Playing the Part

“You can’t make me. I’ll spit in her face. Try me.”

“That’s not very nice, sweetheart,” he chided her gently. “I know you don’t mean what you’re saying.”

“I do mean it. And if you try to make me, I’ll stay in my room until I die,” Carys said with the theatrical flair that had always made him and his wife laugh when she was smaller. But since Charlotte’s death a year ago, Gabe had found little to smile about when it came to his daughter’s antics.

He’d brought them to Cruz Bay, St. John, with the hope that a change of scenery would help his daughter’s increasingly bad attitude. But she’d just managed to terrorize and scare away the second nanny in as many weeks and he wasn’t sure what to do any longer. He’d hoped to find a way to channel her destructive behavior into something productive but she’d sabotaged the art classes, sulked through the native dancing classes, and flat-out ditched the music lessons he’d managed to find on the small island.

He was plain out of ideas and patience. “Carys, you will apologize even if I have to drag you from that room and plop you in front of the woman you’re so adamant is the one lying. Your behavior is out of control. Time to get a grip, kiddo.”

“You can’t make me!”

“Yes, I can,” he said, tight-lipped. He sent a quick look toward the heavens where he liked to think his wife was watching and chuckling over his bumbling attempts at being mom and dad and muttered, “I need a little help here.... At this rate, she’s not going to live to see twelve!”

He stalked away from the door before his temper got the best of him and went to the kitchen to find a bottle of water. What was he going to do with her? His daughter’s behavior was nearly beyond his ability to handle.

He knew she was grieving—losing Charlotte had been a blow to them both—but it didn’t seem as if Carys was even close to healing. His daughter was mired in anger and plenty comfortable in her own little mud pit of sorrow. He cracked the top of the plastic bottle and swigged the water. The humidity was brutal that day. It was hurricane season in St. John, which meant temperamental weather. One minute it was sunny and hot, the next it was time to batten down the hatches and tie down the patio furniture.

His smartphone buzzed in his pocket and he fished it out. A work call. He paused a moment, torn between taking the call and having another conversation with Carys, but the decision became easier when he heard something hard and heavy thump against Carys’s closed door. His little darling had just thrown something. He closed his eyes for a brief second and then walked away. “Hey, Gary,” he answered, switching gears almost gratefully. “How’s the Mercer and Jones acquisition coming?”

Standing at the helm of a multimillion-dollar company was easier by far than handling the fickle emotions of one eleven-year-old girl.

Heaven help him.

CHAPTER TWO

“SERIOUSLY?” LINDY gaped at her older sister, Lora, both incredulous and irritated all over again. “Did you not hear what I said about the toilet? The same toilet that the plumber fished five ties from?”

“Yeah, I heard you. She’s a terror, I get it,” Lora said, pinching the bridge of her nose and pulling her long, thick black hair into a quick ponytail to escape the smothering humidity of St. John. “But we can’t afford to be scaring off patrons, especially during the off-season. If you’d take a minute to sit down with me and look at the numbers you’d see we need every penny. Larimar is in serious trouble, Lindy. It’s time you set aside your natural inclination to say and do whatever you like and go apologize to Mr. Weston for calling his kid a brat.”

“She is a brat,” Lindy countered mulishly. “And I’m not apologizing.”

“Lindy,” Lora warned, looking as exasperated with Lindy as Lindy was with the whole damn situation. A few weeks ago she’d been cruising Mulholland Drive with freshly colored hair to lighten her natural mousy brown, living the Hollywood dream—or nightmare, depending on the day—and now she was back home in St. John, working with her sisters to save the family resort because she didn’t have it in her to say sayonara to the whole situation. To make matters worse, after a few weeks in the Caribbean sun and salty water, her very expensive dye job was going to turn into an ugly mess. So much for making an investment into her future.

Okay, so she wasn’t as cavalier about some things as she’d like to let on, she grumbled to herself. But Lora was on her last nerve and making it increasingly difficult to keep from boarding a plane back to California, right now. “C’mon, is it really so hard to just say the damn words?” Lora asked.

Lindy shot her sister a cool look. “I don’t know. How hard is it for you to apologize?”

Lora had the grace to flush, effectively ceding the point but she didn’t give up. “Yes, the kid is a monster, but do you realize Weston is paid up for the entire month? That’s serious cash and we need serious cash. The next IRS payment is due around the corner and I can’t liquefy any more assets without steep penalties. So, in order to keep the peace and keep Weston from taking his money and going elsewhere, I suggest you march your ass to his room and put those acting skills to work and pretend that you’re contrite.”

Lindy clenched her fists, fighting the urge to stomp her feet like the kid in Bungalow 2. “This is bullshit,” she spit out just as her twin sister, Lilah, drifted into the room humming. She stopped short when she saw the standoff.

“What’s going on?” Lilah asked, her sudden frown marring the clear, dewy skin of her twin’s face as she played nervously with the long strands of her blond hair. Although many thought Lindy and Lilah were identical, in truth they were not. While Lindy’s hair color came from a bottle, Lilah’s was simply sunkissed naturally. Lindy had often wondered how Lora had been graced with such dark hair while Lindy and Lilah had landed on the lighter side. In their most heated spats, Lindy had often tried to convince Lora she’d been adopted. It might’ve worked if their faces weren’t so similar. “Anything wrong?”

By the anxious tone to her voice, Lindy knew Lilah was fearful of the answer. Lilah hated confrontation and generally avoided it, but as of late she’d gotten a bit tougher it seemed, if only marginally so. “The little demon spawn in Bungalow 2 has been up to her usual antics.”

“What’d she flush down the toilet this time?” Lilah asked.

“Sand. Lots and lots of sand,” Lindy answered.

Lilah made a face. “What are we going to do? Should I have Celly call the plumber again?”

“Yes, please. And while you’re doing that, our sister dear is going to apologize to the demon spawn’s father for being so rude,” Lora said.

Lindy narrowed her stare at Lora. “If you want an apology, why don’t you go give one and say it’s from me and call it a day? I’m afraid if I go near the kid I’ll commit a felony.”

Lilah shared a look with Lora—and the fact that her twin seemed ready to side with the big bad older sister gave Lindy momentary pause—then said, “Lindy, I know you don’t want to but Lora’s right, we can’t afford to lose him as a patron. Larimar needs his money. I’m sorry. Just get it over with and then I’ll make sure to handle the calls for Bungalow 2 from now on if you think that would help.”

“Forget it,” Lindy muttered with a scowl. “I’ll do it. But I just want to go on record as to say that this sucks and you both suck, too.”

“Duly noted,” Lora said drily, then gestured. “Go before they start packing.”

Lindy bit down on the impulse to tell Lora where to stick it and headed toward Bungalow 2. It wasn’t Lora’s fault that Larimar was sinking in financial quicksand. Lindy understood they were all doing what they could to save a beloved sinking ship but Lindy was not above feeling a bit emotionally manipulated into helping when she had her own life to live.

In Hollywood, it was crucial to be seen. How was anyone going to see her here? Before leaving L.A. she’d been hoping and praying that she’d landed the national commercial gig she’d auditioned for but she’d been sorely vexed, as the St. John locals would say, to discover the part had been awarded to the woman who’d no doubt said yes to the director’s vulgar suggestion that had involved her mouth and his genitals. Disgusting little pig of a man, she thought, remembering with a shudder. Oh, who cared? Who wanted to be in a tampon commercial anyway?

Lindy trudged through the sand to Bungalow 2 and, drawing a deep breath, knocked on the door and tried channeling a calm and peaceful vibe when in fact, she was still sporting a distinctly uncooperative attitude.

The little bugger herself opened the door. What luck, Lindy thought drily. Just get it over with, she told herself.

“Is your dad here?” Lindy asked, forcing a smile that she didn’t feel.

The girl, Carys, had the look of a child accustomed to getting her way at the expense of others. Lindy knew this look because half the kids in Hollywood wore it well. “What do you want with my dad?” she asked, lounging idly against the door frame. “Gonna tell him more lies about me?”

Lindy ignored that and bared her teeth in a wretched facsimile of a wider grin. “So, here or not?”

“Your hotel sucks,” Carys announced, watching for Lindy’s reaction. “We’ve definitely stayed in better, you know. In places with toilets that actually work,” she added with a sly look. The brat was trying to bait her. If Lindy collected a paycheck she would’ve said she didn’t get paid enough to deal with this crap.

“I take it he’s not here,” Lindy said, cocking her head to the side, openly assessing the kid. “Otherwise you’d be watching your mouth a little more closely. I get your act, kid. You play the sweet innocent girl for your dad but when his back is turned you show your true colors. You’re spoiled, mean, selfish and cruel,” Lindy said, taking pleasure in the way the girl’s face had begun to redden. “Oh, and chances are no one really likes you, which is something you probably know but pretend not to care about because, let’s face it, being a jerk is a lonely life. But let me fill you in on a secret, short stuff, this lonely childhood of yours is only going to get worse because unless you change your attitude, no one is ever going to want to be around you...not even your dad.”

“Shut up,” Carys said.

“Hey, kudos, kid, for the lip tremble,” Lindy said, being quite brutal, probably more than what was required but Lindy was still pissed about the toilet. “Pretty convincing. If I wasn’t already wise to your act, I might’ve bought it.”

At that Carys’s eyes actually welled and Lindy felt a pang of remorse for taking it to that level but the kid had it coming, for sure. Today Lindy was Karma’s handmaiden.

“I’m telling my dad,” she whispered, her voice cracking a bit. For a split second Lindy actually saw something in the girl’s raw expression that smacked of genuine emotion. A moment of doubt crossed her mind as she thought to soften the harsh words but the moment passed as quickly as a tropical storm and suddenly Carys screamed before slamming the door in Lindy’s face, “My daddy is going to sue you for every penny you own for being so mean to me!”

“Yeah, well good luck with that!” Lindy shouted back, forgetting her earlier doubt. Then she added, “Brat!” for good measure.

Well, that hadn’t gone well. But surely Lora had to have known it wouldn’t. Maybe her sister had set her up. Customer service wasn’t her specialty or niche. And curse her own stubbornness. Maybe she ought to have let Lilah handle the situation with Bungalow 2, after all, because clearly Lindy simply wasn’t cut out for this touchy-feely stuff. Damn, damn, damn, Lindy thought grumpily. She had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well for anyone. At this rate, she might’ve single-handedly ruined Larimar’s chances of pulling through this disaster in one day. Good job, Lindy!

* * *

“AND THEN...AND then...” Carys’s voice hitched on a hysterical hiccup as Gabe cradled his daughter as she sobbed in his arms. “And then, she called me...she called me...a bad...n-name, Daddy!”

“What sort of bad name, sweetheart?” he asked, barely holding his temper in check. “Go ahead, you can tell me. I’ll take care of this once and for all if you just tell me what happened.”

Carys ground the tears from her eyes and then wailed, “She called me a...b-word!”