As they slipped through the little alley between her cottage and the big house, he squeezed her hand and smiled at her. Both houses sat right on the beach, with back porches that looked out over the crystal clear ocean water. It was just one more part of her unconventional upbringing, but she really couldn’t imagine not having a beach as a backyard. Birthdays, family bonfires, and many a lazy day had found the five of them out here, soaking up the sun or playing in the waves. She and Leona had spent “girl time” lying on the beach reading books and magazines, talking about boys, and making “plans” for the future. It’d been where she sat with Simone when she needed to talk to a grown-up that didn’t have a penis and therefore understood that her teenage self wasn’t “just being overdramatic.”
Walking out onto the beach, they found Vaughn standing in the middle of a grouping of paper lanterns that seemed to form a heart. Leona, Grayson, and Miller were already there, so the three of them walked over to where they were standing. Drea looked around for Simone, realizing she was the only one missing.
“What’s this all about, Uncle Miller?” Drea whispered, leaning closer to him.
“No clue, baby girl, but Vaughn is most certainly up to something.”
Just then, Simone came bursting through the trees, moving at a pretty impressive pace considering her four-inch heels.
“What is it? What’s the emergency?” she panted. “Sorry I’m late. I hauled myself over here from the tourism office as fast as I could.”
“You’re not late, love,” Vaughn said, stepping out of the lanterns. “Come with me.” He grabbed her hands and led her to the middle of the lanterns. He turned and faced the rest of the group.
“I don’t know how many of you know this, but exactly twenty-one years ago today the most stunning creature I have ever seen walked into my life, showing up completely unannounced. I was one hundred percent ready to go tell her to take a hike when Juan came into my office to tell me someone from the Board of Tourism wanted to exploit us for their advertising campaign—my words, not his. But then I walked into the lobby and saw this angel.” He turned back to Simone. “I’m pretty sure you only agreed to have dinner with me to convince me to allow you to use the resort, but what I’m not sure you know is that even if you’d said no, I would have let you do the photoshoot, just so you’d have to come back.”
Drea could see Simone starting to tear up as she gazed in Vaughn’s eyes. She sighed, soaking in seeing her grumpy uncle being all mushy and romantic. Kyle slipped to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, holding her against his chest. She nestled herself in against him and rested her head back against his shoulder.
“Every time you agreed to keep seeing me seemed like a miracle. And then, somehow I convinced you to move in here with us, my weird little family. You never once balked at the idea of living in a conjoined bachelor pad slash frat house with three crazy bachelors and the little girl that we were attempting to not screw up. You’ve understood that the Indigo Royal is my first love and my baby all at the same time. I know you make the joke that I’m really married to the resort and that you’re just the mistress, but I think maybe it’s time that I make an honest woman out of you.”
Simone gasped as Vaughn dropped to one knee, pulling a little velvet box out of his pocket. She raised her hands to her face and cupped them over her mouth as the tears that had simply been welling in her eyes started to stream down her cheeks. She let out a small giggle from behind her hands.
“Simone, will you marry me?”
Drea sighed and relaxed into Kyle more as she watched Simone nod furiously and attempt to choke out an answer. Raising her hands to hold on to his arms as he squeezed her a little tighter to him, she caught herself starting to tear up.
“Yes, oh my God, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Simone squeaked out, letting Vaughn take her shaking hand and slip the ring on it. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, hard, as he lifted her by her waist and spun her around.
“About fucking time!” Grayson shouted.
“Says the only one of us to have never actually committed to a woman,” snarked Miller.
“Shut it!” Vaughn barked, putting Simone back on the ground. Still looking her in the eyes, he said, “Bet you thought I’d never ask.”
“I would have been okay with you never asking. I know who your heart belongs to,” she sniffed. “But I’m so fucking glad you did!”
Turning to Drea, she held up her left hand to show off the ring and let out a little squeal. Prying herself out of Kyle’s arms, Drea rushed to her soon-to-be-official-aunt, and grabbed her hand to look at the ring. The stunning marquise cut was easily close to two carats and sparkled stunningly against Simone’s tan skin.
“Damn, Uncle Vaughn, you went all out!”
“She deserves nothing less,” he answered and he hugged his brothers and shook the hands of Kyle and Dalton.
“Now we just have to plan a wedding,” Leona said, also staring down at Simone’s left hand.
“Nope, already taken care of that. You’ve always said that if we ever did this you wanted to keep it small and simple. So, I’ve got it all set to be right here, on Big House Beach, a week from Saturday. All you need to do is find a dress.”
“Oh my God,” Simone said. “Drea, you have to be my maid of honor!”
“Really? Yes, of course!” She hugged Simone again.
“For my next surprise,” Vaughn started. Everyone stopped suddenly and just stared at him. “Kidding, kidding! It’s just dinner! I got Rafe to make Simone’s favorite chicken. So, if you all will just give me and my beautiful fiancée a moment to ourselves, we’ll meet you all at the kitchen table.”
Chapter Ten
Family dinners had never really been quiet, low-key affairs with the Quinlans. Miller was the only one of the brothers who could be considered “quiet” or “mild-mannered,” but when left with his brothers, even he was known to raise a little hell. Add in Simone, who was outgoing, bubbly, and never shied away from busting a few balls, and it was always an event. Given the excuse of a special occasion, and the addition of Leona, Kyle, and Dalton, tonight’s dinner had turned into an all-out party. After four courses of Simone’s favorite foods, six and a half bottles of wine, and a surprise cake that Rafe had made for the occasion, everyone was stuffed beyond compare.
When the happy, newly engaged couple excused themselves first, it was met with a litany of comments from Grayson and Dalton about how Vaughn was “so getting laid tonight.” Vaughn just shook his head and escorted his bride-to-be out of the kitchen, but not without Simone turning around and remarking “you fucking know it!” in response.
Shortly after their exit, Dalton made a vague comment about Paradise Point and swiftly exited as well. Leona simply said goodnight and left on Dalton's heels.
Kyle had always enjoyed hanging out with Drea’s family and loved that they considered him part of the group. He knew it meant something that they had included him in tonight’s events and it wasn’t something he took lightly. But if the two men sitting at the table with him now, much less the one that just left, knew what was going through his head while holding Drea during the proposal, they would have him drawn and quartered. She was their little girl, and even though she was an adult and moved out, he knew nothing would ever change the way they looked at her and that no one would ever be good enough. Just one more reason all those fantasies about her would remain just that.