Chapter 16
“It was crazy, Vic. One minute we were watching the storm, the next the water was coming into the house. We went next door to Paul’s top floor apartment and stayed the night there with like ten other people. This morning, I went back and the water was still almost knee deep. The furniture, the kitchen, everything is going to be garbage.”
Her eyes brim with tears as she recounts her harrowing night, and my own tears roll down my cheeks. Sure, it’s just a short term, furnished rental, but it was home to us.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”” It”s true. As much as I would hate to give up my night with Ben, playing scary games in the storm, I would have traded it all to have been there for my friend as shit went down. “I’m going to head to the house now and see if there’s anything I can grab. Then everyone is coming to stay at the Merit house.”
Her eyes go wide. “Really?”
I smile, glancing around at her raised voice. “Yeah, but don”t say anything yet, okay? I don’t know exactly what the plan is.” I glance over at the three owners, huddled together with the police chief, talking solemnly.
“Well, that’s a bright spot in this whole mess. I’m finally going to get to witness you two lovebirds in action.” My eyes go wide, and she breaks into giggles. “Not that kind of action!”
I can’t help but laugh with her, but the humor soon turns to lead in my gut. I grab Sally by the shoulder and pull her further into a corner. “Sally, it can’t be like that, okay? People can’t find out. I don’t know who knows about Ainsley, but he wasn’t exactly subtle about who he was sleeping with, and there are at least a handful of people in this lobby who we partied with.”
“Hmm, yeah.” Sally glances around and then grimaces back at me. “Your secret is safe with me.”
I inhale a long breath and sigh. I can trust her not to say anything. But convincing Ben might be another story. Luckily, I have his sense of propriety and his concern over litigation working in my favor.
Perfect, Vic, you know the man well enough to successfully manipulate him. Well played.
It’s a depressing thought, especially after the closeness I’ve been feeling to him, but I don’t have a choice. Yesterday, the man was only holding my heart, and the most fun sex I’ve ever had, over me. Now that my home has been destroyed, he’s holding my safety and security as well.
“Victoria.”
I jump and turn at Ben’s voice right behind me.
“We can head over to your house and grab a few things. We’ll probably need to take a few other employees with us as well.”
He glances at Sally, and I smile. “She knows.”
Ben relaxes visibly and nods. “Great, why don’t you come along. We have two open seats if there’s anyone else who wants to grab things from your neighborhood. Sam and Dom are letting their employees know the plan now. Starting in an hour, we’ll be ferrying everyone to Merit on a couple of tour boats. Max will be able to drive people from the dock, but we’ll need you to drive a cart as well, Vic, if that’s okay. Not many people know the way.”
“Oh, of course. Sure, I can do that.”
“Great. Meet me out at the cart in ten. And if you find two neighbors, bring them along.”
And he heads off toward the offices.
“Does he know that you guys are in a secret relationship?” Sally hisses into my ear.
I groan and close my eyes. “Kind of? I mean, he doesn’t want to cause a scandal by dating an employee, so we’ve kept it pretty quiet, but I’m not sure how serious he is about the whole secret relationship thing.”
“And of course you haven”t talked about it, because that would be too easy, and now a bunch of employees are coming to live in the mansion with you two. This is better than reality TV.”
I groan and squeeze my eyes closed. “I’m going to have to tell him that we need to keep it between us.”
“But what reason could you possibly have for wanting that? I mean, besides the truth, which you obviously aren’t going to tell him.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
I’m still dreading the conversation when we head out to the cart with Paul and his roommate Jack. Their apartment was safe, but they want to check on the older lady who lives below them.
“All right, load up,” Ben says like a total dad.
I grin and start to slide in beside him before I catch myself. “You know what? Paul, you have the longest legs, why don’t you take the front.”
He thanks me and we all pile in. Ben tosses me a glance that I read as conspiratorial, and I nearly melt into a puddle right there in the backseat. Maybe I won’t have to have an awkward conversation with him after all. He seems to get it.
The house is a complete loss. I can barely breathe as we pull onto our block, the four-wheel drive golf cart moving slowly through the still muddy street. The water line on the side of the house is obvious due to the color of the dirt street, and it’s high.
I grind my teeth trying to remember what exactly I have in the bottom drawers of my dresser. Hopefully, nothing that can’t be washed.
“You said there’s an old woman living in that apartment?” Ben asks Paul, looking dubiously at the obviously washed-out ground floor apartment.
“We moved her upstairs with us last night and that’s where we left her when we headed to The Sands this morning. She should be okay up there. We didn’t get any water or damage.”
“But the power’s still out,” Ben grumbles. “It’s going to get hot.”
Paul nods. “The locals here are pretty tough. This was a bad storm, but not the first by any means. It wasn’t even a hurricane.”
He and Jack head toward their building and Sally slides out, walking straight through the unlocked door to our house. I remain frozen in my seat.
“I brought some plastic bags from the resort. We can load up anything you want to take back to Merit to wash,” Ben offers helpfully, and I manage a small smile, dragging myself out of the cart and following him toward the door.
When I get to the doorway, however, I freeze.
The scene is nearly unbearable.
Mud cakes two feet up all the furniture, and the ground is a soggy mess. The smell of ocean and damp and dirt is so strong, I have to bring my arm to my face to block it out. Then I squeeze my eyes closed, wanting to block out the rest of it as well.
“You okay?” Ben asks from beside me.
I crack my eyes open and peer up at his concerned face. Then I shake my head. He pulls me into an embrace.
“This looks really bad right now, but it will all get cleaned up.”
I shake my head against his chest. “It’s so bad.”
Ben pulls away slightly and tilts my chin up to look at him. “We’ll load up all your stuff and bring it over to Merit. Get it washed. Anything that can’t be washed can be replaced. I’ll make sure of that.”
I shake my head again, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. “It’s not just me…” I break off again, a tear rolling down my cheek. “It’s everyone. The lady next door has to live here. All of the employees who work here full-time, they lost everything. Some of them bought houses in this neighborhood, what are they going to do now? I just showed up with a suitcase planning to stay for three months. Nothing I have here even matters. But there are so many people who need help.” My heart is breaking, and I’m on the verge of breaking down.
Ben takes me by my shoulders and presses his forehead to mine. “We’re going to help everyone. We’re the ones who can help, so we will. Right now, we’ve got twenty displaced resort employees heading down to the dock, about to get on boats to go to our house. When they all get there, they’re going to need you to help them—show them their rooms, make them coffee, listen to their stories about the storm, and offer comfort. You’re in the best position to help right now. Do you think you can do that?”
I nod, my tears forgotten. He’s right. I don’t have to wallow in sadness for these people. I can help.
Sally and I load up the bags Ben brought and carry them out to the trunk of the golf cart. Paul joins us, backpack on his back.
“Jack’s going to stay here, but I gave our neighbor my room. Do you mind if I grab a room on Merit for now?”
“That’s fine. There should be plenty of space for everyone, although I don’t think anyone’s going to be getting their own room,” Ben replies, climbing back into the cart.
“It’s no problem.”
But it just might be a problem.
I do actually have my own room. One that already has my stuff in it. Am I going to need to share that with a few other ladies? Will Ben want me to move into his room? What will I tell everyone? What will I tell him?
Besides Sally, I’m not close to anyone who works at the resort. The only people I interact with are a handful of other fitness instructors. Luckily, those weren’t the people partying with Ainsley and I in the weeks before my job started. Before he bailed.
But Paul was one of those people, and the people he works with were too. How many of them are going to be on Merit with us?
“Are you freaking out right now?” Sally whispers beside me as we bump down the muddy road. “I can practically feel the nerves radiating off of you.”
“Yeah,” I say simply, in no mood to get into this in the back of the golf cart.
“It’s going to be fine,” she says dismissively, offering a side hug.
I stiffen in her grasp, suddenly angry at her flippant remark. “What makes you think that?”
She backs away, clearly surprised by my hiss of a comment. “I don’t know. Things usually are?”
I roll my eyes and flop back in my seat. I’m stressed about this situation, upset about my house, and completely at the mercy of fate and the whims of other people. It’s not a great feeling, but it’s also not a good time to be alienating my only ally.
“I’m sorry. I’m just…this has been a lot. It still is. I need some kind of plan.”
Sally nuzzles back into me, clearly not at all put off by my mood. “We’ll think of something. Let’s talk more on the boat.”
The scene at the dock makes me forget some of my worries. It’s a straight up refugee site, complete with haggard, dirty people sitting in groups on and around piles of their wet, filthy belongings.
Unlike a real refugee site, however, most of the people are in pretty high spirits. The mood is almost festive as people clamber onto the two small snorkel boats that showed up for the job. These are people who know they’re going to be taken care of. People who, even though they lost some things, know those things can be replaced.
I help some women from the cafe load their bags and then Sally and I load ours. I lose sight of Ben as we’re corralled into seats on one of the boats.
When we get to Merit, he’s already on shore, directing people to wait in groups to be taken by golf cart to the house. When he spots me, he waves.
“Victoria, you still good to drive?”
I nod and head over to him.
“It’s going to be slow going, as people have a lot of stuff, so we won’t be able to take as many people at a time as usual. There’s shade down here, though, and Max already brought down a cooler of drinks, so everyone should be fine.”
“Some people look less fine than others. Let’s get them loaded up first.”
Ben follows my gaze around the crowd. It’s easy to spot them—the ones wandering forlornly with all their belongings in their arms, not mingling with any of the groups. He nods.
“Great. Here’s the key to the green cart. Get as many as you can on each trip. Max’s wife Petunia is waiting at the house to greet people and get them settled in the main room. When everyone’s there we can start putting people in rooms.”
“Okay,” I reply simply, not giving into the burning desire to step close enough for him to pull me to his body.
Instead, I turn and head in the direction of the lime green and black golf cart that Ben usually drives to and from the house. It’ll be my first time driving this cart, but not my first time driving one at all.
As I’m loading my bags into the trunk and preparing to round up a few passengers, Paul comes over.
“Ooh, you got the keys, huh?”
I try not to let my sigh explode out of me. I guess I’ve been waiting for this exact interaction for hours now. “Yup. I know the way.”
“Do you now?” he asks, just as curious as I would be in his position.
“Yup,” I say, allowing too much of my annoyance out with the word. I should be diffusing the situation, but I haven”t had enough time to figure out how. Sally and I were not able to formulate the perfect plan on the packed, bumpy boat ride over. “I’m taking the most haggard-looking people first and that’s not you, but if you want to help load, that would be great.”
He keeps me pinned there under narrowed eyes for a long moment before softening. “Yeah, okay.” He tosses a look over his shoulder at two older women huddled together next to a palm tree. “I think Britt and Susan from housekeeping could probably go first.”
I offer a tight-lipped smile and a nod. “Thanks.”
Paul helps the women load their things into the cart before heading off to help Ben and Max load their passengers as well. I sigh as I watch him go. It’s not that he’s a bad guy, it’s just that he knows too much.
It takes three trips with all the carts to get everyone and their belongings to the house. When I finally cross the threshold, I”m hot and tired and grimy from the road dust sticking to my sweaty skin. All I want is to throw myself into the pool, but there’s a lot of work to do first.
Petunia has been doing a great job of getting people into the house’s many indoor and outdoor showers as soon as they arrive, so most people sitting around the living room look clean and refreshed. I can see a couple of local women carting off bags of wet, soiled clothes and remember Ben telling me they’d rallied up an army to help with washing.
Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.
I decide to head up and shower after all—not feeling like much of a leader when I’m dirtier and smellier than the people I should be helping.
When I come back down the stairs into the main room, clean with wet hair and fresh clothes, Ben is speaking to the room. He’s standing right at the foot of the stairs, so everyone watches me come down.
He pauses in his speech as I come up behind him and smiles over at me. I must be bright fucking red with the entire room dead silent and staring at me, so I just duck my head and hurry to the back of the crowd where Sally is waiting, trying not to laugh at my complete and utter failure.
“Like I was saying,” Ben goes on, “we have enough beds if people can share, but there are plenty of sofas, hammocks, and floor pads so no one has to share a bed if they don’t want to.”
Snickers break out in the crowd. I flush once more, thinking everyone has turned to look at me, but when I look up, I don’t find a single stare. People are elbowing each other and grinning amongst themselves.
I’m completely overreacting. This is going to be fine.
“I’m going to be taking people around to get situated. Women first, to get them settled where they’re comfortable, then the guys can fill in around them and take whatever rooms and beds are still free. Victoria,” I freeze at the sound of my name echoing through the room as every face now turns to me, “knows the house pretty well, so she’s a good person to ask if you can’t find bedding, towels, toiletries, or a shower. We have plenty of extra stuff here, so make yourselves at home.”
I offer what I hope is a calm, welcoming smile to the sea of curious eyes still pinned on me.
“We heard back from Sandy and Phil Richardson who own The Flamingo Hotel on the east side and they’re going to send the caretakers over to open that property for us to use for employee housing as long as we need it. There are enough rooms for everyone, and they should be ready tomorrow. So, we”re all roommates for tonight only. It’s more of a slumber party. We’re going to start grilling and preparing a big meal, but there are snacks and fruit laid out in the kitchen already if you’re hungry. Filtered water machines are in the kitchen and out by the pool. If one of those is running low, just let me, Max, Petunia, or Victoria know and we can get them switched out.”
He looks right at me then, his piercing eyes sending a shockwave through my entire body. “Did I forget anything?”
I’m torn right in half with indecision. Part of me wants to just smile and shake my head, try to play off the fact that I practically live here and share a bed with this man. But the other part of me wants to rise to the occasion that he’s offering. Be the hostess he clearly sees me to be.
Unfortunately, only one of my warring sides has the longevity of my relationship in mind.
I shake my head and say nothing.
After a beat, Ben nods. “Okay then. Ladies, let’s get you situated.”
Women start rising to their feet and crowding around Ben as he talks about the bedroom situations on the main floor and lower floor of the house. He doesn’t mention the upper floor, where his bedroom is. And mine.
They traipse off down the stairs to the much larger lower floor and I start to head into the kitchen, but I’m stopped by Paul.
“You don’t want to head off with the ladies and get a room? You never know who you’ll get stuck sleeping next to if you don’t.”
I step away so he has to take his hand off my shoulder. “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll just take whatever”s left over.”
“Very generous of you. You know?—”
“There you are.” Sally comes up behind Paul and slips her arm through his, turning him to face her. She presses her body against his as she whispers loudly in his ear. “I just scored a private room with a queen bed. Want to be my bedmate?”
Paul’s focus shifts to Sally without another glance in my direction. “Hell, yeah.”
As she leads him toward the stairs, she tosses a wink and a grin over her shoulder.
Taking one for the team, Sal.
The woman has my eternal gratitude, but I know she’s getting something out of the deal as well. Paul’s been the object of her attention ever since I’ve known her. Maybe this was what it took for her to finally make that first move.
I only get a second’s respite before trouble comes my way once more. Ben’s walking toward me, in the same room where he had me pinned to the floor as he fucked me not eighteen hours ago. What are the odds that he’s going to walk over and pull me into his arms in front of all these people?
Once again, though, I get lucky.
“I think we got everyone situated with a spot to sleep tonight. I’m about to kick on the grill and help Max with food. Do you want to lead the way out to the pool? People might like hanging out there more than just sitting around the living room.”
“Yeah, for sure. I’ll start corralling people that way.” And even though the smartest thing to do right now would be to run off and do my task, far away from this man, I don’t move.
Neither does Ben. He stays just where he stands, about a foot away from me. I can feel the magnetic energy rising from his skin, pulling me toward his body.
I take a step back. Ben smiles knowingly.
“You okay?” he asks.
I nod too quickly. “Yeah, I just…you know…”
The smile turns to a little smirk and he nods. “I do. I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
My knees go weak as relief rushes through my body, hot and cold and effervescent.
It’s short lived, however. Fifty percent of my worries are now gone, but the other fifty percent? Those are still milling around us, snacking on pineapple and cracking beers.
Any one of the people in this house could know about me and Ainsley. Some unknown percentage definitely does.
Will one of them open their mouths at the wrong moment and ruin everything?
It should be me.
Yeah, yeah, annoying voice in my head. I get it. I should tell him.
But I’m sure as fuck not doing it today.
“You didn’t put anyone in my—I mean, the room where I…you know…” I hesitate to say the words my room aloud, even though I”m pretty sure no one is listening.
“I didn’t put anyone in the entire upstairs. There’s a door at the top of the stairs that can be closed and locked. My room and yours are private.”
The thought of that locking door has me wanting to run. Wanting to slam it closed and cower behind it while Ben pounds on it and yells. I can feel the heat rush to my cheeks and between my legs.
When I look up, I’m almost certain Ben is thinking the same thing. His eyes are dark and the faintest hint of a snarl curls his upper lip.
I gotta get out of here.
“Okay. Pool, food, movie.” I’m just spitting words into the silence now, trying to break up some of the sexual tension.
“Bed,” Ben replies.
“Bed?” I squeak.
“Pool. Food. Movie. Bed.” He lists the items off one at a time, his voice falling to a whisper when he gets to bed.
“Right. Yeah. Okay.” I turn and head quickly into the crowded living room without another glance back.
“Hey everyone, I’m going to go take the cover off the pool, if anyone wants to join. There’s a basket of loaner suits, all washed, some brand new, if anyone didn’t bring one. I’ll bring the sunscreen basket out as well, although the umbrellas do a pretty good job this time of day. If you want to stay inside, that’s fine, too. There’s another deck off the living room downstairs that’s fully covered, with hammocks and chairs.” I’m so flustered by my interaction with Ben that I don”t realize my incredibly stupid mistake until the words are out of my mouth. How am I going to explain knowing so much about the inner workings of the pool and the house? It was one thing to know the way up the road, but this? This is bad.
I can hear Ben laughing softly behind me as he turns to head out the patio doors.
Dread sinks through my chest but I have no choice but to push on. “Come with me if you want to swim.” And I make my escape.