Page 5 of Stars Shine In Your Eyes

For pride’s sake, and for Genevieve, he didn’t want to see this deal fail at the last second.

And then Mari had called from the bookstore, pleading with him to pick up a woman named Josie at the airport and take her to his houseboat. He’d been happy to lend the houseboat—he rarely had time to go there these days—but did he have to play chauffeur too? Didn’t she know that his days at the office started at six in the morning and usually ended more than fourteen hours later? But when she’d explained that she’d already tried every other person in his family and that he was her very last resort before calling an impersonal car service to do the pickup, that had grated too. Why was he the last on her call list?

Of course, he knew precisely why. Mari not only knew how busy he was, she also knew that he could be a grumpy git at the best of times.

He ran a hand over his face, the ridiculously low number of hours he had been sleeping lately finally catching up with him. He was lucky that he never needed much sleep. Even for him, however, the four hours he’d been getting each night during the past week weren’t cutting it.

It should have been a good thing that he had a vacation to Thailand to look forward to, but even that was a mess. All because the woman he was supposed to go to Thailand with… Well, to put it bluntly, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to have dinner with her anymore, let alone spend a week in a foreign country with her.

It wasn’t that Katrina wasn’t beautiful, because she was quite possibly one of the most stunning women he’d ever dated. Unfortunately, it turned out that he needed more than looks to keep from being bored, a lesson he had learned—or rather had failed to learn—from one relationship to the next.

A part of him wondered if he should just suck it up and make it through the week in Thailand before telling Katrina that he thought there was someone better out there for her. You know, the whole “it’s not you, it’s me” speech.

But frankly, he wasn’t sure he’d make it through the flight to Thailand with her vacuous conversation, let alone a week on a beach. Inevitably, he’d want to parasail or trek through the jungle, and she’d complain that he wasn’t spending enough time with her, even though she’d be spending all of her time in a bikini on a chaise longue, scrolling through her social media feeds and posting pictures intended to make everyone who followed her jealous.

If she would read a book on the beachfront lounger, that wouldn’t seem nearly as bad. But no one he dated ever seemed to read. It was a pity, because when Malcolm wasn’t at the office, or hanging out with his family, the one thing he liked to do was read. Books about military history and business, mostly, along with a few novels.

In deep contrast to all of the women he had dated over the years, Josie had packed an entire suitcase with books. And the truth was that he didn’t remember much about her from high school beyond two things.

She’d always been reading.

And he had kissed her.

A kiss he had wanted to apologize for ever since.

Not actually the kiss, which had been surprisingly good as far as he could remember through his beer goggles. It was what had come after.

Oh man. After.

It hadn’t been pretty.

For so many years afterward, he’d thought about trying to look her up so that he could apologize. But he never had. Because what could he have said to her beyond, I was that British bloke in high school who completely messed with you at the prom, and I’ve felt bad about it ever since.

There was nothing he could say to make up for what he’d done, and it seemed more cruel to bring it up again. At least, that’s what he told himself at two a.m. on nights when he couldn’t sleep and the memories came back, making him feel like the biggest arsehole in the world.

Josie stirred, and since he didn’t want her to think he’d been staring at her like some weird stalker while she slept, he got out of the car and went to lift her luggage out of the backseat, which was the only place in his sports car where her bags would fit. He drove a vehicle meant for racing down the autobahn, not picking up people at the airport.

She stirred again as he pulled out the suitcases, then yawned and rubbed her eyes, looking around as though she had no clue where she was. Transatlantic flights could be brutal, especially if you weren’t a good plane sleeper. He’d always had a knack for dropping off when he needed to, which was handy with all the business travel that came with his job. It would be nice, he suddenly found himself thinking, to travel for pleasure instead of business, at least once in a while.

Which was exactly what his upcoming trip to Thailand was supposed to be about. Just relaxing. But though he intellectually understood the concept of relaxation, it didn’t mean he was great at putting it into practice. Already, he knew what he’d be doing in Thailand. Not parasailing or trekking through any jungles. Instead of having any kind of adventures at all, he’d be on his computer dealing with email, or on a video call, or on his phone with someone back at the office or a new client he wanted to land.

The only time he didn’t do those three things was during meals with his family. His mother, Penny, had no tolerance for anyone being on the phone while they were together as a family, unless it was an emergency.

The one time he’d told her it was an emergency (it wasn’t), she’d taken the phone out of his hand and said, “This is Malcolm’s mother. Right now, he should be enjoying this meal with his family. He will call you back later.” Then she’d hung up and tucked his phone into her pocket for the rest of the evening.

Clearly, it was better for everyone if he simply respected his mother’s wishes. She was as kind a woman as they came, always ready with a smile and a laugh, always prepared to help you any way she could. But if you crossed her or made her angry?

Well, let’s just say it was best not to get on the wrong side of Penny Sullivan.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” Josie said as she got out of the car, yawning again. As she stretched her arms over her head, her sweater and jeans conformed to her body in an accidentally sexy way.

He should’ve looked away. Hell, he was trying to look away. But she had a stunning figure. She wasn’t overly thin like most of the women he went out with. Instead, Josie had curves in all the places he liked to see them.

Yet again, he tried to connect the adult Josie with the teenage Josephine he’d kissed at prom. She must’ve been fifteen at the time? And he was pretty sure she’d had glasses back then.

He never should have kissed her that night. But when the group he’d gone to the prom with had brought booze—and plenty of it—Malcolm had felt compelled to keep up with their partying. He grimaced, remembering being seventeen, drunk, and stupid as a brick.

Stupider.

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