Back to the Beach (Hunt Family Book 4) (2 page)

Chapter 2

Before I move on, I feel like I should pause for a second and give a brief history of Nico Torres and whatever non-existent, unimportant, history I have with him.

Nico's father, Pepe Torres, is a self-made millionaire from Spain who made his money in real estate and retail. He came to the U.S. when he was 33 with the intention of finding an American bride. Pepe approached the idea of procreation in a scientific way. He wanted his children to be born with certain attributes, and he searched for a spouse accordingly. He wanted brains and beauty, and when you are a handsome multi-millionaire, you have quite a selection of willing women from which to choose.

He married the youngest daughter of a prominent California lawyer and politician. Her name was Annie Robertson, and she was exactly who Pepe was looking for—bright green eyes and natural blonde hair to mix with his dark, Spanish features. Annie graduated at the top of her class from UCLA, and married Pepe a month later. He was eleven years her elder. Nico, their first and only son, was born a year after they got married.

The couple would later give birth to two beautiful daughters, but Nico was always the golden child. From an early age, he succeeded in everything he set his mind to. He was smart, with the face of an angel. He had inherited his father's dark hair and skin tone, and his mother's bright green eyes were framed in his dad's long, dark eyelashes. He was strikingly handsome, even as a child.

That's how he first met my cousin, Logan. They were on a commercial together when they were little kids. The only difference was that Nico hadn't auditioned for the part. He was so cute that the director approached his family in a grocery store.

That was probably about twenty years ago, but he and Logan had been close friends ever since. You might assume that since Logan was a big shot movie star, Nico would be his sidekick—just part of the entourage that all famous people were supposed to have, but Nico wasn't a sidekick at all.

Logan was a smart guy… smart enough to know that if he wanted to truly succeed, he needed to surround himself with people who would push him to become a better person. Nico was good at everything he tried. (He was a bit of a science experiment, engineered to be that way, after all.)

He and Logan competed at everything except for women and their jobs, and constantly pushed each other to be better. Nico had done a few modeling jobs over the years, but that was when he was specifically contacted and the pieces fell into place. It wasn't something he sought work doing.

While Logan pursued show business, Nico was busy learning the ropes of real estate from his dad. His face and ambition worked to his advantage, and Nico was now a millionaire in his own right. He was built for real estate. People lined up around the block to buy property from him.

Charlotte told me a while back that TLC had been in touch with him with a proposal for a show, which would follow him at work. I wasn't sure what, if anything, came of that, but what I'm trying to say is that he was smart, rich, handsome, and charming enough to be approached about his own TV show.

Nico Torres was by no means anyone's sidekick. If anyone was a sidekick in the relationship, it was Logan. I'm not just saying that because I had a huge crush on him when we were kids. I'm saying it because it's a fact. Nico Torres excels at everything he does, and he looks good doing it. Period.

It was for this reason that Charlotte felt the need to warn me that he would be coming to the beach house this year. She knew I had a soft spot for Nico. I had since the first time he kissed me when we were kids. I was ten and he was twelve, and I thought for sure he was the boy I was destined to marry. I don't know how many times as a kid I thought of myself as Mia Torres. I practiced saying it with an accent and everything.

I thought about other times Nico had kissed me over the years—how every time he did it, I felt like I was the only girl in the world. It was common knowledge that Nico didn't want to be tied down, but he had a way of making a girl feel like she at least stood a chance.

Just in case I haven't made it clear, let me go ahead at this point and say that Nico Torres is a player. He is the definition of a player. Women trip over themselves to get close to him, knowing all the while that they'll never truly have all of him.

Unfortunately, I was one of those women. Nico and I had never shared anything more than a brief kiss, but there was some tiny, traitorous piece of my heart that wanted to find it's way to him, even after all these years. I wondered how many women felt the same way. I could only imagine the slues of ladies out in L.A. who had their little hearts set on being the one to change him—tame him—domesticate him.

A wave of nausea hit me at the thought of all those imaginary women. That feeling of jealousy made me tempted to reach out to Travis, just to make sure I had a distraction at the beach house.

I knew better than to get involved with Nico. He was heartbreak waiting to happen. Last year, when we went to Africa for Logan and Rachel's wedding, I agreed to sleep at Cub's house so that I wouldn't be stuck in the same place with him. It worked. We stayed busy with projects during the day, and I went with my cousins to spend the evenings off-site. I barely said two words to him the whole time.

It would be harder to avoid him during this upcoming trip, but I was confident I could manage. In spite of my insistence otherwise, I was glad Charlotte had called to let me know he was coming so I could wrap my head around ways to avoid him.

***

That crazy, busy, wedding-filled Saturday came and went, and before I knew it, I was in my parents' car on the way to Dee-dee's beach house. It took us almost four hours to get to Myrtle Beach from Charlotte, and I slept in the back of my mom's Subaru station wagon for a good portion of it—right up until my dad stopped at a gas station to use the restroom.

He was already out of the car by the time I woke up enough to care about glancing at a clock.

"You got a good nap," my mom said, glancing back at me as my head flopped back onto the pillow that rested on the window. "You needed that," she continued, seeing that I remained heavy-eyed.

"Yesterday was crazy," I said sleepily. "I went six hours without sitting down at all, and that was just for a ride in the car for a few minutes before starting round two."

"How'd it go?" My mom asked.

"It went well. It was a fun day in spite of the chaos. Bridezilla was on her best behavior. She even shed some tears when she saw the back of her hair in the mirror for the first time."

"I remember you telling me about that girl," Mom said. "I don't guess I realized her wedding was yesterday."

She was looking at me, so I nodded.

"It's gonna be a full house this year," Mom continued, even though I wasn’t giving any indication that I was ready to chat. "Andy and Willow will be there with their little ones, and Cody and Paige will have Ryan and Isabel. I think they'll stay on the second floor this year. I was talking to Dee-dee about putting all the babies together on one floor. I haven't sat down and figured it all out, but you may be stuck on a couch this year."

Dee-dee's beach house had six bedrooms. In the past, I always shared one with Charlotte, but her new husband, Cub, would no doubt be taking my place.

Dee-dee was the matriarch of the family. Our Gramps died a while back, and she had been single since then. She lived in Charlotte like the rest of us, but she kept her oceanfront property in Myrtle Beach. The family trip in June was a mandatory thing in Dee-dee's book. She had two sons and a daughter, and between all of the grandkids, and now great-grandkids, we were just about outgrowing the house. I wouldn't say it was bursting at the seams, but all of the beds and most of the couches would be occupied during this trip. There might even be an air mattress or two in the mix.

My dad, Dan Hunt, was Dee-dee's middle son. He and my mom, Christy, had three kids—my two older brothers and me. Cody, Evan, and Mia—in that order. Cody has two girls. Ryan, who was about to turn 5, and Isabel, who was only a few months old.

My dad's older brother, David, married a lady named Kathy. They had one son named Andy who married a girl named Willow. Andy and Willow now have two small rugrats like my brother.

The last Hunt sibling is my Aunt Denise. She's married to a guy named Rob Ritchie, so her last name hasn't been Hunt for a long time. They had two kids, Logan and Charlotte, and their family had lived in Los Angeles for as long as I could remember. The California crew were the ones bringing the Spanish prince with them on this trip.

Don't worry, there won't be a quiz to remember everyone's name. I know it's a lot to take in. I only went through role-call to say that even though we were headed to a beautiful, three-story beach house, we would likely be crammed into there like sardines for the next week since there were so dang many of us now.

"I'm fine with a couch," I said. "I figured Charlotte and Cub would take the blue bedroom, and I'll grab one of the couches upstairs."

"Denise said Logan's bringing that friend of his," she said.

My mom and I were close. She knew I had a little thing for Nico once upon a time.

"He is," I said. "Charlotte told me about that."

"Are you okay with it?" she asked.

I shrugged as if I couldn’t care less. "Of course I’m okay with it. He was on the Africa trip last year. There's nothing between us."

She peered at me from the front seat, and I shook my head casually. I did a pretty convincing job of acting like I honestly didn't care.

"What time do we have to pick Evan up from the airport," I asked, changing the subject as my dad got back into the car.

"His flight arrives tomorrow afternoon," Mom said.

Dad looked at her after getting settled in the driver's seat. "Is it two o'clock?" he asked.

"I have his itinerary in my email," my mom said, fishing around for her iPad.

"It's fine," I said. "I don't need to know exactly what time."

"I'm pretty sure it's two," my dad said as he started the car, and backed away from the gas station.

"I'm sure dad's right," I said to my mom, who was continuing to dig for her device.

"Here it is," she said, staring down into her lap. "He's flying from Bangkok to Amsterdam to Atlanta to Myrtle Beach. This whole trip is thirty-something hours. You know he doesn't sleep well on planes. He's gonna be exhausted."

"He'll push through and build a bunch of sandcastles with the kids till he gets a nice, big headache and has to pass out on one of the couches for an afternoon," I said.

Mom and Dad both laughed, knowing I was right. "Mom said Logan was bringing that friend of his with him," my dad said out of nowhere.

"I know!" I said, feeling like a defensive teenager. "Mom told me, and Charlotte told me, too. It doesn't mean anything to me."

The three of us were quiet for several long seconds before my dad finally said, "I was just saying that because there's gonna be a lot of us this year."

"I'm fine with sleeping wherever," I said, feeling a little silly for overreacting. "I'm sure the boys will want to sleep in the hammocks anyway."

I almost said more about Nico and the fact that I didn't care that he was coming, but I couldn't figure out how to mention it without seeming like it meant more to me than it actually did. I decided to be quiet and wait for them to bring up something else.

My parents and I talked on and off about non-Nico related things for the next thirty minutes until we arrived at the beach house.

Chapter 3

Dee-dee was the only one at the house when we got there, but Cody, Paige and their kids showed up right after us, and just like that, the once-empty house was full of life.

I went ahead and claimed one of the couches on the third floor. There was one bedroom up there, but most of the space was occupied by a sprawling family room with couches and chairs spread throughout. Some of the couches faced a big screen television that was mounted on one wall, and others faced the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the ocean.

I stood facing the windows, taking in the scenery for a minute before setting my bags near the couch I'd be calling home for the next week. I knew exactly which couch I wanted to claim the minute my mom said there wouldn't be enough beds. It was set back in its own little nook. I loved it, and I had already called dibs on it in my mind before we arrived.

Dee-dee had an ample storage area on the same wall as the TV, and I brought my hanging clothes to the closet, straightening each piece before I went to unpack the rest of my things.

Cody, Paige, and Dee-dee were sitting at the kitchen island when I finished unpacking and went back downstairs. "Where's Izzy?" I asked, noticing that no one was holding an infant.

Paige motioned to the far side of the living room. "Sleeping. We put her pack-n-play in Dee-dee's bedroom."

"Where's Ryan?" I asked.

"Mom took her to the beach," Cody said.

"I should have guessed," I said, knowing my niece had been chomping at the bit for months to build a sandcastle. "I'm surprised you're not out there," I said to my brother.

"I'm headed down in just a minute," he said.

"I asked them to hang back for a few minutes so we could visit," Dee-dee said. "I see Paige for our breakfast date and when she does my hair, but it seems like the only time I get to talk to Cody is at Christmas and Easter." She paused and gave Cody a smile and a wink before looking at me. "I'm glad you came downstairs so you could join us," she said, reaching out to touch my hand. "Can I pour you a cup of coffee?"

I nodded as I took a seat on one of the nearby barstools. "Thank you."

"Paige was telling me she couldn't live without you at the salon," Dee-dee said, glancing at me as she poured coffee into a mug.

I smiled. "That's sweet, but I'm sure they'd do fine without me."

"They really wouldn't," Cody said.

He and Evan had both always been protective brothers. They might torture and tickle me, but they always took up for me, ever since we were kids.

"Seriously," Cody continued. "Paige and I probably don't tell her enough, but she's the backbone of that place. It wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for her."

For some reason, his kind words made my eyes sting. I glanced at my brother, and he gave me a sincere smile that made my stinging-eye problem even worse.

"He's right," Paige said. "I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if I would have tried to open that business on my own."

Cody laughed as if the thought amused him.

"Well, I sure am proud of all my grandbabies," Dee-dee said. "It's unheard of for a business to do well right off the bat like that. Most of them don't even break even for the first two years. It took forever for Gramps to get his first quarry going."

"It's Mia," Paige said. "Well, it's God, but he gave us Mia," she corrected, making us all laugh a little. "She's always got some new promotional thing going on. I'm sure I'm not even aware of about half the stuff she does around there."

"Aww shucks, y'all!" I said, smiling shyly.

"I'm so proud of all my babies," Dee-dee repeated, handing me a mug with a huge smile on her face.

"Thanks, Dee-dee," I said for both the coffee and the compliment.

I drank half of my coffee before heading out to the beach with Cody. Paige and Dee-dee stayed behind to listen for Isabel, saying they'd meet us down there once she woke up and had the chance to eat.

Cody's daughter, Ryan, ran up to us the second we walked onto the beach. "I have some super bad news," she informed us with a serious expression on her face. She was shaking her head gravely.

"What?" Cody asked, seeming unconcerned since he knew it was nothing serious.

"This is
not
a good sandcastle," she said. "Memaw does
not
know how to do it."

"I think we need some help over here!" my mom called from the area where they were set up.

"See?" Ryan said, still so serious like this sandcastle business was really on her heart. "It's not a good one
at all
."

"Why don't we start over?" Cody asked.

"Yeahhhh!" Ryan yelled. It was as if the thought had never crossed her mind. "Memaw, let's just knock this one over," she said excitedly.

We spent the next three hours building a gigantic, professional looking sandcastle. It was almost big enough for my niece to go into it like an actual princess. Okay, so it wasn't quite that big, but Cody knew what he was doing when it came to sandcastles, and we built a showstopper or two every year. Our stretch of the beach was fairly private, but neighbors would walk by every now and then, and they all loved looking at our creations.

That evening, we were all exhausted from the construction efforts, so we decided to get take-out and call it a night. We ordered Mexican, and Dad and Cody went to pick it up. We turned in early in anticipation for the chaos that would ensue the following day.

That chaos began at 9AM (when Ryan woke me up for breakfast) and continued all day. We swam in the ocean and played around with our sandcastle that morning followed by a trip to the grocery store. It was later in the afternoon when Ryan volunteered her mom's services to braid my hair. After making sure that Paige didn't mind doing it on her day off, I took her up on the offer.

Everyone told me it looked pretty, but I didn't see the final result until I went upstairs a little while later. I stared at myself in the mirror, smiling at her work. It was a loose, but intricate braid that fell over one shoulder and I reached up to touch it absentmindedly. I fished a hand-held mirror from the drawer and used it to see the back of my head in the reflection of the main mirror.

"Wow," I whispered, even though no one was there to hear me. The braid started on one side of my head and wrapped around, hanging over my shoulder. She strategically pulled on certain parts of it to make it loose and wispy-looking. It was beautiful.

Looking at it made me feel a sudden urge to put on a little powder and maybe even some mascara. Sure it was vacation, but it would be a crying shame to wear this beautiful hairstyle and not do a little something with my face.

I was in the middle of applying a coat of lip-gloss when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I had the bathroom door open and could clearly hear that someone was coming. My dad had gone to pick Evan up from the airport, so I figured that's who approaching.

"Is my brother here?" I called, knowing by the sound of the footsteps that someone was about to round the corner.

"Your cousin is!" Charlotte said, coming to stand in the doorway behind me. She stepped into the bathroom, and I smiled as I turned around to hug her.

"Your hair looks amazing!" she said, hugging me loosely enough that she wouldn't mess it up.

"Thank you," I said. "Paige just braided it. When'd y'all get here?"

"Just now," she said. "Ryan's taking Cub on the grand tour. I told him I'd bring some of our stuff up here."

"Are you and Cub taking this bedroom?" I asked, referring to the one on the third floor where I was sleeping.

She nodded. "Logan and Rachel are going to be up here on couches."

"How'd you manage to talk him into letting you have the bed?" I asked.

"Rock, paper, scissors," she said. "Plus, Cub and I just got married. We're still in the honeymoon phase, if you will."

I smirked at her as I shook my head. "Nobody better be honeymoon phasing up here," I said, making her laugh.

"Who's up here giggling?" I heard a guy's voice ask. I hadn't even heard anyone approach, so it caught me off guard.

"None of your beeswax!" Charlotte said. I wasn't sure who had spoken, but I could tell by Charlotte's response that it was either her brother or Nico since she wouldn't tell her new husband it was 'none of his beeswax'.

Nico rounded the corner and stood leaning against the doorway like he owned the place. "What's up, Mia," he said, smiling confidently as he looked me over.

"Hey," I said with a little wave. I stared at him, wondering how he had the ability to make my heart race even after all this time.

"Your grandma told me to come up here and claim one of these couches," he said. He patted the huge duffel bag that was slung over his shoulder. "Are any of them off limits?"

"Mine's off limits," I said, raising my hand just slightly like I was answering a question in school. I quickly put it down once I realized I looked like a big nerd. "My stuff's all over it, though, so it's obvious which one's mine."

Nico shot me a wry smile. I had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. About five different things crossed my mind within a matter of a few seconds, and most of them involved him wanting to kiss me. I scrunched up my face to try to clear my thoughts of such nonsense; only I didn't realize I was doing it until Nico said, "What's wrong?"

"Me? Nothing."

He gave me a sideways smile as he turned to head into the main room.

"I can't believe Logan lost the bed over rock, paper, scissors," I said, loud enough for Nico to hear so he wouldn't think I was talking about him. "I can't believe he's here!" I whispered to Charlotte, right after making that loud, random statement.

Charlotte cocked her head for a second, staring at me with a confused expression before finally understanding what I had said.

"I know," she said, loudly. "He was so mad that he made me do best three out of five." She leaned in and whispered next to my ear. "Are you talking about Nico?"

I nodded with wide eyes.

"I told you he was coming," she whispered.

"I know, but now he's sleeping up here on the couch. He's gonna be around me all the time. What am I gonna do?"

She stared at me as if not having the slightest idea what to say. I could tell it came as a surprise to her that I was even concerned about it at all.

"How did you make it all these years with him hanging around looking like that?" I gestured to the general direction of the room where Nico was, and smiled at her look of confusion.

"Are you asking me how I managed not to fall for Nico all these years?" she whispered, still looking extremely confused.

I nodded.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No. Seriously, how'd you do it? You need to tell me so I can learn your skills. You can't tell me you don't think he's gorgeous."

She grimaced at the thought and shook her head. "I could never…" she whispered. She pointed in Nico's direction. "That's the same boy who sat on my head and farted." She touched her fingertips to the side of her forehead near her temple. "It literally came out on my head. I felt it right here," she said, shaking her head in a blank, traumatized way. "My brother helped him hold me down. I'll never forgive either of them for that."

Picturing it made me giggle, which I did as quietly as possible. As a girl with two older brothers, I had been gassed upon several times as well.

"When was this?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I think I was about eight or ten." She paused and glanced at the door to make sure Nico wasn't there before continuing. "I can appreciate that he looks good or whatever, but honestly, I've never seen him like that. He really is like my brother."

We heard the sound of more footsteps coming up the stairs—these were accompanied by Ryan talking a mile a minute. I knew Ryan and Cub would come walking around the corner any second.

"Are you still crushing on him?" Charlotte whispered quickly before anyone could hear.

"Me? No." I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "I knew it, she whispered, pointing at me as her eyes grew wide. "That's why I called to let you know. Are you gonna be okay? I can make him take one of the couches downstairs if you want."

She spoke quickly, but barely had time to get the words out before Ryan rounded the corner, pulling Cub along behind her.

"I'm good," I said, casually answering Charlotte's question before turning to face Cub. I had grown to love Charlotte's new husband during the time I spent with him in Africa, and it was good to see him again. We both instantly reached out for a hug.

"It's good to see you Mia," he said. "Your hair looks good like that."

"My mom did that," Ryan said.

"Did she?" Cub asked, smiling down at her as if he was really impressed.

She nodded and smiled as she regarded him. "You can see the back if you want," she said, reaching out to touch me as if to cue me to turn around. I did as she instructed, using my hand to gesture to it like a model on a game show.