“I’m not saying to give this to her now—that’s a cop-out move. You need to figure out your own thing. I highly suggest lots of groveling,” she said, looking down her nose at him. “But, this is my engagement ring. If she’s really your lobster, she should have it.” She flipped the little box open and Kyle saw the ring that he’d seen his mother wear until he was in high school.
“Mom, I can’t take this,” Kyle said, pushing the box back toward her.
“Kyle, you seem to have a very bad habit of telling us girls what we can and can’t do. I know you mean well, but stop. I am giving this to you. Take it. Hold on to it for when you win back your girl and finally decide on forever.”
“She likes that word, forever,” he said, recalling the words she said to him in his room. His heart had skipped a beat as she told him that, and it hurt now thinking about how he shoved it back in her face.
“Most girls do, baby,” she replied, looking at him lovingly.
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. His mom was right, as always. He needed to go win her back. He needed to grovel and beg and prove that he loved her, no matter what. He just wasn’t one hundred percent sure where to start.
“I think I have a few phone calls to make,” he said, sitting back up and looking his mom in the eye.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“I think I know exactly what to do.”
“That’s my boy.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Time seemed to drag the next couple of days, no matter what Drea did. One would have thought that since they were shorthanded that the opposite would be true, that the days would fly by from being so busy. The problem was that it seemed like at every turn there was a reminder of Kyle’s absence. He was the reason they were shorthanded, after all.
Grayson had filled in as captain for the first couple of days, and she enjoyed running the tours with him like they’d done when she was in high school. It’d been a long time since they’d worked together, but thankfully they slipped back into their old routines. Of course, having Dalton there to provide entertainment for the guests certainly helped.
Today, however, Dalton was playing captain as Grayson had some “administrative matters” to handle. Part of her wanted to know what exactly that meant, but another part of her knew it was that he was searching for Kyle’s replacement and that made her heart ache all over again. She knew that eventually it wouldn’t hurt as much to think about him, but for now, she was learning to live with the pain. Maybe once things got underway with the spa, she really would be too distracted to notice the hole he left in her life.
The spa was going to be stunning. She and Vaughn had sat down the day before to go over Drea’s ideas and all the numbers she had figured out regarding build-out, construction time, equipment, staff, etcetera. The look in her uncle’s eyes when she pulled out her folders of research and inspiration photos told her just how impressed he was with everything she put together, and she had to admit she was incredibly proud of it all. The idea had been festering inside her for so long that it took almost no time to pull all the papers together with her ideas. Vaughn had run the idea by Grayson and Miller at dinner that night and they were both in agreement that a spa would do great things for the Indigo Royal as a whole. The only thing left to do was meet with the accountant to figure out just what the budget would be, and she’d be on her way to breaking ground.
Drea was relieved when she saw the resort’s docks come into view. They had run a tour to Turtle Cove today and it was the first time she’d been back since the whole mess with Kyle. It took all her resolve not to burst into tears as they pulled into the cove to anchor. Lucky for her, none of the guests seemed too put out that she wasn’t joining them in the water today, leaving her to have a brief pity party behind the bar with the bottle of rum.
Now that they were back at the resort, she figured once she got everything cleaned up and prepped for tomorrow, she would just find Leona and the two could sit on Big House Beach and complain about how much men suck. Cullen Cruz had pushed out the date of his visit by about a month, but in doing so, he also sent a list of additional requests since the resort would have time to accommodate them. Drea thought Leona might explode on the spot when Randy, the night manager, handed her the document. Nothing got under her skin quite like the superstar athlete, although Drea was pretty sure it was for reasons other than the ones that Leona insisted on. Nonetheless, Drea was more than happy to let Leona have a night of word vomiting on the subject. It’ll be nice to hear about someone else’s man problems and not think about my own, she thought.
Dalton helped Drea off the boat, watching as she made a face as she heard her phone chime with a text. Looking down, she found a text from Grayson.
Grayson: Found a new marina manager, just need your approval, others already on board. Meet me at your place?
He found a new marina manager already? That was fast, she thought. She typed back to him that she needed to change, so to let himself in whenever he got there. She hadn’t realized that he’d even put the word out yet that there was an opening, but it seemed that news traveled fast around the island. Not that she would be working the sailing tours much longer once everything with the spa got moving, but she hoped for Dalton’s sake that it wasn’t some douche who thought he could just come in and change the whole feel of the tours.
Making quick work of changing out of her swimsuit and shorts and into one of her sundresses, Drea made her way into her living room, wondering where her uncle was. It shouldn’t have taken him this long to get over here from the main building—part of her had even been expecting him to beat her here. When she felt the breeze hit her, she looked over to find her patio door open and what looked to be tea lights lit and placed along the railing. The setting sun made it hard to tell they were lit, but the breeze caused the little flames to flicker just enough that Drea could see them.
What the hell? she thought as she walked closer to the door. It wouldn’t have been strange to find Grayson on the porch, but the candles made no sense. As she drew closer, she heard the sounds of a guitar playing softly, although she didn’t recognize the tune. She paused right before walking out the door, a little freaked out about what was going on. Could Dalton have done something trying to cheer her up? He’d been full of all sorts of bad jokes and such ever since the wedding, trying to keep her spirits up. But she couldn’t imagine him lighting candles on her porch, not to mention he’d just been on the boat with her.
Turning the corner slowly and apprehensively, she was met with the last person she expected to be sitting on her porch, playing an acoustic guitar.
Kyle.
He must have heard her step outside, because he looked up at her, registering the shock on her face just as she came to a halt. Taking this as his sign, he started to play in earnest now. She was frozen in place, unable to move or think. After a moment she realized he wasn’t just playing, he was singing too.
Kyle continued to play Daughtry’s “Life After You,” a song Drea had enjoyed when it was on the radio but hadn’t heard in years. A slow smile crept across Kyle’s face as he sang, slowly and slightly off-key.
After the first couple lyrics, Drea couldn’t hold in her laughter. Kyle was a horrible singer. This wasn’t really news—she’d listened to him butcher so many songs over the years. But it was certainly highlighted now that it was just him and a guitar.
Tears started to prickle in the corner of her eyes as she listened. She couldn’t believe he was here. A quick glance around let her know they were alone, and this was a private show just for her. Kyle was such a classic rock guy, she had no idea he even knew this song, much less would have had the time to learn to play it. The tears that had simply been prickles started to slither down her cheeks now. Was this really happening? She wanted to run over to him, pull the guitar from his hands, and throw her arms around him. Almost as much as she wanted to bash him over the head with that same guitar.
“Kyle,” she gasped.
He stopped playing and leaned the guitar up against the railing. Standing up slowly, he walked a couple of steps, closing the gap in between them. “Drea, I’m sorry.”
“What the hell is all this?”
“This is me trying to grovel and beg and apologize for being a first-rate jackass. Just like the guy in the song.”
“I don’t follow,” she said.
“It’s literally a song about a guy who’s a jackass and gets into a fight with his girl, leaves, realizes he was wrong, and comes crawling back. Because he realizes he doesn't have a life without her.”
“Oh.”
He recited the lyrics, this time more like poetry rather than attempting to sing. They told the story of a guy who was obviously regretting his choices, reliving the argument and kicking himself for all the things he’d said. That he knew that the woman he loves was more important, and that without her, he had nothing.
“Kyle, I don’t know what to say.”
“Then don’t say anything, just listen. I know that I made a mistake. The biggest mistake of my life. I need you to know that I’m serious, that I don’t have a life without you. And I know you must think I’m crazy, out here trying to sing, but I needed to make sure I had your attention. I actually considered standing at the edge of the dock, holding a boombox over my head, as your tour came in today, playing that song on repeat,” he started.
“I hate that movie.”
“I know you do,” he said, stepping closer to her. “Which is why I reconsidered. Because I know you hate that movie, and that you can’t stand John Cusack, but you adore his sister and how quirky she is. Because I know you, Drea. Sometimes I think I know you better than I know myself. Which is how I know just how badly I hurt you.”
“But you were right,” she whispered, looking away from him and out over the porch railing at the beach. She quickly wiped away some of the tears from her cheeks, trying to pull herself together.
He stepped closer, cupping her face in his hands and looking her straight in the eye. “No, sweetness, I wasn’t. I was so, so wrong. I thought I was doing the right thing by letting you go, telling myself that I would just hold you back. But it doesn’t work like that. We’re in this together.”
“You said this place is my life, and you were right about that,” she said, smiling a little. “I can’t leave here—I belong at the Indigo Royal. The resort is my life.”
“And you’re mine, Drea,” he said, leaning in so their foreheads touched. “No part of me handled things properly that morning. I should have stood up to your uncles and told them just how much I love you and that you are my entire world.”
“You love me?” she asked, pulling away to look at him. Her heart sped up and her stomach tensed, her whole body seeming to hang on every beat of the moment, waiting for him to confirm.
“Oh, did I not mention that?” he smirked. “Yes, Andrea Lorraine Miller, I love you. It’s been on the tip of my tongue for what feels like forever and I should have said it a long time ago. I love you more than anything, and you are my forever.”
The moment he said those words, Kyle felt himself relax and tense all at the same time. It felt so freeing to finally say them out loud—he just hoped he wasn’t too late. The tears that were now streaming down Drea’s cheeks gave him hope, as long as he was reading her right.
“I love you too, Kyle,” she finally managed to say through her tears.
He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up, spinning her around as she giggled, holding on to him for dear life. When he put her down he wasted no time in leaning in and capturing her lips in a deep kiss. When they finally parted, Drea looked at him with a quizzical look on her face.
“But what about my uncles?” she asked.
“I have spoken to all of them. You were right, Miller was on our side the whole time. Turns out Grayson was too. And Vaughn, well, he and I have made our peace.”
“So, are you coming back to the Indigo Royal? At least long enough to save up the rest of the money for your own charter business?”
“That’s the one piece of the puzzle that isn’t in place yet.”
“Oh no. Grayson sent me a text telling me that he found a new marina manager. Do you have to wait for his approval? Because I have to vote on whether we hire him and I’ll say he has to hire you if he wants the job,” she offered up.
“I’ve met the guy your uncle mentioned and I think you’ll like him, actually. Maybe even love him,” he commented, smirking at her.
“Love? Why would you think that I’d...wait...you? It’s you?”
“If you’ll have me,” he answered.
“What about being your own boss?”
“Turns out Grayson and I were very much on the same page about a lot of the things I wanted to do with my own boat. He agreed to let me bring in my own vessel to run however I want, as long as I also manage all the other boats in the same manner we’ve been running them. So we can do tours that are Indigo Royal only, plus some that are open to the public and/or contracted with cruise ships. It’ll be a lot of work, but I think it’ll be worth it. It’ll be the best of both worlds; I can run things the way I want, while having the financial backing of the Indigo Royal. Of course, I do have to get the vote of the fourth partner before I can officially take over.” He looked at her knowingly.
“Hmmm, I’ll have to think about it. Talk it over with my uncles. We wouldn’t want to just take the first candidate that comes along,” she teased.
“Oh, really?” he asked, teasing her right back. Grabbing her by the waist again, he tickled her sides until she squirmed and giggled in his arms.
“Okay, okay! You’re hired!” she said, gasping for air in between laughing fits.
“Good, I was starting to get worried we might not live happily ever after,” he joked, stopping the tickling and pulling her in so their bodies were flush.
“Loved ever after,” Drea said, correcting him.
“Huh?”
“Loved ever after,” she repeated. “Kinda like in that song. But it was what my mom wrote in her journal under the photo of her and my dad at their wedding—‘and they loved happily ever after.’”
“I love that. Almost as much as I love you,” he said. “Now, how about we go curl up in that hammock over there and plan our forever?”
Epilogue
Four months later...
Drea ducked under the caution tape that indicated the start of the construction zone. Making sure that her hard hat was set firmly on her head, she walked down the hallway to what was to be the spa reception area. The builders were making excellent time on the project and they were slated to be finished on time. Drea’s grand opening was planned for just over two months from now, and she couldn’t believe that something that had been a dream for so long was so close to being reality.
The drywall was all hung, and they had started painting the walls the deep amethyst purple that she and Simone had picked out. The lighting fixtures should be arriving any day and she just couldn’t wait to see how they looked hung up.
“You—I should probably be really upset with you that your dream is basically another ten thousand square feet for me to clean,” Leona said, coming up behind her.
“I’d apologize, but I’m too giddy over this coming true,” Drea responded, laughing a little.
“I know, and you should be. You worked hard for this! And speaking of working hard, it’s almost two o’clock,” Leona said, pointing to her watch.
“Oh crap! I better get to the dock! I’m a dead woman if I’m not there!”
Both women hightailed it down to the dock, where they found Drea’s family, as well as the marina staff, Dalton, and Kyle. They all stood in front of the brand new 56’ catamaran that Kyle was unveiling as the newest part of the Indigo Royal fleet this afternoon. He’d been so excited about buying this boat and held steady in not revealing what he was going to name her to Drea or anyone else at the resort.
“Ready for this?” Grays
on asked her as she joined the group.
“So ready. I’ve been dying to find out her name, but Kyle has refused to tell me!”
“Are we taking bets on what he names her?” Vaughn asked.
“How’s that gonna work?” Drea asked.
“Winner gets a free pass at not wearing the shirt next time they lose?”
“I like that!” Simone said, mostly since she had lost last week.
“Ok, I’m gonna go with...Take On Me,” said Vaughn.
“Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” Simone said.
“He is not naming one of our fleet after a Wham song!” Grayson groaned. "He knows better than that. He went with something good, like Sweet Child O’ Mine.”
“Can’t Fight This Feeling, duh!” Drea threw out there.
“Hungry Like a Wolf,” Miller answered.
“It’s the Love Shack!” Dalton announced jokingly.
“It better not be!” Vaughn remarked.
“Well, now that everyone is here, and apparently all your bets are placed, who is ready for the unveiling?”
“Just get on with it!” Simone said, impatient to know if she won.
Kyle laughed, but as he did so, he tugged on the little strings holding the sheet in place that was obscuring the name. As it fell away, there were oohs and aahs from the entire group. All but one person.
Drea looked at the bright blue font written on the back of the catamaran. The simple print text read Brown Eyed Girl, and she felt tears start to form in her own brown eyes.
“You know that song isn’t from the eighties, right?” Vaughn asked. Simone elbowed him sharply, eliciting a small reaction from him. “What? It's not!”
“Rule was it had to be after a song. Grayson didn’t dictate what decade,” Kyle responded.
Can't Fight This Feeling (Indigo Royal Resort Book 1) Page 27
