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“Something tells me that you’ve got this.” He pulled her down for a kiss. “From what I’ve seen, you’re a natural at it.”
“There are a few employees that would disagree with you. I pissed off the front desk staff today by changing a few of my father’s policies,” she admitted.
“They’ll get used to it.” He shrugged. “I made a few changes when I arrived. I’d trained with some of the best bartenders in order to learn this skill. The changes I made have helped out. After a day or two, everyone stopped complaining.”
“Yeah, I know you’re right. It’s just… Tom and Carol seem to think that they can run the desk the way they want. My father has given them free rein for years.”
“Tom and Carol?” he asked, trying to put faces to the names.
“They’re married. They got married last year. They had a wonderful wedding and went on a long honeymoon.” She shrugged and laid her head back on his chest. “Odd couple. They hadn’t planned on returning to work but ended up asking my dad to let them come back. Dad seems to trust them.” She shrugged. “They gave me attitude when I changed the computer systems security login settings this morning.” She glanced up at him again. “Fair warning. I’m going to implement the same changes everywhere.”
“Okay,” he said easily. “What are the changes?”
“Each time you walk away from the computer, it logs you out after thirty seconds instead of sixty.”
He chuckled. “That’s it? And people were mad at you for it?”
She nodded. “You’d be surprised what thirty seconds mean to some people.”
He smiled and leaned down and brushed his lips across her forehead. “They’ll have to get used to changes. I’ll bet you have plenty more in store for them in the future.”
“I do,” she agreed after a moment. “Do you want me to…” He felt her slightly roll away from him.
“No.” His hold on her tightened a little. “Stay,” he said softly. “I’m going to want you again after some rest.”
He felt her relax against him. “Good, because I was thinking the same thing.” She laid her head back on his chest and they drifted off.
He woke sometime later to the sound of rain. It took him a moment to realize the heaviness he felt on his chest was Jade. It had been a while since he’d had anyone sleep over. A first while he was on a job.
“It’s just rain,” Jade whispered.
“Yeah,” he said, trying to push back the memories that had flooded into his brain at the sound. After a few moments of trying to convince himself to fall back asleep, he rolled out of bed, walked to the large glass doors, and pulled the curtains open.
“Are you okay?” Jade asked from the bed.
“Yeah,” he answered, looking out over the dark morning. Not a soul was on the beach or in the water yet. The sun hadn’t even technically come up. The grayness of the clouds mixed with the rain somehow made everything glow with a gray haze.
He hadn’t heard Jade move but suddenly her arms wrapped around him. Her chin rested on his shoulder.
“I suppose there won’t be many on the beach this morning,” she said with a sigh.
He nodded and closed his eyes to the painful memories that the weather caused.
“Are you okay?” she asked, moving around until she looked up at him. “What’s wrong?”
He took a deep breath. “My last job.” He knew that this was something he shouldn’t keep from her. “Things turned south.” He motioned to the windows. “On a day like this. We lost three of our team.”
“Team?” she asked with a frown. “Lost?”
She shook her head, and he realized that she wasn’t quite awake. He waited a moment before realization dawned on her.
“They… died?”
He nodded. “Yeah, they were shot. I wasn’t able to get…” He shook his head. “It boiled down to me not being fast enough,” he said, not wanting to go into too many specifics at the moment.
“Does that mean there are more… that you aren’t the only one here?” she asked.
“I am. The moment I suspect something or someone, more can be here quickly enough. For now, there are at least a dozen of us spread around a few other resorts in the area.”
