Kismet by Carly Phillips

Chapter One

On a mission, Elisabetta Gardelli walked into Consign or Design, a small shop off Main Street in downtown Serendipity known for high-end outfits bought on consignment and unique items created by the owner, April Mancini. The bells rang over Lissa’s head as she entered, and the yapping bark of a small Yorkshire terrier greeted her.

“Hey, Lucy.” Lissa bent down to pet the head of the small dog, whose little tongue licked her, showering her with undying affection.

“Can I help you?” April walked out of the back room. “Oh, Lissa! Long time no see.”

Lissa waved a hand and rose to her feet. “I know. Until now, I’ve been able to make do with the clothes in my closet.” She hadn’t had the extra money to splurge on herself.

April smiled. “That’s because you’re a good mom and give everything you can to your gorgeous daughter.” She tucked her vibrant, layered red hair behind her ear.

At the mention of Olivia, Lissa smiled. It was true she’d rather spend her hard-earned money on her ten-year-old than on herself.

“I still think you should have taken Bradley to the cleaners,” April muttered, speaking of Lissa’s no-good, cheating ex, whom she’d married right after high school graduation.

“If I could have proven he had access to his family’s money, maybe I would have.”

Throughout their marriage, it had looked like they had money. The Banks family had all the superficial things covered—a nice house, a Lexus to drive, all the things that looked good to the town. In reality, Brad earned a salary at his father’s dealership that paid for the bare bones of what they needed to live, and he’d kept her on a tight budget. Meanwhile, his parents had financed any extracurricular activities Brad wanted, including his country club membership and expenses.

Lissa had been the stay-at-home wife and mother Bradley had married out of obligation while he’d continued to live a single lifestyle. Even knowing he had affairs, she’d stayed so her daughter could have a stable childhood with two parents living under one roof. But as Olivia grew up, Lissa realized that if the rest of the town was aware of her husband’s mistresses, it was only a matter of time until Olivia discovered the same. Lissa didn’t want her baby subjected to gossip, nasty comments, or having people laugh behind her back at school. Finally, enough had been enough, and Lissa had walked out.

The good news was that their daughter wanted for nothing. Grandma and Grandpa Banks saw to that. At least Lissa had been smart enough to obtain her online college degree. Between colic, feedings, and toddlerhood, a BA in journalism had taken her more than five years. When it came to the divorce, she’d received exactly half of what Bradley earned, which had only been enough for her to put a down payment on a house for herself and Olivia. She lived on what she earned. The child support went for her daughter.

These days, she only wanted to reach for the goals she’d shelved when she’d stupidly gotten pregnant as a senior in high school. Though Lissa wouldn’t trade Olivia for the world, she’d done a one-eighty since her divorce, determined to teach herself and her daughter about self-respect.

“Well, I admire you,” April said, unaware of the direction of Lissa’s thoughts. “You’re proof that hard work pays off. I read your interview with Faith Harrington in the News Journal. And I’m sure things are looking up for our resident big-time journalist now,” April said warmly.

Lissa marveled at the description. She still thought of herself as a small-town coffee-server-slash-obit-writer, not a legitimate newswoman. But ever since Faith Harrington had given Lissa the interview every newsperson on the planet coveted, Lissa had arrived in her chosen field.

“Things are definitely looking up. I’ve been hired to do a series of interviews for the News Journal. Thirty Under Thirty, they’re calling it—about men of Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs who’ve made their mark at an impressively young age.”

“You go, girl!” April pulled her into a huge congratulatory hug.

Lissa wasn’t a warm and fuzzy kind of person, but April was—and in this store, April’s rules applied. Lissa allowed the embrace for as long as she was comfortable, then stepped back.

“So what can I do for you?” April asked.

Lissa was supposed to meet her friend Kate Andrews for this shopping expedition, but as usual, Kate hadn’t yet arrived. Lissa glanced at the items hanging from hooks on the light green walls. Though Lissa couldn’t afford a new couture suit, she knew April would be able to put together the perfect outfit at a reasonable price.

She’d just have to start without Kate. “I need a kick-ass designer suit in order to make a good impression,” Lissa said.

“On one of those Fortune 500 guys?” April asked hopefully.

Lissa drew a deep breath, still unable to believe the subject of her first interview. Just the thought of him set her nerves tingling. “One guy in particular,” she murmured.

“Anyone famous I’d know of?” April asked.

Before Lissa could answer, the bells over the door rang again and Kate came bursting through, out of breath. “I’m here. Sorry I’m late, but I’m here.” Kate’s long hair was in wild disarray, her cheeks flushed pink.

“Let me guess. You overslept?” Lissa laughed, knowing that wasn’t the reason.

Kate exhaled long and hard. “I had to stop by my mom’s, and she started talking, and I just—”

“Lost track of time,” they both said together.

Kate couldn’t manage to account for her time and was chronically late, but Lissa could never be mad at her. Kate was one of the good people in this world. They’d both grown up in Serendipity, gone to the same elementary, middle, and high schools—and had never spoken to each other. Oh, they glared plenty, Kate being one of those girls with money, like Faith Harrington. Lissa had been a townie without.

To her shame, Lissa had carried that attitude into the present, at least where Faith was concerned, and she cringed at the memory of how badly she’d treated the other woman when she’d returned to town. Even though Faith’s father had been convicted of running a Ponzi scheme that rivaled Bernie Madoff’s, Lissa had thought Faith’s life had been easy. How wrong she’d been.

Thank goodness Faith had seen through Lissa’s bitterness about her own life and given her a chance despite her attitude. Faith had taught Lissa the meaning of generosity and of rising above it all. Lissa was more grateful for that hard lesson than for the actual interview.

April clapped her hands, capturing her attention. “Lissa was just about to tell me why she needed a kick-ass designer suit. And which Fortune 500 guy she wanted to impress.” April lifted one perfectly penciled eyebrow.

“Well? Are you going to tell her?” Kate asked. “It’s Trevor Dane!” she said, blurting out the news before Lissa could do it herself.

April’s eyes opened wide. “Trevor Dane. Your… I mean…”

“My high school sweetheart,” Lissa said. The only man she’d ever truly loved and the one she’d hurt beyond reason.

The News Journal’s list of interviewees was set in stone. She had no choice but to face Trevor again for the first time since telling him she was pregnant with Bradley Banks’s baby ten years before. Although Faith Harrington had been given a second chance with Ethan Barron, another man Lissa would be interviewing, she already knew she had royally screwed up any shot with Trevor Dane a decade earlier.

She didn’t deserve another.

And to put an exclamation point on that old statement, Trevor had gone away to college. He lived in Manhattan, and though he’d visited Serendipity and his family over the years, when it came to Lissa, he’d never looked back.

*     *     *

“News Journalmagazine wants to interview you,” Alexander Wittman, president and CEO of Wittman Financial Management and the son of the firm’s founder, said as he walked into Trevor Dane’s corner office.

Trevor didn’t turn. Instead, he stared out at the streets of Manhattan from the luxury high-rise office building on Broad Street, wondering how a kid from the wrong side of the tracks had arrived at this point. Brains, hard work, and a helluva lot of luck. That and a burning desire to get out of his hometown of Serendipity, New York, and rarely go back. It’d be never if not for his family, Trevor thought wryly.

“Did you hear me?” Alex asked.

Trevor pivoted to face his boss and mentor. “I was just taking it in. News Journal, huh?” Like Forbes, the magazine was a must-read in the business world.

“You’re an up-and-comer,” the man said proudly.

“Thanks. I owe it to you.” A decade older than Trevor, Alex had been his mentor since he’d interned with him one summer. “My secretary gave me a schedule of events the reporter will be attending with me. Apparently, she wants to follow me around even during my off hours,” he muttered.

She was even supposed to attend the annual charity gala the firm was sponsoring on Friday night at the Waldorf. Though Trevor wasn’t pleased, it did save him the hassle of finding a date, the need for which he’d been ignoring.

“The price we pay,” Alex said with a chuckle. “Maybe she’ll be a beauty.”

Trevor raised an eyebrow. “I’m not about to get us slapped with a sexual harassment suit by hitting on the reporter.”

“You know what your problem is?” Alex asked.

“Wasn’t aware I had one.” Trevor folded his arms across his chest. “Care to enlighten me?”

“You’re all work and no play. You don’t want to end up old and alone, not when the alternative is so much better.” Alex ran a hand through his thick black hair and eyed Trevor with a knowing look that meant he wouldn’t drop the subject easily. The man was always after Trevor to look harder at the women he dated and give them more than a couple of chances before he decided to break things off.

But Alex had married his college sweetheart and hadn’t looked at another woman since. Trevor wished he’d been so lucky. Every woman he dated left him cold because no one could live up to the memory of the one who got away—breaking his heart and ruining him for anyone who came after her.

“Give me a break. You like how much money I bring in, and that takes up all my time.” Trevor walked around his desk and placed a hand on the other man’s back. “So it’s time for you to let me do my thing before the reporter arrives.” In fact, she was due any minute.

“Fine. Subject dropped. For now. But Emma insists you come to dinner Saturday night at our penthouse. She said she won’t take no for an answer.”

“As long as she’s not trying to set me up with one of her friends,” Trevor said, accepting. He loved Alex’s wife and wouldn’t deny her a thing.

“The fact that you’re free on such short notice just backs up my point. You need—”

“To get to work,” Trevor said. “Tell Emma I’ll see her on Saturday.”

Before Alex could depart, a knock sounded on Trevor’s office door. “Come in.”

His secretary, Collette, opened the door. “Mr. Dane, your nine thirty appointment is here.”

Trevor nodded. “Show her in, please.”

“I’ll just stay and say hello to the reporter,” Alex said, puffing out his chest a bit.

Trevor grinned. The man did love publicity.

“Right this way.” Trevor heard Collette say before she stepped back in. “Mr. Dane, Mr. Wittman, this is Ms. Elisabetta Gardelli from the News Journal.” Collette stepped aside.

And the woman who’d haunted his dreams for the past ten years took his middle-aged secretary’s place in the doorway.

“Hello, Mr. Wittman.” Elisabetta nodded at Alex. “Hi, Trevor.” Her husky voice had only grown deeper, sexier.

He immediately found himself sucked into those green eyes, the color of freshly cut grass. Just the sight of her was a sucker punch to his stomach as memories that still had the power to gut him swept over him like a tsunami. “Oh no. No fucking way.”

Lissa paled at the words that slipped from his mouth.

Alex stepped back, his expression full of stark disbelief. Trevor was sure the man had never heard him speak that way.

“You two obviously know each other,” Alex said.

“From high school,” Lissa said, her voice not as steady anymore. “It’s been a while.” She met his gaze, giving him time to adjust to the shock.

He tried to find his composure but surprise made it impossible. Since she blatantly stared at him, he returned the favor. Here in a professional capacity, she wore a simple black dress obviously meant to give her a professional yet elegant appearance, but her body outshone any dress, and her cropped jacket showcased her full breasts and indented waist. Time had brought changes to the girl he’d known—and they were good ones.

Curves he’d felt in his hands as a teenager had only blossomed over the years. Glossy hair he’d once wrapped around his fingers fell over her shoulders, while her face had filled out in a way that highlighted her cheekbones and full lips. She was still beautiful. And there was no way he could deal with her on a professional level and remain immune. No way he could let her trail after him for days and go back to his solitary life afterward.

“I can’t do this,” Trevor said into the uncomfortable silence. He didn’t care how juvenile or unprofessional he sounded.

“You two obviously have some things to work out,” Alex said. “But Trevor, I don’t need to remind you how important this interview is to you and to the firm.” With that parting shot, Alex inclined his head to Lissa and stepped out of the office, pulling the door closed behind him.

Trevor pulled in a deep breath. “Some warning would have been nice.”

Lissa had the good grace to duck her head in embarrassment. “I didn’t think you’d see me if I put my name on the proposal. And I’d have been right.”

“So you ambushed me.”

“This interview is important for us both. We’re adults now. Can’t we find a way to get through it?” she asked.

Trevor knew he didn’t have a choice. Alex had implied as much, and Lissa knew it, too. Now that the shock was wearing off, he realized what an ass he’d been. Completely unprofessional—and if Trevor prided himself on anything, it was his professional demeanor.

“Fine. Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to a chair.

She’d had time to think about this meeting, plan for the occasion, and prepare. He hadn’t. In return, he intended to unsettle her as much as she unsettled him. So instead of retreating behind his massive cherry desk, he settled himself on the corner of the desktop, directly across from Lissa and definitely in her personal space.

“So how have you been?” he asked, shifting so his pant leg brushed her bare one.

Her cheeks flushed in response. “I’m good. And yourself? Is life in the city as fun as I imagine?”

“More,” he lied. It was cold, lonely, and filled with work—not that he’d give her the satisfaction of that truth. “So. The News Journal? I’m impressed.”

He’d been rocked when he’d read her interview with Faith Harrington last month, surprised to see her name after all these years. He’d also been proud of her, at least until painful memories replaced the warmth he’d been feeling.

“Thank you. After my divorce, I didn’t think I’d get beyond writing obits for the Serendipity Gazette, but Faith Harrington changed my life.”

Trevor couldn’t get past the word divorce.

His family, his mother and sister in particular, filled him in on Serendipity gossip, but they’d both learned long ago not to feed him information about Lissa. Their phone calls were more enjoyable that way.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “About the divorce.” Another lie. His heart hadn’t stopped pounding in his chest since he’d realized she was free.

“I’m not. It was a long time coming.” She glanced down, then looked at him again. “It wasn’t love, Trev. It never was.”

Her honest words startled him. From the minute she’d told him she was pregnant with Bradley Banks’s baby, all he could think about was that his greatest fear had come true. Lissa had gone out with Brad, the high school quarterback and rich boy, and after they’d broken up, Trevor had made his move on the girl he’d always wanted. Though they’d fallen in love and made plans for the future, he’d still been insecure about his place in her life. Back then, he hadn’t been able to give her what Brad could, the things she deserved that money could buy.

Not that she’d ever asked for or coveted them, he realized now.

But his inadequacies had always marked him. It was the way of things in Serendipity and his dad, bless him, was the high school janitor. It didn’t make Trevor’s life easy. So when he and Lissa had a stupid teenage argument, they’d broken up. And when she’d turned back to Brad, even for one night, all Trevor could think was that she’d proven him right. And when she’d ended up pregnant, all hope of fixing things came to an abrupt and ugly end.

Trevor met her gaze. She’d waited quietly as he processed her words. “It’s in the past,” he said gruffly.

But was it?

“So you’ll do the interview?” she asked, hope shining in her eyes.

While he’d been rehashing the pain, she’d been worried about her career. Okay, that made sense. It wasn’t like she was here for a personal reason. “Yeah. I’ll do it.”

“Thank you!” she squealed and impulsively jumped up from her chair, throwing her arms around him in gratitude. In that instant, she was the Lissa he remembered, the full of life, go for the gusto, happy girl he’d fallen for.

And when she pulled him into an embrace, he buried his face in her hair and allowed her familiar scent to envelop him. Desire licked at him, scorching him from the inside out. He remembered how good they’d been together and suddenly knew what that empty hole was in his life. He missed her, the girl he’d told all his dreams, hopes, and secrets. Since Lissa, he’d never let anyone get that emotionally close, afraid of experiencing that kind of pain and loss again.

She pulled back with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks. “Sorry. I got carried away, but this series of interviews means so much to me. I mean, I didn’t think I’d ever get to stop slinging coffee for a living and now…” She trailed off. “I’m rambling.”

He laughed for the first time since she’d walked in. “You think?”

He couldn’t stop thinking about her words. Serving coffee? Didn’t Banks have so much money that after any divorce settlement, she should be able to sit back and eat bonbons if she chose?

Clearly, Trevor had a lot to catch up on, and suddenly, he wanted to. Now that he’d seen Lissa again, his curiosity was piqued, and he wanted the information he’d deliberately ignored over the years. Thinking back to the schedule his secretary had handed him first thing this morning, he figured they had time. Because if Lissa was going to pump him for information about who he was and what made him tick, damned if he wasn’t going to do the same thing to her.

“So when do we get started?” he asked her. “On the interview.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Right now, if you’re ready. I’ll do a combination of observing you at work and, when we’re alone and you aren’t busy, asking questions and talking.”

“Now is fine,” he said, suddenly revved up and exhilarated. “Did Collette give you a copy of my schedule for the next few days?”

“She handed me a sheet of paper when I walked in. I haven’t had time to go over it.”

He nodded. “You might want to. There’s a formal event on Friday night and a dinner party Saturday,” he said, deciding that wherever he was going, so was Lissa.

She paled visibly. “Formal events and dinner parties?”

“All a part of the life you need to write about,” he reminded her. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just that…” She drew a deep breath. “I didn’t bring those kinds of dress clothes with me. But I’m staying at the Marriott on Broadway, and this is Manhattan, right? I’m sure I’ll find something.” Her voice trembled, but he didn’t understand the cause.

“You sure?”

She nodded, putting on a bright but clearly forced smile. He still knew her well enough to pinpoint that.

“I’ll just leave after lunch and go shopping.”

“Okay.” He narrowed his gaze, knowing that as soon as she left, he’d be on the phone with his mother to find out exactly what had gone on in Lissa’s life that he deliberately hadn’t wanted to hear.

Now he wanted to know everything.

Trevor didn’t understand his sudden turnaround, not completely, but one thing was clear. Their forced time together would provide him with a way to get Lissa out of his system and allow him to move on with his life.

One way or another.