Page 37 of Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort)
“I will,” she said, loving how sweet Carlos was. She felt a slight pang of guilt that she didn’t have real, romantic feelings for him. Some day he would make some woman very, very lucky with that attentive, sweet nature of his. She just wasn’t that woman. “That said, I’m probably no longer needed to help replace light bulbs.”
“Yeah,” he said, resigned. “We had a good run, though.”
“We did,” she said, smiling sadly.
“Well, you better go find Vaughn.”
She nodded and turned away to go find her boss. A few steps into the lobby, she heard Carlos call her name again. Turning to face him, she found him still standing in the exact spot she had left him.
“Lee, I’m here whenever you need me.”
Vaughn was not in his office, behind the front desk, in her office, the laundry room, or the dining room. For someone who apparently needed to talk to her, he sure was doing a damn good job at hiding. For just a moment, she considered that maybe it was something Carlos had invented to get her away from Cullen, but then she realized he would have had no idea she was even out on the boat if Vaughn hadn’t asked him to go down there to grab her.
In a last-ditch effort to find the man, she walked into the kitchen. It wasn’t unheard of for staff to hide out in here, seeking comfort with Miller’s cooking. It was also still dinnertime, so it was entirely plausible he was simply grabbing something to eat. Miller was sitting at the family table eating a sandwich, with his right-hand man Rafe manning the stove.
“Hey, Uncle Miller, have you seen Vaughn?" she asked as she approached the table.
“He blew through here about an hour ago, in a state because he couldn’t find the fragrance-free toiletries a guest was requesting.”
“Oh goodness. Okay, well, let me go grab some and continue to hunt him down.”
“Don’t worry about it, love. Carmella straightened him out and showed him right where they were behind the concierge desk. Pretty sure he and Simone headed back to the Big House, so don’t worry about him until tomorrow.”
“Oh, okay. Guess I’ll head out too, then,” she said, a little unsure what to do with herself now.
“Need some food? You must be starving after being out on the water all day,” he said, getting up from the table and heading over to the food prep area.
/> “Well, someone sent some fantastic things for us to snack on, so I’m not dying,” she laughed. He bowed slightly in response to her compliment, making her laugh more.
“If you will wait ten minutes, I’m almost done with Mr. Cruz’s room service order. Could you deliver it?” Rafe asked her, barely looking up from what he was working on.
Room service? Oh, this could be fun, she thought, a sly smile forming on her face.
“Sure, works for me.”
Rafe nodded his head and went back to work, oblivious of Miller flitting around him.
“Should we pack enough for two?” Miller asked her, eyes wide with curiosity.
“Uncle Miller, what are you implying?” she asked him, trying to feign innocence.
“Leona, you have been in my life since you were five. You might as well be another niece,” he started, looking at her lovingly. “I know you, and I saw the flash in your eyes just now.”
Shit, shit, shit, she thought. Miller knowing something was up would not be a good thing. She couldn’t have the uncles knowing what was going on.
“No, Uncle Miller, it’s not—”
“Your secret is safe with me, love,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m the family romantic, remember? My only advice is to remember that when you love someone, you love the whole person, ugly warts and all. No one is perfect. Everyone has made mistakes and has a past, but all of that made them who they are now. It’s not always easy, but it is always worth it.”
There was a board in the deck attached to the backside of La Isla Bonita that let out a weird squeak every time he stepped on this one spot. A part of Cullen was annoyed by the noise, but not enough to actually change the pattern of his pacing. He wasn't even sure he knew why he was pacing. No, that was a lie—he knew exactly why.
Watching Leona walk off with some other guy made his internal caveman rage and try to claw his way out. It had taken more restraint than he realized he had to keep from walking up to the guy and decking him. But Leona wasn’t his to claim in that way. Not to mention, Carlos, as Drea had called him, had shown up telling her that their boss was looking for her. Nothing about that interaction would suggest that there was anything more going on. But the look in his eye when he looked at Cullen told him all he needed to know. He had thought his territory was being trespassed on, and he wasn’t happy about it either.
Then there were Drea’s words to him as they watched Leona walk off—"it’s probably better if she explains it to you.”
So there was something to explain.
Had she just made a fool out of him? It’s not that he probably didn’t deserve it. Admittedly he had treated her all kinds of wrong over the years, but he’d apologized last night. He’d asked her to give him a chance to show her that wasn’t who he was. Did he just open himself up to be made a chump? And then there was everything he told her today. He could count on one hand the number of people who knew that he’d witnessed his father’s death. The last person he remembered telling about it was Oliver, and that was close to fifteen years ago.
