“Let’s go see if we can find a place for the ceremony.”
She had to go with him. It was her job. But tropical breezes seemed to be the least of her problems at the moment.
“I should be getting danger pay,” she muttered to herself.
“Don’t worry, I won’t be letting you anywhere near any rocks.”
No sense clarifying with him that was not where the danger she was worried about was coming from. Not at all.
They were almost at the edge of the lawn when a voice stopped them.
“Miss Becky. Mr. Drew.”
They turned to see Tandu struggling across the lawn with a huge wicker basket. “So sorry, no good with blood. Take you to place for wedding vow now.”
“Oh, did you tell him we were looking for a new ceremony site?” Becky asked. “That was smart.”
“Naturally, I would like to take credit for being smart, but I didn’t tell him. They must do weddings here all the time. He’s used to this.”
“Follow, follow,” Tandu ordered.
They fell into step behind him, leaving the lawn and entering the deep, vibrant green of the jungle forest. Birds chattered and the breeze lifting huge leaves made a sound, too.
“Actually, the owner of the island told me they had hosted some huge events here, but never a wedding,” Becky told Drew. “He’s the music mogul, Bart Lung. He’s a friend of Allie’s. He’s away on business but he’ll be back for the wedding. He’s very excited about it.”
“Are you excited about meeting him?”
“I guess I hadn’t really thought about it. We better catch up to Tandu, he’s way ahead of us.”
* * *
Drew contemplated what had just happened with a trace of self-loathing.
Are you excited about meeting him? As bad as asking the question was how much he had liked her answer. She genuinely seemed not to have given a thought to meeting Bart Lung.
But what had motivated Drew to ask such a question? Surely he hadn’t been feeling a bit threatened about Becky meeting the famously single and fabulously wealthy record broker? He couldn’t possibly have felt the faintest little prickle of...jealousy.
He never felt jealous. He’d had women he had dated who had tried to make him jealous, and he’d been annoyed by how juvenile that felt. But at the heart of it, he knew they had wanted him to show what he couldn’t: that he cared.
But he’d known from the moment she had instigated that kiss that Becky English was different from what his brother liked to call the rotating door of women in his life. The chemistry between them had been unexpected, but Drew had had chemistry before. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was about the cheerleader-turned-event-planner that intrigued him, but he knew he had to get away from it.
Which was exactly why he had marched up to her room. He had two reasons, and two reasons only, to interact with her: the pavilion and the ceremony site. He’d promised his brother and Becky his help, and once the planning for his assigned tasks was solidly in place, he could minimize his interactions with her. He was about to get very busy with construction. That would leave much less time for contemplating the lovely Miss English.
“I hate to say it,” he told Becky, looking at Tandu’s back disappearing down a twisting path in front of them, “but I’ve already been over this stretch of the island. There is no—”
“This way, please.” Tandu had stopped and was holding back thick jungle fronds. “Path overgrown a bit. I will tell gardening staff. Important for all to be ready for big day, eh?”
It was just a short walk, and the path opened onto a beautiful crescent of beach. Drew studied it from a construction point of view. He could see the high tide line, and it would be perfect for building a small pavilion and setting up chairs for the two hundred guests. Three large palms grew out of the center of the beach, their huge leathery leaves shading almost the entire area.
Becky, he could see, was looking at it from a far less practical standpoint than he was. She turned to look at him. Her eyes were shiny with delight, and those little plump lips were curved upward in the nicest smile.
Task completed! Drew told himself sternly. Pavilion, check. Wedding location, check. Missing brother...well, that had nothing to do with her. He had to get away from her—and her plump little lips—and stay away from her.
“It’s perfect,” he said. “Do you agree?”
She turned those shining eyes to him. “Agree?” she said softly. “Have you ever seen such a magical place in your whole life?”
He looked around with magic in mind rather than construction. He was not much of a magic kind of person, but he supposed he had not seen a place quite like this before. The whole beach was ringed with thick shrubs with dark green foliage. Tucked in amongst the foliage was an abundance of pale yellow and white flowers the size of cantaloupes. The flowers seemed to be emitting a perfume that was sweet and spicy at the same time. Unfortunately, that made him think of her lips again.
He glared at the sand, which was pure white and finer than sugar. They were in a cove of a small bay, and the water was striped in aqua shades of turquoise, all the way out to a reef, where the water turned dark navy blue, and the waves broke, white-capped, over rocks.
“Well,” he said, “I’ll just head back.”
“Do you ever just answer a question?”
“Sit, sit,” Tandu said from behind them.
Drew swung around to look at him. While he had been looking out toward the sea, Tandu had emptied the wicker basket he carried. There was a blanket set up in the sand, and laid out on it was a bottle of wine, beaded with sweat, two wineglasses and two plates. There was a platter of blackened chicken, fresh fruit and golden, steaming croissants.
“What the hell?” Drew asked.
“Sit, sit—amens...amens.”
“I’m not following,” Drew said. He saw that Becky had had no trouble whatsoever plopping herself down on the blanket. Had she forgotten she’d lost a whole day? She had to be seriously behind schedule.
“I make amens,” Tandu said quietly, “for not doing first aid.”
“Oh, amends,” Drew said uncomfortably. “Really, it’s not necessary at all. I have a ton of stuff to do. I’m not very hungry.” This was a complete lie, though he had not realized quite how hungry he was until the food had magically appeared.
Tandu looked dejected that his offer was being refused.
“You very irritated with me,” Tandu said sadly.
Becky caught his eye, lifted her shoulder—come on, be a sport—and patted the blanket. With a resigned shake of his head, Drew lowered himself onto the blanket. He bet if he ate one bite of this food that had been set out the spell would be complete.
“Look, I wasn’t exactly irritated.” This was as much a lie as the one about how he wasn’t hungry, and he had a feeling Tandu was not easily fooled. “I was just a little surprised by a first aid man who doesn’t like blood.”
“Oh, yes,” Tandu said happily. “Sit, sit, I fix.”
“I am sitting. There’s to nothing to fix.” Except that Sainte Simone needed a new first aid attendant—before two hundred people descended on it would be good—but Drew found he did not have the heart to tell Tandu that.
Maybe the place was as magical as it looked, because he found himself unable to resist sitting