Trusting Him: A Billionaire Beach Island Romance (Billionaires of Driftwood Island Book 5) Read online

  Because if the last thirty seconds had taught me anything, it was that my heart still couldn’t handle seeing him without going crazy. And I could not afford for my heart to go crazy right now.

  Chapter Three

  * IAN *

  I stared at the closed elevator door, wondering how it was possible that I’d been on Driftwood Island less than an hour and had already accidentally run into my former flame.

  It was her. It had to have been her. Those blue eyes looking at me in such a panic before she turned to run into the elevator were the same blue eyes that had been smiling back at me from the picture on my desk in New York City for the last five years.

  But why was she here, working as a maid at the resort? The summer I had spent with her, she’d been intent on making some sort of career out of her love of singing. Had she given up on her dreams already? She’d had such big plans, but something had changed.

  I pushed the button for the service elevator in an act of desperation, but nothing happened. You needed a code or a staff key to use this elevator, and I had neither. With a frustrated grunt of defeat, I headed back toward the main elevator. I picked up my messenger bag from where I’d dropped it, and went to my suite.

  The suite looked exactly as I remembered it. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a full living room, dining room, and kitchen area. The place was as big as a small house. The floor to ceiling windows in the living area looked out across a spectacular view of the resort’s private beach and the turquoise waters surrounding it. Ordinarily, I would have stood by the window for several minutes, just taking in all the beauty. But right now, there was only one beauty on my mind: Ruby Jennings.

  I had to find her. That shouldn’t be too hard, since she worked here. But I had to be discreet. If her actions tonight were any indication, she was intent on running from me. I didn’t want to warn her that I was still chasing after her. I wanted to find her and confront her before she had a chance to run again. If she still didn’t want to talk to me after hearing how much I’d missed her, then fine. But she should at least give me a chance.

  A sharp knock sounded on my door, startling me out of my thoughts. I went to answer and found the bellboy there with my bags. I thanked him and started to pull out some ones to tip him, but then I changed my mind and pulled out a hundred dollar bill instead. I handed it to him, making sure he saw how generous of a tip he was receiving. His eyes went wide and he started to stammer out a thanks, but I cut him off.

  “I have a question I was hoping you could help me with, actually.”

  “Of course, Mr. Hughes.”

  “I was wondering how closely you know the maids at the resort? Do you ever work with them?”

  He furrowed his brow. “Sometimes. I don’t know most of them well, but there are a few that are assigned to the suites area here, and I run into them quite a lot.”

  I smiled. This was a promising start. “Do you know a maid named Ruby Jennings?”

  He laughed and nodded. “The singer? Of course. She’s the best housekeeper here. The boss overworks her because of it, but hey. Job security, I guess?”

  I felt my heart starting to pound again. “The singer? So she still sings, then?”

  “She’s always sung. From the first day she started working here. She thinks no one notices, but she does it all the time. She can’t push her cart down the hallway without breaking into song. She’s got quite a voice, too.” The bellboy suddenly frowned and looked suspicious. “Why are you asking about Ruby? Was something wrong with your room when you arrived?”

  “No, no. Not at all. I just, uh…” I thought fast. I had to come up with a reasonable excuse. “I’ve just heard her singing before, on a previous visit to the resort. I was wondering if she still worked here, or where I might find her. I’d like a chance to compliment her on her singing.”

  It wasn’t entirely a lie. I had heard her singing before, and, heck, I would love a chance to compliment her on it again. Along with complimenting her on other things, like her gorgeous curves and perfect smile. But I wasn’t about to explain all that to the bellboy. He was smiling again, and nodding his head enthusiastically.

  “You’ll make her day if you compliment her singing. But she’s already gone for the day, I’d bet. She usually leaves right at five. And if you want to catch her tomorrow you’ll have to do so early. She works a short shift on Saturdays, and she’ll be out of here by noon at the latest. Then she spends the rest of her day at the Driftwood Island Public Library, which is a little crazy. She goes there every Saturday, even though there are so many beautiful beaches here. Who has a weekend afternoon off and decides to spend it at the library?”

  Ruby does. I smiled at the memory of her pulling books to read out of her beach bag on the afternoons we would lazily lie on the beach. She always had at least two or three reading options with her. She was the biggest bookworm I’d ever known, so it wasn’t that surprising that she’d become a library-aholic. I determined right then that I would go see her at the library the next afternoon. It would be a good place to catch her. Finding her here at a huge resort would be difficult, but how big could a library really be?

  Quite big, as I found out the next day. When I input “Driftwood Island Public Library” into the GPS on my phone, it led me to an expansive two story building with a huge parking lot. The parking lot was quite full of cars as well. It looked like Ruby wasn’t the only one in this town who was a fan of the library.

  Still, despite how surprising the library’s size and popularity was for such a small town, it would still be much easier to find Ruby in here than at the huge resort. I took a deep breath, whispered out a prayer that I would see her before she saw me, and then headed inside.

  The inside was even more impressive than the outside. The carpets all looked new and modern, the furniture was plush and had obviously been expensive, and a helpful sign near the door outlined the many different types of technology the library offered. Library patrons could do anything from using the giant computer lab to checking out a FitBit.

  How did this small town library get so many amenities? Maybe the city council had asked the resort to contribute funds toward the library as a condition of continued operations on the island. I remembered from my time here five years ago that all of the Driftwood Island locals hated the resort. They also hadn’t been too fond of resort guests, and I’d tried to avoid the local side of things as much as I could.

  Today, however, there was no avoiding the locals. I was here, and I had a mission to find a local girl. I would deal with whatever disdain I had to if it meant having a chance to talk to Ruby.

  The easiest thing to do would have been to sneak up the side staircase and away from the crowds that clearly favored the downstairs area. If I could get my bearings, maybe I could figure out a way to methodically search the library.

  Before I could sneak, though, the librarian sitting at the front desk must have noticed my confusion. Or maybe she just noticed that I wasn’t a local. The town here was so small that everyone knew everyone, and she would have easily realized that I didn’t belong.

  “Can I help you,” she asked, in a voice that sounded decidedly suspicious.

  I flashed her a wide smile and tried to act completely at ease, even though I felt like a fish out of water. I walked confidently up to the desk, hoping that she wasn’t going to start asking me a bunch more questions. I noticed she was pregnant, with a baby bump that looked like it was just starting to become obvious. I felt a pang of sadness at the sight, which took me off guard. I wanted a family with lots of kids, but my crazy schedule in New York kept me from having the time to even find a partner to have kids with, let alone to give young children the attention they deserved. I noticed the woman’s nametag read Kelsey, so I decided to try using her name to break down her defenses a bit.

  “Hi, Kelsey. I’m Ian. I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of science fiction.”

  Kelsey still stared at me suspiciously. For a m
oment I thought she was going to start interrogating me. But she must have decided that I wasn’t a serious threat, because she simply nodded. “It’s all the way against the east wall, in that direction. Just past the children’s section. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thanks. I’m sure I’ll find it.” I turned quickly and began walking in the direction her finger had pointed. I wanted to get out of her line of sight before she could decide to make any more comments to me.

  I remember Science Fiction being one of Ruby’s favorite genres, so it seemed as good a place as any to find her. When I got there, though, there was only one nerdy looking teenager in the stacks, his nose buried in a book that looked like it was some sort of Star Wars knockoff.

  I wasn’t too disappointed. This was only the first spot I’d checked, and there were dozens more. I just had to do my best to stay out of sight of the front desk. Kelsey definitely seemed like the suspicious type.

  I started walking back in the direction I’d come from. There was a children’s section to my right, and then up ahead I spotted what looked like a romance fiction section. I barely paid any attention to the children’s section, heading straight for the romance section instead. But when some little girl laughed in a downright musical way, I couldn’t resist a quick glance in the direction the giggles had come from.

  That’s when I saw Ruby. She was standing next to a cluster of colorful, child-sized tables. Her hair was hanging in loose, crazy curls, hiding her face from me as she looked down at a book in her hand. My heart sank when I realized that if she was in the children’s section, that likely meant she had children. And if she had children, she probably had a husband. Which meant my whole crazy trip here to see her again had been for nothing. Of course, I’d been telling myself that this trip wasn’t just about Ruby. I’d tried to convince myself that I was coming to Driftwood Island again merely because I desperately needed a vacation. If I happened to see Ruby again, well, that would have been great, but it wasn’t the point.

  Standing there, gazing at her beauty once more and feeling a slow ache in my heart as I realized that she would never be mine again, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.

  Ruby was the point. She had always been the point. And knowing that she would never be mine again sent an unbearable pain searing across my heart. I glanced down at her ring finger, bracing myself for the sight of the diamond that I was sure was there.

  But there was nothing. There was no ring at all on any of her fingers, let alone a diamond one. Was it possible she wasn’t taken? Maybe she was watching a friend’s kid. Maybe she had a niece or nephew. Maybe she had her own kid but had broken up with the father. I was okay with that. I’d love any child of Ruby’s even if I wasn’t technically the dad. Any little human being that shared Ruby’s DNA would have to be someone special.

  I cleared my throat, and took a few steps closer to the cluster of tables. I was nervous about what her reaction would be, since she’d seemed so unhappy to see me at the resort yesterday. But the only way to find out what she would do when she saw me was to announce my presence. At least the library was a quiet, public place. She wouldn’t make too much of a scene here, so no matter what happened I wouldn’t be too horribly embarrassed.

  At least I hoped.

  “Ruby?” I spoke in a soft voice, but she had no trouble hearing me. She looked up right away, and when she saw me she froze for a moment. Her blue eyes went wide, and her face turned pale.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked in a hiss of a whisper. “You shouldn’t be here!”

  She looked around nervously, as though afraid someone was going to jump out at any moment and get mad at her for talking to me. That didn’t make any sense. It’s not like we’d done anything wrong. We had a past, yes, but we’d both been single at the time. If she had moved on to new love now, I wouldn’t try to interfere. I’d be heartbroken that I’d let someone else get to her first, but I would never try to steal another man’s woman. That wasn’t my style.

  “I’m back on the island for a few weeks, and I wanted to find you and say hello. I thought it might be fun to surprise you, and one of the bellboys told me you like to spend Saturday afternoons at the library.”

  “He shouldn’t have told you anything about me. And you shouldn’t be here. Please, just go. Didn’t you take the hint yesterday when I ran off that I don’t want to see you?”

  “Ruby, what’s the big deal? You’re not mad at me, are you? I thought we left on good terms.”

  “We did, but now things are…complicated. Please, just leave me alone.” Her face was growing paler with every passing second, and she kept looking around like she was afraid someone was going to see her with me.

  I supposed the smart thing to do would have been to leave. I could ask some questions around the resort staff or around the local businesses, and discover whether she had a husband or a child, or both. Once I knew better what was going on, I could approach her again, if it was appropriate. If she wasn’t already taken.

  But even though I was extraordinarily good at doing the smart thing when it came to business, I had never been good at doing the smart thing when it came to love. I couldn’t bear to pull myself away from Ruby right now. Even with her currently pale face and frightened eyes, she looked more beautiful than I remembered her. The years since I’d seen her had given her body more mature, womanly curves. Gone was her girlish frame, which had been beautiful in its own way, but could never compare to the hourglass shape in front of me now. Her breasts were full and tempting, even through the fabric of her simple t-shirt. Her complexion was flawless, and her lips were full, beckoning to me.

  I wanted her more than anything. And unless she was already with some other guy, I was going to have her. If she was with some other guy, I was going to spend the next year at least mourning the fact that I’d lost her because I’d been an idiot and spent all my time in New York when I should have been here, winning her heart for good.

  “Ruby, can we just talk? We can go to a café and grab a coffee or something. Just hear me out, and if you still don’t want to talk to me after I’ve said my piece, then I promise I’ll leave you alone. Just give me a chance.”

  “No, I can’t do that. Please, leave me alone.”

  I frowned. She was sounding more panicked with every passing second. Maybe I should leave. I didn’t know where all the panic was coming from, but I was making her very uncomfortable, and that’s not what I wanted to do at all. I could quietly ask some questions and see if anyone could tell me what might be causing her to act so nervous. I wanted to show her how I felt, but I also didn’t want to make her feel like a caged animal.

  But just as I was about to tell her that I would leave and try to catch up with her later, a little girl came around the corner of one of the shelves and tugged on Ruby’s sleeve.

  “Mama, can we see if they still have that funny book? You know, the one with the dragons and the cupcake? I want to check it out again.”

  I looked down at the little girl, who must have been about four or five years old, and her face stopped me in my tracks.

  I was looking at a miniature version of myself. Her hair was longer than mine, but it was the exact same sandy blonde color. Her face shape was the same as mine, and her eyes were an identical shade of green.

  “Holy shit,” I said, then clapped my hand over my mouth before I remembered that you weren’t supposed to swear around children. But surely, I could be forgiven for the lapse of good judgment. I had just been presented with what looked like undeniable proof that I had a child.

  She was Ruby’s, and she was the right age. It had been about five years ago that Ruby and I had spent the summer making love every day on the beach. We’d used protection ninety-five percent of the time, but there had been a few times that we’d been a little too eager and hadn’t quite waited for a condom.

  Apparently, one of those times had turned into the little girl in front of me. She was a carbon copy of me, just smaller and in girl form. I lo
oked back up at Ruby, my eyes wide.

  “Ruby? What…what’s going on here?” It wasn’t often that I was speechless, but I truly had no idea what to say right now. Of all the possible scenarios that had run through my mind when I thought of meeting up with Ruby again, this one had never entered my wildest imaginations.

  I was a father. The enormity of it washed over me. I looked at the little girl again, and then at Ruby.

  “Ruby?” I asked again, desperate for her to say something that would make all of this make sense.

  But all she said was, “I have to go.” She set down all the books she was holding onto one of the little tables, then grabbed the little girl’s hand. “Come on. We need to go.”

  “But Mama,” the girl protested. “My books!”

  “We’ll check them out next time,” Ruby said in a tone that clearly meant the little girl better not dare try to argue with her again. Then she pulled the little girl past me and toward the exit.

  For a moment, I stared in shock. Then, I panicked. Ruby couldn’t just leave and take my daughter with her without explaining anything.

  “Ruby, wait!” I called out across the library, not caring that I was speaking way too loudly for a library. But Ruby didn’t wait. Instead, she took off running. I ran after her, but she had a head start. She managed to get outside and get herself and the girl into her car and lock the door before I could reach her. I pounded on the window, but Ruby ignored me. She leaned over into the backseat to buckle her daughter into a carseat, and then she started pulling out without another glance in my direction.

  I stood there, watching her go for a few heartbeats. I was about to run to my car and get in to chase her down, when a man sitting lazily on a bench by the entrance cleared his throat and addressed me.