The Undercover Resort Billionaire

by Chelsea Hale

  Liam nodded, wishing he could ask her more, but if employees liked finding the inspirational quotes on their own, then he’d have to talk to the hotel manager about them. He wondered what the soonest he could make an appointment with him would be. “I’ll have to keep an eye out for them,” he said.

  * * *

  Back at the pool, Liam tried to pay attention to the needs of the guests. He felt like he was seeing with new eyes after Callie had given the water toy back to the boy in the pool and after seeing the Hideaway room. How could he be useful to guests?

  A woman was taking a picture of her husband and three small children. Liam’s wheels spun and he approached the family.

  “Would you like me to take a picture of all of you together?” he asked.

  “That would be great. It’s our last day at the resort. We’ve been having so much fun we didn’t pull out the camera at all this trip.” She handed the waterproof point and shoot camera to Liam.

  Liam did his best to include the background and the family. “Ready? One, two, three. Say cheese.” He snapped a few pictures while the kids held out a long E sound. “Okay, let me get another one.” He turned the camera and then scooted back. He could almost get the palm tree in the picture.

  “No, that’s okay—” the mom began to say.

  But Liam was sure he could get it, and with one more step back he was able to see the top of the palm tree in the picture with the family in the viewfinder, right as his foot slipped and he fell backwards into the pool.

  Liam came up sputtering, though the pool wasn’t deep. He got out of the pool, the family’s camera still around his wrist.

  “Are you okay?” the oldest girl asked. She had wet ringlets framing her face.

  He nodded. “I’m so sorry about your camera. I will pay for it.” He pulled out his wallet, realizing that the entire thing was sopping too.

  The dad took the camera from Liam’s wet hands. “It’s okay. We only bring the waterproof one around the pool. Our kids have had more than one mishap with a camera and water. No worries, man.”

  The younger daughter giggled. “Mister, why did you want to go swimming with your clothes on? You’re still wearing your shoes. Mommy always tells me to take off my shoes before I get in the pool.”

  Liam laughed. “You have a very smart mommy.”

  “Mommy, next time we come here can we go swimming with all of our clothes on too?” the older girl asked.

  He waved to the little family and they wandered away down the path. When they were out of his sight, Callie joined him. She seemed to be doing her best to hold in her smile. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine once I go dry off.”

  Callie handed him a towel. “I know you’re new here, but the pools are strictly for the paying guests of this resort.” She tried to keep her face stern but it ended up breaking into a grin. “Also, don’t tell anyone I’m giving you a guest towel. I might be banned from the pool area.” She winked at him.

  “Noted.” He dried off his face and hands, but he’d need to change out of his wet clothes into dry ones. “Any chance I can take my break now to change?”

  Callie nodded. “I’ll cover the area for you. By the way, how did the picture turn out?” She covered her mouth with her hand.

  He shook his head, smiling at her playful banter. “I should have looked. I’m not sure what could have distracted me from checking.”

  * * *

  Liam headed into the employees’ area. He was going to need some new shoes. He pulled out his phone, hoping the waterproof feature worked as advertised. It didn’t respond to his fingerprint. Great.

  “I thought you could use some help,” Sayler’s voice came from behind him.

  Liam turned to face her. “Thanks. I might need a new phone, but could you see if you could get this one working?”

  She nodded. “Anything else?”

  He handed her his wet wallet. “Thanks, Sayler.”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  “I’m not sure how to get a hold of you today without a phone,” he said.

  “I’ll deliver your new phone and wallet to the front desk. Your phone calls were already forwarded to me anyway, so I’m sure you’ll be okay for the next couple of hours.”

  He nodded, wanting to get out of his wet clothes as soon as possible. Even with making an idiot out of himself, he was enjoying his time working with Callie.

  Chapter 10

  Callie walked past the posh stores inside the resort. Each morning before she changed into her resort uniform in the employees’ changing room, she took a few minutes to walk up and down the main hallway. It had been redone just before she started working here, and it was one of her favorites spots in the entire resort. Designer stores carrying Gucci and Vuitton graced both sides of the wide marbled hallway. Velvet benches were placed down the center of the hallway. Callie looked around and bit her lip.

  She wasn’t on duty yet, but that didn’t mean she was allowed the ability to take a seat and dream about what would have been in her present if things had gone differently. Had she not been in such a rush to gain her capital. Had she just taken out a business loan like she’d planned. She’d had a nest egg, enough to live on while she got her designer purses manufactured. Then she would have traveled to a resort similar to this and marketed her product. She’d have her own store. Callie’s Purses was going to impress. The finest quality, the smoothest material. Gorgeous leather. Gold plated name on the front and on the inside zippered pockets.

  She sighed as her knees involuntarily gave out and she sat hard onto the plush bench, leaning into the back and resting her head so she looked up at the ceiling. All of the mockups were packed away in her boarding closet. She’d brought them because she couldn’t bear to put them in a storage shed. But it didn’t matter—they’d collect dust wherever they were. Her dreams were easily five more years out. Maybe longer.

  She had a small amount of keepsakes and photos stored, but she’d sold all of her furniture when her house was repossessed. Stupid Michael. Stupid promises. Stupid her for trusting in him to begin with. Her vision blurred as tears made their way to the surface. She’d been so close to realizing her dream. Yes, it was still going to be an uphill battle, but accomplishing her goal was going to be amazing, she knew it.

  She shook off the momentary pity party. She was working on her dreams again. She had been working at the resort for six months now, and after the first two months, she had realized that her dreams had taken a detour. Sometimes the original emotions surfaced, reminding her of those raw days and weeks after she came to work here, when she had still been in an emotional fog. But now, things were on track again. Her dreams weren’t a never. She’d experienced some minor bumps in the road, but Callie’s Purses was a dream that was currently in progress.

  “Someday,” she whispered hopefully at the marquis in front of her that could read her name and sell her purses one day. She blinked her tears back into her eyes.

  “Someday, what?” Liam’s voice came from behind her on the other side of the bench where another seat shared the same back. He was down just a few seats from her.

  She hastily stood. She should not have been sitting on the bench, especially not in front of a new employee. She glanced down the hallway. The hall was deserted except for them. At least that was something.

  “I never sit down here. You shouldn’t either. Strictly speaking, employees aren’t supposed to use the chairs meant for guests.”

  He raised his eyebrows at her, leaning toward her, though no one else was around to hear their conversation. “Then, strictly speaking, there must have been a reason why you disobeyed the rules. You don’t seem like the type of employee to do that.”

  “Please don’t tell anyone.” The first infraction would set her back on being able to work up through the ranks, but she held her head high, knowing that it was within his right to report her.

  His gaze softened toward her and he spoke slowly. “It’s not m
y job to report you. That’s not how I work, ever. But do you want to talk about it?”

  “It?” She fumbled with her purse strap, a hopeless distraction from his piercing eyes.

  “Whatever has you breaking the rules. Someday, what?”

  “Someday I’ll be back. Someday that will be me.” She pointed to the designer store that sold jewelry. “That’s what I want—that’s my dream.”

  “To own jewelry?”

  She shook her head. “No, to own a successful high-end purse collection and sell it in a designer shop like this. That’s what I want. It’s my dream.”

  A smile crossed his lips, and she realized just how much she loved his smile. It warmed her. A smile like that was worth its weight in gold. “That’s a big dream.”

  “It is. And someday I’ll make it a reality.”

  He stood, coming around the bench and putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll do it. You are very determined. Can I ask … why aren’t you working with purses and accessories now?” He gestured to the surrounding hallway. “If it were me, I’d want to get as close to my market as possible with all of my jobs leading up to my dream.”

  A faraway look crossed his face, and Callie wondered what dream he’d given up, and what dream he was thinking of.

  “It’s a fair question. I can’t risk a non-compete, not when I was so close to having my line finished.”

  “Your line is done? Why are you working here?” His voice was all shock.

  She shrugged and they walked down the large hallway toward the doors leading to the pool. “A story for another time, I suppose, but it’s where I found myself when things didn’t go like I’d planned. Thankfully this resort pays decently, and the food and board are included. In five years, I’ll have saved enough to start again. Even if I have to update my designs, it won’t be too bad. I went with classic shapes for several of them.”

  “Several?”

  “You can’t have a line with only a few designs.”

  He nodded. “Sounds like you’re talented. What is your plan for getting them into resorts like this?”

  Callie turned to him, the question freezing her. She had plans, she knew she did. But most of them revolved around getting the actual purses ready for sale. After that it was marketing. She didn’t have a solid marketing plan. If she were honest with herself, that had been something she’d struggled with. Her ex had assured her he would help with all of that. Yet one more broken piece in her broken dream.

  “I suppose just call a meeting with the owner of the resort and ask for some space. Tell them these are the greatest purses and they’d be crazy not to buy them.” She laughed. “I don’t know, something like that.”

  “You have time to work out the idea,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m decent at presentations, maybe I could give you some pointers.” He seemed nervous to even bring up his talent.

  “Thanks,” she said. It’d be years before she actually needed the information, but the offer was nice.

  “Maybe we could discuss your strategy over dinner,” he said. They exited the resort building and found themselves on the terrace that overlooked the pools.

  “I don’t think discussing this around other employees is such a good idea. I’m not even sure why I brought it up to you.”

  Dinner with other employees around in their galley would not be the ideal setting for a conversation about how she wanted to move up in the world. Especially when she knew that her plan would take a lot more time to formulate. And until she actually had the purses ready to go, it was a lost cause.

  “We could go somewhere else and not eat here.”

  “Like a date?” Her heartbeat picked up. Yes, she was attracted to Liam, but that’s all it was. She couldn’t get involved with someone at work.

  Liam studied her before saying, “Or we could go get dinner and discuss your business. A working dinner, so to speak.”

  “I suppose a working dinner wouldn’t be awful.”

  “A date would though?” He chuckled.

  As she stared into his eyes, her brain drew a blank. She ducked her head.

  Ronda came by. “Are you on duty right now?” she asked, with hands on her hips. “Because I’m not doing extra work because you’re slacking off.”

  The threat of being reported hung in the air. Ronda was not friendly to anyone, and Callie had learned to tread lightly around her and that had seemed to help, but Ronda wasn’t one to overlook a broken rule. “I was about to clock back in. I still have a few minutes on my break.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed at her. “When you’re on your break you don’t get to enjoy the resort like a guest. This is not a terrace for employees.”

  “It won’t happen again,” Callie said.

  Ronda glared once more and left.

  Callie turned back to Liam. “We’d better go.”

  They made their way down to the employees’ area, and they clocked in.

  “Why do you let her push you around?” Liam asked.

  “Did you miss her threat? She’s right. We had no business standing on the terrace. I’m not willing to lose my job for a view.”

  “They fire that easily here?”

  His voice held an interest, and Callie wondered how it compared to the other places he’d worked.

  “I wouldn’t say that, but I don’t need to have the infraction on my record. I have a place to sleep and food to eat, and I don’t want to jeopardize any of that. You can’t work overtime when you receive warnings.”

  “You’re very dedicated to your job.”

  “Aren’t you? How many other resorts have you worked at? You must like the lifestyle they provide if you keep moving to new ones but keep doing the same thing.” They’d focused so much of their conversation on her since he’d found her by the designer shops inside, she was now curious about him.

  He gave her a funny look. “I suppose I do like the lifestyle resorts provide; I just never thought about it in quite that way. Yeah, I’ve worked at a few different places, but they were all in the same line, so I suppose it doesn’t matter how many since I was … still doing the same things there.”

  “Ah, you transferred between different resorts. Which resort line?”

  He didn’t answer right away, and she wondered if he’d left on bad terms. Finally, he smoothed out the creases around his mouth with a smile, and Callie mentally smacked herself for noticing his lips again. She couldn’t help it. His smile could be on commercials and advertisements for anything, they were so appealing. “The Summers Resorts.”

  Callie whistled. “Wow. There’s a dream right there.” She leaned closer to him. “Okay, I’m just going to say it. Are you crazy? Why would you leave working there to come to The Hideaway? I mean, this is nice, don’t get me wrong, but why leave the Summers? If I was working there, I’d never want to leave. That’s where I want to be. Everything would seem a step down from that.”

  He chuckled, and she loved his laugh. “I’m still trying to figure that piece out. The opportunity opened up to come here, and I knew I needed to give this place a chance.”

  “I have so many questions. How are the stores there? Are they busy?” Questions swirled in her mind and she felt them rush over her like waves around her ankles. She wanted to know everything about the Summers Resorts. That was her dream, and he’d already seen it. Why would he come here? The thought baffled her.

  He cleared his throat. “The shops are impeccable. They are definitely a draw for a lot of people. There’s nothing like them anywhere else.”

  Callie sighed, allowing the idea of the Summers resorts into her mind. She was going to be caught away in a beautiful daydream, but she only said, “I’d love to have my purses at the Summers. That would be amazing. Someday.”

  He straightened. “Why don’t you, then?” He seemed to genuinely want to know.

  She laughed at him. “Uh, they’re the big time. I’d need to get my feet way under me b
efore even trying there. They have resorts all over the world. I’d need to have a solid track record of sales and profits before going in there. And I’d need a new pitch.”

  “Come to dinner with me, off-site. We can go to any restaurant you want. We’ll discuss your marketing plan. Total business the whole time.”

  “Okay.” She nodded, though she wondered if he would have been so eager to take her out if it was just a date. She pushed those feelings aside. She’d been the one to shy away from the date part of the idea earlier. Besides, just because Michael had started out by being interested in her business, that wasn’t a sign that Liam was the same. She pushed away the comparison. Liam was nothing like Michael.

  He grinned. “It’s a date then, er,—a working dinner.”

  She needed to stick with the completely professional side of things. “I have the late shift tonight, but I’m off tomorrow before dinner. What is your work schedule like?”

  “I think we’re on the same rotation, so that’s convenient. We’ll go after work. Where would you like to go?”

  She hadn’t been out to eat since she’d moved here and started over because the resort provided all of her meals. “I’m not picky. I’ll eat just about anything.”

  He nodded. “Okay, I’ll surprise you then.”

  And at those five little words her heart skipped several beats.

  Chapter 11

  “Sayler, I need your help.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Callie won’t go out with me on a date, but I need to pick a restaurant. Help. You know the area better than I do. I need you to make me reservations for two for tomorrow night.” He ran his fingers through his hair, convinced that he could see Sayler rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone call.