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Worst of all were the last few sentences of the email.
Candy’s birthday is coming up next month, and she’d like to have you at the party. She’ll be contacting you with the details. I expect to see you there. Don’t disappoint her.
Hudson wanted to pound his head on the table.
He had no idea why Candace, Alexander’s fourth wife, was so determined to have him join occasions that should be limited to family and friends. Sure, he wastechnicallyfamily, in that he was Alexander’s oldest child. However, it was a relationship that Hudson preferred not to acknowledge.
And Alexander hadn’t acknowledged it either, outside of letting his wife and three other kids know. As far as Remington Properties was concerned, Hudson was just another employee who had quickly climbed the ranks.
Hudson was a bit surprised no one had put together the pieces, given how alike he and Alexander looked. However, it was rare that they were in the same place at the same time, and there were no pictures of Hudson anywhere on the Remington website for people to compare with Alexander’s.
It was aggravating to essentially be summoned to make an appearance at the party. Hudson knew that Alexander was already annoyed that he’d avoided Candace’s invitation for him to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s with the family. Instead, he’d made plans to be away from New York on business during each of those holidays, well in advance, figuring she’d want him present.
Unfortunately, he’d forgotten about her birthday. While he’d been able to argue that traveling for twenty-four hours from Asia to attend Christmas celebrations or a New Year’s Eve party was ridiculous, he wouldn’t be able to make the same argument since he had no plans to travel outside of the US so Alexander would just send the private jet to wherever Hudson was to make sure he complied.
The strange thing was that Alexander’s three kids with Candace seemed to like having him around. At least once a week, Hudson would get a text from one of the two older ones, asking him to intercede on their behalf with their parents over one matter or another.
At the moment, Xander, the fifteen-year-old, was locked in a battle with his mom over what car he should receive for his sixteenth birthday. He wanted a sports car. His mom wanted an armored SUV. Alexander would probably side with Candace.
For some reason, Xander thought that Hudson would hold some sway over his mom. That was a laughable idea. So far, he’d managed to steer clear of having to come out on either side.
Hudson had received a car when he’d turned sixteen—his first birthday after his mom was killed. Alexander had given him what he’d asked for, which had, indeed, been a sports car. He hadn’t mentioned that to Xander because he didn’t really want to have Candace, and therefore Alexander, angry with him.
Having Alexander angry with him could lead to unpleasantness that Hudson was just too tired to have to deal with. All he had in his life was his job, and Alexander had the power to take it away.
Ugh. He was going to have to go to the birthday party.
Candace better not insist that he bring a date because that wasnotgoing to happen. Except that if he said he wasn’t going to bring one, she’d have a whole slew of eligible women to introduce him to.
Unbidden, he wondered what Kayleigh would say if he asked her to go as his date. Or what Alexander would say. He was discovering that Kayleigh was a rarity, in that he actually didn’t mind spending time with her.
Having met Kayleigh now, he could understand what might draw Alexander to her, but something told Hudson that she wouldn’t give Alexander—a married man—the time of day as anything more than her boss. It was possible that he’d misjudged Alexander’s interest in Kayleigh and the Serenity Point resort.
Pushing aside those thoughts for the time being, Hudson forced himself to focus on the email and the best and most diplomatic way to tell Alexander that if he wanted to run this investigation, he could come to Serenity and take care of it himself.
As Kayleigh had predicted, Hudson didn’t hear from Wilder until after the sun had set.
“Have you had dinner?” Hudson asked when Wilder called.
“Not yet. I just finished up with my last group.”
“Want to join me for dinner? I haven’t eaten yet either.”
“I’m not really in any condition to eat in the places here,” Wilder said with a laugh.
“That’s not a problem. Come up to the suite where I’m staying, and we can eat here.”
“Sure. I can do that.”
“Steak okay? Or would you rather have burgers?”
“Steak would be great. Medium rare with a baked potato.”
“I’ll phone that in, and hopefully it won’t take too long to arrive.”
“I need to change, so there’s no rush.”
After he’d given Wilder directions to the suite, Hudson hung up and called room service. Given that Wilder had been on the slopes all day, Hudson assumed the guy was probably going to be starving. With that thought in mind, in addition to the steak and potato, he ordered some soup, extra rolls, and dessert.
