Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort Book 2) Page 6

  He ran the conversations with Josef back over and over again in his mind as he walked to the dining room to meet everyone for dinner, trying to figure out if there was something the kid had said that would have given away that “Lena” was his older sister and not his mom. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember anything. He’d only referred to her by name, or what must be a family nickname, once. Every other time he said “mom” or “dad” or “my sister.” For all Cullen knew, this Lena had been the coach of his rec league.

  Still should have handled it better, he thought, entering the lobby. What the fuck were you thinking? Oh wait, you weren’t…

  Had he been thinking, he would have waited and asked Josef more questions. Or he could have approached Leona when the kid wasn’t around—when he wasn’t all worked up over seeing them together—and could have tried to have a reasonable conversation with her about his suspicions. But no, he charged her like he was a bull and she was the matador waving the red cape. It was just what she did to him. He became a different person—one who couldn’t control what came out of his mouth.

  Thinking about all the things he said, he cursed himself for belittling their time together and letting her think she was just another one of his random hookups. Even more than that, he just couldn’t believe he’d referred to a child, his potential child or so he had thought, as a “souvenir.” That was the real kicker. If his mother had heard him say that, oh man, she would have smacked him into the middle of next week.

  While a kid, a teenager to boot, was not high on the list of things he’d like to be surprised with, he found he was okay with the idea that the kid was his. As the thought rolled around in his brain, it occurred to him that had his wild accusations actually been founded, having Leona be the mother of his child wouldn’t have been the worst thing ever. He was more upset over the idea that she would have hidden it from him than he was about the idea that it had happened.

  Shaking his head to try and clear the thoughts, he walked into the resort’s dining room and looked for the Quinlans. The brothers weren’t a whole lot older than he was and had become friends of sorts over the years he’d visited the island. They were the kind of guys you wanted in your corner—loyal, trustworthy, hardworking, and most importantly, didn’t believe in treating him differently just because he was a professional athlete. Certainly they understood that he was a VIP guest and that he had different needs than Mr. and Mrs. Middle America who came down from Iowa for a winter getaway, and they were incredibly accommodating of his special requests over the years. However, on a personal level, they treated him as if he were anyone else—just one of the guys.

  Before the hostess could greet him and ask how many in his party, Simone Quinlan, Vaughn’s longtime girlfriend turned wife, appeared through the door to the kitchen and waved him over.

  “Hey!” she greeted, smiling brightly, arms open wide for a hug. “How are you?”

  He hugged her in greeting while giving her the standard answer of “I’m good.”

  “We’re eating in the kitchen tonight—hope you don’t mind,” she said, walking through the door as he followed. “Miller had someone call in sick, so he’ll be cooking and eating.”

  “Don’t act like that’s not every other meal around here,” Grayson said, standing from the table. “Cullen, good to see you, man!”

  Cullen reached across the big wood table that sat tucked off to the side of the kitchen, not far from the stove, shaking Grayson’s hand. He turned slightly toward the stove, raising a hand in greeting to Miller and received the same in response. He sat down at one of the open chairs next to Simone, with Vaughn on the other side of her.

  “Congratulations, Simone. I got the chance to say it to Vaughn the other day, but haven’t seen you,” Cullen said, picking up her hand and kissing the top lightly. “What’s it like being the newest member of the family?”

  Simone giggled. “Why, thank you. But I’m not the newest member. Our niece, Drea, her boyfriend…no, that’s not the right word…” she trailed off.

  “I don’t know what else you’re going to call him until he actually puts a ring on it,” Vaughn interjected. “Which, we do not need to rush.”

  “Okay, then, well, her boyfriend Kyle is the latest to join our ranks,” Simone said, finishing her thought.

  “She’s old enough to have a boyfriend that serious?” Cullen asked, kicking himself as soon as he said the words. Drea was Leona’s best friend, so of course she was old enough to be that serious with someone. If Leona was old enough to have my pre-teen kid…

  “Turned twenty-seven a couple of weeks ago,” Miller said, coming up to the table with a tray of food. He set the whole thing down in the middle of the table just before he collapsed into one of the open seats. “Trust you me, it’s hard to realize the girls are older than we were when we started this place, but they are!”

  “The girls? Do you have another child I don’t know about?” Cullen asked, looking between them all.

  “He means Drea and Leona,” Vaughn clarified.

  “The two of them have been glued at the hip since they were five. I’ve watched Leona grow up just as much as I have Drea,” Miller said.

  The kitchen door opened and two young men walked in, looking as if they’d spent all day in the sun.

  “Speaking of Kyle,” Vaughn said, turning toward the guys who just walked in. “This is Kyle Egan, our marina manager, and Drea’s whatever we decided to call him.”

  “I usually go with boyfriend,” Kyle said, smiling proudly. He extended a hand to Cullen. “Nice to meet you. Love watching you on the pitch.”

  “Thanks, man,” Cullen responded, shaking his hand.

  “And I’m Dalton Sutherland, his first mate,” the dirty blond next to Kyle said, also reaching out his hand. He looked familiar for some reason—he just couldn’t place him. Cullen shook his hand as well, still trying to figure out where and why he felt like he’d seen him before.

  “There are sandwiches in the fridge for you guys,” Miller said to them. “I made enough for you and the girls, so please make sure they eat.”

  “Will do,” Kyle said, grabbing the food from the large industrial appliance before they walked out the kitchen’s back door into an alley, careful to not let the door slam behind them.

  “Leona’s brother, Josef, is attending my camp this week, as it is. I didn’t realize she had a brother so much younger,” Cullen threw out there, trying to steer the conversation back to her and fish for some information.

  “Yeah, he’s what, thirteen now?” Grayson asked to no one in particular. “He was born when the girls were in junior high. Her parents were quite surprised when he joined the family.”

  “Leona’s mom had her start working here not much after that, actually. She said it was to keep Lee out of trouble, and I’m sure it was on some level,” Vaughn added. “But I think they needed the extra income too.”

  It wasn’t that he hadn’t trusted Leona’s word, but hearing it from Vaughn and Grayson was still like a punch to the gut. Hearing it confirmed that he had jumped to a very, very wrong conclusion and then accused her, out loud, in public, only verified in his mind that he was a top-rate asshole.

  “I remember those days,” Cullen said, trying to hide his guilt. “Not easy growing up poor.”

  “Don’t let her hear you use that word!” Miller said. “She’ll knock your teeth out.” A ding sounded as he said the words and he popped back up out of his chair and headed to the oven. He pulled out a large dish and the heavenly smell wafted to the table. He saw Miller grab a sauce pan off the stove top and start to drizzle its contents over the baking dish.

  “Oh, I have no doubt about that one,” Cullen commented. Memories flooded his brain of him and Leona all those years ago and he knew he needed a change of subject. And fast. “Oh, meant to ask, I saw a for sale sign on a property on the way to the park yesterday. Does that place border this one?”

  “It does actually,” Vaughn said. “It’s a nice pl
ot. A full five acres, beachfront access.”

  “It has this big old house too,” Simone added in. “It’s been somewhat neglected for quite a few years, but with a little love, it could be just stunning.”

  “And you’re not interested in it? Expanding the resort?” Cullen asked.

  “We looked into buying a portion of it, so we’d have a little more room for the activities Grayson has been looking to develop,” Vaughn said.

  “It’d be perfect for a ropes course, maybe an outdoor rock-climbing wall. Simone wants mini golf,” Grayson expanded.

  “You can’t tell me mini golf wouldn’t be a blast!”

  “But the estate that owns the property doesn't want to parcel it off. Buying all five acres and having to figure out what to do with the structure that’s on it just doesn’t make sense right now with investing in the new spa. The ROI just isn’t there.”

  “Had we realized it was going to be for sale, we could have made that the spa,” Grayson added, shrugging.

  “I was just curious,” Cullen said. “I was surprised to even see a lot for sale on the island.”

  “Much like the land we’re on, it was purchased by one uber-wealthy guy in the early 1900s and was used as a family retreat for a long time, hence the big house. I think he and Mr. Redford might have even been friends,” Vaughn told him. “But there was apparently some feuding among family members about who got it when subsequent generations passed, and eventually they stopped coming to visit. It’s been empty for what, almost twenty years at this point?”

  “Easily,” Grayson replied.

  “And now the next generation is at it. They’ve decided the best option is to just sell it and split the money, which is why they won’t parcel it off. They want one sale to make it easy.”

  “Makes sense,” Cullen said.

  “So, no more Liverpool—what will you do?” Grayson asked, steering the topic back to him. “There’s a lot for sale next door if you need a new home.” Everyone laughed lightly at Grayson’s joke.

  “Good question. I’m not real sure yet, to be totally honest. Oliver, my agent, says he has a few irons in the fire, so we’ll see what he comes up with.”

  “I thought I read you were retiring?” Simone asked.

  “Don’t believe everything you read, love,” Cullen said, smirking at her.

  “So I shouldn’t believe all the rumors about who you’re dating now? I couldn’t help but notice that you showed up here all by your lonesome, for the first time in…forever,” she noted.

  Cullen couldn’t help but laugh. He knew the media had been all up in his business and that he’d been splashed across the covers of all the rags back home, but he hadn’t quite realized all that had made it down to the islands. The fascination with his personal life was something he’d never fully understood, but he supposed it was better than them trashing his skills on the pitch.

  “With everything that has been going on with my contract and all, I haven’t been focused on my love life,” he said, trying to give a nonchalant answer. This was not the time or place to admit that he’d only been bringing women here all these years to distract him from Leona. Or that every single one of those women had failed to do so.

  “Well, I can’t wait to meet the girl who is special enough to win over Cullen Cruz,” Simone said sweetly.

  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.”