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Miguel turned onto a winding road. “Five more minutes, everyone.”
Glancing across the vehicle, Liam found Callie shoving her phone back in her pocket and pulling his jacket closer.
“Ms. Laurel, have you been to Mexico before?”
She cleared her throat. “A few times with my father.”
“Is he a pilot as well?”
“CEO of Laurel Corp,” she said quickly.
The company had been an Omaha hallmark for fifty years, but after a takeover, it’d moved into obscurity like too many well-run but easily acquired companies.
“I remember that blue logo with the gold star. How’s he doing?” Liam imagined he was already a snowbird like his own father wished to be.
“He died in January, prostate cancer.”
Liam’s heart slowed until he almost couldn’t breathe. Six months wasn’t a long time to grieve. He still missed his mother, and it’d been six years.
“Cancer sucks.” The traditional “I’m sorry” was expected, but Liam knew how the words comforted a broken heart very little. His mother had struggled with breast cancer that ravished her will and soul in only months. He turned back to the window. The glass was almost obscured by the pelting rain now, a mirage of blurred scenery making him remember days he wanted to forget.
The vehicle came to a stop under a canopy that did very little good in the sideways, spinning, and undulating deluge of the storm.
Paul spoke up in the front seat. “Miguel, will you be able to make it home?”
“I believe so, sir. If not, I have relatives from here to my house and I can stay with someone.” Miguel started to open his door to let everyone out.
Liam’s big hand settled on his shoulder to stop him from the back seat, and Paul reached across the console. “We’ve got this, no worries.”
Miguel fought with himself but gave into their offer. “Thank you, sirs.”
“Okay, everyone, hold hands.” Paul turned around in his seat. “That means, everyone, Captain Laurel.”
She rolled those big brown eyes. The move normally wouldn’t seem adorable to anyone on a grown woman, but as put together and intense as she was, Callie Laurel exuded an innocence that Liam found charming. There was so much more to her.
Can’t wait to find out how much more and what.
Inside the hotel, they were handed towels. The tile floor looked like a small lake around them, but the fluffy towels wicked away the rain until their clothing held only an uncomfortable dampness, not soaked-to-the-bone chilling.
After a quick check-in, their guide motioned to them to follow him. “Ladies and gentlemen, your rooms are this way.” They were led down a hallway. “This is a two queens room.”
Paul and Jonathan laughed. “How fitting,” Paul said.
Meg chuckled, and although it took him longer than he’d admit, he figured it out.
“Are they a couple?” he asked quietly to Callie.
“No!” Paul and Jonathan said simultaneously, and everyone laughed.
Paul stepped into the turquoise and coral decorated room while Jonathan collected the key cards from the porter.
Jonathan slipped off his navy-blue suit coat. “I have a husband at home, and Paul has a boyfriend.”
“Had. Had is the right word there.” Paul called out from inside, “I’m ready for some island mojo.”
Liam smiled. “Good luck then.”
Liam wasn’t a prude and could look at another man’s body and know when he had his shit together in the gym. Jonathan’s body said long-distance runner, but Paul probably hit the weights daily. That reminded Liam.
