Sail Away Read Free

insisted, though it was true that nothing had been the same since Adam Drake had been fired. There had been a change in attitude in the offices of Montgomery Inns. Nothing tangible. Just a loss of company spirit and confidence. Everyone felt it—including Victor, though, of course, he was loathe to admit it.
    “And then you decided to break up with Kent,” her father went on, shaking his head as he searched the pocket of his jacket for his pipe. “And now you want to leave the corporation, just walk away from a fortune. When I was your age, I was—”
    “—working ten-hour days and still going to night school, I know,” Marnie cut in. Her heels clicked loudly against the concrete. Low-hanging pipes overhead dripped condensation, and she had to duck to escape the steady drops as she hurried to keep up with her father’s swift strides.
    She stopped at the fender of Victor’s Jaguar. He unlocked the doors and they both slid into the cushy interior.
    “You should be grateful…”
    Marnie closed her eyes. How could she explain the feeling that she was trapped? That she needed a life of her own? That she had to prove herself by standing on her own two feet? “I am grateful, Dad. Really.” Turning to face him, she forced a wan smile. “This is just something I have to do—”
    “Right now? Can’t it wait?” he asked, as if sensing her beginning to weaken.
    “No.”
    “But the new hotel is opening next week. I need you there. You’re in charge of public relations, for God’s sake.”
    “And I have a capable assistant. You remember Todd Byers—blond, wears glasses—”
    Victor waved off her explanation.
    “Well, if he’s not good enough I have a whole department to cover for me.” That was what bothered her most. She didn’t feel needed. If she walked away from Montgomery Inns, no one, save Victor, would notice. Even Kent would get by without her.
    Her father fired up the engine and shoved the Jag into reverse. “I don’t understand you anymore.” With a flip of the steering wheel, he headed for the exit. “What is it you really want?”
    “A life of my own.”
    “You have one. A life most women would envy.”
    “I know,” she admitted, her spine stiffening a bit. How could she reach a man who had worked all his life creating an empire? A man who had raised her alone, a man who loved her as much as he possibly could? “This is just something I have to do.”
    He waved to the lot’s attendant, then nosed the Jag into the busy streets of downtown Seattle. “A few weeks ago you were planning to marry Kent,” he pointed out as he joined the traffic easing toward the waterfront. Marnie felt a familiar stab of pain. “But now, all of a sudden, Kent’s not good enough. It doesn’t matter that he’s practically my right-hand man—”
    “No, it doesn’t,” she said swiftly. Surprisingly, her voice was still steady.
    “Why don’t you tell me what happened between you two?” he suggested. “It’s all tied up with this whole new independence kick, isn’t it?”
    Marnie didn’t answer. She didn’t want to think about Kent, nor the fact that she’d found him with Dolores Tate, his secretary. Rather than dwell on Kent’s betrayal, Marnie stared at the car ahead of them. Two fluffy Persian cats slept on the back window ledge and a bright red bumper sticker near the back plates asked, Have You Hugged Your Cat Today?
    Funny, she thought sarcastically, she hadn’t hugged anyone in a long, long while. And no one had hugged her. At that thought a lump settled in her throat, and she wrapped her arms around herself, determined not to cry. Not today. Not on this, the very first step toward her new life.
    Victor switched lanes, jockeying for position as traffic clogged. “While we’re on the subject of Kent—”
    “We’re not.”
    “He loves you.”
    Marnie knew better. “Let’s just leave Kent out of this, okay?”
    For once, her father didn’t argue. Rubbing the back of his neck he shook