving up on their dreams.” He felt a pang in his stomach, missing Ophelia all over again.

“Wise words,” Bianca agreed.

They rode in silence for several minutes more.

“Bianca,” he began and then stopped.

He felt her eyes on him, and he tore his attention briefly from the road to look at her face. She was young, ambitious and eager to take on the world around her. She reminded him of himself, so many years ago. But he wasn’t that person anymore. And New York was not his home.

“I want to go back to Hawaii.”

He looked back at the road before he could witness her reaction.

“What, for like, a visit? To check up on things?”

“No.” He felt his stomach twist itself into a knot at the same time he felt the burden lifting from his shoulders. “No, I want to go back...for good. It’s my home now. The people there, they’ve become my family.”

She fell silent, and he didn’t at first have the nerve to look her way. When he did, she was staring out her window again.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do this.”

“You signed a contract,” she reminded him, her words accusatory. “You asked me to double the bonus, and I did. You took the money.”

“I know.”

Silence descended between them until Dane finally flicked on the car’s four-way flashers and pulled to the side of the street. He turned to face her, but she presented him her shoulder and kept staring out the window.

“Bianca...you don’t need me.”

She shifted to look at him. “Yes, I do. Nobody thinks I’m anybody without you. You’re the one thing I did that they can’t argue with—I convinced you to come out of retirement.”

“You did,” he agreed. “And nothing’s going to change that. I came back.” He drew a breath and then released it. “And now it’s time for me to leave again.”

“No,” she repeated. “No, I won’t allow it.”

He felt both irritation and pity for her. “I’ll have to break the contract,” he admitted, “and find a way to pay back the signing bonus.” He swallowed hard at the thought of where the money would have to come from—no more plantation, no more inn. But at least he could be with the people he loved.

Except for Ophelia. He felt a stab of pain at the thought but ignored it.

“You can’t keep me here,” he reminded her gently, “if I don’t want to stay.”

He watched her struggling with these words and felt sympathy for her. He had grown to genuinely like Bianca. But it wasn’t enough to make him want to stay.

“Take me home,” she said.

He hesitated. “Do you want—”

“Take me home,” she repeated, turning cold, clear eyes on him. “I’ll have the lawyer begin drawing up the termination papers in the morning.”

He looked at her for only a heartbeat longer before putting the car back in gear. And while a part of him felt relieved to be free, a cloud of uncertainty cast a shadow over his relief.

What had he just done?

* * *

L
ILLIAN
RECEIVED
THE
news the following morning on her personal cell phone before she’d had any coffee. She’d tossed and turned most of the night, annoyed by Ophelia’s rejection of Cole’s proposal and wondering how she had raised a daughter so absolutely different from herself. Cole may not have been the man of Ophelia’s dreams, but that was exactly why she preferred him for Ophelia. Her daughter would have less risk with a man like Cole—he had proven himself to be solid and stable, not to mention capable. He would never leave her, never break her heart, as Lillian’s own had been broken.

The same could not be said of a man like Dane Montgomery, who had thrown away a promising career in favor of some wild scheme to cultivate coffee in paradise.

Lillian’s own experience with love had taught her that it was not something to give oneself over to completely. She had worked hard to keep her daughter from the tragedies she had encountered in life. And to see Ophelia so carelessly disregard Cole’s offer left a bitter taste in her mouth.

The feeling still lingered when she awoke the morning after her dinner party with a splitting headache, a dry mouth and not an ounce of coffee in her loft apartment.