Page 8 of What I Like About You

Chapter Four

That had easily beenone of the most awkward conversations Dalton had ever had. Not even fully sure what had just gone down, he stood there, watching her walk away from them. Zara had been raised with the same old southern traditions he had, and he knew that she could gracefully exit a conversation better than pretty much anyone he knew. It had just never occurred to him that she would have to use such a technique on him.

Maybe it was just that he was still so dumbfounded by seeing her here that he was reading too much into the situation. Or simply that she was actually concerned about her boyfriend getting their drinks. Boyfriend? She couldn’t really be dating that guy. Could she? Dalton would have bet good money that…

“That dude is gay, right?” he asked, turning to Cullen who was surprisingly still standing next to him. The moment had been so awkward Dalton would not have blamed the man one bit if he had walked away and left him to deal with it by himself.

“Concerned that there is a woman out there who didn’t immediately succumb to your charms?”

“No, just that whole thing was…” he started. The whole thing was what? Weird? Awkward? Too put on? “I’m not sure what that was.”

“Well damn, never thought I’d see this,” Cullen said, shaking his head and laughing as he turned to continue heading in the direction of Miller and the kitchen.

“What?” Dalton asked, jogging a bit to catch up. He had no idea what his buddy found so funny.

“That girl has knocked you off your game.”

“No,” Dalton denied. “I just didn’t expect to see her. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other.”

“Ok, but there’s more than that, isn’t there?” Cullen prodded, turning into the kitchen. “She actually means something to you.”

“She does not!” Dalton hated that his friend could tell this just by looking at him. He’d never let anyone onto the fact that he cared for Zara more than just as a friend. Not back then, not since. Hell, half the time he wouldn’t even admit it to himself.

“Oh, but she does. I can see it in your eyes. You fancy her. The blogger lady does it for you.”

Dalton stopped in his tracks. He wanted to tell Cullen she wasn’t just anyone. She was Zara Wellington. But he knew if he did that, not only would he never live it down, he’d be opening himself up to more questioning. Questions he didn’t want to have to answer. Questions he wasn’t entirely sure he knew the answer to.

“Shut up,” he scoffed, making a face like Cullen was full of shit. “Let’s just grab this stuff before Lee has our asses for taking too long.”

They greeted Miller Quinlan, Executive Chef and part owner of the Indigo Royal Resort as they approached the inner part of the kitchen. Miller, along with his brothers Vaughn and Grayson, had bought the property that was now the Indigo Royal almost thirty years prior and went into business with Miller’s best friend, Dave, to create their version of paradise. Shortly after moving down to the islands, Miller and Dave met their wives, a pair of sisters, and soon after that, Dave and his wife Sofia welcomed Drea into the world. Six months later, tragedy struck via a kitchen fire, claiming the lives of Dave, Sofia, and Miller's wife, Marta, leaving Drea behind to be raised by her three uncles.

Having been Drea’s primary caretaker and the man she called her father figure, Miller was more than happy to provide the necessary ingredients and accessories for tonight’s event celebrating his little girl’s big accomplishment. Everyone at the Indigo Royal was proud of Drea and excited for the opening of Cherish Spa, but Dalton knew for Miller, it was more. Watching the joy radiate off Miller as he grabbed the bottles of rum from his private storage made Dalton wish his own father was more like the Quinlan brothers—loving and supportive no matter what. Not that he often thought about his father since he’d left Atlanta years ago, but between the conversation with his old buddy earlier and then seeing Zara, the man everyone referred to as “Big D” wasn’t as distant a thought as he liked.

After grabbing everything they needed for the party, Dalton and Cullen headed back across the resort to Big House Beach. Dalton had kept an eye out for Zara on their walk back, hoping that maybe if they bumped into each other again they could get off on a better foot. If she really was one of the VIPs here for the spa opening, he didn’t want her to start this trip off with a bad taste in her mouth. Every few feet he would do a quick scan, but she was nowhere to be found. He had thought he was being nonchalant about it, but based on the fact that Cullen let out a little laugh under his breath every so often, it seemed that he wasn’t quite as discreet as he thought.

“Oh good,” Kyle said as they approached the beach where he was finishing up getting the fire going. “Girls are in the house putting the finishing touches on dinner. They should be out any minute.”

Kyle had managed to find an old metal fire pit in the resort’s storage area that Dalton assumed had been from the early days of the Indigo Royal’s life, and set it up on Big House Beach not far from the little deck off the cottage he and Drea shared. As legend told, Miller and Dave had met “the sisters,” as they were still referred to, at a bonfire, and that served as the inspiration for what had become one of the resort’s most popular events. While tonight’s shindig wouldn’t be near as large as the weekly event held every Tuesday, it would most certainly be more relaxing without all the guests around them. The fire pit had the beginnings of a large flame starting to catch inside it and mismatched beach chairs surrounding it. It was the beginning to a perfect evening.

Drea and Leona wandered over from the cottage’s porch with Maeve Patterson, Drea’s right hand at the spa, following close behind carrying two large pitchers. Dalton jogged over to the tall brunette and grabbed one of the pitchers from her. She smiled sweetly in return, nodding her head in thanks. She’d only worked at the Indigo Royal for a couple of months, but Dalton still had a hard time reading her. There were moments that she seemed as if maybe she was interested in him, and others where being around the opposite sex seemed to make her skittish, no matter who it was.

The first time Dalton saw her, he would have assumed she oozed confidence. By all accounts, Maeve was hot. Model hot. She was tall, slender, and had a set of breasts that filled out a bikini perfectly. If she hadn’t been an employee of the resort, he probably would have tried to break past her shy exterior, just to see if he could. But he was professional enough to not sleep with his coworkers. Other than a one-night fling with Leona when he first arrived, he’d stuck by that rule for the last three years and wasn’t about to break it. Not to mention, despite all the womanizing he did that would suggest otherwise, big-breasted, model-thin women were not really his thing. Certainly he appreciated women in all shapes and sizes, but when it came down to it, he preferred his women curvy and lush, with something to hold on to.

“Hey, we’ve got stuff too!” Leona hollered at him, holding up the tray of food she was carrying.

“Yes, and you would have told me you didn’t need my help if I tried. I know you better than that, darlin’,” he responded. He put the pitcher he’d grabbed from Maeve on the little table set up off to the side of the fire pit and turned back to Leona, holding his arms out. “Would you like me to take that from you?”

“No, I’ve got it,” she said, giving him a playful sneer. Just as Dalton was about to comment back, Cullen appeared by his side, grabbing the tray from her and giving her a kiss. When they broke their kiss, she glanced back over at Dalton and said, “See, he has manners.”

Cullen simply shrugged in response as he walked over to the table. It took a fair amount of restraint to not comment that Cullen was simply trying to get laid tonight, but he knew better than to kick the hornet’s nest that could be Leona. She embodied everything Shakespeare meant, and more, when he said “though she be but little, she is fierce.” He also knew her to be sweet, loving, and insanely loyal, once you got through that tough exterior of hers. She’d found her match in Cullen, though, and he’d never seen her happier.

Looking over toward the fire pit, he found Kyle and Drea sneaking a moment to themselves as well. Kyle stood behind Drea, his arms wrapped around her waist, head bent down as he whispered something in her ear. The giggles that escaped from her told him that whatever Kyle was whispering to her was probably dirty. It was still hard to believe that just over six months ago, the two of them were still dancing around each other in a will-they-won't-they battle. It had taken the two of them far too long to admit their feelings for each other, and there were some days Dalton had wished he’d intervened earlier.

It also made him oddly ache for Zara’s presence. It’d been a long time since he’d felt the full absence of her in his life, but after seeing her earlier, he felt the same as he had years ago. They’d spent so long at each other’s side, being the other’s ever-present companion, that when she had changed her mind and attended Auburn instead of the University of Georgia with him like both their family traditions, he’d almost been lost. There had been a part of him for so long that wondered what college would hold for them, but he’d never been able to find out. And here he was now, all this time later, feeling that same way again.

“Looks like we’re the odd ones out,” Maeve said, coming up behind him.

“I’m perfectly fine not making out with Cullen,” he answered, hoping his sarcasm would draw a laugh. “He might have been my childhood idol, but I have boundaries. Kyle, though…”