Page 4 of Fighting Fate

She’d genuinely never seen anything like it; it was a remarkable, unique work of art.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment, managing to drag her eyes back up to his face. “I’m staring.”

“It’s okay.”He had a seriously gorgeous smile, Rosie couldn’t help but notice, broad and cheerful, teeth white against his dark skin. “It’s meant to be eye-catching.” A big hand swept up his torso, touching the head of the serpent on his neck. “Still, I didn’t stop for you to admire my tatt. I’ve been running here all week and you’re the first lady I’ve found bawling her eyes out, so.” Huge shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug. “Maybe I could offer a sympathetic ear, if there’s nobody who needs punching out for you? I’m Adam Gillespie, by the way. Just so you’re not spilling your guts to a complete stranger, if that’s what you feel like doing.”

Pushing himself up and back, he seated himself on the next lounger over from Rosie’s and looked at her quizzically.

“Eh.” Rosie wrapped her arms around her calves and rested her cheek on her knee, looking at him sideways. “I brought it on myself, by being a blind idiot.”

“Yeah?”

The way he said it seemed to invite confidence, and he relaxed back onto the lounger as though he had nothing better to do than sit and watch the sunrise and listen. Emboldened, Rosie carried on.

“I’ve had this massive crush on my boss for ages, and last night was the staff Christmas party. I borrowed this fancy dress off a friend, got all dolled up and had a couple of drinks to get my courage up, and I hit on him. He turned me down flat.”

“Yowch!” Adam winced.

“Oh, it gets ever so much worse. Half the staff witnessed me bolting with my tail between my legs, and I’m going to get bombarded with questions about why I was so upset and who’s going to get fired. I’m the staff manager for the resort,” she explained. “So to reassure them, I’ve got to tell them the truth… that it was personal.”

Adam whistled between his teeth, his expression sympathetic. “Salt in the wound, huh?”

“Yeah.” With a sigh, Rosie looked away and out at the sunrise, the sun rising over the Coral Sea in a glorious ball of fiery orange. “I’m thirty-three,” she said after a couple of minutes of surprisingly comfortable silence, “and I’ve never been in love, but I want to be. I want to find a nice guy and get married and have kids one day.”

“Sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to want,” Adam agreed. “I’m thirty-seven and at that point in my life where I’m starting to think along those lines too - and hoping one day isn’t too far away.”

“It’s not unreasonable, is it? At least, I’ve never thought so. But I’ve come to the unhappy conclusion that with Luke unable to return my feelings about him, I’m gonna have to leave the island and go work somewhere else. Somewhere with a bigger dating pool.”

“You must meet a lot of people, though!”

Adam sounded genuinely surprised, and Rosie flicked a glance at him. “I do,” she agreed, “but the resort has a strict non-fraternisation policy between staff and guests. And while I could technically date another staff member, they all report directly to me, except Luke, so that’s just ethically not something I could contemplate.”

“Well, Luke’s your boss, right? I guess that’s how he feels about you,” Adam pointed out, and Rosie laughed darkly.

“Yeah. Maybe. Or maybe he just doesn’t fancy me. That’s more likely. I’ve seen him look admiringly at other women; he likes tall, willowy girls, not short chubby ones like me. I’m too fat. Even a designer dress can’t change that.”

“Bollocks!” Adam said the single word sharp and succinct, startling Rosie, who jerked her head up to stare at him.

“What?”

“Forgive me, but I’ve seen you around the resort the last few days, and I noticed you even in a polo shirt and shorts. You’ve got a great figure, and you look fit and healthy. Unsurprisingly, considering the amount of walking you seem to do on a daily basis. You’re not fat in the slightest.”

Startled, and more than a little flattered, Rosie blinked at Adam in surprise, not at all sure what to say. He grinned at her shocked expression.

“Hey, I’m a red-blooded guy, and I’m not blind. I notice pretty girls. I swear I didn’t mean to be a creeper, though!”

Rosie laughed, a little shakily. “It’s okay. I’m flattered, I suppose. I’m not really the kind of girl who catches the eye all that much…”

“You stop that right now.” He waggled a stern finger at her.

“But I’m not! My friend Olivia who I borrowed this dress off, she looks like a fashion model, the dress only fits me because I’m half a foot shorter than she is so it stretches sideways…”

“Bet she doesn’t fill it out like you.” Adam let his eyes drop just for a moment before he returned them to her face, but Rosie blushed as she realised he’d just given her cleavage a pointed look.

“It was all wasted effort anyway,” she said with a sigh. “Luke didn’t even look at me twice, and I spent forever getting ready, even got a friend to help with my hair and makeup.”

Adam looked more thoughtful than pitying as he considered her. “It does seem a shame to waste all that effort,” he said. “Why don’t you come out to dinner with me tonight instead, and I promise to treat you like the beautiful woman you are? No strings, no expectations. Just a well-deserved confidence boost.”

CHAPTER THREE

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