Chapter 1
Payton “Sin” Sinclair was an unapologetic people-watcher. As a sports consultant, working with some of the biggest and most recognizable athletes in sports and business, he had to be able to read the smallest nuances of others. That ability was just one of the unique attributes that set him apart from the competition and made him the go-to person when corporations wanted to align themselves with the top professional athletes in the country.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Sin was sipping a nice vintage wine and helping celebrate the recently announced engagement of C. J. Callahan, one of his two best friends, in the lavish East Hampton home of C. J.’s elated parents. Just because Sin was standing with C. J. and Alex Stewart, Sin’s other best friend, and enjoying himself didn’t mean he’d stopped noticing the people around him, especially those he cared deeply about.
Since he’d long ago developed the ability to listen with one ear while observing—it was critical at sports games, with so much going on—Sin listened to C. J. go on and on about what a great woman Cicely was and how lucky he was, while Sin watched Summer Radcliffe chat with a beaming Cicely St. John, C. J.’s fiancée, in the elegant, French-inspired great room.
The other woman with them was Dianne Harrington Stewart, the new wife of Alex. Dianne, a stunning long-legged former international fashion model, looked as happy as Cicely. On the other hand, Summer’s usual smile and vibrancy were noticeably missing … at least to him.
He’d first noticed Summer’s pensiveness when Dianne and Alex were dating and had an argument outside C. J.’s bar, Callahan’s. Summer had completely stunned Sin by musing that, when Dianne and Alex settled their disagreement and kissed, they would later have makeup sex.
Sin couldn’t get her startling comment out of his mind. It bothered him that he hadn’t been able to tell if she’d been wistful or frustrated. Not once in their long friendship had he ever heard her mention sex. Truthfully, it stunned him a bit that she had. She wasn’t the type of woman to take intimacy lightly or talk about it openly. Afterward, she’d ignored his attempts to find out if the comment had been offhand or something more, and had gone inside the bar to play pool with Dianne.
Sin traveled a great deal, but he hadn’t heard about Summer being in a relationship. Her cousin C. J. was as protective of Summer as he was of his younger sister, Ariel. After Summer’s parents’ death, she had gone to live with her mother’s only sibling, C. J.’s mother.
C. J. certainly would have mentioned it if Summer was serious about a man … if he had known. Lately C. J. had a full plate with Callahan Software, Callahan’s Bar, and Cicely. It disturbed Sin that some idiot might have slipped past C. J. Worse, that the idiot didn’t appreciate what a wonderful woman he had. Sin’s eyes narrowed dangerously. If he found out that was the case, he would take care of it himself. No one, absolutely no one, took advantage of Summer while he breathed.
From the moment they met when she was just out of high school and dealing with the death of her parents, he’d felt protective of her. Despite her tragic loss, she’d worked her butt off to make her parents’ dream of owning a successful upscale restaurant in Manhattan a reality. He admired her determination, loyalty, and tenacity.
She hadn’t had it easy in life. Perhaps because he’d lost his father when he was eighteen, and she’d lost her parents at the same age, he felt a certain empathy and closeness with her. If at all possible, he was going to figure out what was bothering her and fix it. He didn’t like seeing a forced smile on her beautiful face.
At least he knew her pensiveness wasn’t due to the unfortunate incident that could have damaged the reputation of Radcliffe’s. It still angered the hell out of him that a woman he’d rebuffed had tried to get back at him by spreading vicious rumors about Summer’s restaurant. The spiteful socialite had seen him in the newspaper with his arm around Summer while she was catering at his suite at Yankee Stadium and drawn the wrong conclusion. Once he’d learned of the woman’s lies, he’d confronted her at a high-profile social function and warned her to admit the lies or suffer the consequences.
She’d caved and became the one gossiped about. For a while Summer hadn’t been too pleased with him, blaming the incident on him dating so many women. It had taken weeks for her to fully forgive him and for their easy camaraderie to return. He’d do anything for them never to be at odds again.
A broad hand clasped Sin on the shoulder, breaking into his thoughts. He looked up into C. J.’s handsome, clean-shaven face, which had always made him extremely popular with the women. “Thanks for being my best man.”
With his dark eyes twinkling in his bearded face, Sin tipped his wineglass toward C. J. Both men were over six feet, but while C. J. had the broad shoulders of a linebacker, Sin was lean and muscular. “Thank me when I drag you away from the blowout bachelor party Alex and I are going to give you so you can be at your best for your wedding.”
C. J.’s laughter was pure wickedness. “I might leave before then. I can’t wait for Cicely to be completely mine. She gave up her dream for me.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when his attention shifted to where the women were standing. Sin could tell by the rapt expression on C. J.’s face that he and Cicely had gotten lost in each other’s gaze again, as they had off and on since their arrival two hours ago. For them, everyone else in the elegantly decorated room had ceased to exist.
“I think we lost him,” Alex said with a burst of laughter. “Again.”
Alex—a successful Manhattan lawyer with a Who’s Who list of clients, as well as the people no one ever heard of but whose cases he took because he hated to see people screwed over—stood at a trim six foot two. Like Sin, Alex liked to dress well. Today he was comfortably dressed in chocolate slacks and a tan linen short-sleeved shirt. C. J., who favored jeans and T-shirts if he wasn’t in corporate mode running the family-owned Callahan Software company, wore navy dress slacks and a white shirt in honor of the special occasion.
“I seem to recall you being the same way,” Sin reminded Alex. When Dianne wasn’t working at her and Alex’s fashion design house, D&A of New York, or Alex wasn’t at work, they were usually together. Placing his champagne flute on the tray of a nearby waiter, Sin caught C. J.’s arm. “Let’s put him out of his misery.”
“Let’s.” Alex caught C. J.’s other arm, and they led him to his waiting fiancée.
They were barely there when C. J. reached out and tenderly pulled Cicely into his arms and kissed her. Always fashionable, she wore a sunny yellow dress that bared smooth shoulders and stopped inches above a pair of great-looking knees. Elegant, sophisticated, and gorgeous—it was easy to see why Cicely was the fashion director at one of the most influential high-fashion magazines in the country.
“Happy?” C. J. asked.
“I’ve never been happier.” Cicely leaned into the shelter of C. J.’s six-foot-four frame, her head against his broad chest.
“I plan to keep you that way.” C. J. gave her another kiss.
Dianne, in a short sleeveless magenta dress that showed off her famous legs, walked into her husband’s open arms. While the newly engaged snuggled and the newly married looked on approvingly and did the same thing, Sin watched Summer. There was a smile on her striking face that was serene and restful, but there was also a hint of sadness in her dark chocolate eyes. The sparkle of happiness and teasing warmth that had unknowingly gotten him through a couple of rough days in the last four months wasn’t there.
Sin didn’t think; he just stepped forward and curved his arm around Summer’s slim waist. Her arm went around him without hesitation. They’d done this a thousand times, but he’d never felt as he did now—that there was a barrier between them he couldn’t break through to comfort her. He didn’t like the feeling. At the moment, there were too many things in his personal life that were out of his control. He didn’t want to add another.
Sin felt the slight trembling of Summer’s slim body, and pulled her just the tiniest bit closer as he glanced down at her.
He saw what she undoubtedly wanted everyone to see, a beautifully poised and stylish woman in a white sheath that accentuated her shapely, slim five-foot-five body to perfection. The coal-black wavy hair that usually hung free and reached to the middle of her back was in some kind of intricate twist on top of her head. The upsweep made her slender neck appear vulnerable, her heart-shaped face more alluring. Any man would be proud to call her his.
“Looks like we’re the odd ones out,” Sin said, trying to tease her into smiling for real.
“Yes,” she said without looking at him.
Sin wondered if anyone else heard the tiniest tremble in her voice. He’d take her for a walk on the beach behind the estate as they’d done so many times after she’d lost her parents and in the years since, if he thought he’d get an answer. He wouldn’t. Summer could be as tight-lipped as the clams she served in Radcliffe’s, her five-star restaurant in Upper Manhattan.
“I don’t supposed you’ve changed your minds about having the engagement party at Callahan’s and letting your father and me book a more appropriate place or have it here,” C. J.’s mother, Evelyn, asked hopefully.
“Nope.” C. J. curved his free arm around his mother’s tense shoulders. “My bar it is.”
“I suppose Summer will cater,” his mother said, lines forming in her otherwise smooth forehead. “I realize you, Cicely, and Summer don’t need help with the menu, but you know I’m here if you need me.”
Cicely and C. J. shared a resigned look, then Cicely said, “Mrs. Callahan, about the menu. We’ve decided to have hamburgers and onion rings. It’s the first meal I ate at Callahan’s.”
Mrs. Callahan’s eyes widened with horror. C. J. plucked a glass from a nearby waiter and handed it to her. She lifted the flute to her mouth without hesitation.
“The crew at the bar wanted to do it for us,” C. J. explained as his mother took another sip. “We hope you and Dad will understand.”
“Of course, son,” his father said, an indulgent smile on his handsome face.
He and C. J.’s older brother, Paul, had suffered some serious health issues in the past, so C. J. was running Callahan Software and had a manager running his baby, Callahan’s Bar. Thank goodness both C. J.’s father and his brother were doing well.
“It is your wedding,” C. J.’s father continued.
Mrs. Callahan lowered the glass and frowned up at her husband. He smiled and took the almost empty glass from her. “Isn’t that right, Evelyn?”
“Of course … It’s just I wanted something a bit more lavish for you.”
Sin knew the bride-to-be’s parents usually threw the engagement party, but that wasn’t likely to happen. When C. J.’s brother and his wife had their engagement announcement party, both sets of parents worked together to have the affair at the Waldorf for more than two hundred intimate family members and friends. It had been spectacular and a night to remember.
“We understand,” C. J. said, smiling into his mother’s troubled face. “That’s why besides helping plan the wedding, we’re giving you carte blanche on planning the rehearsal dinner.”
Mrs. Callahan’s eyes brightened with pleasure. “Really?”
“Please,” Cicely said, placing her hand on her future mother-in-law’s shoulder. “Regardless of what your son thinks, we both know that eleven months—”
“I wanted the wedding in six weeks,” C. J. interrupted.
“—is not enough time to plan the type of formal wedding we’re having,” Cicely continued as if C. J. hadn’t spoken. “With C. J.’s and my busy schedule, which frequently takes us both out of town, you planning the last time we’ll see each other before we become husband and wife will mean so much to both of us.”
Mrs. Callahan hugged Cicely and then C. J. “It will be fabulous and memorable. I promise.”
“We know.” C. J. smiled at his mother. “And I promise we won’t get too rowdy and embarrass you and the family at the engagement party.”
“You could never do that.” C. J.’s father said. “We’re proud of you, son, and proud of Cicely. Even if the women will now outnumber the men. We might never get to watch another sports game on television.”
C. J. playfully winked at his father. “I’m turning Cicely into a sports fan. She’ll be on our side.”
Copyright © 2012 by Francis Ray
