Page 10 of The Other Plan

Eric called me again, so I shook my head and started toward him. I looked over to the mansion Jenna had disappeared inside and wondered if I’d ever see her again. I wondered if once again she’d poof out of my life as abruptly as she’d poofed into it. It took everything inside me not to tear across the yard, kick open the door and demand an explanation for why she’d left me.

And why she and her sister were treating me like a pariah.

“Carter! Meet my soon-to-be mother-in-law,” Eric said, slapping me on the back and pulling me into the circle of elegantly dressed women. “This is Carter, my best man. We met when we got assigned as college roommates and have been best friends ever since.”

The elegant, aged woman stuck out her hand and offered it to me. “Pleased to meet you, Carter. Eric has told me very nice things about you.”

“Pleased to meet you as well. You’re inheriting a great son-in-law. They don’t come any better than Eric.”

His bright white grin widened as he thanked me with his eyes. I’d heard for months how Valentina’s family intimidated him. Eric and I hadn’t been raised with millions of dollars and private jets, and this world was as foreign to him as it was to me. Neither of us were hurting for money with our jobs in New York, but we also weren’t going to be buying summer villas in Italy anytime soon.

Well, maybe after this week, when he married into the Bronson fortune, he would.

To keep up my promise to make him look good all week long, I tried to quell the confusion and shock seeing Jenna had whipped up in me, and I started charming the pants off the Bronson women now gathering around to hear some stories about Eric.

The good ones. The PG ones. Not the ones that ended with us waking up on a beach in Thailand after that one night our senior year spring break that neither of us remembered.

The sun set while I finished up another story that had Aunt Tilly, Lydia, Valentina, and a few other party guests clutching their stomachs from laughter. I’d never been to Door County before, but the breathtaking sunsets I’d heard about didn’t begin to compare to the real thing. A rainbow of vibrant colors stretched over the water and set the sky on fire. I hadn’t seen a sunset as beautiful as this since that spring break when I’d sat and watched one in Hawaii with Jenna.

As I stared down by the water, I saw a twenty-something man rushing back and forth along the beach, lighting candles in bags that glowed against the darkening sky. And then Jenna walked up to him, and my heart stopped the same way it had when I’d seen her sitting in the sand all those years ago.

Tonight, she wore a beautiful gold cocktail dress that stopped short of her knees and showed off the legs I’d always admired. Even in the dimming light, she looked radiant with her hair swept up into a formal twist, and those red lips looked just as kissable as they had the first night I’d pressed my own to them.

“Eric,” Aunt Tilly said to him as she clutched my bicep and pulled my attention from the beach, “your friend is a marvel. I think he’ll keep us entertained all week long. Won’t you, Carter?”

I swallowed hard to regain the speech that seeing Jenna again stole from me, then spun back to face Aunt Tilly with a smile spread across my face.

“I am looking forward to an entire week surrounded by all you beautiful Bronson women.”

They all swooned at my smile, and it wasn’t the first time a woman had melted under my charms. In fact, most women blushed when I smiled at them. And remembering that fact made me turn my attention back to Jenna. She may be ignoring me now, but it was too much of a coincidence we’d both ended up here, and I intended to get those answers I’d been denied all these years.

I deserved to know why she’d left me.

“If you ladies would excuse me, I’m going to go check out the sunset from the beach. Eric has told me about the incredible sunsets from your backyard, and he wasn’t exaggerating.”

“Please, do enjoy it. There is nothing more soothing than watching a sunset with the lapping of the waves,” Lydia said with a smile.

“I’ll see you all soon.” I shot a look to Eric, who thanked me with his eyes for all the subtle compliments about him I’d worked into my stories.

I looked at my empty drink and then back at the bar, but the sister stood with a man at her side who impaled me with a mirrored glare. I decided that even though I wanted another one of those tasty drinks, I’d better avoid the woman who looked more likely to skewer me than an olive.

A server passed by with a tray of champagne, so I exchanged my empty glass for a flute. With liquid courage leading me on, I strode across the yard to the candlelit path leading me to the beach.

And to Jenna.

She stood next to the fire with flames rising higher as the man tossed more kindling onto it. The warm golden light from the flames illuminated her sun-kissed skin, and I wondered if it still felt as soft as it used to. He tossed another log on the fire, and then his eyes lifted to meet mine. They widened and darted to Jenna, and I saw him whisper something to her that sent her head on a swivel toward me.

“Hey, Jenna,” I said as I approached, but the stiff, unwelcoming postures from them nearly stopped me in the sand.

Jenna’s eyes flashed shock when they locked with mine, then softened into something resembling a pained sadness. I held her gaze for a moment before she dropped her gaze to the ground and spun away.

“I’ll be by the caterers if you need me,” she quickly said to him, then hurried off toward the other path leading back to the estate.

“Jenna!” I called after her and started to speed up, but the tall guy stepped into my path and raked me up and down with a condemnatory gaze. I stopped and looked over his shoulder to see Jenna rushing up the wooden path between the tall beach reeds on either side.

“She’s busy, Carter,” he said with a dramatic pause between each word.

His pursed lips and raised eyebrows resembled the same look Jenna’s sister had given me, and I dropped my arms to my sides with a huff.