Page 36 of What I Like About You

“Your sins are forgiven, child,” he teased. “I understand why you did it. I don’t like it, but I do get it. Anyway, Chet and I went to Georgia as planned, and Jonah went off to South Carolina. Chet and I pledged the same frat, so we saw each other all the time. He met Emily our freshman year and that was that. I really only saw Jonah at family functions over the holidays. I don’t think I had realized just how much of an influence he had been. It was nice to be away from him. To figure out who I was, on my own.”

“What happened?”

“Christmas break freshman year, Flick came home one night completely wasted. Just completely and totally blitzed. Drunkest I’ve ever seen her to this day. Well, Jonah offered to help get her upstairs and into bed. I didn’t think anything of it, because he’s ‘family,’ right? So, up they went. A couple of minutes later I noticed she’d dropped her phone, and I knew she’d lose her shit if she woke up and didn’t have it, so I took it up to her. When I walked in her room, I found Flick unconscious on the bed in her underwear, and Jonah on top of her, undoing his belt.” Dalton paused as he heard Zara gasp. “I pulled him off of her, asked him what he was doing, and he brushed it off as he was trying to get her into her pajamas. I told him I’d handle it from there and kicked him out of the room. I wrapped Flick up in the duvet and locked the door on my way out. When I brought it up to Big D and BJ the next day, I was told that it must have been a misunderstanding.”

“Oh my God, that’s…disgusting! Although I can’t say I’m surprised, but still…ugh!”

“When I confronted him, he told me that what he did behind closed doors wasn’t any of my business. I told him it was if it involved my sister, and that’s when he shot back that it was no wonder I couldn’t seal the deal with you. I wasn’t willing to just take what I was owed. I snapped. I only got in one good punch before BJ showed up, called for Big D, and he pulled us apart. But damn, I wish I’d gotten in more. When they finally left us alone, I told him it was one thing to be an immature asshole in high school, but we’re older now, all this shit. Stuff about having integrity and morals. He told me to fuck off. We haven’t talked since.”

“So how does this relate to you changing your mind? You said that was freshman year, but you didn’t leave until after grad school. Not to mention, Southland Holdings was always your dream. You were going to take over the world. It was the one thing you and Big D had in common.”

“There’s an indirect correlation. I’d always known he was a weasel, and that night with Flick just proved he really was a bastard. Jonah wasn’t directly involved in the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, but when everything came crashing down around me at my graduation party, everything that had happened with him was just that much more I couldn’t bring myself to be a part of.” Dalton paused a moment to collect himself. “You remember how rough it was after my mom died. Dad announced he was seeing BJ what…six weeks after the funeral? Married her like a year after that? And then Lulu made her appearance in the world. But I’d always held on knowing that one day Southland Holdings would be mine, and that got me through it. But then, the night before my graduation from my MBA program, Felicity dropped a bomb on me.”

Zara remained still as she waited for him to continue. The look of anticipation on her face made it seem like she was watching a movie, rather than listening to him tell her his life story.

“That Big D and BJ had been seeing each other prior to my mother’s death.”

“What? How did she know?” she squealed, nearly knocking her plate of food off her lap.

“Apparently she’d caught them at some point. She’d been holding on to that secret for thirteen years at that point. So all that time that my mother was lying sick in her bed, fighting for her life, and my father was busy with “work,” he was really just fucking the nanny.”

“Holy shit.”

“Everything changed in that instant. I couldn’t look him in the eye. Even though Southland Holdings had been my dream, I couldn’t work for him, with him. I didn’t want to be in his pocket now that I knew what kind of person he really was. Knew about his lack of integrity. He’d never been a great father, but I had always at least assumed he had morals. Apparently not.”

“Tripp, I’m so sorry,” Zara said, tears filling her eyes.

“No, baby, don’t cry,” he said, reaching out and pulling her close. He held her there for a moment, soaking in her scent. She smelled faintly of cherries and coconut, and it was intoxicating. The feeling of her in his arms was comforting and thrilling all at the same time. He could feel the blood rush to his groin as he held her soft curves, and he just hoped she didn’t notice his growing erection. He didn’t want to scare her away. He released her, letting her sit back before continuing. “So I told my father the next morning that I was out, that I knew the truth and couldn’t work for someone without scruples. A week later I found myself here. I’d heard about the resort from some people around Archer’s Green, so I booked a ticket. When I got here, I found out they needed help at the marina, and I knew how to sail, so Vaughn and Grayson hired me.”

"I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”

“Well, it’s not like I could call you and go, ‘Hey, I know we haven’t talk since high school, but guess what I just learned!’”

“True.”

“Zara, I’m so sorry we lost that time. But more than anything, I want to know who you are now.”

“Just a shy southern girl running a blog about getting pampered,” she answered. “I’m sure who you are now is much more interesting.”

“Doubtful. Who I am now is a bit of a cad,” he said. “But I mean it, I want to know you. Tell me…hopes, dreams, nightmares…anything at all.”

She let out a little giggle, which sent another spike of lust straight to his dick. Zara had no idea how sexy she was, and that only made her beauty that much more potent.

“I mean, there’s not much to tell.”

“You still wear the bracelet,” he commented, nodding toward her wrist.

“I do,” she answered, rubbing her hand over it. “It was partially out of habit at first, but the inscription has always served as a reminder of who I really am. Of what is inside me. It's given me the strength to stand up for myself quite a bit, and the courage to take the leap of faith I needed to.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I started the blog in college as something fun to help practice my writing. I thought if nothing else, I could use it as a sample to submit when job hunting. It took a lot to put myself out there like that, to create a forum where people could potentially mock me, but then one day, I looked down at my wrist during class and it struck me that I was wicked strong, and could handle whatever came my way. And then hotels and spas started hearing about it and making me offers to come check them out. The first time I got an email from a spa asking if I wanted to come review them, I thought it was fake. It wasn’t until they actually called me that it hit me. And then to actually go, that was a whole different experience as well. It took a couple of trips to figure out the balance between relaxing and enjoying the treatments and remembering what products they used and how it all went down to be able to write about it, but I got the hang of it. After that, I had sponsors and advertisers approach me, and the whole thing just took off.”

“You always were a fantastic writer. Do you still do all that homemade stuff that you did in high school?”

“Absolutely! My home remedies and hacks are a huge part of the blog! That actually led to my first sponsor. I think they found me because of a spa review, but it was the rest of my blog content that made them reach out. It was a company that wanted me to use their salts in one of my bath bomb recipes, and they offered me not only a payment for mentioning them by name, but free product to use for the blog post and stuff to give away. After I did the post with them as a sponsor, the next thing I knew I had all sorts of other companies knocking on my door. I book those kinds of things about three to five months out now. It’s insane.”

“And now you’re going to be on TV.”