Kismet: A Serendipity Novella Read online

  Not that she’d ever asked for or coveted them, he realized now.

  But his inadequacies had always marked him. It was the way of things in Serendipity and his dad, bless him, was the high school janitor. It didn’t make Trevor’s life easy. So when he and Lissa had a stupid teenage argument, they’d broken up. And when she’d turned back to Brad, even for one night, all Trevor could think was that she’d proven him right. And when she’d ended up pregnant, all hope of fixing things came to an abrupt and ugly end.

  Trevor met her gaze. She’d waited quietly as processed her words. “It’s in the past,” he said gruffly.

  But was it?

  “So you’ll do the interview?” she asked, hope shining in her eyes.

  While he’d been rehashing the pain, she’d been worried about her career. Okay, that made sense. It wasn’t like she was here for a personal reason. “Yeah. I’ll do it.”

  “Thank you!” She squealed and impulsively jumped up from her chair, throwing her arms around him in gratitude. In that instant, she was the Lissa he remembered, the full of life, go for the gusto, happy girl he’d fallen for.

  And when she pulled him into an embrace, he buried his face in her hair and her familiar scent enveloped him. Desire licked at him, scorching him from the inside out. He remembered how good they’d been together and suddenly he knew what that empty hole was in his life. He missed her, the girl he’d told everything, including his dreams, hopes, and secrets. Since Lissa, he’d never let anyone get that emotionally close, afraid of experiencing that kind of pain and loss again.

  She pulled back, an embarrassed flush on her cheeks. “Sorry. I got carried away, but this series of interviews means so much to me. I mean, I didn’t think I’d ever get to stop slinging coffee for a living and now ...” She trailed off. “I’m rambling.”

  He laughed for the first time since she’d walked in. “You think?”

  He couldn’t stop thinking about her words. Serving coffee? Didn’t Banks have so much money that after any divorce settlement, she should be able to sit back and eat bonbons if she chose?

  Clearly Trevor had a lot to catch up on, and suddenly he wanted to. Now that he’d seen Lissa again, his curiosity was piqued and he wanted the information he’d deliberately ignored over the years. Thinking back to the schedule his secretary had handed him first thing this morning, he figured they had time. Because if Lissa was going to pump him for information about who he was and what made him tick, damned if he wasn’t going to do the same thing to her.

  “So when do we get started?” he asked her. “On the interview.”

  Her eyes opened wide. “Right now, if you’re ready. I’ll do a combination of observing you at work and, when we’re alone and you aren’t busy, asking questions and talking.”

  “Now is fine,” he said, suddenly revved up and exhilarated. “Did Collette give you a copy of my schedule for the next few days?”

  “She handed me a sheet of paper when I walked in. I haven’t had time to go over it.”

  He nodded. “You might want to. There’s a formal event on Friday night and a dinner party Saturday,” he said, deciding that wherever he was going, so was Lissa.

  She paled visibly. “Formal events and dinner parties?”

  “All part of the life you need to write about,” he reminded her. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s just that ...” She drew a deep breath. “I didn’t bring those kinds of dress clothes with me. But I’m staying at the Marriott on Broadway and this is Manhattan, right? I’m sure I’ll find something.” Her voice trembled and he couldn’t understand the cause.

  “You sure?”

  She nodded, putting on a bright but clearly forced smile. He still knew her well enough to pinpoint that.

  “I’ll just leave after lunch and go shopping.”

  “Okay.” He narrowed his gaze, knowing that as soon as she left, he’d be on the phone with his mother to find out exactly what had gone on in Lissa’s life that he deliberately hadn’t wanted to hear.

  Now he wanted to know everything.

  Trevor didn’t understand his sudden turnaround, not completely. But one thing was clear. Their forced time together would provide him with a way to get Lissa out of his system and allow him to move on with his life.

  One way or another.

  Chapter Two

  Lissa checked into her hotel room, needing time to regroup after this morning. No matter how well she thought she’d prepared herself, the meeting had been worse than her most awful nightmare. She’d pictured their reunion often over the years, sometimes in wistful daydreams, more recently since Trevor had become her assignment. In none of them had his explosive reaction been part of the scenario.

  Anger she’d accounted for, but one look at his disgusted expression and Lissa’s knees had nearly buckled and tears had threatened. Somehow she’d held herself together. Then he’d surprised her again, going from “No fucking way” to all in—and she had to wonder why.

  But she couldn’t worry about his motives now. She had a full schedule ahead of her. After their initial reunion, Lissa had sat through a typical morning in Trevor’s life, which consisted of nonstop phone calls, paperwork, a few confidential meetings for which she’d had to step out of the room, and more phone calls. As a result, she’d had plenty of time to observe him and view the man he’d become.

  Of course Lissa had researched her subject and she’d read about Trevor’s basic background, much of which she already knew: scholarships to Columbia undergrad and business school, where he’d worked his way through, earning the rest of his way while maintaining stellar grades; internships at the top financial firms in Manhattan; and a job waiting for him when he graduated.

  The man was brilliant—something she’d always known—but what he’d accomplished on his own was simply amazing. She was proud of him. So proud, she couldn’t stop the warmth fluttering through her even now. But she’d known all about his golden accomplishments and understood his inner drive to make things happen. As a kid, the arrogance he projected had been an act, a cover for insecurities about where he’d come from.

  Trevor Dane no longer needed to pretend. An earned confidence had replaced the old cockiness. Sexiness had taken the place of what she’d thought of as hunky hotness.

  As for his looks, well, she’d seen recent photos on the company website, but nothing had prepared her for his impact in person. He was gorgeous, the force of his personality magnetic. At a glance, the changes in him were obvious. With his jet-black hair in an expensive cut, a power suit, and a red tie, he radiated confidence. His blue eyes were still as piercing, his knowing gaze as raw. His face was leaner, more chiseled, and if possible, he was even more handsome.

  She had no doubt women lined up to date the eligible, wealthy bachelor, something she figured she’d discover first-hand the more time she spent with him. Pain shot through her heart at the thought, but she had no one to blame but herself. No matter how much she was still drawn to him, they were history.

  Even after he’d overcome his shock at seeing her, wariness remained between them. Still, he insisted she accompany him, not just for his daily business but on all his after-hours appointments as well.

  Beginning with dinner tonight, a formal event on Friday evening, and a dinner party on Saturday. That meant she needed a formal gown and another dress for Saturday night, none of which she could easily afford. She’d tried to cover her surprise and dismay and knew she’d failed miserably ... but at least she’d salvaged her pride and hadn’t let her lack of money slip.

  No doubt Trevor assumed she’d received a nice settlement to end her marriage. She wasn’t about to inform him how hard she’d had to scrape for life’s little luxuries. Her marriage and its aftermath were none of his business. She didn’t want or need his sympathy—if he’d even afford her that, given their history.

  She’d left his office at three in order to pull herself together, check into her hotel, and then go shopping. Since she didn’t
know any places like Consign and Design in the city, she’d have to pay full price at a department store. At least her parents were watching Olivia through the end of this school week and then her baby was going to stay with her father and his bimbo.

  Make that Brad’s soon-to-be wife, who was all of twenty-two years old and who possessed more money than even Brad’s family. Lissa cringed. But no matter how much Lissa resented Brad and his behavior, she knew Olivia was safe and cared for with her father, giving her the freedom to be in the city and take care of business.

  She grabbed her purse, made sure she had her credit card in her wallet, and started to leave, when a knock interrupted her. A look through the peephole showed her someone in a hotel uniform, so she opened the door.

  “Can I help you?” Lissa asked the younger man.

  “Are you Miss Elisabetta Gardelli?” he asked.

  She nodded. Every time she heard her full name, she was glad she’d reclaimed her maiden name after the divorce. Olivia was still a Banks, but Elisabetta had no desire to be one anymore.

  “Special delivery for you.” He gestured to the rolling cart Lissa hadn’t noticed before.

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t order anything.”

  The man looked at the paper in his hand. “From Saks Fifth Avenue, for you. May I?” He inclined his head, indicating he wanted to come into the room.

  “Umm, sure.” Confused, Lissa let him enter and lay out garment bags on the bed, along with shoeboxes and shopping bags.

  He’d started to push the cart back out of the room when her brain kicked back into gear. “Wait, please.” She went to her wallet and pulled out some bills to tip him with. “Here. Thank you.”

  “No, ma’am. It’s all taken care of, but thank you.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said, her legs beginning to shake as she realized there was only one person who knew she needed clothing.

  “A Mr. Trevor Dane is downstairs. He asked me to get your permission to share your room number with him?”

  Mutely, Lissa nodded. “Send him up,” she murmured, lowering herself onto a corner of the bed, knowing her legs wouldn’t hold up much longer.

  Nothing about this interview and reunion with Trevor was going as she’d envisioned. She’d known being with him again would be challenging, but she’d hoped it would be cathartic. She’d never quite gotten him out of her system and after seeing him today, she was coming to the conclusion she never would. She thought she’d be resigning herself to that throughout this long, torturous weekend.

  But now she was facing this ... thoughtful, caring gesture from a man who ought to hate her. He should be doing everything he could to make her time with him as painless for himself as possible—by spending as little time with her as he needed to in order to get the article written. Yet he was sending her expensive clothing from Saks and showing up at her hotel room in the middle of his workday to ... what?

  She had no idea, and that scared her.

  *

  As Trevor rode the elevator to the thirty-sixth floor, he figured he’d lost his mind. He had no other explanation for doing something so out of character as leaving work in the middle of the day. No doubt about it, though, his phone call with his mother had shaken him badly.

  For years he’d assumed that once Lissa had gotten pregnant and Brad had done the right thing by marrying her, she’d lived a charmed life as Bradley Banks’s wife. The money, the country club, all the things that at the time, Trevor could never be sure he’d be able to provide. And once she’d had Brad’s baby and married him, whether or not Trevor succeeded in life no longer mattered. He’d had a decade to build a picture in his mind of how good her life had been without him, while no matter how much professional success he achieved, Trevor still felt hollow inside.

  It had taken no time to have his illusions—or rather, delusions—shattered. According to his mother, Lissa’s married life had been a decade-long embarrassment. The bastard had married her in name only, doing the so-called “right thing” by his child. Not by the baby’s mother. When Lissa finally had enough and walked out, her settlement had been paltry and she’d been forced to take a part-time job serving coffee at Cuppa Café while writing the obituary column for the Serendipity Gazette. She lived in a small house on her original side of town, and though their daughter’s future was secure thanks to Brad’s parents, Lissa worked for everything she had.

  No wonder she’d nearly passed out when he’d mentioned a formal affair and a dinner party this weekend. Not only couldn’t she afford those kinds of clothes, she probably didn’t even own them. Trevor had misjudged her, the life she’d lived, and who she’d become. And though nothing could change what had happened in the past, he damned well respected her choices now.

  He should have known better. If he could have gotten past his hurt and anger sooner and let his mother fill him in, he’d have known how unhappy her life had to be. Would it have changed anything? Would he have gone back for her, married or not?

  He’d never know.

  On that thought, a mechanical voice announced he was on the thirty-sixth floor, and the elevator door opened in front of him.

  Well, whatever was in the past, Lissa was here now and Trevor had this one chance to see what might have been. What could be. Either way, when this interview process was over, he’d have the one thing that had been missing all these years.

  Closure.

  And he’d also have Lissa one more time. He refused to accept any other outcome.

  Trevor reached Lissa’s room and found the door partially open. He walked in to find her sitting on the edge of the bed surrounded by bags of clothing.

  “Hi,” he said to capture her attention.

  She glanced up, meeting his gaze with a wide-eyed, wary gaze. “What is all this? And don’t say clothes,” she said, before he could do just that. “Why didn’t you just let me go shopping?”

  Trevor ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed. It wasn’t like he went around ordering clothing for women. “It wasn’t hard to figure out that I was putting you on the spot with the formal affair and the dinner party.”

  “And I said I’d go shopping.”

  “You also mentioned something about serving coffee and you literally paled when it dawned on you that you’d have to buy new things. I realized I knew nothing about you now.” He stared up at the ceiling, knowing he had no choice but to admit the truth. “So I called my mother and she filled me in.”

  Lissa felt her face flush hot with embarrassment and awkwardness. “So you found out all about my life and realized I couldn’t really afford a new wardrobe for the weekend. You felt sorry for me and sent these clothes over?” Her voice rose along with her mortification.

  “Hey, that’s not it.” He sat down beside her, close enough so their legs were touching. “It’s more like I got a shocking lesson in making assumptions.”

  She swallowed hard. “You thought I lived well off the Banks money.”

  “Well, I assumed that if the guy was doing the right thing by marrying you after he—” He caught himself before saying knocked you up. “After he got you pregnant, then he would treat you right after he split up with you, too.”

  “You know what they say about someone who assumes things,” she muttered.

  To her surprise, he laughed. “Yep. And an ass certainly describes how I acted today. So maybe the clothes were an apology, too.”

  Lissa didn’t know what to do with this kinder, gentler Trevor, and part of her wondered if that wasn’t his intention. To keep her off balance, guessing, unsure of herself during the time she was with him. To her dismay, she realized she didn’t know him all that well anymore.

  “I’m sorry things have been so hard for you.”

  She forced a smile. “I managed.” She’d also put herself in the position of having to marry Brad, but it didn’t seem smart to get into the specifics of their past right now. “Thank you, though.”

  “You’re welcome.”
>
  “And thank you for these.” She swept her hand toward the bags surrounding them on the bed.

  “That was my pleasure.” His smile warmed her straight down to her toes.

  She was trying really hard not to think about the fact that they were sitting in a hotel room alone on a king-sized bed, but it wasn’t easy. Trevor’s pants-clad thigh touched her bare one and she could swear she felt the heat of his skin through the material. When she inhaled, he smelled deliciously male and need rose quickly.

  It had been so long since she’d had a man’s arms around her, a man who made her feel good and wanted. Unlike her ex, Lissa had remained faithful in her marriage, and her one short relationship afterward had left her cold and wondering whether she’d ever feel real desire again.

  Well, now she knew. She ought to be surprised that it was Trevor who’d awakened her long-dormant hormones, but she wasn’t. Not really.

  Lissa pulled in a deep breath and forced herself to continue the conversation. For all she knew, she was the only one feeling the heat and she didn’t want him to think she’d misinterpret a kind gesture for anything more. She knew how he felt about her.

  His first unguarded reaction had shown his true emotions, and though he was trying to be nice now, she knew the resentment still lurked below the surface. She couldn’t let herself think anything else was at play or she’d be risking her heart. She was sure Trevor’s was locked up tight, at least to her.

  “How did you know my size?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I asked my secretary to guess. Some of the things will have to be returned.”

  She nodded. “I look forward to trying them on.”

  “I look forward to seeing you in them.” His gorgeous eyes sparkled at the thought.

  “What time should I be ready tonight?”

  “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  Lissa shook her head. “I’ll meet you there.” This wasn’t a date; it was business. She couldn’t let him play the gentleman and go through the motions. It would only make her want things she’d never have.