by Natalie Ann
“We worked hard to get it this way. Most of the design choices are Penelope’s. She really has an eye for things, but then we hash it out together once she gets an idea or theme.”
“I like how it’s not so stuffy. Most hotels are either stuffy or boring.”
“No. We wanted it to feel welcoming and inviting. It’s a hotel, but it could still feel like it was your home while you were staying here.”
They stopped back at the front desk and got the keycards and then went to the elevators. On the tenth floor she showed him a single room with a king bed and a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean.
“This is stunning. You can look right out the balcony from the bed at the view.”
“We wanted that. Most hotels have the bed facing a wall, but why not have it face the view? From the tenth floor up we did that knowing no one could see in. On the lower levels we didn’t do it. Our guests seem to enjoy it.”
“I would,” he said. “It’s not huge in here, but it’s comfortable.”
“What we were going for. Now I’m going to take you to the top.”
“The highest structure on the island,” he said.
“That’s right. Go big or go home. And since I’m showing you around, I might as well bring you here. This is more of a family suite and the kids seem to love it.”
“Are there only suites up here on this level?” he asked when she swiped the card and opened the door.
“No. Each floor has a mixture of rooms. We like variety.”
“Now this is a good size,” he said. “And not boring at all.”
“No. Each floor has different colored rooms and themes or decorations. It cost more to do that, but the good part is people talk about it online when they leave reviews.”
“And it makes other guests want to come back and try a different room on another floor?”
“Yes,” she said. “Plus we always leave little gift baskets. Again, something different on each floor. Penelope is good at coming up with that stuff. Her and her team.”
“And here I thought you were the shopper of the family.”
“I need to make sure you keep coming back to me,” she said before she could stop herself. Yep, her sister was right. She was pretty much lying to herself because in a few short months she found she might be falling in love.
22
To Get Through This
Crew was trying to figure out what had come over Emily the other night.
Not just showing so much affection in front of people at the hotel, but later at her house before he left to go home.
He wanted to think she might be falling for him as he was her, but neither of them seemed to be able to get the words past their lips.
He sure the hell wasn’t going to say it first. Not when she put up the rules. He’d said he liked rules but then never added to them. Why bother when he probably wouldn’t follow them like she’d guessed.
And now they were on their way to her parents’ for Sunday dinner.
“Are you nervous?” she asked him.
“Not really. I’ve met your family before. Your immediate family. And it seems like every time we go out I run into someone else you are related to.”
Thankfully, no one had recognized him out alone yet. It was always when the two of them were together, but he was starting to think he was going to get targeted on his job at this point.
“Is that a problem?” she asked.
It shouldn’t be, but he left home because he was sick of being recognized and then all of a sudden it was happening because of who he was dating.
He should have realized this was a possibility when he so publicly bid on her at the fundraiser, but he couldn’t think of anything past his attraction and how nice she’d been to him.
It’s not like he was starting some kind of a game with her to see if she’d want anything to do with him if she didn’t know about his wealth. But then the longer this went on, would she feel that way?
“No. You did kind of warn me of it. It’s not like people are coming out of their houses when I drop off packages or deliver the mail to say anything. Not even in your neighborhood and I’m sure plenty have seen us talking.”
“My house is back far enough and most aren’t home during the day. I think we’ve gotten lucky. Trust me, I’m sure they all know who you are though.”
“My own fault.”
“I didn’t know it was someone’s fault,” she said, frowning. “Is it too much for you?”
“Now you’re just going to piss me off,” he said. “I don’t mean anything by it. I just said it was my fault in terms of the way I approached you. Nothing more than that.”
“Oh,” she said.
“I like what we’ve got. Besides, I’m sure with the lore of this island people probably think it’s funny.”
“Don’t remind me,” she said.
Which told him that might have come up a time or two, but he wasn’t letting that bother him either.
“I expected your parents’ house to be bigger,” he said when she pulled down the long driveway. The house was on the water and a prime location, but it didn’t seem to be much bigger than Emily’s, even though Emily’s was much larger than his.
“It’s been in the family for years. Remember, this was just a vacation home, not the one we grew up in. Now that it’s just my parents it’s more than enough space for them.”
They parked and got out. The wind was blowing and felt like spikes against his face. Being this close to the water it was almost like nails of water in the winter. It wasn’t icing over, but it sure the hell felt like it.
She laughed as they ran up the front porch. “Yes, my parents get hit hard in this location with the wind. We don’t normally go out much when it’s crazy cold and windy. In the summer, the breeze is awesome though.”
“Take the good with the bad,” he said. “Just no beach walks in the winter.”
“Not really. Not on a day like this.”
“There’s the happy couple,” Penelope said when they were taking their shoes and jackets off in the foyer.
“You’re just jealous,” Emily told her sister.
“I am. Got any brothers or cousins for me, Crew?”
“No one you’d want to meet,” he said. He wouldn’t add that they’d love to meet her. Not that they’d ever have the chance if he had his say.
“You’re talking about cousins, right?” Emily asked. “You’ve never said if you had siblings, but I guess I just assumed.”
“I’m an only child,” he said and wished this didn’t come up. “So, yes to cousins.”
“Nice to see you again, Crew,” Sophia Rauch said when they made their way to the back of the house. Which of course had a stunning view of the ocean and the nasty waves crashing on the beach below. “Can we get you a drink? Beer, coffee on this cold day? Water?”
“I’ll take a coffee,” Emily said. “But I’m sure Crew needs a beer to get through this.”
“Stop,” her father said. “He’s a grown man and seems capable of taking care of himself. He’s lasted this long with you so he has to understand the family dynamics by now.”
“Please don’t bring that up,” she said. “We were talking on the way over. I don’t want to scare him off that it’s going to get worse. It won’t. Trust me on that.”
“She’s probably right,” Penelope said. “Everyone knows how you met now and you’ve been together a few months. That’s a long time for Emily since...”
Penelope trailed off when Emily gave her the stink eye. “Are we done airing dirty laundry? I’d love to just have a relaxing dinner with my family.”
“And your boyfriend,” Penelope said, her parents laughing.
He was glad they were finding amusement in this because he was wondering if Emily was the one that could make it through the day.
Once they were all sitting in the living room, Sophia said, “Emily told me your parents passed away. I’m so sorry to hear that. And that you’re an only child.
It has to be hard.”
“It was,” he said. “I’m used to being on my own though. I’m close with my grandmother.”
“He wanted his grandmother to move here with him,” Emily said. “But she doesn’t want to.”
“Really?” Penelope said. “Why not live on an island during your retirement?”
He laughed. “I told her that too, but she insists it would crimp my style. She’s having too much fun in the retirement community she is in though. She’s a people person.”
“Then she’d fit right in here,” Sophia said. “Everyone is so friendly.”
“If they had a retirement community here, she might consider it.”
And when those words were out of his mouth he wondered if that might be something to consider. It’d probably cost way too much for him to build some small apartment complex that could house retirees. Not assisted living by any means, but a nice place for them to meet and socialize on the grounds.
“It’s funny you say that,” Mason said. “That’s one of the other projects that Mitchell and Scott are working out. Bode is working on plans for it now and getting it finalized. With any luck by next summer they could be ready for purchase. It will be small townhouses, not apartments or assisted living.”
“Really?” Emily asked. “That’d be great.”
And high end he was sure if the Bonds were doing it. He could still afford to have his grandmother there, but there was no way he was making that comment.
“So, what did your parents do?” Sophia asked. “Or would you prefer not to talk about them?”
“I don’t mind talking about them,” he said. He’d find out if he was going to be judged or not and he’d rather know now what her parents really thought of him and his background. “My mother was an assistant manager at a shoe store and my father was a union worker. He was a machinist. I come from a long line of blue collar workers.”
“There are plenty of them in our family,” Mason said. “Not just Sophia’s but mine. My father and his family had a chain of motels back in the day. My mother, she worked for my father. She ran housekeeping.”
“I never knew that, Dad,” Emily said. “I’d never known Grandma to work.”
“Because once she was pregnant he made her quit. He said she’d worked hard enough in her life and enough was enough.” Mason looked at him. “My point is, I don’t want you to think anyone in this family cares where you come from or what you’ve got. All we care for is everyone’s happiness.”
He supposed that put him in his place. Until Sophia asked, “Emily said your parents were in an accident?”
Shit. They might accept him and where he came from, but they were going to ask questions and he supposed he shouldn’t be shocked. If he didn’t answer or played coy, that might give them cause to look into him and that was the last thing he wanted.
“A plane crash,” he said. He wasn’t going to lie, but he could omit some of the facts. “My father liked to spoil my mother too. They both worked hard. They were in a small commuter plane when it went down. There were no survivors.”
“Oh, Crew,” Emily said, coming over to him and putting her arm around his shoulder. He’d been sitting on the couch and she was moving around helping her mother bring out snacks while they talked. “I had no idea. So you never got to say goodbye? I guess I didn’t realize it was a death like that. I’m not sure what I was thinking.”
“You don’t know if you don’t ask,” her mother said. “You always asked a lot of questions.”
“I do,” she said, “but I didn’t want to come off as unsympathetic.”
“Early on when you were dating it might,” her father said. “But at this point you’d think you would know those things.”
He was watching the conversation going around the room and was trying to figure out what he was missing. “Sometimes it’s best to leave things alone,” she said.
“And then they blow up in your face,” Penelope said. “Learn from your mistakes and don’t take things for granted. If you want to know, ask. Otherwise don’t get pissed if you find out something you weren’t expecting.”
What the fuck? Now things were getting out of hand. He really wanted to know what was going on, as he suspected it had to do with her ex, but then the worst part was the secret he was hiding too.
He supposed he could play it off as if she didn’t ask if he was a millionaire, but knew that wouldn’t fly.
Son of a bitch. He wasn’t sure what to do at this point.
“Geez, thanks everyone for the vote of confidence, but Crew and I have a good relationship.”
Yeah, heat was filling him from all directions. She used the word relationship again with him. And she did it with her family.
She said what they had was good. Which he thought it was.
But he was hiding something and when she found out, she might not be happy.
It was still only a few months. He was reminding himself that.
There was no reason to say anything at this point. There were plenty of people in the world that dated and didn’t disclose their financial records.
Nothing wrong with that. He was still the same guy whether he had all those zeroes behind his name or not.
Or was he?
23
Spoke The Truth
“You’re probably wondering what that was all about,” she said when they were leaving and heading back to his place. She’d picked him up today for once rather than having him go to her house. It was actually quicker to do this.
“If you want to tell me, you will,” he said back.
“I’m not sure what I want to say.”
“Okay then.”
“And that came out wrong.”
“I think it came out right,” he said back.
She couldn’t get a read on him. Did he want to know or not? He wasn’t acting one way or another, but she wanted to be honest at least.
“It had to do with Simon. I told you some of what happened.”
“You did. He wanted to be a part owner and you were only letting family in on that.”
“That’s right. He wasn’t family even though he was going to be. Prenups don’t run in my family but some have them.”
“I would think most would,” he said, shocked.
“For me, the fact that I was thinking of one let me know right away he might not be the one. If you are thinking of how you divide things when you split it’s a good indication that you don’t plan on making it work.”
“I never thought of it that way before,” he said.
“That was just one of the many clues.”
“What were the others?”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him about the will but figured she might as well. “It can’t go any further than us. Or I’d like it not to.”
“It won’t,” he said. “You can trust me.”
“You know…I think I can. There is something about you that just lets me know you’d have my back. You’d be in my corner. That you’d understand.”
He snorted. “Thanks. I think I understand more than you realize.”
She wanted to ask him what that meant but didn’t. Sometimes he said things that just made her think but then figured it was just words.
“Simon had no problem with the prenup,” she said. “I think he knew it was a given. He never even questioned if anyone else in the family had them and I’m glad for that or I’d have to tell him and that might have started another fight.”
“It seems like you fought a lot.”
“Not as much in the beginning. We were in college together. We hit it off and had a lot in common, or so I thought. Then he was all about trying to win me over. The longer we were together, the more it annoyed me that he wouldn’t do anything fun. Not like you and me.”
“Like bowling?” he asked. “Guess he was in the same class as you?”
“You’re in the same class as me,” she said. “Money doesn’t make the class in my eyes. I know it does for the general pop
ulation, but I look at the person. Simon was upper middle class…based on the general population’s opinion,” she grinned.
“So not that close to you.”
“Does it matter?” she asked, frowning. “My family doesn’t look at those things.” She wasn’t sure why this always had to come up.
“I guess not. So he was stiff and prim?”
“That’s a good word for it. Anyway, I realized he might be doing those things because he thought I wanted them, but I insisted I didn’t. Then when Penelope and I started to make concrete plans to start the hotel, he had some input.”
“Did you like his input?”
“Nope. It didn’t relate to our vision. Penelope just recently told me it annoyed her and I wish she had told me back then.”
“I bet she didn’t want to cause a fight or come between you two since you were getting married,” he said.
“That was it. So moving forward, we’d get into tiffs. I wasn’t around much, I didn’t value him, I put the hotel first. Blah, blah. I’ve heard it all and it hit home.”
“You don’t believe it, do you? You let him get in your head. I’m shocked.”
She stared at him. His brown hair all disheveled as she pulled into his driveway. He was dressed pretty casual today like the rest of her family. Not many that saw them on the street outside of Amore Island would know the wealth or history behind their name.
“He spoke the truth. That isn’t getting in my head.”
She shut the car off and got out, so he did the same, the two of them walking to the front porch. He unlocked the door and held it open for her. “It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person because you had another focus for a period of time.”
“You’re right,” she said. “It doesn’t. But if I was that in love I wouldn’t be pushing him off or getting annoyed every time he opened his mouth about the hotel.”
“Yet you were going to give him a job there?”
“I was. I figured it was the least I could do.”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “A pity job. Every man wants that.”