Page 29 of One Naughty Night (Single in South Beach)

“Great. Gang up on me why don’t you?” Grumbling to his sister for a few more minutes, he finished up his phone call and wondered if she had a point.

How the hell could he show Esme he wasn’t overbearing if he reallywas? He wanted to help her fight her battles, damn it, not fight them for her.

His hands smoothed over the wood while he brooded. Until a light bulb flicked on somewhere inside his brain. He still didn’t have any idea how to put Esme at ease.

But he suddenly knew exactly what to do with this flawless slab of maple wood.

ChapterNine

Esme had just barely found time to change her clothes and boil water for tea when her doorbell rang. Smoothing a flustered hand over the hair she’d only just taken out of its ponytail, she flung open the door to greet her guest.

Dressed in an emerald colored suit featuring long silk shorts instead of pants, Pauline Wolcott looked like a walking department store advertisement with her perfectly matched shoes and handbag, a thick gold chain around her neck.

“Hello, Esmerelda.” Mrs. Wolcott never failed to greet her with a formal politeness Esme’s mother would appreciate. But while Pauline Wolcott was quick to make new friends with her neighbors, Esme’s mother still maintained a quiet aloofness. She felt happiness among books in her work as a research librarian.

Esme invited Pauline in and settled her on the sofa before retrieving a floral teapot and the same blue ceramic mugs she’d used to serve Renzo coffee in that morning. Renzo.

He hadn’t been far from her thoughts all day.

“I hope you’ll excuse the mugs.” Esme settled the cups on a black lacquer Chinese tray she’d unearthed from the back of her cupboard and brought the drinks into the living room. “They don’t give quite the same effect as your pretty silver tea service.”

Tea was an event in Pauline’s apartment. In fact, it had been over a cup of perfectly steeped Earl Gray that Esme had let herself be talked into the ill-fated blind date.

Though, considering she’d met Renzo that night, perhaps it had not been so ill fated after all.

“According to my daughter, I’ve wasted too much of my life on ceremonial sipping and superficial conversation anyway. Perhaps one day my silver service will be an old relic in that museum of yours.” She tasted her steaming drink, a hand full of heavy dinner rings clinking against the ceramic. “But that is neither here nor there when we have more important things to discuss. Such as that enticing young man I spied leaving your apartment this morning.”

Esme gulped her Darjeeling too fast, choking and sputtering at the unexpected comment.

“Oh. About the man.” Where to start explaining her adventures in Club Paradise? “I stumbled across him um—sort of accidentally the other night when I was supposed to have met Hugh. I’m so--”

“I must apologize for that mix-up, my dear.” Pauline leaned forward to pat Esme’s hand. “Apparently my nephew’s flight back to the States was delayed and he is still detained overseas with his job. I can’t imagine why he didn’t let me know earlier in the day when he knew I had arranged a lovely evening for him. But he is actually only my nephew by a very brief marriage, you know. His family was never very good about communication.”

Shaking her head, she seemed perplexed. Esme, on the other hand, wasn’t in the least surprised Hugh Duncan had found other things to do with his Saturday night than meet a blind date arranged by an eccentric step-aunt.

Relieved that she hadn’t stood up the man at all, Esme hastened to reassure her neighbor. “Things worked out just fine anyway. I think it helped to mingle with new people, pry myself out of my comfort zone.”

The night out had let her take a few chances, risks that had paid off in surprisingly positive experiences. Even this morning and all its awkwardness had been a win of sorts. She’d set a boundary. One she’d second guessed all day. But still. She’d done it.

“Yes, well if the gentleman I saw swimming laps in the pool at sunrise was the result of your mingling, I would agree things worked out for the best.” Pauline settled back against a blue and white silk pillow Esme had picked up at one of her many garage sale expeditions. “Come now, share some details. I need practice at girl-talk so I can work up the courage to have a chat with my daughter.”

Esme knew Pauline had a strained relationship with her daughter Brianne who owned a share of Club Paradise. No matter their past, Esme couldn’t help but think Brianne fortunate to have a mother who cared enough about her to want a closer relationship. Pauline had sold her Palm Beach mansion and taken up residence in a very average apartment complex to be near her daughter.

“Renzo went swimming this morning?” Her mind wandered back to his damp hair. She’d just assumed he had taken a shower.

Pauline’s hand fluttered delicately against her chest. “Oh yes. It made for much more compelling viewing than the morning news. If he were twenty years older, I would have introduced myself. Very handsome if you ask me.”

Esme made a note to ask Renzo if he had any uncles who were eligible bachelors. One good matchmaking turn deserved another, after all.

“Definitely handsome.” There was no denying that. “But I don’t know if I’m ready to jump into a relationship when I’m only just starting to get my footing again.”

“We could spend our whole lives insulating ourselves from hurt. But what good is that if you aren’t actually living in the process?” Pauline glanced down at the teapot and gently flicked over the tag dangling from the tea bag, as if to read the label.

Esme mulled over the words that made a whole lot of sense. Was she being a coward to retreat from Renzo so quickly?

“It’s just that Renzo has such a strong personality and I don’t want to lose myself just when I’m finding out who I want to be. It’s important to me that to make my voice heard.” How could she find her own strength when a muscle-bound male kept lending his? She noticed Pauline still studying the tag on the tea. “Is the tea awful, by the way?”

Pauline’s cheeks colored as she released the paper tab.

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