Page 47 of One Night in Hawaii

“I can’t believe you paid her to pretend to like me,” I spat out.

Penelope remained silent. She had been strangely quiet since I had found out her terrible secret. We argued and she had nothing more to say.

Until now.

Now, she seemed to think it was a good time to air out all our grievances. “I didn’t pay her to pretend to like you. She does like you. I paid her to be our personal tour guide. There is nothing wrong with that.”

I shook my head with disgust. “If she was just a tour guide, you would have told me. You chose her because she’s a beautiful woman and you knew I would be attracted to her.”

“I chose her because she lives here and is very upbeat and fun. Don’t try and pretend you didn’t have fun. She showed us a lot of cool stuff. You had a great time.”

“Don’t you understand, I’ll never know if she liked me for me or if she liked me because you were dangling a fat payout in front of her nose.”

“You know Shiloh,” she insisted. “She’s not like that. You’re pissed at me because of this nonsense with Ashley. You want to be with Shiloh but you won’t allow yourself to be happy because of Ashley. You’re using this little thing as an excuse to walk away while blaming me for it not working out. You need to kick that woman to the curb and leave her alone.”

“You don’t think I want to do that?” I said. “I’m screwed. Ashley is forcing my hand. If I don’t marry her, she’s going to be on the board. She gets a huge chunk of my money. I have to marry her and wait the three years before I can divorce her.”

“Those contracts were stupid,” she muttered. “I told you not to sign them. I knew she was going to pull something like this. You let our parents push you into something you didn’t really want. Quit trying to make them happy and do what makesyouhappy.”

“You failed to mention your clairvoyance to me. If you knew, you should have done a better job warning me.”

“I tried,” she muttered.

“Then let me warn you about Matthew,” I said. “Don’t sign a prenup with him. Hell, don’t marry him at all.”

Her face fell when I mentioned his name. “This is not about Matthew.”

“Isn’t it?” I asked. “You’re here with me because you wanted to get away from your lovely fiancé. You’re marrying him because Mom and Dad think he’s a good match. Whyareyou here? What is going on with you two? You’re flirting with Ryder but you’re engaged to him.”

Her lower lip quivered and I saw tears shimmering in her eyes. I immediately felt guilty for bringing it up. I knew there was something going on between them, but I assumed it was Penelope making a mountain out of a molehill.

“I think he’s cheating on me,” she said.

“What? Why?”

“I found a lipstick in the apartment a couple of months ago. It wasn’t mine, but he insisted it was or one of my friends left it. He goes out of town for work a lot. Another time I came home after a weekend spa trip and I found pantyhose, like thigh highs. They were not mine. He played it off but he’s been acting off. He never used to travel for work so much. He went to LA for the weekend and said it was for work. When he came back, I swear he had a hickey. He told me it was from his seatbelt. I know he was with a woman.”

“When did he go to LA?” I asked.

She looked thoughtful. “It would have been three weekends ago. It was strange because he left on a Wednesday and didn’t come back until Monday morning.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Ashley had gone to LA that exact same time. She came home acting odd as well. It was probably just a coincidence, but it was odd. I wasn’t going to tell Penelope until I knew for sure, but it was strange.

“Is the business doing any better?” I asked her.

It was a well-known fact Matthew’s father’s business was tanking. He made some bad investments and it was coming back to bite him in the ass. The family name was keeping them afloat, but the marriage to Penelope would secure the business. Her inheritance was the influx of cash they needed to right the ship. It wasn’t exactly a secret he was marrying her for her money. When they first started dating, Matthew was a very wealthy man as well. It was an advantageous marriage, just like my marriage to Ashley.

“I don’t know,” Penelope answered. “Matthew says he’s doing all this traveling to try and save it. I offered to go with him on one of the trips but he was adamant I stay home. He said he didn’t want the distraction.”

“If you don’t love him, don’t marry him,” I said. “You haven’t signed anything, right?”

“No, but we’re engaged.”

“Engagements are easier to break off than a marriage,” I told her. “If he’s not treating you right, walk away.”

“I could say the same to you,” she said.

“I’ve signed contracts,” I reminded her. “I’m stuck.”

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