Dana leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “What else would you be doing? You are now a benched superhero of the police department. And for the record, I plan to continue this family-vacation tradition when that time regretfully comes.” Her dark brown eyes reflected sincerity.
“Okay, now that you’ve taken over from Grace to be the CEO of the family media conglomerate, don’t let it go to your head. You’re supposed to be on our rebel side,” Belinda reminded her.
“Yeah, well...” Dana swallowed the rest of her defense in a long drink from her glass.
“Maybe I can grovel and get my vacation postponed.” Fiona’s forehead was still furrowed as she resumed reclining with her legs tucked to the side. She munched on a piece of ice.
“From what you’ve told me, I foresee that if you step foot into that office, you’ll regret it. Your boss may be new, but he seems to be as tough as a junkyard dog. So go ahead and disobey his order. I’ll sit back and wait to tell you ‘I told you so.’” Dana’s mouth pursed full of smugness.
“You were always the mean one,” Fiona accused. Defeat set in, ratcheting up her grumpiness.
“That’s why she’s running the Meadows empire. Someone’s got to walk in Grace’s queenly footsteps.” Belinda jabbed her thumb in the air toward their youngest cousin.
“Stop calling Meadows Media an empire. And I’m not mean. I’m doling out the appropriate advice, that’s all.”
Fiona ignored the bickering and drained her glass to chew on more ice. “Looks like I’m going to the Hamptons.” Something she’d suspected she’d get roped into when the invitation had come from Grace two months ago.
Grace had a reputation for approaching each granddaughter with an invitation to join Meadows Media. Her invitation was predictable and always managed to tweak a bit of guilt from the ones who didn’t join the company after graduating from college.
“Let’s move this inside now. I’m melting and I just got my hair done. My honey and I are going on a date tonight.” Belinda stood and brushed off the crumbs.
“I don’t want to hear about any lovey-dovey stuff.” Fiona hurried ahead of Dana into the cool indoors. “I seem to attract men who can’t handle a woman working a demanding job or men who need to be put on a pedestal to be worshipped.”
“It’s a bit more than that, Fiona.” Belinda was busy in the kitchen, retrieving fresh glasses for the delicious fruit punch spiked with a touch of white rum. “You, my dear, are a workaholic. You thrive off of four hours of sleep. You are prone to canceling dates. And you’d rather spend your free time with us than staring deeply into a sexy, horny man’s eyes.”
Dana puckered her mouth and made kissing sounds.
“Well, sue me for thinking that y’all were cool with hanging out together.”
“Stop whining. I’m not the one giving you a diagnosis. However, I will say that you need to take these two weeks to relax. Then you can go back and be refreshed for the never-ending wave of cases that come across your desk.” Dana grabbed hold of Fiona’s shoulders and massaged them.
“Maybe I should change what I’m doing.” Fiona wanted to test the waters with her cousins about the latest thoughts burdening her.
“What?” Belinda walked out with the second round of drinks and handed one to each. “Okay, you really need to come to the Hamptons. We should talk about all this in a different setting. You sound like you need a life intervention when absolutely nothing is wrong with you.”
“Oh, right, like I really need to figure out my future under Grace’s nose. If I recall, she has been all over both of you about holding down the family business. You, Dana, stepped up, but it was a no-brainer because you have the passion and business brains to run Meadows Media. And you, Belinda, you stood your ground to build your equine therapy center from the ground up. Now that leaves me to hold my stance with her or surrender and take the offer to be the head of Meadows security.” Fiona batted her eyelashes at Dana. “May I be your bodyguard?”
Dana waved off her silliness.
“Oh, this is going to be fun.” Belinda was too cheerful for Fiona’s liking. “Consider the exercise of finding your path a rite of passage. And you get to go through it at a prime beachfront location.”
Although Belinda’s buildup sounded good, from Fiona’s headspace, the “rite of passage” didn’t fill her with a cheery disposition. She really was questioning her future and to be faced with Grace’s intense focus on the family’s legacy and the cousins’ roles in continuing the decades of success made her stomach flip and flop and tie itself into knots.
“Would it help if I said that Leo Starks will be there?” Dana’s voice dropped low and seductive.
“Leo? The same Leo Starks?” Fiona kept her gaze on the golden liquid in her glass, a mix of naturally sweet tropical fruits. She couldn’t blame the splash of alcohol for the instant flush to her cheeks. “Why will he be there?”
Dana’s expression just about glowed over the news. Her animated hand gestures added emphasis. “Word is that he’s there at Grace’s invitation. She was always impressed with him, from his days as a legal intern several years ago at Meadows to landing a job at Grayson, Buckley and Tynesdale after he earned his law degree. No real information about the reason for his presence, though. And Grace is not telling. But that will make it more fun for you to sniff out why your onetime Brazilian Sweet Lips is coming to the Hamptons.”
“Don’t call him that.” Fiona had to agree that the moniker was 100 percent accurate, but she wasn’t sure if said lips were still one of Leo’s most attractive points. “So Starks will be there? For the entire stay?” Her cheeks remained warm. The sensation spread over her entire face and down her neck, as if she sat too close to a roaring fireplace.
Memories of Leo Starks didn’t float away into the black hole of forgotten experiences. Falling in love had the power to keep its hook in for the long haul. Though she’d allowed doubt to creep in like wild weeds and fracture what they had between them, she couldn’t close the door completely on their special time.
Dana shrugged her slender shoulders. “I don’t know if he’ll be there for the entire month. I can only stick around for the first week.”
Belinda raised her hands. “I’m there for two, but Jesse will come back to the center after one week. And, yes, I’m making him attend. He might as well see us in all our glory if he’s going to be a permanent part of this family.”
“Oh my gosh, did he propose?” Dana asked, while Fiona screamed with joy.
“No. Don’t rush us. But we are truly committed to each other. I haven’t been this happy in a long time.” Belinda’s voice dipped with a tender note.
The two cousins had stopped their excited outbursts, but they grinned at Belinda’s declaration.
“I’ll stay as long as you all are there.” Fiona loved seeing her cousins immersed in their loving relationships with the special men in their lives.
Love had played the chasing game with all of them, but now her cousins had nabbed their perfect soul mates. She tried not to wonder when she’d
