Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort Book 2)

by Claire Hastings

  During the sprints he’d assigned about halfway through the morning, he noticed a kid who looked to be about eleven or twelve basically running circles around his counterparts. Cullen pulled him out and stuck him with some older teenagers, thinking that might help challenge him a bit more and also stop some of the other kids in his group from staging a coup against him. After another few minutes, he noticed the boy was not only keeping up with those teenagers, but even leading the pack at times. His clothes, while not exactly tattered, had certainly seen better days. Cullen guessed he was one of the local scholarship kids. Scholarship kid or not, there were no two ways about it, this kid was fast—little, even for a kid his age, but lightning fast. What remained to be seen was if he was just as fast with the ball, or if he had any kind of ball skills whatsoever.

  Cullen decided to keep him with the older kids, if for no other reason than his speed seemed to rule him out of working within his own age group. Cullen set up some cones for a dribbling drill, demonstrating how to weave in and out of the cones using both the inside and outside of the foot to move the ball downfield. A tall brunette girl led off, trying to get fancy with her moves and show off.

  “This is a basic skills drill,” Cullen said, addressing the group but turning to make sure the brunette heard him. “No need to get fancy and overcomplicate it. I want to see basic footwork. There’ll be plenty of time to show off later.”

  The rest of the group made their way down the line, leaving the little guy for last. He didn’t seem to mind though. He truly just seemed happy to be out on the pitch playing. When it was finally his turn, he took the ball and bobbed in and out of the cones, using both the inside and outside of his foot as instructed. He didn’t lose control of the ball once as he did so, piquing Cullen’s interest even more. Speed and ball skills? Maybe there was more to this kid than meets the eye. When they broke for lunch, Cullen asked him to hang back for a moment.

  “What’s your name, lad?” he asked.

  “I’m Josef. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cruz!” he said, sticking his hand out like someone would on a job interview.

  Cullen held out his fist to bump knuckles and Josef followed suit. “You can just call me Cruz, no mister needed. And it’s nice to meet you, too, Josef. So tell me, where are you from? Who do you play for?”

  “I’m from here, sir. I play in the local Charlotte Amelie rec league right now, but I hope to play for the junior high next year!” he answered enthusiastically.

  “No travel team or anything like that?” Cullen inquired, amazed that the kid had only ever played for a small rec league on such a small island.

  “Nope, that kind of thing would never be in the budget,” he said matter-of-factly, confirming that he was one of the kids on a scholarship this week.

  “Well, Josef, you pay close attention this week and we’ll make sure that you’re a fixture in the starting eleven for your school. Sound good?”

  The kid’s eyes widened to the point that Cullen worried they might pop out of his head. The excitement radiating off of him was palpable and reminded Cullen that yes, he had actually enjoyed working with the rookies all those years ago.

  “Sounds great, sir!” Josef said before running off to join the other kids for lunch.

  Cullen pulled out his phone and started to text Oliver, but stopped himself from sending the message right then. He knew Oliver would call immediately, and he needed to finish up. He’d send it when he was all done with camp. He needed to talk to his agent about his own career and any options he might have for the future, but also wanted to inquire about this kid, Josef. Oliver had been the one to choose who got a scholarship after all, so he had to have some information on him. There was something about this kid, and he was going to figure out what it was, even if it took all two weeks of camp.

  Weekends at the Indigo Royal were a wild ride. Since most guests either arrived or departed on Saturday or Sunday, there was lots of coming and going and it was some version of organized chaos to say the least. Trying to get guests out of rooms in time for them to be flipped for whomever was to occupy them next, mixed with a small contingent just there for the weekend, made everything a logistical nightmare at times. Leona always seemed to have some kind of story during the changeover about rooms getting mixed up or items left behind; she just preferred when it was her team that made the discovery, rather than a set of guests. So when Mondays finally rolled around and she actually got a day off, she made sure to not be on the resort property.

  The house she grew up in, and that her parents still lived in with her little brother, was only about seven miles from the Indigo Royal, but that was far enough to get away. Leona loved her suite in the staff dorms on the resort. After all, living on-site did have its benefits. Her commute was basically non-existent, Uncle Miller took care of most of her meals, and on nights that she and Drea drank too much wine, it was a three-minute stumble from Drea’s cottage to the dorms. However, even with all that, it was nice to come home to see her family. She’d moved out of the house shortly after graduating from high school when she started working full-time instead of just part-time at the resort. Both she and her parents had been thrilled when Drea’s uncles had said there was a room for her in the dorms.

  Pulling into the drive of her parents’ house, she pulled her phone out of her purse, checking the text she’d heard chime while she was driving.

  Drea: Are you doing dinner with the fam?

  Leona: Not sure. Why?

  Drea: I need wine. Lots and lots.

  Leona: lol, K. Will let you know the plan.

  La Hacienda, as Leona had started calling it when she was a little girl, wasn’t a large abode, but it had been enough for their little family of three. However, when Leona’s mother, Anna, found out she was pregnant when Leona was thirteen, the small three-bedroom and two-bath house suddenly became a lot more cramped. If being a teenage girl with next to no privacy wasn’t hard enough, add in a baby and being at home was that much less desirable. Leona loved her little brother about as much as any sister could, but that didn’t stop some angsty teenage resentment from forming when at fourteen, she was all of a sudden expected to contribute to the family just because there was an extra mouth to feed. A mouth she had no part in creating.

  The Filipes certainly weren’t rich, especially by St. Thomas standards, but they had always managed to make ends meet and remain comfortable. However, when her dad, Roberto, had a stroke a couple of years back, making it so he could no longer work full-time as a mechanic, her job at the Indigo Royal went from being “some extra padding” to “what’s keeping us afloat,” since her mother’s job as a police dispatcher really only covered their health insurance. Leona didn’t mind being the one to help support the family—that’s what family did—but it didn’t leave much room for any extras, ever.

  “Where’s Josef?” she asked her mother as they sat at the kitchen table folding a load of laundry. Her dad was asleep over in his recliner, with the TV turned on too loud, but neither woman dared turn it down out of fear of waking him.

  “He’s at the soccer camp I told you about, the one with Cullen Cruz?” her mom answered, framing her answer as a question as if she were on Jeopardy.

  “Ugh, I forgot we signed him up for that. Is it horrible if I hope he learns nothing from him?”

  “Yes! He idolizes Cruz!” her mother chided her. “I know that he makes your life difficult at the resort, but he is one of the best in the world and he’s here on this little island to teach these kids a thing or two. Don’t burst your brother’s bubble!”

  “I’m not going to burst his bubble. But at thirteen, he’s impressionable, and I don’t want him seeing the way Cruz treats people and thinking he can do the same thing,” Leona responded, pushing a pile of laundry to the side to start a new one. “Because trust me, if I could give that man a piece of my mind—”

  “Leona Manuela Filipe!” her mother hissed, at just above a whisper. “Don’t you dare do anything that would
risk your job! You have worked too hard to throw it away on some stupid reaction to some athlete! Did I not teach you better than to let your emotions get the best of you?” Her mother had a point. She had worked very hard to get where she was. The head of housekeeping position hadn’t been handed to her just because she was Drea’s best friend. She had worked long, hard hours, proposed process improvements, and introduced some more budget-friendly products for both everyday use and for the complimentary toiletries offered to guests. She had fought for and earned her title.

  “Don’t you go thinking that just because you call them all ‘uncle’ because of Drea that you won’t get fired. You’re not actually family—they can and will replace you!” her mother threw in for good measure.

  “Thanks, Mama,” Leona said, rolling her eyes. “I am fully aware that everyone, including me, is replaceable. And I’m not going to throw away my career over some guest. I am just looking out for Josef.”

  Anna looked at her pointedly, like she knew Leona better than to trust that she would hold her tongue when it came to Cullen Cruz. Truth be told, her mother probably did know her better than she gave her credit for, especially since her sass and smart mouth had been something she’d inherited from her mother. Every time they’d gotten into some knock-down, drag-out fight when Leona was a teenager, her father would simply laugh and tell her it was because she and her mother were cut from the same cloth and that for as much as he loved the spark in both of the women in his life, he did prefer when they used their powers for good and not evil.

  Leona looked over at her father, still asleep in his chair. It broke her heart to think about him not being able to work like he used to. While he’d made a mostly full recovery from the stroke, the doctors wouldn’t sign off on him going back to work as a mechanic full-time. While the shop still had some minor work for him that didn’t require he get underneath a vehicle, it wasn’t enough to keep him around for forty hours a week. So much of who he was had been defined by his profession that Leona couldn’t help but feel like he’d lost a little of himself through this whole process, and it broke her heart.

  “Do me a favor, would ya, love?” her mother asked, gathering the laundry off the table. “Go grab your brother from the park? Camp should be finishing up here soon.”

  “Sure thing, Mama,” Leona said, grabbing her purse and keys. While she certainly didn’t want to see Cruz any more than she had to, she figured she could stay in the car easily enough and remain hidden. And if nothing else, this would be the perfect opportunity to potentially bend Josef’s ear about picking a better role model.

  Chapter Five

  Cullen had asked Saul the night before to pick him up a little earlier on Tuesday morning so he could arrive at the park and get a run in before the kids arrived. He’d slacked on his exercise routine a bit in the past weeks, but figured teaching kids about conditioning and fitness was a good motivator to be taking his own conditioning and fitness seriously—especially if he was going to convince a team that he wasn’t really retiring and to give him a spot on the squad. As they pulled into the parking lot, both men were taken aback to see Josef, the small speedster from yesterday, already on the field.

  “Looks like you got an overachiever on your hands, sir,” Saul said as Cullen climbed out of the town car. Cullen just grunted in response, not sure how to interpret the kid being out here all alone so early.

  Standing back a bit, he watched Josef as the kid did some basic suicide sprints, although not at his full pace, and then dribbled a ball up and down the length of the field. The kid didn’t look like he was out there trying to show off. If anything, he looked more like he was just keeping himself entertained as he killed time. There was something about this kid, but for the life of him, Cullen couldn’t figure out what it was. He reminded him of himself in a way, but there was something else too.

  Cullen approached the field slowly, not wanting to startle Josef, who was bouncing the ball on top of his knee. He didn’t want to seem like he’d been watching him, either, so he tried to be as nonchalant about greeting him as possible.

  “Young man, you are certainly here quite early,” he said.

  “Hi, Mr. Cruz!” Josef greeted him excitedly.

  “You can dispense with the mister, I told you that yesterday.”

  “I know, but Lena told me that I have to mind my manners and that, even though you say it’s okay, it’s disrespectful to call you anything other than Mr. Cruz,” he said, rushing out the words.

  Cullen couldn’t help but chuckle. Whoever this Lena was sounded like a stickler for the rules and who was he to undermine how this kid’s family was trying to raise him. He knelt down until he was closer to eye level with him. “Ok, well, Josef, I’ll make a deal with you. When we’re on the pitch, it’s just Cruz, but any other time—when you’re talking to your parents or anything like that—then it can be Mr. Cruz. Does that work for you?”

  “Deal!” Josef held out his hand to shake, as if sealing their deal formally. Cullen laughed again and took the little outstretched hand in his, shaking it firmly.

  “You didn’t answer my question though. What are you doing here so early?”

  “You didn’t actually ask me a question,” Josef corrected him. “You just commented that I was here early.”

  “Touché,” Cullen responded. Was he really being outsmarted by a kid? Looked like it. “So, I’m asking now. Why are you here so early?”

  “My mom had an early shift, and we only have one car, so she dropped me off early so I didn’t have to walk.”

  “Gotcha,” Cullen said, understanding the tough balancing act of being a kid in a family whose income flirted with the poverty line. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he was that kid. “Since you’re here, how does a run sound?”

  “With you?” Josef asked, his eyes widening in excitement the same way they had yesterday. Cullen nodded, holding back a smart-ass response about making him run with Saul, figuring the kid might not understand the sentiment. “That’d be awesome!”

  “Let’s go then!”

  The two of them jogged lightly around the pitch at first, but then wandered a little farther into the park. Once they got moving, Cullen found that Josef was actually quite the chatty little kid, telling him all about his family—how his dad had a stroke and couldn’t really work anymore, and how his mom had started putting in extra shifts to try and cover the gap. He talked about his older sister who didn’t live with them anymore, but who he got to see after school sometimes.

  Lad sounds an awful lot like I did at his age, Cullen thought. Minus the sister bit…

  Cullen understood it wasn’t always easy being in a family like that—one that made ends meet some months better than others. Although it certainly didn’t seem like Josef wanted for anything, and he was a happy kid, he still understood that not everything fit in the family budget and that sometimes sacrifices had to be made, such as being some place early because there was only one car and mom had to use it to get to work.

  “So, who’s your team?” Cullen asked.

  “Feyenoord Rotterdam,” Josef answered proudly.

  “The Dutch league? Seriously?”

  “Yeah, Coach De Jong, who was my gym teacher in elementary school and my rec league coach, is from there and that’s who he’s a fan of, so I get to see the games because he invites people over to watch,” Josef explained.

  Cullen nodded in understanding. He could certainly understand and appreciate that, since despite growing up in London, he’d become a Liverpool fan due to a neighbor in the building being a Reds fan and introducing him to the sport in much the same way.

  “Well, we need to get you an EPL team, lad,” Cullen joked.

  “Liverpool, duh!”

  “Good answer, lad, good answer,” he laughed.

  Cullen was amazed at how fast that hour went, and how much he’d enjoyed spending it with Josef. The kid was very smart, and despite the fact that he was so small and still had the voice of a little k
id, it sometimes felt like he was talking to another grown-up. He wanted to try some passing drills with the lad, but noticed that some of the other participants had started to arrive and he needed to set up. Maybe he would be able to get some more one-on-one time with him later.

  The rest of the day sped by and before he knew it, parents were arriving to pick up their kids. He hadn’t gotten the chance to pull Josef aside and work with him the way he wanted, but he made a mental note to make time to do it sometime this week. There was still something about this kid he couldn’t place, but the more he watched him, the more he just assumed that it was that he reminded him of himself. He hadn’t been expecting to find a kid that he would become attached to on this trip, but if the rest of this camp was anything like these last two days, he might be running that risk with Josef.

  As Cullen had expected, Josef was one of the last ones to be picked up. It made sense from everything he’d been told this morning that mom would probably be working late. Just as he was considering offering the kid a ride home, he saw a beat up, dingy gray sedan pull into the parking lot and Josef wave to the driver. Turning his attention to the driver, he thought maybe he should go introduce himself to whatever parent was coming to fetch his new teacher’s pet. However, it didn’t take long for him to register just who Josef was currently jogging toward. He'd know that figure anywhere.

  Leona.

  No, no way, he thought. Not Leona. Not Possible.

  Was Leona the Lena he mentioned this morning? He mentioned his mom working long hours, but never actually said what she did for work. Certainly, hours in the housekeeping department started early and could go pretty late. Did he call her Mom? He never said that “Lena” wasn’t what he called his mom. But Leona wasn’t married, was she? He’d never actually stopped to ask to see if she’d met someone in all these years.

  These ten years.