“My folks are waiting for Libe and Dinorah to take them down to the beach as soon as we get in.” He turned his face towards me and licked his lips while I sat there shivering. “So we can, umm, take a nap while they’re gone.” His fingers were running along the inside of my thighs in a manner suggesting there would be no such thing as napping once we were alone.
I had absolutely no problem with that.
I cleared my throat and looked at the backseat again, and saw the scheming to take over the world back there was still going strong.
“A nap sounds nice. Then you’ll take me to your private beach, Mr. Hughes?”
Another dirty grin. “I have some spots I can show you.”
“I bet you do.” I cut my eyes at him, like I didn’t know exactly what he was up to. “I’m here to get to know the rest of your family, not be your personal entertainment, Thomas Caonabo.”
“I promise you’ll like it.”
So fucking smug.
I was about to tell him so when Libe yelled as Tom took a right turn off the highway onto a small road.
“Abuela’s house!”
The road we turned onto was literally feet from the ocean. We drove past villas and houses while Libe frantically pointed at an apartment building at the end of the street. Tom’s dad had retired the same year he sold his company. As a gift, Tom bought some land in a beach town right outside of Santo Domingo and built four condos for the family.
As people do.
So now his parents lived there full time. The other three were there for Tom, his brother, and any friends who wanted to come to the beach. It was completely over the top, but like I said, I was rolling with it.
As Tom parked the car in one of the spaces on the gated lot in front of the building, I heard my mom exclaim from the back.
“Tom, this is gorgeous.”
I looked up at the building myself and yeah, she was right. It looked like something out of a celebrity lifestyle magazine.
It had four floors and there was glass on all sides, so you could see the ocean from any spot in the building. From where we parked, we could see the white sandy beach just a few yards away. I turned to Tom with my jaw on the floor and saw him nodding as he maneuvered the car.
“We were lucky to get this land. My parents love it here, and it’s nice to be able to have a place at the beach when we’re home.”
He jumped out of the car as his parents came out of the lobby and walked to the car. Libe was in the back taking off her seatbelt, then launched herself at her abuela when she opened the door.
“Abuela! We’re here!”
Tom opened the door for me and I got out to greet his parents. I’d met his dad at the shelter dedication ceremony back in the spring, and they’d both come back in the fall for a weekend. They’d met my mom then, too, of course they all got along great. I also loved Tom’s mom.
Like he’d predicted, when I finally got a chance to get to know her more, we realized we had a lot in common.
“Camilo, bienvenido,” she said as she walked over to me with her arms wide open.
“Gracias. It’s so good to be here and not freezing in New York.”
She laughed as she came in for a kiss, then turned to do the same to my mom. “Hola, Dinorah. This is the best time to come. No mosquitos and no humidity. Weather is perfect all the time.”
I turned around to give Tom’s dad a hug.
“Hey, Richard.”
“Camilo, good to see you.” Then he turned to give Tom a bear hug. “Son, so happy to have you here with the family.”
I spluttered at that and Tom laughed.
He turned to look at me with that lopsided smile he was usually sporting when we were deeply immersed in “family time.”
