It had taken Leona almost forty-five minutes to get Drea’s hair straightened with the little flatiron, and then another thirty to recurl and pin into an updo. Her head ached a little from all the pulling and the scraping of the bobby pins against her scalp, but even she had to admit she looked pretty good. If someone looked at her and didn’t know she felt half dead inside, they would think she was the picture-perfect maid of honor.
“Only for the night,” Simone clarified. “Actual guests have it booked starting tomorrow.”
“Still, it’s romantic.”
Drea turned away so no one could see her roll her eyes. It wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of romance that the man booked a hotel room in a resort he owned. Even if he had planned the whole thing months in advance, blocking off the night so guests could book up until the Friday before, and then again the Sunday after. Damn it, she thought, maybe it was romantic.
“Believe it or not, not only does the man have non-jackass moments, but he can actually be wonderfully sweet at times. You just have to get past the gruff exterior.”
“Or not be his niece,” Drea threw out. She knew she wasn’t being fair to him, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Overall he was a kind and generous person. She knew firsthand just how wonderful he could be, and how much he cared about those around him. He considered every person who worked for the Indigo Royal a member of the family, and there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for them. But when it came to his actual family, he sometimes had a funny way of showing it. A way that, this time, had pushed too far.
After their hair and makeup was complete, everyone other than Simone left the room and Drea slipped into her dress. She’d always loved this dress, as it had always made her feel beautiful. It was a deep charcoal. The top was fitted and had little spaghetti straps, while the A-line skirt hit her hips perfectly, fanning out just enough before ending a little above her knees. The sweetheart neckline hugged her breasts perfectly, showing off just a hint of cleavage. She wondered what Kyle would have thought about her in this dress. Racking her brain, she tried to think about whether or not she’d ever worn it in front of him and she couldn’t remember.
When she had decided this would be the dress she wore for the wedding, she thought about how the neckline would drive him insane. She thought about how he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off of her in this dress, whispering in her ear about how he couldn’t wait to take it off of her. Her imagination had run wild with thoughts of him staring at her cleavage all night, about him slipping his hand up her skirt to see if she was wearing any panties. The thought had occurred to her that she could get away with not wearing any under this dress and no one would know—that was until Kyle discovered it for himself.
Thoughts of them dancing the night away, him spinning her around and the skirt on the dress billowing out slightly as she twirled had also crossed her mind. She’d pictured them sitting at dinner, picking off each other’s plates, sipping from each other’s drinks. In her mind, they had been doing all the things that happy couples do together at weddings and celebrating love. But now that was all gone.
“Oh, Drea, you’re a vision!” Simone exclaimed, starting to tear up.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry!” Drea said. “You’ll mess up your makeup and then I’m going to have to get Leona back in here to fix it.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, waving her hands frantically in front of her eyes trying to dry them. “You just look so perfect. I know that today is a little weird and that you’re not really feeling it, but thank you for still being my maid of honor. Being a part of your life these last twenty-one years has been one of my greatest joys, and I know that sounds cheesy, but really, I mean it. I have loved every second of being your aunt, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else standing next to me today.”
“I love you too, Aunt Simone,” Drea said, fighting back her own tears now.
“Oh, don’t start that! I’ll never make it out of here in one piece!”
There was suddenly a heavy knock on the door and Drea and Simone looked at each other, confused. They still had almost an hour until the ceremony, and they weren’t expecting anyone prior to the photographer who had told them to be ready forty-five minutes before the ceremony time.
“Who is it?” Drea asked.
“Vaughn.”
“No, you can’t see me before the wedding! It’s bad luck!” Simone exclaimed, looking around for a place to hide.
The door opened and Vaughn stepped in, his right hand clasped tightly over his eyes. He stood just inside the doorway, looking very dapper in his light gray suit. There was an off-white pocket square peeking out from his breast pocket and his silver hair seemed to have some sort of product in it. He looked like he belonged in a magazine.
“That’s okay, I’m not here to see you. I’m here for Drea.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“Drea, please, just five minutes. Please,” he begged.
Drea looked over at Simone, who was standing half hidden behind a chair in her white silk robe. Simone shrugged as if to say “your choice.”
“Hear him out. If you don’t like what he has to say, you have my permission to tell him to fuck off.”
Chapter Thirty
Drea stood there for a moment, trying to decide what to do. She really wanted to tell him to fuck off now. She was pretty sure there was nothing he could say that would make any of this better. Looking over at Simone in her robe, with her hair and makeup all done for her wedding, her heart softened a little. She’d given Miller and Grayson a chance to say their piece; she figured it was only fair that she did the same for Vaughn.
“Fine,” she said, shrugging. “You wanna go hide in the bedroom?”
Simone nodded, coming out from behind the chair. “Just, go gentle on him. I would prefer he be in one piece for our wedding.”
She squeezed Drea’s hand lightly and went into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. When Drea heard the little lock click into place, she turned to her uncle who was still standing just inside the door with his hand covering his eyes.
“I guess you can come sit,” Drea finally said.
Vaughn removed his hand from his face and looked around the room, making sure they were alone. He crossed the room and picked the chair closest to the door to take a seat in. He motioned for her to sit too, but she hesitated. She didn’t want him to get the idea that they were just going to have a nice little chat, but she also didn’t want to be too hostile to him. It was his wedding day. She finally sat down in an armchair that was about as far from Vaughn as she could be while still being in the little sitting area of the suite.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’ve been avoiding me all week and I figured this was the best way to make sure you couldn’t escape,” he said, laughing lightly.
“I really don’t have anything to say to you.”
“That’s okay, because I have more than enough to say for both of us,” he paused. “I’m sorry, Drea. I am really fucking sorry, and I can’t get married today knowing that you are still not speaking to me. I can’t go through with the biggest day of my life knowing that my little girl hates me.”
“I’m not your little girl,” she corrected.
“You’re right, you’re not. Although I’m not sure how I feel knowing that is the part of my statement you feel the need to correct me on.”
“Hate is a pretty appropriate word right now.”
Vaughn flinched at her statement. “That’s fair. That’s more than fair. I deserve that. I acted like a first-rate asshole at breakfast the other day. There is no excuse for the way I acted. I could drone on about how it’s hard to admit that you’re all grown up and that you’re your own person now, and it is. It’s hard to accept that the itty-bitty baby who used to nap in my office, or the little girl who used to sing everywhere she went, including while in the bathroom, is an adult, making her own choices. But you are. And despite the fact that you were raised by three ba
chelors making it up as they went, you turned into one hell of an amazing young woman.”
“Thanks.”
“And I shouldn’t have been as taken aback about you and Kyle as I was that morning. I knew how you felt about him. Simone has droned on and on for what feels like forever about how cute the two of you are together. Not that any parent type wants to think about their kid that way. And Miller was right—anyone could see watching the two of you that there was something there, and really, we were rooting for you too. Maybe rooting is the wrong word. Well, my brothers were all about it—I was maybe a little less enthused. But, believe me, I do want you to be happy and to find your person. Would I have preferred he come to us prior to just sweeping you away, sure. But I also realize this isn’t eighteen fifty-two and no one needs permission to date you. I like Kyle, I do. He’s a great kid, Drea, and he’s a hard worker and I know that he wouldn’t set out to hurt you. He’s exactly the kind of guy you want to date your kid. That’s why I invited him to join us for our pre-bonfire rituals. He has become part of this family.”
“And yet you said exactly the opposite to us at breakfast.”
“I did. How did Simone put it? Oh, I ‘lost my shit.’ I became a fucking lunatic.”
“You weren’t very nice last week, either, before we went away for the weekend.”
“I know. I have no idea why the idea of you two taking a weekend for yourselves bothered me, but it did. It shouldn’t have—it’s not like it’s something you two haven’t done a dozen times before. But somehow, this time seemed different. Oddly enough, that seems to have been exactly what your Uncle Grayson was pushing for, but still, it struck a chord. I felt the need to protect you and so that’s what I tried to do.”
“You don’t need to protect me!” she exclaimed. “I am not a child! I’m twenty-six—I can take care of myself.”
“I know. I know,” he sighed. He paused for a moment before speaking again. “Your mom went into labor while your dad and I were meeting with the pool diggers. We were standing out there, watching them dig away when she waddled out saying she needed to talk to your dad. I told her ‘not now, we’re working.’ She just looked at me and goes ‘okay, then I’ll tell the baby now isn’t a good time. Should I check your calendar to find out when would be better?’ Sofia had no problem sticking it to any of us.” He laughed at the memory.
“Miller will wax on about how you were just perfect from the moment you showed up, and yes, you were cute as a baby. But you were just a baby to me. Until one day Sofia sticks her head in my office as I was trying to figure out this booking software that we had just bought. She was just going to leave you in there with me because you were sleeping and she wanted to go see the new stove be installed. She was gone just as quickly as she appeared. About an hour later there was the loudest noise that I’ve ever heard, still to this day. I went running, and it wasn’t until Grayson looked at Miller and me and went ‘where’s the baby?’ that I remembered you were on the floor in my office.”
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, hanging his head. “When I got back, you were still asleep. I picked you up, and there you were in my arms, so small and helpless, and I knew it was my job to protect you from then on.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Drea asked, confused.
“Because in that moment, when you were asleep in my arms as an inferno raged in our brand-new kitchen, I felt so fucking useless. I yelled and screamed and threatened to sue anyone who had ever touched that stove. And the only time I have ever felt like that since then was the moment that Kyle kissed you the other day. I can’t explain why, but I did. And my knee-jerk reaction was the same then as it had been—to yell and scream and lose my shit. It was a shitty thing to do, but what’s done is done. And I’m sorry, Drea.”
“You had no right. You are not my father. You were not even my legal guardian,” she ground out.
“I know. I know that I’m not even really your uncle. Believe it or not, it was a title I fought at first, but your mom still referred to me as ‘Uncle Vaughn’ when she talked to you as a baby. And, yes, Miller was the one who assumed the dad role, but that doesn't mean that Grayson and I don’t think that you’re ours too. We're a unit, the four of us.”
She sighed and stood up from the chair. She walked over to the window that overlooked the guest portion of the beach. It was a beautiful, sunny day with only a few small clouds in the sky, and the beach was full of people soaking it up.
“I love him,” she finally said. “But you drove him away.”
“I know.”
“And he wouldn’t even say it to me when he was leaving. I told him I loved him, and he didn’t say it back. He told you in the kitchen he did, but…he didn’t say it to me. And now…now he’s gone,” she said, turning around. “He left the island, went back to the States. Said no one would hire him once they learned he’d been fired from the Indigo Royal.”
“I’ve tried calling him a couple of times, sent a few texts, but he won’t return my calls.”
“Glad to know it’s not just me,” she muttered, turning back to the window.
“I wish I could take it back, Drea. I’d do pretty much anything to change what happened that morning.”
She nodded slowly, still glancing out the window. She hated that she understood where he was coming from, but she did. It would be so much easier to just stay mad at him, to tell him to fuck off and leave her alone, but she knew that she would never be able to hold on to the anger knowing that he reacted out of love. However misguided he was, he had been trying to do right by her. Overprotective had been his go-to since day one, and she knew that she couldn’t hold his personality against him for forever.
Without looking away from the window, she responded, “I’m still mad and I’m still really hurt, and I can’t promise that will change any time soon.”
“But it will change, yes?”
“Eventually,” she answered, turning back around to face him again.
“Then I guess that’s all I can ask for,” he said, standing, holding his arms open wide for a hug.
She crossed the room in only a couple of strides and stepped into his embrace. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and squeezed like he might never let go. When he finally did let go, she took a step back, wiping lightly at her eyes to make sure her makeup was still intact.
“If a spa is what you want, by the way, then I’m all in. I think it’s brilliant.”
“Really?” she asked skeptically.
He nodded. “Yes, really. We can talk about it next week, okay?”
“Sounds good.”
“Good, because now, I have to go find a man about getting married.”
Drea laughed as her uncle exited the room, closing the door behind him. When she was sure that he was fully gone and wouldn’t bust back into the room, she knocked lightly on the door to the bedroom as she opened it. Simone sat on the bed, playing a game on her phone.
Drea smiled big at the bride-to-be. “So, how about we get you in your dress?”
The sunset ceremony had gone down without a hitch. It was everything Drea knew Simone had ever wanted in a wedding and she couldn’t have been happier for her. With only their families and a few select guests in attendance, they’d all fit on Big House Beach without any issue. Little paper lanterns formed a small aisleway that Drea and Simone had walked down, both unescorted, with the three Quinlan men waiting for them at the end.
The local minister had been short and sweet with his message, getting right to the vows that Simone and Vaughn had written themselves. Filled with laughter at inside jokes, some happy tears, and beautiful promises for their future together, one could feel the love radiating off of the two of them. When it was finally time to kiss the bride, Vaughn grabbed ahold of Simone like his life depended on it and dipped her like it was a scene in a movie.
A large tent had been set up over by the pool with a long table to accommodate those who had attended the ceremony. When everyon
e was finally seated and had their food, Grayson stood up, clinking his fork against his glass, trying to gain everyone’s attention.
“There are a lot of stories I could tell about this man right here,” he said, gesturing toward Vaughn. “Stories of all the fun we had growing up, stories about the trouble we got into, stories about how he would boss Miller and me around. He’s the oldest, so apparently that was his birthright or something.”
There were some scattered giggles throughout the table, and Grayson continued, “But, of all the stories I want to tell, the one that absolutely must be told here and now is about the day that Simone walked into the Indigo Royal for the first time. You see, here we have this stunning beauty, with her long legs and silky hair and those damn high heels she wears, and then we have my brother. Who, by the way, has been sporting the silver fox look since he was like twenty-six—dude gray’d out super early—so he’s looked sixty-five since forever, okay? Only fourteen more years until you look your age, man!” Grayson gestured to his brother with his glass as Vaughn simply scowled at him in return. “Well, so old man over here has his jaw on the ground, eyes popping out of his head, kind of like those cartoons we watched as kids. I looked at Miller and said, ‘she’ll flirt with him, but only to get what she wants, then she’s gone.’ Miller, being the hopeless romantic he is, goes, ‘naw, I got twenty bucks she lasts.’ Well, joke’s on me, because guess whose wedding I’m at?”
The table burst out in a roar of laughter as Grayson reached into his back pocket and grabbed his wallet. Turning to Miller, he added, “So I guess I gotta pay up. Can you break a fifty?”
“Nope, consider it interest,” Miller said, grabbing the bill out of his hand. The laughter erupted again, and this time even Drea cracked a smile. She couldn’t help herself—she loved when her uncles played around like this, showing off who they really were. It happened so little since she mostly saw them in semi-public areas now, but this kind of fun and laughter had been all around the big house when she was growing up.
Can't Fight This Feeling (Indigo Royal Resort Book 1) Page 25
