“You come here a lot?”
“Well, I mean, generally once a week for work,” she laughed. “But I’ve been visiting this cove since I was a little girl. My uncles own the resort, so I grew up here.”
“That’s cool, you’re a native!”
“I sure am, although—ahhh!” she shrieked, feeling arms grab her from behind. She turned around to see Kyle’s great big smile and heard him chuckle through his snorkel. “Jesus, Kyle, you scared me!”
“Sorry...wait, no I’m not,” he laughed. Drea rolled her eyes.
“Oh, sorry, where are my manners? Kyle, this is…” she trailed off, realizing she didn’t know dude-bro’s name.
“Brig,” he answered, raising a hand in greeting.
“Nice to meet you, Brig. Drea, there is an older couple that is back closer to the boat. I wanna make sure they are doing okay, come with?”
“Yeah. Brig, glad you came out today. I’ll see you back on the boat.”
Brig gave a thumbs-up and stuck his face back in the water to go find his buddies. Drea splashed Kyle playfully before taking off toward the boat. They swam in companionable silence for a bit, circling the boat a couple of times before Drea realized there wasn’t anyone over this way. He totally made that up to make dude-bro go away, she thought. She enjoyed being with just him, even if they were surrounded by all sorts of other people. It’d been awhile since they’d been able to go off and play like this. Their tours had been so busy and popular that guests had required their full attention for the last couple of months.
Kyle grabbed Drea’s hand and pointed to a large leatherback sea turtle. As her smile widened at the sight, she noticed his did as well. She loved that smile so much—it made her feel all sorts of things. Kyle in general made her feel all sorts of things. But it didn’t matter how much he made her feel, or how close they had become since he had moved to the island. Kyle was the ultimate professional; he was here focused on the job and sending money back to his mom in Florida. He also would never dream of taking up with the bosses’ niece. She was just going to have to keep dreaming from afar.
Drea looked at her watch and pointed to it. “We better get back on the boat and start wrangling people in.”
“I’m not sure I want to. What if I just want to stay here with you?” He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. Returning the gesture, she loosely wrapped her arms around his neck. She could see those deep brown eyes so clearly through his mask. She dreamed about those eyes, about getting lost in them, and seeing all the feelings she had for him returned in them. She wanted him to kiss her, to know if those lips that has just been wrapped around the snorkel were as soft as she imagined.
“And let Dalton sail the boat back?” she asked, trying to break the moment before she got too caught up in it. Kyle simply laughed in response. “Besides, it’s Tuesday, so it’s bonfire night.”
“Fine,” he relented. “Be the voice of reason.”
They hopped back up onto the boat and she slipped her shorts back on, heading back to the bar to serve up rum punch. Once everyone was safely back on the boat, and they were on the way back toward the resort, she started handing out the punch. Guests were laughing and sharing some photos they got of the turtles, soaking up the last little bit of the excursion. When she got to Brig and his group, he stopped her.
“So, whatcha doing after this?” he asked her.
“Well, we have to clean up after you all and put the boat up for the night. Then it’s back to the resort.”
“Do you live on site?”
“I do. My uncles have this custom-made house that is basically three apartments all connected, which is where I grew up, but now I live in this little cottage across the way from them.”
“So then I’ll see you around? Like, tonight at the bonfire?”
“Um, maybe. I usually try to make a brief appearance.”
“Good, looking forward to it.”
Note to self, see if Kyle will skip the bonfire with me tonight, she thought.
Chapter Three
“So, what room is he in?” Leona asked, sitting at her desk in the Housekeeping office, primed and ready to type something into the computer.
“Who?” Drea asked, looking up from the magazine she’d been flipping through, sitting on the little couch opposite the desk.
“Gym bro!” Leona answered, looking at her like it should have been obvious.
Drea just stared at her best friend in utter confusion. They had been best friends since Leona marched up to her during snack time in kindergarten and declared it so. Drea wouldn’t have required much convincing, though. She was growing up on the resort that, while it wasn’t explicitly stated as adults only, had no children’s program and was marketed as a “grown-up playground,” leaving Drea to often only have her toys and uncles for company.
“Gym bro, I like that. I’d just been calling him dude-bro,” she laughed. “I have absolutely no idea what room he’s in. I didn’t exactly ask. Why?”
“I was gonna schedule that floor for a later servicing, so you know, if you need to...make an exit.” She made a sweeping gesture with her hand, narrowing avoiding knocking over the nameplate on the desk reading ‘Leona Filipe’. “That way you could do so without Carmella or someone seeing you.” Leona had worked as a housekeeper starting in high school, when her mom had gotten it in her head that she needed a job to keep her out of trouble. She’d taken over as the head of housekeeping almost eighteen months ago when the lady who had held the job since the resort opened decided to retire.
“Why would I need to ‘make an exit’? What are you...Leona! Oh my God, no, just no! I’m not going back to his room. I’m not even going to entertain the idea of anything that could lead to the idea of going back to his room.”
“Fine, but if you change your mind, you just let me know and I’ll work some magic over here. Oh!” she exclaimed as she started typing away at the keyboard.
“Yes?” Drea asked, interest slightly piqued that her refusal to sleep with a guest sparked an idea in her best friend.
“I wonder if he’s in 1227. Isobel said there are like four or five guys staying in this one room, and they have like seven jumbo boxes of condoms.” Leona turned to look at her, eyes wide, an impish smile on her face. “So, they are either doing each other, or came here with plans.”
Drea shook her head in exasperation, letting out a quiet laugh. “Well, that’s a hell of a visual, so thanks for that. But I have zero interest in him, other than making sure he remains a satisfied guest.”
“Is he hot?”
“He’s not bad-looking, especially if you’re really into that big muscly type. He kinda looks like he could be some evil villain's henchman, with his really dark hair and scowled facial features. But he’s not…” she trailed off and looked toward the office door that was open just a crack.
“Kyle? He’s just not Kyle?”
“Pretty much,” she sighed. “We had an amazing day today. The group was smaller, so he left Dalton alone on the boat and came swimming with me.”