Page 13 of What I Like About You

“Really, Flick? Still desperate for Daddy’s attention after all this time?”

“Pound sand, Tripp,” she snapped back.

“Happily. I like the life I have down here, despite how much you might look down on it. I left for a reason. I’m done living that life—done being that guy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other matters I need to attend to.”

“This conversation isn’t over, Tripp!”

“Yes, Flick, it is.”

Dalton ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket with a loud groan of frustration. This was exactly the kind of bullshit he’d thought he left behind years ago. He wanted nothing to do with Southland Holdings. He didn’t want to be in his father’s pocket. He didn’t want to be associated with that man in any way. Once he’d learned the truth of his father’s character, walking away had been an easy decision. His mother, God rest her soul, had raised him to be a better man than that, and his desire was to make her proud. He just wanted to be left to do his own thing. But leave it to Big D to still be trying to call the shots from more than a thousand miles away.

“Your sister’s got a real sparkling personality there, doesn’t she?” Kyle asked, handing him one of the cups of rum punch.

Dalton leaned against the bar and sighed. “She didn’t used to be so bad when we were kids. But things kinda changed after…well, you know. And now…yeah, she’s a piece of work.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not much to say about it really. Big man bought a sports franchise, seems to think I’m going to come home to run it. Which isn’t really a surprise, since it’s just the kind of thing he’d do. Not to mention, Cullen mentioned it a few weeks back after he’d turned Big D down. I’ve just been telling myself that he misunderstood somehow.” He picked up the cup and downed the last of the rum punch in one go. It burned his throat a little—he and Kyle tended to make it a bit stronger than Drea ever did—but it was a welcome burn right about now. Matched how the rest of his insides felt.

“Careful, Drea will kill you if you show up to this tasting thing already drunk,” Kyle warned. “So, what are you gonna do?”

Dalton groaned again, this time letting his head fall forward. Kyle was the only one of his friends on the resort who knew anything about his life back home prior to Felicity’s visit a couple of weeks ago. It’d taken a couple of bushwackers to get him to start talking, but eventually Dalton had spilled it all to Kyle about six months into working at the resort. Dalton told Kyle about his mother’s death after a long and painful battle with pancreatic cancer. How his father had married the daughter of a family friend who’d been hired to help with Dalton and Felicity while their mother underwent treatments, and was twenty-six years Big D’s junior, a mere sixteen months after his wife’s passing. If those weren’t enough to shock poor Kyle, the fact that Dalton had left behind not only his family but a guaranteed executive role at a Fortune 100 company, and most importantly, that he regretted none of it, certainly did the trick.

“I guess I’ll have to talk to the man at some point, but,” he said, grabbing the cup out of Kyle’s hand and downing what was left in there too, “tonight is not that point.”

The Casbah was already decently full for it still being dinner time, but Dalton and Kyle easily found their way to the area that Drea had roped off for her VIPs. The whole group seemed to already be there mingling among themselves. No one seemed to have a drink in hand yet, but the enthusiasm of the group was obvious, even without alcohol. Whatever they had experienced this afternoon at the spa must have been quite exciting for everyone to be this abuzz still. Dalton smiled to himself, happy that this was going well for Drea.

“Girl, you did not!” a flamboyant-sounding voice said, breaking through the hum of the crowd.

Dalton and Kyle looked over to find Antwan staring slack-jawed at a short-haired brunette, hands on his hips in disbelief. The brunette let out a little laugh as she nodded in confirmation of whatever had gotten Antwan all worked up.

“Zee, Zee…you have got to hear this story!” he said, tapping at Zara to get her attention.

Turning around, Zara’s long brown hair swayed across her shoulders, like she was in a shampoo commercial. The long strands had been curled slightly at the ends, and it gave it a bounce like Dalton had never seen. Just watching it move like that made him want to wrap his hands in it and pull her head back for a slow, deep kiss. Taking in the rest of her from the berry-colored sundress down to those little strappy sandals on her feet, he could feel himself start to get hard. She looked stunning, and he heard his own breath hitch slightly as he watched her smile at Antwan. What he wouldn’t do for one of those smiles.

“I take it that’s the voluptuous brunette?” Kyle said, low enough so only Dalton could hear.

Dalton nodded. “Zara Bonnie Blue Wellington.”

“Bonnie Blue?” Kyle asked, sounding skeptical.

“Yup. Her mom has this Gone With the Wind obsession. Zara’s older brother and sister are Scarlett and Rhett.”

“She’s cute,” Kyle offered in response.

Before Dalton could respond and tell his best friend she was more than just “cute,” he felt someone bump into him as they walked by. Turning his attention away from Zara, he found a tall, dark-haired girl with sharp features glaring at him.

“Hey, watch—” the walking skeleton said, before cutting herself off. She glanced Dalton up and down, and he could see her demeanor change as she took him in. “Oh, hi…”

“Hi.”

“I’m CC, but I’m sure you know that,” she said in a harsh-sounding British accent, obviously making an effort to be coy.

“Ah, yes, CC de Milo,” Dalton said. He really had no idea who she was, other than some model who was apparently a big deal. But Drea had said her name enough these last couple of weeks it was hard to forget. “I’m Dalton, this is Kyle, and we’re with the Indigo Royal. Welcome.”

“Why, thank you,” she said, stepping closer. She placed a hand on his chest, letting it rest there as if she were trying to feel his heartbeat. Dalton wondered if she could tell that his heart rate had sped up with her being this close—and not in a good way. “I have to go make an appearance, but I hope to be seeing more of you later.” She winked, dragging her hand slowly down his chest in a way that probably should have been seductive, but managed to come off more creepy than anything else.

“Sure thing,” he replied, letting his southern drawl come out and forcing his customer service smile onto his face.

As CC walked away, Dalton let out a huge sigh, wondering just how much of his night was now going to be spent trying to entertain her. He knew she was an important guest to Drea, and he didn’t want to be the one that screwed something up. But right now his mind was focused on one woman and one woman only.

Looking back over to where Zara had been standing, he found her right away. She was standing in pretty much the same spot she had been, with Antwan talking animatedly next to her. Only now, that happy-go-lucky smile she’d been sporting just moments ago was gone. Now, she was glaring.

At him.