They all started to pass the food around and served themselves as they went. It was a simple meal of roast beef, with green beans, salad, and Kyle’s favorite side dish, au gratin potatoes, and the ever present, freshly house-baked bread. Kyle might have to steal some of that away for later too. It was like Miller had cooked this meal just for him.
“So Kyle,” Vaughn started, “do you know why we have Friday night dinner?”
“Vaughn, you promised not to tell this story,” Simone said. “Don’t embarrass Drea in front of her guest.”
“It’s just Kyle, and I’m only going to tell the story if he hasn’t heard it. He’s her best friend, right? He probably already knows it.”
Kyle looked to Drea who was keeping her head down looking at her plate. This felt like a trap somehow, but he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to know the story or not. If he did, would that reveal that they were closer than her uncles realized? He decided to err on the side of caution and went with the truth.
“All I know is that it was started when Drea was in junior high, ish? Right?”
“Right, she was twelve,” Vaughn started.
“Thirteen. She was thirteen,” Miller interjected.
“You sure?” Vaughn asked.
“I raised her, didn’t I? Pretty sure I remember the milestones.”
“Okay, so she was thirteen. She was totally obsessed with that show, Gilmore Girls. You know it?”
“I have been forced to sit through an episode, or twenty,” Kyle said, nudging an uncomfortable-looking Drea.
“She wanted to be just like them, and on the show they had Friday night dinners, so she insisted that we do it too.”
“There are worse people in the world to want to be when you’re thirteen than Rory Gilmore,” Drea added. “And in my defense, we didn’t have a regularly scheduled family meal then. We could have stopped Friday dinners when we started Wednesday breakfasts.”
Kyle could feel the tension in Drea as she defended her teenage thinking. He didn’t really think the story was that embarrassing, but he also knew that her uncles had a tendency to treat her like she was still that thirteen-year-old girl, and he understood her frustration with that. He wanted to lean over and kiss her, tell her he saw her for who she was now, a beautiful adult woman with a mind of her own. But he knew that this would be the worst place to do that, so instead he tried to change the subject.
“Miller, the meal is fantastic, as always. Thank you. But I hope you didn’t make this just for me.”
“This was actually Dave’s mom’s recipe. I made it the night we celebrated our engagements to the girls, so I felt it was fitting for tonight,” he said, raising a glass in the direction of Simone and Vaughn. Simone smiled sappily and raised her glass in return, while Vaughn simply nodded.
“I know you guys were working all day, but have you talked about what you wanna do with your days off?” Simone asked.
“No, but truthfully, I’d be happy if we just anchor out somewhere and then take a long nap in the sun,” Drea replied.
“You could do that here,” Vaughn said. “If that’s your whole plan, then there is no reason to go anywhere.”
“That’s not the plan—I just said we didn’t have a plan. And yes, the whole purpose is to not be on the resort.”
“There is nothing wrong with staying on the resort. It’s safer here,” he said.
“Are you saying my boats are unsafe?” Grayson asked from around a bite of bread.
“No, but you never know what could happen.”
“Drea and Kyle are both excellent sailors, which, you know, is why we trust them with our guests every day!” Grayson spat out.
“We’re right here,” Drea said.
Kyle wanted to jump into the conversation and defend their getaway, but was afraid to say the wrong thing. The tension he was feeling off Drea was only escalating as her uncles went back and forth, so he reached back under the table and lightly ran his hand up and down her thigh. She turned and smiled at him tensely.
“We get it, Vaughn, you don’t like the idea of her going away, but let the kids do what they want,” Miller said.
“They can relax here just as easily as they can on the boat. And we were all just in San Juan a couple of months ago. Why go back so soon?”
“Get the sand out of your vagina, man!” Grayson barked. “Just let them go. No one questions what you do with your days off.”
“Sorry I brought it up,” Simone said quietly, looking at Drea. Drea simply shrugged in response.
“No one questions because I’m an adult and—”
“So is she!” Simone interjected. “She’s twenty-six, he’s twenty-seven. Well over the adult age line!”
“The next words out of your mouth best not be that you’re the boss,” Miller stated. “Because we are all equal in this.”
“And I’m Kyle’s boss,” Grayson said. “And I’m the one giving him the keys.”
“Still here,” Drea said, louder this time.
“Well, if you two really think it’s best to just let her run off with some boy—”
Drea stood, stopping Vaughn midsentence. Everyone turned to look at her.
“Okay, as much fun as this has been—enough. We’re taking a weekend off. We’re going sailing, not to the moon. And he is not just ‘some boy,’ he’s Kyle! Who has worked here for five years! You know him, he shows up to breakfast most mornings. Yesterday he was ‘part of the family.’ So now if you’ll excuse me, I’m done with dinner. I don’t need dessert.” She turned around and huffed out of the kitchen.
They all sat there for a brief moment in silence. When Vaughn went to open his mouth to say something, Simone put her hand on his arm and Kyle was pretty sure he heard her whisper “just stop.” He pushed back from the table and stood up, placing his napkin on top of his dinner plate.
“If you’ll excuse me as well, I think I’ll go after her,” he said solemnly.
“Good idea, son,” Miller said.
He turned to go and made it halfway to the kitchen doors before he heard Miller shout, “Wait!” He turned back around to see the older gentleman rushing toward him with a small bread basket he covered with a cloth napkin.
“I know she said she doesn’t want dessert, but a man knows his little girl. Even if she thinks she doesn’t want it now, she will later,” he said, handing Kyle the basket. “Save you some trouble from having to sneak back in here.” He whispered this last part so only Kyle could hear, adding a wink at the end.
Kyle simply nodded his thanks and turned to go.
Drea swung in the hammock that was a few steps from her back porch on Big House Beach. It had always been her favorite place to come and read while listening to the waves. There had always been something kind of romantic about it in her mind, even though she was the only one who ever used it.
She heard Kyle round the house as he approached the side of her porch and slipped off his shoes. She looked over to watch him and saw him place a bread basket next to his shoes before he strode the couple of steps toward her. Without saying a word, he grabbed the side of the hammock, making her slow swing come to a halt as he climbed in. The movement of his body joining her was enough to set the netting back in motion as he snuggled her into him. Pulling her close so she was lying with half of her front side on his, he wrapped his arms fully around her and kissed the top of her head. They lay there for a moment just like that, swinging back and forth, before he finally broke the silence.