Page 14 of Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort)
Miller walked over to the table, carrying the large dish he’d just pulled out of the oven, and set it down with everything he’d brought over earlier.
“Cullen, I want to hear all about this camp you’re running for our local kids,” Miller said, as he slid back into the chair. “But first, let’s eat!”
Chapter Seven
“Hey, you,” Leona said to Dalton as she approached him, sitting in one of the sling beach chairs that had been pulled up from the beach for the Tuesday night bonfire.
The weekly bonfire was not only a favorite of the guests, but also of the staff. The event was a nod to how Miller Quinlan and his best friend, Dave, had met their wives almost thirty years earlier at a bonfire in San Juan. A couple of years later, while renovating the Indigo Royal into what it is today, a kitchen fire had claimed the lives of Miller’s wife, Marta, as well as Dave and Sofia, who had just brought Drea into the world six months prior, leaving Drea to be raised by Miller and his brothers on the resort. While the staff was required to take a safety class upon hiring because of that incident, it never seemed to put a damper on the bonfires held every week.
The resort had an area specially designed for the event, complete with industrial firepit built into the beach, a bar, a DJ, and a s’mores making station. The best part of the bonfire was that it was unpredictable. Some weeks it was low-key and subdued, others it was a raging party that went well into the wee hours of the night. This spot had seen many a vacation hookup, a couple of marriage proposals, skinny-dippers, and there was even an instance of a woman destroying her wedding photos in celebration of her divorce. While Leona had never been to Las Vegas, she figured that they couldn’t be too different from each other on one account: what happened at the Indigo Royal, stayed at the Indigo Royal.
The fire pit was located just outside the lobby, to the left of the concierge desk if you were standing at it, just before reaching the pool. The bar that had been added for the bonfire nights also served the pool during peak hours, helping offset the crowd from Paradise City, the swim-up bar on the far side of the pool. The area flowed into the beach, which had a number of lounge chairs, umbrellas, and even a couple of cabanas permanently set up for guests to relax under.
Kyle and Dalton had shown up at the cottage shortly after Leona had finished spilling her guts about exactly how Cruz had gotten that wound adjacent to his left eye ten years earlier. It was not a moment that Leona was proud of in any way, which is why she’d never come clean about it when Drea had mentioned that Cruz had told the uncles that he’d slipped in the shower. But regardless of how she felt about the act itself, it was a good feeling to know that Drea agreed with her that he had deserved it, and maybe more. The four of them ate the sandwiches that Miller had made for them before Drea and Kyle had taken off to go meet up with her family for their weekly pre-bonfire tradition. Dalton had gone off to who knows where, as Leona had headed to her office to briefly review the daily reports her housekeepers had left for her while she was out picking up her brother.
Dalton looked up at Leona from his beach chair and nodded at her in greeting.
“Should I be worried that you’re over here by yourself?” she asked, sitting down in a chair next to him. The thought suddenly occurred to her that she’d never texted Carlos back. He hadn’t followed up, so he must have either gotten a real maintenance call or just assumed she was too busy. Either way, it didn’t seem like he was overly upset that the booty call didn’t happen.
“Naw,” he drawled, his American southern accent coming to life. “I’m just taking it all in. How’s the visit going?”
“As good as can be expected, I guess,” she shrugged.
“I met him earlier. He mentioned you.”
“Oh, shut it, Dalton, I don’t need it from you too!” she scolded him.
“I’m not kidding, darlin’. Ask Kyle,” he said, pointing to his buddy who was walking up with Drea.
“Ask me what?” Kyle pulled up a chaise lounge and sat in it before pulling Drea down to join him. She settled herself in his lap, in what had become their go-to position on bonfire nights. The two of them had kept their relationship a secret when they’d first gotten together, and even though it’d been months since their secret had come out, the novelty of being able to cuddle up in public obviously hadn’t worn off.
“I was just tellin’ Lee that one Mr. Cullen Cruz was talking about her at his dinner with the big men,” Dalton answered.
“Yup,” Kyle responded succinctly.
“What?” Drea asked, turning around to look at Kyle. “You didn’t tell me that!”
“I didn’t realize it was a big deal. I didn’t hear the
whole conversation. In fact, we only heard the very beginning because I stopped to make sure the door didn’t slam. But it was something about your brother,” Kyle shrugged.
Leona could feel her body temperature rise as she and Drea exchanged glances. Did he really not believe her when she had told him this afternoon that Josef was her brother? Had he gone to her bosses to verify she wasn’t keeping a secret from him? The nerve of that man. This was beyond an invasion of privacy, and she was done dealing with his bullshit. So much for waiting until tomorrow to tell Vaughn she wasn’t willing to deal with him anymore. She pushed herself up from the chair, brushed some sand from the back of her legs, and took a deep breath.
“Lee…” Drea said as a warning.
“No, Dre, don’t. That fucker went to your uncles to verify that I wasn’t lying about Josef being my brother? That’s low. Low even for him!” she hissed. “And I’m not letting him get away with that. This is borderline harassment!”
“Just don’t do anything stupid,” Drea told her.
“No promises, because this time I might just actually hit him.”
“Hit him?” Dalton laughed. “Lee, no offense, darlin’, but he could pick you up with his little finger.”
“I’ve done it once, I’ll fucking do it again!” she snapped back, not waiting for a response before she stormed off.
She found Cullen sitting with Grayson at a small table on the other side of the bonfire bar, away from the guests and partially hidden by the towel hut, smoking cigars and drinking scotch. He looked like a king, sitting back, relaxed, with the cigar in one hand and a lowball glass in the other. The open bottle of scotch was just sitting on the table in between the two men, as if it were a two liter of soda rather than a couple-thousand-dollar bottle of imported liquor. The two men were so lost in conversation that neither one saw her until she was basically standing at their feet.
“Lee,” Grayson said, happy to see her. “Cullen here was just telling me that Josef really seems to be excelling at this skills camp he’s running this week. Hard to wrap my brain around him being a teenager.”
