Free Heating Up Hawaii by Carmen Falcone

want to leave his firm, but I need some good contacts. I won’t take any of my current clientele, it wouldn’t be ethical. When he learns I’ve started my own boutique PR firm, he’ll drag my name in the mud anyway,” she blurted out.
    She raised her hand to cover her mouth, but it was too late. She’d told him, of all people, her plan. In a perfect world, to share her professional ambitions with Luc would be natural–after all, if there was a soul capable of understanding her desire for professional independence and self-reliance, by God, it had to be him.
    However, the lack of sympathy in his eyes warned her that the world was far from perfect.
    “Charles wanted to fire you. He hasn’t because he doesn’t want to hurt his son. And you are working toward leaving the firm.” He concluded.
    “I asked to leave after the cancelation. Since I had some big accounts then, Charles asked me to stay. I agreed and offered to pay for all the cancelation fees for the wedding.”
    He crossed his arms, and his dominant figure stood against the sun like a bronze sculpture. She instantly thought of those statues she’d seen when she backpacked in Europe, with confident lions and big manes that reminded her of the gladiator era. “How self-sacrificing of you.”
    She could have slapped him right there and then.
    “Will you also take a step back from the friendship Darren has imposed on you?”
    “I’ll keep in touch, but I’d like to see less of him, yes. We can’t be friends right now.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me sooner that you plan on opening your own firm?” Strained resentment oozed from his voice.
    “I didn’t see the point.” She shrugged but a strong, cold chuckle from his cynical lips made her believe she wasn’t getting away with it. “Okay, I was afraid you’d try to mess it up.” She forced her tremulous lips into a smile. “Which is stupid anyway. Right?”
    He took one step toward her, studying her face. “You called me names in the past because I’d asked you not to broadcast about our affair just so I could get the opportunity I’d been waiting for. You made it seem as if I was the evil bad man, asking you for discretion when it was so obvious I needed it. And now, you tell me that you’ve been using your ex-fiancé to keep a job just to stab him in the back when he’s no longer needed.” He threw the words at her like rocks.
    Penny shook her head. “It’s not like that. I canceled my wedding, but that had nothing to do with my skills at the firm.”
    “We are not that different, Penelope.” His left eye twitched.
    “I am not using Darren. He’s going through a rough patch and I can’t afford to be selfish. However I told him reconciling wasn’t an option. I never led him on. What you did to me was different.”
    “How?” He raised his voice.
    How?
    “Can’t you see it, Luc?” she cursed herself inside when her voice broke. “I loved you. I stupidly fell in love with you, and you wanted to turn my feelings for you into a hidden secret. I could keep the secrecy, but for me to hear from Allegra how she wanted you and not to say anything about us? I’m not that cold blooded.”
    “Do you know that it took me a whole year until I found someone else to pitch my business idea to? An entire year, Penelope.”
    “I didn’t know.” She crossed her arms. Just as certain as the seagull that flew above the coconut tree, just as certain as the hard seashells leaving their imprint against the shore only to be washed away, she knew they would never see eye to eye.
    “I’m sorry that you had to wait, Luc.” She unfolded her arms, the damp palm of her hand rubbing against the other.
    He glared at her, his eyes remote and distant. Then he stepped away.
    “Waiting for things is no longer an option for me.” He threw the words at her like stones, only to turn around and leave. She picked her shoes from the sand and clasped her hands around them. Why wasn’t she relieved?
    ***
    “Where