Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  “She left without telling anyone where she’s going, and we’re all worried about her.” Josh really did look worried.

  “What do you mean she left?” I asked with more exasperation than I could possibly explain. “Where could she have gone?”

  “Nobody knows...” Nick added.

  Shit. Why me???

  April 11, 2013 Aurora aka Briar Rose aka Sleeping Beauty

  “How can we help?” My kind and understanding boyfriend squeezed my hand as an empathetic gesture, as well as a warning.

  I knew this wasn’t the time to complain, but why did Laney have to get herself lost now?

  “We’re all meeting in Jake and Emily’s room. Come over as soon as possible.” Josh instructed us.

  After an all too quick and dreamy Max kiss, we got dressed and assembled at my brother’s room. Emily was a mess. She looked frightened and worried. I guess this was the difference between her and me. I figured Laney was a grown adult, and she’d come back when she felt like it. She wasn’t exactly lost. She just didn’t want to be found. For Emily, it was as though she’d lost her own child. She looked sick with worry.

  “Emily.” My boyfriend, of course, felt her pain and went over to give her a hug. “It’s not good for you or the baby to be so worried.”

  “But what if Laney’s hurt? What if someone took her? Where can she be, and why would she purposely do this to us? She must be in trouble somewhere,” Emily said frantically.

  “Nobody took Laney and she’s not hurt. This is one of the finest hotels on the island, and I’m sure she’s out doing something and forgot to tell us that she had plans,” Max held her some more.

  GROAN...!

  Jake slowly unweaved the two of them (you go big brother!), and brought Emily back into his arms and kissed her forehead. Now that was a sight I preferred watching. I pulled my boyfriend back to me and placed my arms around his waist.

  “Love you, Gem,” Max whispered and held me tight.

  “What happened, Donovan? Can you go over it one more time?” Jake asked.

  “Shit. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have insisted she come and stay with us.” I don’t know what happened between those two, but Donovan looked upset! “She got to our villa and started mouthing off to me, so I took her into her room and had it out with her about what happened today.”

  “What did happen between you two today? Why were you both so angry with one another?” Doug chimed in.

  “It’s not any one thing. I got upset with her for flirting with our clients, and she got upset with me for...they’re all stupid things, not worth mentioning. It’s not worth bringing up and it won’t help with our situation.”

  Now Josh added to our conversation. “I don’t think they were stupid to her. When we chatted in the car, she was pissed at you and said she’d be happy never to see you again.”

  The glares Donovan and Josh gave one another were comical. Donovan gave him a who the hell invited you into this conversation look, and Josh gave back a I don’t give a rat’s ass if you want me in this conversation or not, look.

  Max felt my body shake from wanting to either laugh or add my two cents, and he held me a bit tighter and whispered, “Don’t...only if you can help...” I was going to retort, but I felt a loving kiss to the backside of my head and a sweet caress to add to it, so I stayed still in my boyfriend’s arms.

  “Anyhow,” Donovan stressed—more to get Josh to butt-out of his conversation—”after Delaney and I talked, Kate and I got into an argument, and when I went to check up on Delaney, she was gone.”

  “Did she take her stuff?” I had to add something to this discussion.

  “Yeah, she took everything she brought.”

  “Why would she leave because you and Kate were arguing? What did you and Kate argue about?” Another great question by...me!

  Donovan wouldn’t give us an answer until he saw how torn Emily was about this whole situation.

  “Kate and I have been having some issues (I knew it!!!), and she was not happy about having Delaney in our room. But it’s not Kate’s fault, and she feels terrible about what’s happened.” (Now why’d he have to go and defend her if they were having issues?)

  “Donovan, would Kate mind if we went back to your place and looked around a bit? Perhaps Laney left a note telling us where she was going?” Emily was practically out the door before she even finished this question.

  Kate—unlike her usual glamorous self—looked like hell. Was it wrong of me to feel giddy that this perfectly groomed woman wasn’t so perfectly groomed tonight? I think E L James was onto something with this inner-goddess stuff because my inner-goddess was breakdancing right now.

  “We’re sorry to all barge in. We were hoping to see if Laney left anything behind?” Emily said, oh so kindly.

  “No bother at all. Please feel free to look around.”

  All nine of us went into the room, and while the men looked at the obvious places, Emily and I looked in between the crevice of the mattress and bed frame.

  “I found it. Here,” I handed the note to Donovan, “addressed to you.”

  Dear Mr. Taylor,

  I’m sorry to be such a nuisance in your life...no, scratch that...’a pain in your ass’ as you told me earlier. Please apologize to Kate for my brief intrusion. I will be getting my own room. PLEASE do not alarm my family and make a bigger deal out of my leaving your room than it has to be. I would like some privacy of my own. Yes, my head hurts, but no, there’s nothing wrong with me. See you tomorrow—or maybe in another lifetime, if I can help it .-Delaney Reid

  You see! I told you she just didn’t want to be found. Geez Louise! All this for nothing!

  “Let’s go to the front desk and get her room number to make sure she’s okay.” Jake commandeered the lot of us.

  “What for?” I said a little too loudly. Everyone stared at me so I shriveled back into Max’s shelter.

  The front desk, of course, wouldn’t give us any information, so Jake had them call Nolan the golf pro, hoping to enlist his aid. Nolan couldn’t get much more information out of them except that another Reid was staying on the property, and the registered name wasn’t Delaney nor Laney .Nolan vaguely hinted to Jake that if we could figure out what name she was registered under, he’d work the back channel and find a room number for us.

  “What name could she be using?” Emily asked me specifically. “Were there any other nicknames Laney used to go by when she was younger?”

  “Emily, that girl had so many imaginary friends and she pretended to be so many different characters when she was younger, if we went through them all, we’d be here all night,” I said, until a light went off. “Oh my gosh! I know!!! Who has a cell phone?”

  Donovan handed me his.

  I did a quick Google search and told Nolan, who was still on the line with Jake, to look up Aurora.

  “Who the hell is Aurora?” Nick asked.

  “Nolan says no Aurora.”

  “Donovan, let me have your phone one more time.” This search took a bit longer, but I had my answer. “Ask him to look up Briar Rose.”

  Jake quickly gave Nolan the name and bingo! We had a room number.

  “Who, or what is Briar Rose?” Doug asked, totally confused.

  “Don’t you remember when we were little, Laney always wanted to play Sleeping Beauty? She always had me cast as Maleficent, the evil one, Nick was always Prince Phillip, and you took turns playing Flora, Fauna, or Merryweather?”

  All the men started sniggering.

  “I did NOT play a fairy godmother!” Doug argued.

  “That’s right!” It dawned on Nick now. “We did play Sleeping Beauty all the time.”

  “So who’s Aurora and who’s Briar Rose?” Nick was about to answer Donovan’s question, when I butted in again.

  “Seriously??? You have four sisters! You mean to tell me you’ve never watched Sleeping Beauty, or you never role played this fairy
tale?” I rolled my eyes at him because I knew he was lying.

  “I don’t have time to go strolling down memory lane, Maleficent.” Donovan said that in a mean kinda way. “I can see why Delaney cast you as the evil step-mother.”

  “Queen! Not step-mother! Get your fairy tales straight. We’re talking Sleeping...”

  “Enough, you two!” Jake cut us off and continued walking to the next building.

  I was pissed with both my brother and Donovan, and so Emily finished the story for the rest of the crew. “Sleeping Beauty’s given name was Aurora, but when she went into hiding with her fairy godmothers, they renamed her Briar Rose so no one would know her true identity. Very clever of our Laney to call herself Briar Rose.”

  “Clever, my ass!” I whispered, but my boyfriend caught on and gave me a chuckling warning.

  We got to Laney’s room, and Jake knocked on the door. A groggy Laney opened the door looking nothing like Sleeping Beauty when she woke up from her 100-year nap. Her hair was ratty, her eyes clouded, and she was wearing only a t-shirt with her perky nipples showing through. Emily quickly hugged her, then closed the door and asked us to stay outside for a moment.

  “Delaney, are you okay?” Donovan was the first one to speak once she reappeared with Emily.

  “Yes I’m fine. I’m sorry to have caused you guys any worry.” Then she looked over at Donovan slightly upset. “I told you not to tell my family that I left.”

  “Jake, can I have a word with Delaney, alone?”

  “Donovan…” Jake warned.

  “Please...she’ll be okay…” Donovan said to Jake and Emily. They nodded their heads in approval.

  Ten minutes into the twiddling of the thumbs, I felt I had been patient enough. We had places to go (our room), people to see (each other), and things to do (well...you know...) .I was almost about to announce our departure when Donovan opened the door. He came out, closed the door, and headed toward his room with Emily and Jake in tow. That was it! No, “she’s all right,” or “we had a good talk,” or “Laney and I decided....” What the hell? After all that, I have to stay in the dark?

  The rest of us stared at one another for another few seconds, then split. I’m sure you’re all wondering what happened behind closed doors. For sure, I will ask the three of them later on, but for now, it’s a mystery to us all. And very possibly, you will never get any information from me, because I won’t get any information from them. The best I can say is maybe you’ll be able to read it in another post from someone else’s point of view, because this point of view has somewhere to be (in bed), someone to be with (my honey), and something to do (Mmm-hmm!).

  April 15, 2013 Tête-à-Tête

  After a busy morning packing, we all made it back on the plane safely and everybody broke off into their own private conversations, or they fell asleep. Garret, Nick and Doug each took up three empty rows and slept the plane-ride away. Laney and Josh were in the corner talking, and Max and I were a few rows ahead of them having our own quiet time. Soon after we took off, Donovan headed our way, but went straight to Laney.

  “There’s a seat up front with your name on it,” Donovan said sweetly. Boy, he must’ve done something really wrong to Laney, because he was super nice to her today.

  “Thank you, but I think I’ll stay back here, Mr. Taylor.”

  “Are you still upset with me?” He questioned with a wrinkled face. I had to admit, even that was pretty hot-looking on this guy.

  “No I’m not upset. It’s nothing like that. I think I’ll just hang back here and chat with Josh.”

  Now disgruntled, Donovan walked back to his seat.

  Laney and Josh were darling together. They were the same age, both idealists, and they had a unique way of looking at life. They were totally happy-go-lucky people, and if they were to get together, I didn’t think they’d have too many issues. I hope they’d consider dating, and then we’d have another Davis-Reid match made in heaven—or at least a match made in Hawaiian paradise.

  “What are you smiling about, my precious gem?”

  “Your brother and Laney.” I smiled some more. “Don’t they look cute together?”

  “They do look cute together, but I think Laney’s heart is somewhere else.”

  “I don’t think it was anything serious with the guy back on the Big Island. Plus, he lives thousands of miles away. How are they going to have a relationship? I wouldn’t worry about Nolan.”

  “I don’t know, Gem. Josh is going away next year. I don’t know if those two can have a relationship being thousands of miles apart, either.”

  “But that’s perfect! Maybe he will base himself in London, and Josh can go back and forth between London and Rome. They can have a European relationship. How romantic!” Max only smiled and kissed me lightly on the lips. “By the way, can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure,” Max agreed.

  “It’s kind of personal…very personal…are you sure it’s okay?”

  “Gem, if I find it to be too personal, I’ll let you know, all right? Otherwise, I want to share my life with you.”

  That earned him a brief make out session on the plane.

  “From watching you with your money, and from what Emily has told me, I thought your family was not too well off. But after seeing your childhood home during that infamous dinner, and knowing about this European ‘vacation’ Josh is going to take later this year, I’m a little confused about your financial status. I always figured that you were living off student loans all this time. Isn’t that the case…or am I totally wrong?”

  “Well...for all my parents’ faults, financial irresponsibility was not one of them. They both make good money, and they were wise about their investments, and they never overspent. We didn’t go to the Ritz every summer or spring, and we didn’t go to fancy private schools. Because of that, my parents were able to put away a college fund for all three of us. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing your family. From all I’ve seen, there’s no better family unit than the Reid family. I love that I’m a small part of your family, and even if it’s temporary, I love all that I’ve learned from you guys. It’s a real encouragement to see such a fun-loving family.”

  The thought of us being temporary didn’t sit well with me.

  “Can I ask how much your parents put aside for you guys?” I regretted having said that immediately. “Forget it. You don’t have to answer.” I backtracked as soon as I could.

  Max only laughed. “You after me for my money now? It isn’t just my body that you were after?”

  “I’ll take your body over your money!” I added happily.

  “Good, because after med school, I don’t think I’ll have a penny left. I do still need to live on a tight budget if I don’t want to take out any loans. Josh and I both went to the California state schools, so we didn’t spend much money on undergrad. Because of that, I’m able to go to med school and not have to get any financial help. Josh has a lot of money left because he chose not to further his education in any institution. Instead, his money is going to a life of leisure in Europe, drawing and enjoying life.”

  “...with Laney...”

  “Possibly with Laney...”

  “What about Garret?”

  “Garret really did not want to stay home any longer than he had to, so he chose to go far. He landed himself in Rhode Island, and used up a chunk of his money on tuition. But, he worked and paid for his own living expenses, so he’s still able to go to grad school. He’s quite careful with his money as well, and he still works, so he at least has an income. When all this schooling is said and done, I think I’ll come out with a zero balance. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

  “Excellent. Thank you for that. I really was curious, but didn’t know how to ask.”

  “Babe, don’t keep it in. Ask whatever you need to ask.”

  I nodded an affirmative.

  “Gem, after last night, I need a little shut-eye. Your p
rowess kept me up the entire night,” he smiled a beautiful smile and kissed me.

  “Take a nap,” I said after a few more kisses. “I’m going to go up and sit with Emily.”

  I was thrilled that Max so openly talked to me about his life. It was as if we had finally formed a deeper layer to this relationship. Comfortable. Yeah...that’s what we were...comfortable!

  Walking up to First Class, I noticed that almost the entire section was empty. As soon as I came into the cabin, Donovan and Jake completely went silent on me. It was as though they were talking about me, and got caught with their pants down. Eew! I didn’t need that visual of my brother, but Donovan...? Nope! Not going there...!