Sunset Thunder (2 page)

Violet casually glanced back at the iPad in her hands, feigning busy, but really scoping the time on the clock. 

One fifteen. One fifteen! It had only been fifteen minutes?
This was torture.
You are in fact putting yourself through torture!

“Ryder, I don’t want to start without you man. Bring the blonde with you.” 

Violet was pretty sure she just vomited in her mouth. If anyone was worse than her sneaky cheating husband it was Ryder Carlex. 

I need a break from these obnoxious people. 

Forcing herself not to roll her eyes, but unable to squander another second looking at any of them, Violet’s eyes shifted to the second floor where a thick, ornate wrought iron railing scooped out in a half moon shape above the lobby desk. It was an informal, relaxing area for guests to lounge in overstuffed upholstered chairs and read under skylights. Violet’s eyes stopped at the rustle beside a six-foot emerald tree planted in a bed of rocks at the edge of the railing. Attempting to stay out of sight, were her sister Emma and her mother...spying on Violet.

Unbelievable. They didn’t think she could do it. They didn’t think she could do it!
If they didn’t think Violet could do it, what did everyone else think...like the receptionists?

This was such a bad idea.

Her mother’s vivid, pink dress edged with a leopard print collar and cuffs was a harsh contrast against the green foliage and Emma was even more obvious in her neon orange yoga outfit.

Busted, they both attempted to turn around and out of Violet’s vision, which was a waste of time after making eye contact with each of them. Violet watched in horror, as they collided into each other, smacking their heads and hitting their knees. Emma tripped backwards, falling over the chair, her legs flailing in the air like a bad television show then flipping onto the floor. Her mother, unbalanced, sent one hand grabbing her head as the other reached for the railing. Somehow she unhinged one side of the hanging flower box and it tipped sideways.

Violet winced.

Please don’t make a scene. Please don’t make a scene!

As Eliza’s hands flailed to catch the box and straighten it, the dirt and live flowers went tumbling out, landing with a loud thud on the lobby desk...in front of Marc.

The staff and guests, including the Bensen wedding party gasped in horror, heads turning in every direction, questions and voices growing louder.

Violet cast her unimpressed stare at her guilty-faced brother.
When did he sneak behind the desk?
She knew exactly what he was doing behind that desk, even if he held a handful of papers like he was hard at work. He wasn’t working. They were only missing Izzy and Uncle Carl.

At the thought, Violet heard Izzy’s laughter from the hall to her right that led to the lobby elevators and further down, Violet’s office. They were all spying on her. They didn’t think she could handle herself.

Violet inwardly cringed at the realization.

They were all going to get a piece of her mind about their childlike behavior when they were privately situated in her office.

Besides being infuriated, Violet was almost glad for the distraction and watched amused as Marc straightened his designer charcoal suit, setting the papers down on the counter to address the situation. “Is everyone alright?” he asked, going from each guest and staff until he was confirmed they were fine. “I will call maintenance to have this cleaned up. Sorry about the disruption. The staff will give you discounts for your next stay.” Marc didn’t circle around the desk and disappear down the hall like he should have. Instead he feigned work...at the lobby desk, with one watchful eye glancing in her direction.

Joel slipped the phone into the breast pocket of his polo shirt and turned to Violet. His round, plump face danced with amusement against his thick crows-feet and laugh lines stretching from his gloomy hazel eyes. She didn’t know if it was from whatever he and Ryder had discussed, or his delight with the notion that her whole family was present for their meeting.

This wasn’t the first meeting with the Bensen wedding party, Caliendo’s,
she silently scolded.

Joel feigned a look of compassion in Violet’s direction for the current awkward situation, but even the smallest hint of concern was really non-existent. How could a man who spent nine years with her be so cold toward her?
Probably the same reason you are cold toward him
:
A loveless marriage full of deception and lies.

“Ryder’s twenty minutes away. I’m going to step out and when he gets here we can meet back. In twenty?” Joel threw the number around, looking from Missy, who nodded, to Violet.

Oh, she was charging them extra for this. 

Violet smiled, her professional charming,
no problem, but inside I want to slap you upside the head and kick your feet from under you,
smile. “Alright. Why don’t we make it thirty minutes and give him some leeway.”

Heaven knew the man was probably wrapped around a skank or two, shacking up in his daddy’s mansion on the lake, or tangled in two sets of legs on his daddy’s boat.

A sting of reality clicked in.
Who was she to judge Ryder because he was born into money? Or to assume because he was born into money it was the very reason for behaving like the playboy douche he was?

Violet and all her siblings had been born into money and they didn’t act like Ryder Carlex. Playing all day and sleeping with a different person...or two...each night.

Joel’s arm was around his fiancée’s and they were heading out the front door with her posse of bridesmaids at their heels...cheap non-designer heels at that. 

Ugh! 

That thought wasn’t even like her. She wasn’t quick to judge ignorantly, but today she didn’t feel like herself at all. 

It was hard to believe she had created two brilliant children with that man. A man who had the gall to ask her to plan his second wedding at his first wife’s resort.
What kind of man did that?

Violet turned her attention to her disruptive family. The more pressing question was,
What possessed her family to behave like inexperienced spies?

Violet sent every single one of them a,
in my office now
, look before starting down the hallway, bumping into Izzy, who was peering around the corner with a cheeky smile.

Izzy latched onto Violet’s arm and laughed, throwing her head of long blonde, beach-wave hair back to tumble across the bare back of her summer halter top. “Leave it to Momma and Emma to mess up operation Catclaw,” she said.

Catclaw?
Violet was afraid to ask.

Kate McAdams, Marc’s wife, met them down the hall, holding hands with Marc and Kate’s seven-year-old daughter Rosemary. Identical wide smiles on their tanned faces illuminated their deep mocha colored eyes and they each wore summer dresses over bathing suits. From their dry hair, Violet assumed that they were likely heading down to the beach.

“Hi Aunt Violet. Hi Aunt Izzy,” Rosemary said, waving her hand, holding a sand bucket full of shovels and molds. Almost tipping the bucket over, Rosemary lost interest in her aunts to steady it.

Kate looked like a beachy summer day in a strapless white dress and her dark chocolate locks pulled to a side ponytail that spilled wild curls over her bare shoulder. Before she could say anything, the elevator doors opened and Eliza and Emma stepped out.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

Kate’s smile dropped as her eyes moved from each accountable Caliendo to the next, including Marc, who stepped beside Kate, kissing her cheek and scooping Rosemary into his arms.

“Oh, you four didn’t,” Kate said.

No one replied and her eyes fell on Violet, who silently told her
they did
.

“Oh, you did.” Kate sent Marc the hardest disapproving look.

Marc ignored her. “Are you ready to go the beach?” he asked Rosemary.

“Are you coming Daddy?” Rosemary squealed, her arms going around his neck in a tight hug.

He glanced up at Violet’s fatal stare. “I am now,” he said.

“I told all of you to stay away from Violet’s appointment,” Kate said, then glanced at the screen of her cell phone like she’d realized something. “Didn’t your appointment just start?” she asked Violet, obviously wondering how it was already finished. Kate’s eyes widened and her head whipped around at the guilty party. “What did you all do?” she accused, sounding horrified.

It surprised Violet that Kate was so shocked her family had intervene into her business. Kate’s siblings were the masters of intervention into each other’s lives on a regular basis. There was always a McAdams sister popping in and out of the Caliendo Resort.

At that note, the elevator opened and Kent McAdams, Kate’s father, stepped out. He was and had been head of maintenance at the resort for over forty years. A tall, thin man who wore a pleasant smile across a face aged much older than he was.

“Grandpa!” Rosemary cried, immediately holding her arms out to be held.

Izzy was quick to fill Kate and Kent in on the reason Kent was needed at the front. “Momma and Emma knocked over a flower box from the balcony, and it landed on the lobby desk,” she explained. “Technically, it was only the dirt and plants. The planter is still attached to the wall. Hardly. Dangling sideways.”

Eliza made a hushed motion with her hands. “It was loose,” she defended.

“Did you throw the dirt at the Bensen party?” Kate asked Violet, only half joking with a smirk and wink.

Of course she did not throw dirt at the Bensen party. That thought hadn’t even crossed her mind...but it was an entertaining one.

“Joel is waiting for Ryder Carlex,” Violet explained.

“Ryder Carlex,” Emma snickered. “He tried to get up my dress at your wedding.” She laughed at the memory, and sobered as everyone’s questioning look fell upon her. “I said he
tried
. I didn’t sleep with him. He was a mess,” she said as if it was the worst thing to happen at Violet’s wedding. Violet had a list over ten pages long of worse things at her wedding than having sex with Ryder.

Eliza shared a look with Violet that only she understood, but Violet showed no emotion for that night so long ago in her past. Nor did she acknowledge the worry in her mother’s eyes. Violet was fine. If anything, that night had taught her to be the strong woman she’d become. The woman who was able to handle this meeting with the wedding party involved.

Eliza, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced. She shook her head. “That poor boy. He was having a rough time. It was unfortunate Kathleen and Donald hadn’t been able to attend the wedding. I’m sure his behavior would have been much different. Ryder adored his parents.”

Ryder’s mother had passed years ago, but his father was still alive and it seemed after his wife’s death, he dove deeper into work than he had before. They hadn’t seen him at one of Eliza’s galas in years.

“Why? So he would have put his perfect son’s illusion mask back on and acted like the ideal son they thought he was, instead of the playboy he actually is?” Violet hadn’t realized she’d spoken her thoughts until everyone turned their shocked expressions in her direction.

I said that out loud? I said that out loud!

Eliza looked the most uncomfortable. “I don’t think Ryder is a...playboy.”

Oh, I did say it out loud. Could this day get any worse?

Emma touched their mother’s shoulder. “Ryder Carlex,
is
a playboy,” she told Eliza, breaking their mother’s image of Ryder.

See, Violet wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“What is a playboy?” Rosemary asked.

Kate groaned. “And I thought it was my family I had to fear teaching her slang...”

“A playboy is a boy who really likes to play with girls,” Izzy said to Rosemary. “A lot of girls.” Izzy chuckled to herself.

Kate groaned again.

Violet checked down the long hall for guests. It was clear. She turned her attention to her family.

“In a half hour I will be resuming my meeting with the Bensen party. I expect none of you to be present.” She looked at Emma. “Not even you.” Sometimes her sister helped her with weddings and she always welcomed the extra pair of hands and opinion...but not today. “If I were you, I would be more worried about making sure that flower pot never comes unhinged again and not worrying about the Bensen party.”

Eliza touched Violet’s arm. “Sweetheart, we’re not worried about the Bensen party. We are worried about you.”

Violet was more worried about what the Bensen party was thinking about her ability to handle their wedding with her family spying on them. But her families concern didn’t go unnoticed.

Violet stepped forward and hugged her mom. “I’m fine,” she whispered in the side of her silver straight hair, styled in an angled bob that grazed her bony shoulders.

Eliza patted her back before letting go. “Alright, we will withdraw.”

“Operation Catclaw terminated,” Izzy said in a pout.

Kate chuckled her low surprise and murmured, “You named it. Didn’t you?”