“Drea—” Grayson started.
“NO!” she shouted again.
Her family all looked at her wide-eyed. She never lost her temper. Anger was not an emotion Drea had very often. She was smiles and giggles and hugs. But in this moment, something snapped.
“I can’t believe you. I can’t believe you just fucking did that!”
“Drea, he’s been leading you on for years. We just have your best interest at heart,”
Vaughn replied.
“We? You’re the one who just fucking fired my best employee!” Grayson snarked.
“Enough!” She said, banging her fists on the table. “You do not have my best interest at heart. You were thinking about what’s best for you! All three of you talk about me like I’m not here, when I’m sitting two chairs away. You ignore me when I ask questions. You treat me like I’m still eight. Then this morning, I find out you’ve been hiding something from me all my life. And not something little, like, oh hey, your birth name is Gabriella and we just decided to call you Andrea. No, you’ve been hiding something major! Which, by the way, for people who were operating under the idea that I was an equal partner, you certainly weren’t acting like it a lot of the time. You couldn’t have been too worried about whether or not Miller had told me, since the rest of you certainly weren’t bringing it up!”
The words rushed out of her mouth faster than she had intended. But she was pissed and all the anger had her worked up. She couldn’t believe them. Couldn’t believe they had lied to her for this long and then decided to take it out on Kyle.
“And apparently I can’t be trusted with my own heart either. I’m sorry that for whatever reason you don’t think Kyle is good enough, but too bad. He’s amazing, and he treats me like I walk on water. We just had the most amazing weekend together. Which was not spent with him “taking advantage of me” as you so obnoxiously put it! You don’t get to decide who I have sex with! I get to decide that!”
All three of her uncles winced at the mention of her having sex, but she didn’t really care whom she was making uncomfortable at the moment. In fact, the more uncomfortable they were, the better. Maybe that would help get the message across to them.
“We haven’t been public about our relationship, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a relationship. In fact, one of the biggest reasons we kept it from you was exactly what happened this morning. Kyle was afraid that you all would lose your shit and would fire him. And me, well, I was naive enough to believe that it wasn’t true. I thought that you all would respect my choice of boyfriend and you would accept him into our family the same way everyone accepted Simone. But I guess I was really, really fucking wrong on that one, wasn’t I?” She threw up her arms in exasperation. She knew she was ranting but she couldn’t stop.
“You know what?” she asked, glancing between all three of them. “I take it back. I take it all back. I don’t want to be here. I no longer want to be the family in Quinlan Family Resorts.”
“Drea, you don’t mean that,” Miller said.
“I do,” she paused. “I do. Buy me out. When the lawyer is here on Friday, tell him to draw up the papers and buy me out.”
“And just what are you gonna do?” Vaughn asked.
“None of your fucking business, now is it?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kyle was shoving clothes into his duffle as fast as he could, not paying much attention to what was really being packed or how unorganized he was being in the process. At the rate he was going, he was just going to make the noon flight out of the airport over in Charlotte Amalie. He’d worry about getting the rest of his stuff packed up later. The staff dorms weren’t completely full, so it’s not like they would need the room tomorrow. Certainly he could convince Dalton to throw his stuff into boxes and ship it all back to Florida for him.
Back to Clearwater, Florida. Not something he had really pictured in a long time. His sights had been set on St. Thomas since he had arrived and his dream revolved around the port in Charlotte Amalie, right by where all the cruise boats came in. If he closed his eyes, he could still see it, his own catamaran sitting there in the dock, bobbing up and down with the waves. While he’d always liked how Grayson had named all his boats after songs, there was only one thing he’d ever considered naming his: Brave Beauty. It was an easy decision—after all, Andrea meant brave in French, or so some French tourist had told them one day when they were on a tour.
He hadn’t told her this part of the plan. He had wanted it to be a surprise for after he’d gotten up on his feet and secured the boat. The moment was all planned out in his head—walking her down to the pier, showing her the boat, and then revealing the name. In his head, she had cried some happy tears and leapt into his arms, kissing him, owning him in front of anyone and everyone who happened to be around. Next they would have set sail for an overnight, where he would have packed a picnic, complete with her favorite potstickers, and a bottle of champagne. In some versions of his fantasy he proposed, but in most, he simply told her how much he loved her and how this was the beginning of the rest of their lives.
But after this morning, that was all gone. It didn’t matter whether or not he went with the proposal, with or without a ring, because there would be no boat, no charter business. All of it was down the drain, at least as far as St. Thomas was concerned. Moving back in with his mother in Florida would allow him to not only save money again, but to help her with her dialysis. Provided he could find a job. If he groveled enough, they’d probably take him back at the marina where Grayson had found him. Or maybe there was a hotel who needed a boat captain.
The door to his room flew open, hitting the door stopper on the wall with a crash. Drea came rushing in, her tear-soaked cheeks breaking his heart even more as soon as he saw them.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Packing.”
“Why?”
“I’m heading back to Florida.”
“Why?” she said, choking back a cry.
“Do you remember what just happened in the kitchen? I got fired. Just like I told you I would,” he snapped.
“That doesn’t mean you have to go back to Florida! You can stay here, we can figure this out!”
“There is nothing to figure out!” he said, raising his voice. “I’m now jobless, homeless, and the dream I was saving up for is gone! I don’t have enough money to start my own business, much less also cover living expenses. No one will hire me once they find out I got fired from the Indigo Royal. My only option is to go back to Florida!”
“No, it’s not, I’ve got the money covered. We can start the charter business together.”
“Drea, I can’t take your savings.”
“I asked my uncles to buy me out.”
“You what?” he shouted. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Because I love you! And I don’t want to be a part of the Indigo Royal if you’re not here. My uncles don’t treat me like a partner anyway, so it shouldn’t matter. I will take my share, and we can go do our own thing.”