Page 9 of What I Like About You

The laugh that came from Maeve was the reaction he’d been aiming for, and he hoped that it would put her more at ease than she had seemed a moment ago. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kyle flip him the bird as he continued to hold Drea with his other arm. That made Maeve laugh even harder, this time drawing the attention of the other two women.

"Is that because I’m not a voluptuous brunette?” Cullen asked, half-serious, half-mocking.

“Voluptuous brunette? What voluptuous brunette?” Drea asked, breaking away from Kyle.

“No one,” Dalton replied quickly. Although from the speed both she and Leona were closing in on him, maybe it was too quickly.

“The bird from that online thing you two were all a titter about,” Cullen said.

“The Relaxation InSPAration blog?” Leona asked, looking in between him and her boyfriend. Dalton couldn’t tell if the confused look on her face was from Cullen not remembering the word blog or from trying to figure out how Dalton was connected to it. He really, really hoped it was the former.

“Yes, that. Dalton knows your little blogger gal.”

“You know Zara Wellington?” Drea asked in a tone that was borderline accusatory.

“Yes,” Dalton said, throwing a glare at Cullen. He could strangle him for bringing it up. “We grew up together. Our families were friends.”

“Where did you even see her?” Maeve asked, getting in on the inquisition. Great, not her too…

“When we were on our way to the kitchen. Ran into her and her boyfriend,” Cullen offered up, grabbing a sandwich off the platter on the table and a beer from the cooler underneath before sitting in one of the camp chairs around the fire.

“There is no way she’s really dating that guy,” Dalton bit out.

“Dude, you sound jealous,” Kyle said, following Cullen’s lead with the food. Kyle handed Dalton a beer, and he wasted no time opening it and taking a swig. He was going to need more where this came from if this conversation kept up.

“I’m not jealous,” Dalton defended himself. He wasn’t. Even if that Antwan guy was straight, he wasn’t Zara’s type. He was too short and way too out there. She’d always preferred men who were much taller than she was and who were the strong, silent type. At least she used to. Who knows what had changed over the years. “Just, when you see him, you’ll understand.”

“Oh no, he’s jealous,” Cullen said with a mouth full of food. Leona shot him a look, scolding him for not swallowing first. He took a quick swig of his beer before saying, “She got under his skin.”

“Never thought I’d see that,” Leona said, settling in a chair next to Cullen. “Dalton Sutherland lose his shit over a girl.”

“I didn’t lose my shit,” he snapped.

“You two have a thing?” Kyle asked.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” he answered, taking another long pull of his beer.

“He just wants it to be like that,” Cullen teased.

“Dalton, you better fucking behave! Don’t you ruin this for me!” Drea warned. “Zara Wellington agreeing to come here this week is a big deal for me!”

“Sugar, you know I would never do anything to jeopardize this for you. I will, of course, be on my best behavior.”

“She means to keep little D away from Zara this week,” Leona chided. “You often have a bit of a struggle with that part.”

"Lee, darlin’, you know better than to call it little,” Dalton said, giving her a playful wink. Leona rolled her eyes in response.

“Dude, didn’t we talk about comments like that?” Cullen said, glaring at him. The one night that he and Leona had shared years ago wasn’t a secret to Cullen, who didn’t really seem to care that the two friends had slept together. But he had still made it clear that he didn’t like hearing about it either.

“Look, y’all have it all wrong. It wasn’t like that,” Dalton said, hoping he could explain it in a way that made them all just move on. The last thing he wanted to get into right now was all the drama that surrounded his family. “Our moms were childhood best friends, so our families were close. Same country club, vacation homes near each other, that kind of thing. But it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen her. I had no idea she was the one behind the blog or that she was coming for the opening of Drea’s spa. I simply was caught off guard seeing her.”

“Ah, so she’s also part of the rich bitch club,” Leona snarked.

It had only been a little more than a month since Leona’s run-in with his heinous bitch of an older sister, Felicity, when she had surprised everyone by showing up at the Indigo Royal in an effort to convince Cullen to accept the coaching job. In true Felicity fashion, she had been pretty nasty to everyone she came in contact with, but had been borderline cruel to Leona. It had also left Dalton with a lot of explaining to do about his family situation and how he’d ended up at the Indigo Royal.

“Watch it! Zara’s not like that,” Dalton shot back, a little harsher than he intended.

Leona stared at him, a look of shock painted on her face. It was just unclear what she was more shocked about, him snapping at her or his quick defense of someone he just insisted he didn’t care about.