Chapter 4

Lisa's POV

The holiday villa is just a ten-minute drive away from the resort, maybe fourteen if you decide to stroll your way there. Selena eases her car into the garage and kills the engine of her Mustang.

"We're here. Finally."

I alight from the car with Willow nestled in the crook of one arm and hoist my suitcase out of the trunk with my other hand. I stand before the enormous glass and white-walled mansion and breathe a sigh, marveled.

"This must have cost a fortune."

"Yep. I thought the same thing the first time I came here," Yvette concurs.

"You both tell that to Wade." Selena smiles proudly. "Gimme that." She collects my bag from me and rolls it along beside her as we cross a covered swimming pool, and the wide front patio with two luxurious L-shaped couches surrounding a lilac table to get to the door. For some reason, Selena is trailing behind us, lugging my bag as though it's filled with three mountains.

"Is the suitcase heavy?" I ask, glancing back.

"Never mind me."

Yvette rings the doorbell as soon as she gets to the door and hollers, "Anybody home?"

We wait a few seconds before I hear footfalls approaching the door. It swings open to reveal a grinning head with locks of sooty hair. He is holding a wineglass in one hand and the door handle in another.

"Hello, ladies." His gaze shifts to me, and like most guys who see me for the first time, his pupils dilate, and he drags his gaze appreciatively from the top of my chestnut hair to the soles of my sneakers. "And you are…"

"Lisa." Selena answers for me. "My niece."

"Hmmm."

"Why don't you throw something on, Glenn? We can't have you walking around the house naked," Yvette admonishes him. He glances down at himself. He is shirtless, and clearly fit, and he has a large number of abs that are defined enough to be easily counted.

"Naked is certainly better than butt naked then," he smirks. "You need only ask, Yvette, and I'll…"

"Sheesh, I don't wanna hear it." She brushes past Glenn and forces her way inside.

"Hey!" Glenn totters on his heels, reeling from the hard shove Yvette gave him. "Do you have any idea how expensive this wine is? This is vintage!" He says, fighting hard not to spill his precious wine. The front door isn't exactly too wide, but Glenn isn't filling out the entire doorway anymore. So I try to squeeze past him. Then he moves. And now I have like half of that wine soaking the front of my top. Wow. Just the welcome I needed.

"Oh my gosh!" Selena screeches from behind me. "Glenn!"

"I'm so sorry, love. Come on in, let's get you cleaned up." He takes my elbow and guides me inside to the living room.

"Momma!" Willow cries, patting the wine on my clothes. I take her tiny hand in mine and pull it away. " Thanks for your concern, Willow, but don't do that."

"I'll get you paper towels." Before I could stop Glenn, he disappeared through a door. I don't really need paper towels. I'm staying here, so all I have to do is pull it off in my room for later laundry.

"That jerk." Yvette is sitting on one of many white couches placed in a semi circle around the room, the one directly facing the TV. "Of course he'll spill his expensive vintage wine on you."

"It's not entirely his fault though." I glance at the tall potted plant at one corner of the room. Inside here the house is as dreamy as it is from the outside. Marble floors, cream walls and high ceilings with a not-so-big glittering crystal and glass chandelier. It kind of looks like a space right out of a magazine, all glossy. But not to my surprise. Selena always had exquisite tastes.

"I'm so sorry about this, girl." Selena heaves a sigh as she stands next to me. "But don't worry, we're already home. You can always have it dry-cleaned."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Hope you packed a bathing suit in this trunk of yours?" She pats my burgundy suitcase.

I didn't factor in a trip to the beach at all. Or any other bikini-wearing activity. "I… no."

"Why not?" Selena shoots me an incredulous stare. "Aren't you here to cool off?"

"We can always buy one." Yvette suggests, munching on Oreos.

"Well yeah." Selena picks up a flier that I hadn't even noticed was there on the glass topped coffee table. "You should go upstairs. Settle in. Have a long rest. Kill all jetlag. Because…" She waves the flier in the air in front of me. "The beach resort is throwing a luau-themed party tonight. A tourist special."

I open my mouth to talk, but Selena holds up her index finger. "Nope. You ain't sitting this one out." This flame haired she-devil literally read my mind!

I groan. "I'm not much of a party person, Selena. You know this."

"Yeah, so is Yvette." She gestures to the other woman, who's now looking so intently at her pack of Oreos like it contains a secret formula for the elixir of youth and she's trying to find it. "There's no way in Hades you're gonna enjoy the beach by fucking sitting beside your window and staring at the sunset. Don't worry about Buttercup. The resort actually offers babysitting services, especially for times like this. Awesome, eh?"

"But…" I raise a confused brow. Seconds tick by before it dawns on me she's actually referring to my Willow.

"So you're definitely coming."

Glenn reappears from wherever he went with a wad of paper towels. "I searched for these in the kitchen all day. Here." He pushes the paper towels into my hands.

"Thank you, but you shouldn't have bothered…"

"Yeah, especially since you don't know your way around the kitchen." Selena snatches the paper towels from me.

"You should stick to being fed with diamond spoons by twenty four servants," Yvette remarks snidely.

"At least one of us can actually afford that." Glenn dismisses her with a casual flick of his wrist. Yvette's face instantly turns purple with rage. Whatever happened between these two…

"So how many people are here, Glenn?" Selena asks rather too quickly. Maybe she's trying to prevent another bout of name-calling. "And Wade?"

"A couple of them. I think they'll all be here before dusk. And Wade did step out for a moment."

"Ugh. I miss him already." I watch the pink tint on her cheeks bloom. "Alright." She turns to me, again all seriousness. "You can take the second to last room on the left. I'm sure no one's there yet."

"Will do." I lift my suitcase and hoist it with me up the spiral staircase till I reach the landing. Then I roll it behind me in search of the room Selena mentioned. Most of the rooms, but not all, are facing each other, and I don't waste much time before locating the second to last door on the left. I take in a huge breath in relief as I open the door. I can finally dive into bed and fight my incoming jetlag with some sleep. After raiding the kitchen for some food to pacify my child with, of course. I am instead greeted by the sight of a naked man in my suite.