My screams were muffled as I flapped my arms and legs, managing to break the surface, gasping and filling my lungs with air. I frantically started swimming toward the edge of the pool, with the plastic tarp bobbing beneath me.
A strong hand wrapped around my wrist and lifted me up and out, pulling me farther away from the side of the pool. The chill was paralyzing, making each breath I drew painful. I clutched my arms across my chest, refusing to look at the staring people and their gawps of horror. I couldn’t help but notice before looking away that Max’s mother had slapped her hands over her mouth…and Nick and Morgan had scurried away.
Max shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. “Come on, let’s get you dried off.”
“I’m sorry.” My teeth were chattering and my body was shaking.
I couldn’t move…couldn’t think straight.
Max lifted me into his arms, grasping me tightly to his chest, and carried me away from the pool. Water dripped off me, soaking his chest.
“I’m getting you wet.” I cupped my face in my hands.
“Relax, Daisy,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
Feeling humiliated and disgraced, I glanced back at his family and friends…their expressions of pity and confusion would forever be seared into my mind.
Max carried me into the house, up a winding staircase and along an endless hallway. He walked into a bedroom and then straight through into a bathroom en suite. It had the kind of tile a girl could drip on without worrying about the damage.
Max stood in front of me and towel-dried my hair, peeking through my damp locks to give me sympathetic smiles.
I realized I had lost my high-heeled pumps in the pool.
“We have to get you out of your clothes.” He turned his back and faced the door. “Put this on.” He pointed to a bathrobe. “I’ll step out.”
He left the room.
Shaking from the cold, I pulled at the catch of my skirt and slipped out of it, then peeled off my blouse. I took off my underwear and threw all of the sopping wet clothes into the sink. Drying myself off with a plush towel, my thoughts returned to Max’s announcement.
They’re engaged.
I’d gone out in a glorious burst of humiliation. The memory of seeing Nick walking away hand-in-hand with his bride-to-be was scorched into my brain.
I heard a knock at the door.
“Are you decent?” asked Max.
I quickly pulled on the robe. “Yes.”
He came in. “That’s better.” Max threw me a smile I didn’t deserve. “Let’s find something you can borrow.”
He took my hand and led me out into the hallway.
“I’ll never live this down,” I muttered.
“Nonsense.”
“I ruined his engagement party.”
Max nudged open another door. “In you go.”
“I’m so embarrassed.”
“My brother has done far worse,” he mumbled, closing the bedroom door behind us.
I’d lived with a man I hardly knew. A man who had never really loved me. Trying not to think about it, I looked around at the elegant room’s burgundy wallpaper and furniture plucked out of a Harrod’s catalogue. A mahogany dresser complemented the enormous canopied four-poster bed.
I tried to shake off my sense of disorientation. “This is your mum’s room?”
“We’ll find something of hers that will fit.”
“She won’t mind?”
“It’s like Selfridges in here.” Inside the spacious walk-in closet he rummaged through her clothes, all neatly arranged on velvet-covered hangers.
Some of the outfits still had tags on them.
“We’re spoiled for choice.” Max plucked out a satin gown to show me. “Check out her shoes.”
I stepped back, feeling uncomfortable with taking anything that belonged to her. Max was just being kind. No doubt wanting me dressed and out of here.
Sensing my unease, Max put back the satin gown and said, “She’ll be fine with you borrowing her things. She has a generous nature.”
I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, unable to make eye contact with him. I’d made the worst mistake of my life by coming here.
Max sat beside me. “Feel all right?”
“My high heels are at the bottom of your mum’s pool. As long as I live, I don’t think I’ll be able to top this humiliating experience.” Though, lately, I’d had a lot of embarrassing moments to choose from.
He patted my hand. “People tend to forget these things.”
“Not those kinds of things.” I suppose it didn’t matter now—I was hardly going to be invited back.
He shrugged. “Most people are only into themselves.”
“You don’t believe that?”
“I’m afraid I do.”
“But you’re not like that.”
He nudged me with his shoulder. “Some people make you want to know them better.”
I wasn’t falling for that. He’d told me before that he was leaving for São Paulo. He’d been the one to offer me money so I would go away.
The silence stretched on between us.
He reached over and pushed a lock of wet hair out of my face.
“Your mum must hate me.”
“She doesn’t know you.”
We both knew after tonight she’d be glad to get rid of me.
“Do you need a drink?” He chuckled. “Other than pool water?”
Chlorine was in my hair and my skin was coated with it. My sopping wet clothes were taking up space in his bathroom. I was a mess.
Then I saw his shirt and jacket.
“I’m so sorry.” I pointed to his chest.
“Anything to get out of this tux, Daisy. You gave me an excuse to change.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about Nick.”
“I didn’t know.” I shook my head. “I should never have come here. I wasn’t even dressed up enough.”
“You looked pretty.”
“I looked like a member of your staff!”
He cringed. “You did a bit.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“My worst flaw.”
“I failed him.” My lip trembled. “I let your brother down.”
Max wrapped his arm around me. “You can’t use yourself as a buffer so that the people around you have a better life than you.”
“I’d do anything to stop him from getting hurt.”
He stared at me. “Were you spying on them?”
“No! This was one of my dares.”
His eyes widened in realization and then he flinched.
“Obviously not the bit where I mistook a pool for the ground.”
He leaned back to peer at me with intense brown eyes, biting his lip as though to prevent himself from laughing. “Feeling better?”
“Yes, thank you,” I fibbed.
“Let’s go back.”
“What?”
“Why not?” He gestured towards the closet. “Find something you can dance in.”
I jumped as someone knocked on the door.
A female voice followed the sound. “Are you in there, Max?”
He got to his feet and strolled over to the door, opening it slightly. “Hey, Mum.”