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Elian laughs boisterously. “That’s hilarious. Well, don’t worry, I won’t reveal your secret. To tell you the truth, Sandro is quite happy about your demand. He feels we cheated him on the scallops last night, so it’s his personal mission today to make sure there are enough scallops to feed an army.”
A giggle bubbles from my lips. “Alright, well, if it makes Sandro happy, then it was worth it. More than one winner.”
“Absolutely.” Elian’s smile is warm, and the way he looks at me, even through the glasses, brings heat to my cheeks. “When you’re around Sloane, we’re all winners.”
I don’t know how to reply, so I distract myself with my coffee and croissant.
The traffic isn’t nearly so bad this early on a Saturday, and we make it to the marina in good time.
Sure enough, the ship is all ready to go, everyone on board and waiting for us to arrive.
We park, and Elian grabs my bag from the back seat and carries it in one hand, intertwining my fingers with his other.
He leads me onto the boat and directly up to the same table we sat at last night with his brothers.
Today, in the bright morning sunshine, it all looks completely different. Vincente and Sandro are seated at the table enjoying a breakfast spread, and a girl in khaki shorts and a light blue polo asks if we want anything before she heads back downstairs.
Elian waits for me to slide into the booth and then he sits next to me, helping himself to fruit.
“Good morning Sloane,” Vincente treats me to a wide smile. He’s wearing a white linen button down and pale blue shorts with loafers.
“Morning, gorgeous,” Sandro echoes. He’s in a slightly rumpled t-shirt and tan cargo shorts, his tattoos appearing to be full sleeves where they disappear under his shirt.
“Morning,” I reply, grinning. At least I got the memo on the wardrobe. Elian has on a white polo shirt and blue shorts with tiny whales embroidered on them. My jean shorts and white tank top combo fits right in.
“So, because Elian picked me up, does that mean it’s ‘his’ day? Or is it Vincente’s because he’s the one who invited me to come, technically?”
“Neither, Mama,” Elian answers. “Today is a family day. We all just hang out together.”
“Just us?” I can’t imagine this enormous ship to ourselves. Well, and the staff that I hear occasionally shouting questions to each other as they prepare the yacht to depart.
“Us, and our cousins.”
“Diego and Miguel? Cool, I liked them.”
“No, not this time. I meant Emiliano and Manuel.”
“Oh, okay. Cool.” Truthfully, I got a weird vibe from those guys. They’d hung around the party last night but hadn’t really socialized much. It more felt like they were just monitoring things than partying, which led me to question if they were working, like the other cousins, just not in the same capacity.
“Once they’re here, we’ll take off,” Sandro assured me.
“Got it.”
“In the meantime, have some breakfast,” he pushes a plate of cut fruit my way. “The papaya is really fresh.”
“Would you like some coffee?” Vincente lifts the carafe.
“No, thank you. Elian picked up Starbucks, so I’m seriously good on breakfast. But thank you,” I add.
“You and your Starbucks,” Vincente shakes his head in disgust. “That’s not coffee.”
“Hey, live and let live,” Elian replies, shrugging. “I like what I like, and you do too. Sloane likes Starbucks.”
Vincente groans. “Seriously? We’ll have to break you of that habit. It’s more sugar than coffee. I bet if I got you acortaditofrom this place I know on Calle Ocho, it would change your world.”
I smirk and do the one-eyebrow thing to the best of my ability. “And you’re going to act like acortaditoisn’t also a ton of sugar?”
“Daaamn, she called you out,” Sandro chuckles. “You’re right, gorgeous. I think the concentration of sugar in the oneshelikes might even be higher than Starbucks.”
