Sunset Rivalry: The Caliendo Resort (By The Lake: The Caliendo Resort Book 2) (24 page)

BOOK: Sunset Rivalry: The Caliendo Resort (By The Lake: The Caliendo Resort Book 2)
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Chapter Twenty-Seven

ANYA MET NICOLETTE as she walked off the Caliendo’s private jet Marc had arranged to pick her up.

She looked different. She was walking taller and her eyes didn’t dart around like she was scared or fearful of what was around the next corner. When her eyes fell on Anya, she knew: Nicolette remembered. 

“Hello Anya,” The friendliness was snipped from her tone. The genuine smile that had once settled on her lips when she saw Anya was now gone too. 

Anya felt her life drain before those eyes.

This hurt more than losing Quinn the first time. And it was about to happen again. Anya’s involvement with this woman’s suffering was about to destroy the one thing Anya thought she finally had: Quinn.

How would she survive without him? She didn’t want to wake up without him by her side. But it was clear she’d just lost all her opportunity. 

“Hello Nicolette.” 

“So my husband is dead,” Nicolette said. 

Anya didn’t know how she knew. Maybe she’d been keeping track before the night she was put in a coma.

Anya nodded. “He is.” 

“And your father is dead.” 

Darn her father.

“He is.” 

“And now you want to reunite me with my sons?” 

Anya swallowed. “I do.” 

“And Eliza?” Cynicism dripped from her tone, chilling Anya’s bones.

“If I told you that none of us knew would you believe me?”

“I don’t know.” Nicolette’s answer was truthful and Anya didn’t expect anything less. But her answer suggested to not further the discussion. There was no trust between them now.

“Dave is married and has a four-year-old son. His name is Memphis. Quinn has spent the last four years looking for a file Max asked him to locate. Nikki’s file is the one Quinn thought Max was referring too, but evidently, it was yours. Two of those years Quinn spent working for my dad.” 

One of which he fell in love with me. 

Nicolette’s eyes twitched.

“They are all at the resort. We can meet them there or somewhere different if you choose. They don’t know you are alive or that I am taking you to them.”

“Why are they at the resort then?”

Anya wrenched her hands together. She couldn’t be the one to tell her about Quinn.

“For the files.”

“The resort is fine.”

Before Anya turned to the waiting car, she said, “For what it’s worth Nicolette, I’m sorry.”

That was all she could offer.

 

***

 

ANYA HAD ONLY been gone a half hour, when she returned looking far more troubled then when she’d left. 

“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked, pulling her away from the swimmers in the poolroom.

Memphis laughed in the distance with the Caliendo siblings and he heard Pamela warming or scolding them. He paid no attention, his concern focused on Anya. Since this morning she’d been acting off.

Anya kissed him long and hard. Her body shivered against him and he couldn’t help but notice the heaviness of it felt more like a goodbye kiss.

Quinn didn’t have a good feeling.

When she pulled away, she pressed her forehead against his. 

“I love you Quinn,” she whispered dragging in a long breath of air.

Was that a goodbye message?

“Anya, start talking.”

“I thought I would get an
I love you
back.”

“I won’t say it when you sound like you’re saying goodbye.”

She sighed.

“Tell me what’s going on.” He grabbed the side of her face and pulled her away so he could look at her. “I thought we were passed this and you trusted me.”

“I do trust you.”

“Then talk to me. Don’t say goodbye.”

The corners of Anya’s mouth rose. “You’re so observant that sometimes maybe it’s not always in your best interest. Get your brother. I will explain.” Anya glanced at the pool then back to Quinn. “Maybe just Dave for now. It’s sensitive. I don’t want to overwhelm Pamela.” 

Anya pulled away. 

“No.” Quinn pulled her back. He wasn’t having a conversation with Dave present. He needed Anya to tell him now. “Where were you?”

Anya turned back to him and said, “At the airport.”

He hadn’t expected her to answer.

“Why?”

Of course she couldn’t answer that simple question. Instead, she said, “I’ve never been a big believer in love between two people. You know, that everlasting, undying, fairytale, chick-flick kind of love.”

Their kind of love.

“Growing up with my mom and dad they didn’t have the kind of relationship to demonstrate what real love is, like what my mom and Carl have. Or Kate and Marc. I never really experienced that side of love before. It’s not like guys didn’t show an interest in me, but I always just looked at my parents and thought I didn’t want that.”

Anya stepped forward.

“Then you came along and tried to sweet talk me.” She gave a small laugh which came out only half happy, the rest filled with sadness. “Which came out as more barbaric, kind of controlling and a little demanding.” She smiled. “Either way I was drawn to you like no other man before. I just want you to know that on days when you feel bad about using me at the beginning, remember that I used you too. I wasn’t looking to fall in love with you. I didn’t know that there was so much more to love than desire. Do you remember the first night we spent at the beach?”

Quinn’s lips curved up remembering that night clearly. It was funny because they hadn’t even made love that night and yet it was one of the most memorable nights he had spent with her.

“It was the first time you laughed. Like really laughed and it was the moment that I realized I was in love with you. The moment I knew that what my parents had wasn’t real love.”

Quinn took a step and Anya took three back. They were here again...not trusting each other.

“I think fate brought us together,” she said.

Why was she backing away if fate brought them together?

“But not to be together.” 

That wasn’t a good answer. That wasn’t a damn answer at all. 

“Dave!” she called waving. “Can you come here?” Anya wiped tears from under her eyes, taking a deep breath.

Dave started to jog over and Quinn held his hand up.

“No. You stop,” he told Dave then turned back to Anya “You...”

Anya was walking toward her suite again. Damn her. He took the steps and grabbed her wrist.

“You explain. Don’t walk away from me. We’ve done enough of this.” His voice rose, attracting the attention of her family and the rest of his. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, more tears brimming in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry about what?”

Anya glanced at Dave and Quinn felt him walk up beside them.

“Can we do this in my suite?” she begged.

“I want to do it here.” There were too many places for her to hide once inside her suite.

Quinn heard the shuffling behind them. Somewhere in that sound he heard the adults calling the kids out of the pool and doors shutting their small voices out as they left the poolroom.

Anya looked down at Quinn’s hand and he let her go.

“My mom found Rebecca’s file this morning. I went to the airport and picked her up and brought her here.”

What the hell was she talking about a file or Rebecca for? 

“Dammit I don’t want to talk about a file.” Quinn closed in the distance between them. “What has you so scared?”

Anya sucked in a surprised gasp at his quickness then she let it out along with a couple tears. “I told you once that when I found the file I was leaving.” 

“Not like this.”

“Please stop. You’re making this harder than it has to be. Quinn, stop thinking about us for one second and think. You’re letting your worry fog your mind and you aren’t listening to what I am saying.”

“I hear every damn word and I’m sorry I care about you more than your damn file.”

“Quinn, it’s not my file. It’s your file.”

“I have my file.”

She shook her head. “It’s the file Max wanted you to find. You just mixed the names up. For whatever reason, you didn’t put it together.”

“Put what together?”

“Let’s just go in my suite and I will explain. I can show you.”

“Fine.”

It better be a helluva good explanation.

“Quinn? Dave?”               

Quinn thought he was hearing things. He recognized the voice right away. The low, sweet tone of his mother...which was impossible. So why the hell did his eyes leave Anya and search the poolroom?

The notion that he was misconstruing another person’s voice, considering he hadn’t heard his mother’s voice in twenty years, was quickly defeated when he caught sight of a woman standing outside Anya’s suite door. A woman who resembled the lady he thought he’d heard.

Was he imagining things?
Had
he
hit his head on the golf cart? 


Mom
?” Dave asked. 

Dave saw her too. 

“Hello boys.”

Her auburn hair was shorter than it had been, cut shoulder-length. She was smaller too and her face had aged. The freckles across her face were darker now and her olive skin was stark white, but it was her.

“What are you doing here?” Dave asked and Quinn wondered why he hadn’t asked first.

Quinn was putting it together. When Dave was asking why and what, Quinn already knew.

Anya’s teeth clamped down on her lower lip, tears spilling down her face, her body trembling.

Rebecca was Nicolette. Nikki was his father’s name for Nicolette. How had Quinn not put it together? Max had been searching for his wife, whom Robert was responsible for ripping out of their life...and Anya was assuming the blame.

Too much was going on. Quinn heard the anger in Dave’s voice merge, accusing and questioning their mother. Quinn knew she would have a good answer to why she left them.

Quinn saw Anya letting him go, walking away, blaming herself, when it wasn’t her fault. Still, he knew how easily Dave or even his mother could blame her.

Then there was his mother. Reluctantly keeping her distance, unsure about how to approach her sons and Dave’s accusing tone. She had just emerged from a coma. She shouldn’t even be standing, let alone hearing Dave’s anger and doing all of this in the resort of the man who drove her away.

Quinn’s head was overwhelmed. It was too much and he didn’t even know where to start.

Turning to Dave, Quinn said, “Don’t say it like that.”

Dave was as stubborn as Quinn. “Like hell I won’t.” 

Quinn stepped forward and the men fought a silent battle.

“Let her explain before you make accusations.” He said it only loud enough so they could hear. 

“Why? After all these years you think we should smile and play nice?” he growled.

“Where are we?” Quinn snapped, feeling himself losing his cool. Without a doubt their mother’s hand had been twisted. 

Dave looked around, registering what Quinn was saying and where they were. His eyes came back to Quinn, stone cold.

“It’s this damn family that you dragged me and my family into.” 

“This whole family has been nothing but kind to you and your family since you’ve arrived. Don’t blame them for Robert’s mistakes.” 

“They weren’t mistakes Quinn. They were actions, decisions, selfish damn choices.” 

Quinn didn’t disagree, but as he kept having to point out to everyone, it wasn’t that black and white.

“Robert wasn’t the only one,” Quinn pointed out.  

“Don’t you dare drag Dad into this because you’re screwing the enemy.”

Quinn’s blood boiled. “Watch it Dave.” 

“Why? You about ready to throw that first punch? You’ve been dying to since I walked through the door and pushed reality back into your foggy little head?”

It wouldn’t be the first time they’d scrapped.

“I’m not the one who did this.” Dave’s low growl challenging Quinn came from deep within his chest. “She is,” he spit out, picking his fight.

Quinn felt his restraint diminish.

He didn’t have to look at where his brother’s finger pointed. He knew it was directed at Anya and that was Quinn’s limit. He loved his brother, but he wouldn’t stand around and allow him to insult the woman he loved. Quinn had never and would never do that to Pamela and he deserved the same respect from Dave.

“You can stay here where she has you by the balls while the rest of us go live a normal life. Your choice.” 

That was only the icing on the cake. 

 

***

 

“QUINN NO!” 

The tension in the room broke and panic roared to life as Quinn grabbed the collar of Dave’s shirt and they both went falling backwards onto the tile floor. Their bodies slammed with a force that had everyone screaming and gasping in horror. The sounds echoed through the pool room making it one-hundred times worse.

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