Secrets Under the Sun Read online

  He gazed at her strangely with those beautiful eyes that were so dark, they were almost black. A woman could get lost in them.

  “Thank you, Miss, uh, Mrs. Griffin?”

  She laughed but appreciated his trying to be accurate. “Eleni is fine. I’ll see you later.”

  “Bye.”

  As he walked out the door, Eleni took the opportunity to stare at him again. A little older than her perhaps and not hard on the eyes. Too bad his demeanor seemed on the subdued side. Then again, who knew what kind of crap he had in his background? She had her own stuff to deal with.

  But wouldn’t it be nice to have a conversation with a handsome man and dream of what could happen? Yeah. Dreams were great, but unfortunately, Dean didn’t seem to be much of a conversationalist.

  Chapter Two

  Dean walked down the hallway and dumped the trash bag into the pushcart he’d been given earlier at the training. God, if that hadn’t been the most excruciating thing he’d ever sat through, he didn’t know what was. Two days of listening to the history of the Ocean Pearl and Yios Corporation and how it had gotten started, then hours of strict rules and regulations that all employees had to follow. He already knew all of them. He’d written most of them. What the hell had he been thinking?

  Most of the trainings were common sense stuff and how to deal with guests at the resort. As maintenance, he hoped not to really interact with any of them. Or any of the staff either. He wanted to blend into the background and quickly figure out who was giving away their marketing plans.

  He hadn’t counted on the admin assistant trying to chat him up. Okay, maybe she was only being friendly, but he’d wanted to get in, look around, then get out. With her there, it had been empty the trash and get out. With her working until six at night, it would be difficult for him to take a look around the offices. His snooping would be limited to Tuesday and Thursday.

  Eleni Griffin. Thinking back, he remembered skimming her employee report but couldn’t recall exactly what hers had said. With a few hundred staff at this resort alone, who could blame him? But working in the management office, she’d have access to any plans being brought up in marketing or promotions.

  Her sarcastic words after Hugh had huffed out of the office made him chuckle. Yet it was also disrespectful, and she’d made that joke about being slave labor. Did she really feel that way? Enough to want payback against her employer? He’d have to keep his eye on her.

  That thought wasn’t an unpleasant one. Eleni was quite pretty with her dark hair, sleek and shiny, that stopped just under her chin. She’d tucked it behind her ears once or twice during the short time he’d been in the office. He hadn’t expected her to speak to him or offer him assistance. She was management. Well, kind of. He depended on his admin assistant to do all the little stuff he never had time for and knew he couldn’t live without her. Fortunately, she had agreed to work from his house, since he hated going into the corporate office. While he was gone, she was taking care of everything remotely. His new apartment was small, but he’d made sure it had great internet.

  Where did Eleni live? And why was he even still thinking of her? Because she’s a suspect. And she’d treated him with respect today. It was more than the trainer had done or some of the other staff who seemed too high and mighty to talk to maintenance. Even Hugh had stormed past him without even glancing his way. If only these people knew who he was, they would have been falling all over him to make a good impression.

  Stupid thought. He needed everyone to ignore him, so he could find evidence of their culprit. Everyone, except Eleni. He didn’t want her to ignore him. She’d worn a figure hugging pair of pants that showcased her curves nicely. Curves a man couldn’t help but notice—even one with as much self-control as he had. However, it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with employees, no matter what his brother suggested.

  Pushing the trash-filled cart down the hallway, he mentally checked off what Santos had given him to do. Not much today. Mostly, learning the layout of the place by emptying the trash in the offices, registration area, banquet and conferences rooms, and other public areas. The chambermaids took care of trash in the individual hotel rooms.

  As he approached the largest of the banquet halls, an attractive blonde rushed out of one of the smaller rooms, the Emerald if he recalled correctly. Her four-inch heels clicked rapidly on the tiles as she waved at him.

  “Oh, hey, you, whatever your name is. I need you in here immediately.” She pivoted abruptly and marched back inside.

  It wasn’t part of what he was supposed to do today, but she wore a resort name tag, so obviously worked here. He followed her, dragging the cart in behind him. He’d been told he shouldn’t leave the trash cart hanging around for any length of time, and he had no idea who this lady was or what she wanted him to do.

  Impatience flashed on her perfectly made-up face, and her arms crossed her abundant chest. She waved her hand again and scowled. “We had a bit of a mess when some people cut across the room after being on the beach. I have a business meeting scheduled in here in an hour. We can’t set up the tables until the sand is vacuumed up. Can you see to that right away?”

  “Um, sure. Where’s the vacuum for this part of the resort?”

  Her head shook back and forth, her eyes grew wide, and her fingers spread apart like she was ready to lunge for a volleyball headed her way. “How do you not know where the vacuum is? Aren’t you maintenance?”

  He shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. “Sorry, ma’am, but today’s my first day. Well, second, but I was in training until an hour ago.”

  Her breath huffed out and her eyes narrowed. “And they didn’t train you where all the vacuums were?”

  “There’s a map with that information, but it’s back at my locker.” He didn’t think he’d need it today, since he was only on trash duty. He’d planned to study it tonight once he got back to his apartment.

  Her face hardened, and she took a deep breath like she was trying not to scream. “There’s a utility room around the corner on the right. I believe there’s one in there. You do have a key for that, don’t you?” Her voice trumpeted her annoyance.

  “Yes. I’ll get it right away, ma’am.”

  He’d caught site of her name tag as he left. Reva Buchinsky. The Activities Director. The woman Trey had insisted they give this job to. Yeah, he could see why his brother wanted to keep her handy. Maybe the reason he liked coming to this resort more than any of the others they owned. Reva looked at least ten years younger than Trey, and it sounded like she was an easy fling whenever he decided to drop in. She was beautiful…on the outside. Certainly nothing like Eleni on the inside, with her authentic smile and understanding of his newbie status.

  After finding the correct utility room and pushing the industrial strength vacuum back to the Emerald Room, he plugged it in and started to clean up the wayward sand. The rest of the staff bustled about rearranging tables and chairs, completely ignoring him. Good, that’s exactly what he was hoping for.

  Now, if he could manage to find who was sabotaging the resort, he could get out of this godforsaken cheery place and go back to his quiet life in the city.

  He spent the next few hours finishing up with the trash as well as a few so-called emergencies that popped up along the way. Okay, the vomit from an inebriated guest was definitely an emergency, but he wasn’t sure why it was imperative for him to run around the facility trying to find a gold-colored trash can when there were dozens of black ones sitting nearby. In his role as maintenance, it wasn’t his job to ask why.

  His shift ended at five, yet at six, he was still pushing a broom around the lobby. Wouldn’t hurt to suck up to the boss and see who was hanging around the offices. He maneuvered his way down the hall and peeked into the manager’s suite.

  Eleni stood by her desk, stuffing papers into a tote bag. When he accidentally bumped into the door, she jumped and swung toward him.

  “Oh, Dean, I didn’t realize you were ther
e. Shouldn’t you be done by now?”

  Did she seem nervous? She kept glancing at the clock, then toward Aarya’s office. What had she been putting in the bag? Was there any way to get a look at it?

  “A few emergencies put me behind in my list.”

  Her face relaxed as she dropped a small purse into her bag, then slung it over her shoulder.

  “That’s really sweet of you to stay, but I don’t think they expect that of you, especially on the first day. You should check with Santos tomorrow and ask what protocol is for your scheduled work when you get pulled into other duties.”

  “I’ll do that. Do you need me for anything?” Could he somehow bump into her and have the bag fall so he could see what was inside?

  Her face softened as she stepped toward him. “I appreciate the offer, but it’s all good here. I’m just ready to get home and see my kids before they go to bed. Good night.”

  Kids? She had kids. Which probably meant she had a husband somewhere nearby, too. Why did that bother him? It shouldn’t. She was a suspect. Possibly. He was only here to figure out this problem.

  He stared at the floor again and nodded. “Good night.”

  As she walked out the door, he realized he’d been so distracted by her having kids, he’d forgotten he wanted a peek in her bag. Didn’t matter. He should probably take a little time to really get to know the building and the everyday workings here. He owned the place, after all. Getting to the bottom of the marketing leaks didn’t have to be his only task. While he was here, he could see what ran well and what could be improved upon, who could be promoted and who was dead weight. Yeah, being ignored by everyone was a benefit that would allow him to see people in their true form.

  Goal number two. Get to know the staff better. He thought of Eleni and strangely wished she didn’t have a family waiting for her at home.

  “Mom, Thea took my toast.”

  Eleni glanced over at her eight-year-old son and sighed. Couldn’t they have one morning where it wasn’t a struggle to get out of the house?

  “Anthea, give Xander back his toast, please.”

  “She already licked it,” Xander whined.

  “He stuck boogers on my toast, so I took his.”

  Xander’s chuckle gave away what he’d done to his twin sister’s breakfast.

  Closing her eyes, Eleni took a deep breath and counted to ten. The kids knew this was a red flag and stopped their ruckus immediately. When she opened her eyes again, they had cleaned up their plates and were hopping around, getting shoes on.

  “We’re taking the bikes today, so no sandals. You need sneakers with socks. Hurry. Nadine will be here with Livy and Kandra any minute.”

  “Why do we have to leave so early?” Thea pouted as she kicked off her sandals and grabbed sneakers.

  “Because the Welcome Center gets very busy later in the morning, and if we want Trudy to answer the questions you have, then we need to go before the tour buses get here.”

  It was Xander’s turn to pout. “Why do tour buses have to come here? Why can’t they leave us alone?”

  Eleni filled her small, soft-sided lunch box with sandwiches and stuffed it in her backpack. “If tour buses and tourists didn’t come to Last Chance Beach, then I wouldn’t have a job, and we couldn’t live on the island.”

  “Oh,” the twins said in unison. It always freaked her out when they did that. Which was often. Evidently, nine months in the womb practically attached to each other got you synced to the same wavelength.

  For good measure, she added, “And if we didn’t live on the island, you’d be inside a school building on this beautiful day, instead of home-schooled and spending the day outside with your studies.”

  Her children cheered and danced around the kitchen. Eleni rolled her eyes, then headed to the door as a horn beeped in the driveway.

  Livy and Kandra jumped out of Nadine’s minivan and scurried into the house to find their friends.

  Nadine laughed and leaned on the open window. “They were so excited about spending the day looking through the tide pools. I almost couldn’t get them to sleep last night. You always do the coolest field trips.”

  “Because I teach them science. I’m so glad you take the math lessons, because if I did, these kids would be failing, big time.”

  She and Nadine worked together to homeschool the four children. Eleni always felt guilty that Nadine did three days of studies while she only did two. She tried to make up for it by taking the girls overnight if both Nadine, who worked as a dispatcher, and her husband, Marek, who worked at the Island Rescue, had to do overlapping shifts. It wasn’t often, but it gave Nadine peace of mind to have somewhere for her girls to go.

  It also made the small, three-bedroom house kind of squishy at times.

  “You throw in plenty of math during your trips. Kandra’s always complaining when you do. Gotta run. Bert gets cranky if he can’t get out of his shift right at seven.”

  Eleni waved as Nadine drove away toward the coast where the Rescue dispatch was housed. Glancing at her watch, she calculated how long it would take to bike over to the Welcome Center, then counted back. They had a few minutes before they needed to leave. Maybe she could sneak in another cup of coffee.

  When she entered the house, the girls sat in the living room admiring the bright red polish Livy had on her nails.

  “Hey, Kandra, you got your locs retwisted. Looks good.”

  Kandra shook her head and beamed. Livy glared at her older sister and looked back at her nails. “Dad got his redone, too. Mom and I just got our nails done.” Livy had softer spiral curls like their mother, while Kandra took after their dad. Thea often sulked that her hair was pin straight and boring. The grass was always greener somewhere else.

  “Do you girls need anything to eat before we go? We’ll be spending an hour or so at the Welcome Center doing research on the history of the island. Then, we’ll head down to the beach. Low tide should be right around nine this morning, and hopefully we’ll be able to find all sorts of creatures in the tidal pools. I’ve packed measuring cups in your backpacks, and we’ll be comparing units of measurement with both solid and liquid. We’ll spend a half hour journaling our findings, then have lunch.”

  “Can we eat at the Pearl?” Xander asked, shoving a water bottle into his bag.

  She shrugged. “Depends on how busy it is. If there aren’t too many people down by the docks, we might be able to use one of their tables. But we’re not buying anything at the snack shack. I brought sandwiches, and you all have snacks in your bags.”

  Thea made a face. The girl knew the snacks were healthy ones and not the sugar-filled junk she loved to eat. Eleni would try and make cookies this weekend if she managed to get to the grocery store off island in the next few days. The groceries at the small store here were just too darn expensive to buy all the time.

  “Make sure you’ve got everything in your bags and head out to the bikes. I need to let YiaYia know I’m leaving.”

  As the kids bounced toward the door, Eleni trotted down the hall to her mother’s room. Georgina Matsoukas had come to live with them three years ago when her hearing had started to fade due to a viral infection. Before that, she’d helped Eleni with the kids after Sean had died. She still helped on Saturdays when Eleni worked and during the late afternoons before she got home. Now that the children were a little older, she didn’t worry as much because she knew Thea and Xander were able to use the phone if an emergency arose.

  She opened the door to her mother’s room and flicked the light switch. Mom glanced up from her iPad, the one extravagance Eleni had insisted on, and smiled.

  “Are you leaving now?”

  Eleni nodded and signed yes. She and the kids had been learning American Sign Language over the last few years and teaching her mom. The woman still had clear speech but couldn’t always get what was said by reading lips.

  Eleni spoke and signed at the same time. “School at the beach today. Library after lunch. Do you need an
ything?”

  Mom laughed. “I wish I had school like that when I was little. Have fun. I’m just fine.”

  Eleni kissed Mom on the cheek and took off down the hall to grab her bag. Her mom had only just turned sixty and was still healthy in all other ways, but she still worried.

  Outside, she climbed on her bike, checked to make sure all helmets were securely fastened, then started peddling. It was maybe a twenty-minute ride from their house to the Welcome Center, and on a beautiful day like today, they all enjoyed it. The tourist crowd was still heavy in early September due to warm temperatures, but since school had started not as many families with kids showed up during the week.

  At the Welcome Center, Trudy happily answered all the questions the kids had for her. Their assignment last week had been to write an e-mail and send it to her so she could have time to look up any information she didn’t know. Which wasn’t much. Trudy had spent her entire seventy-two years on this island and bragged she’d only left for two occasions in her life.

  Eleni listened as the woman dramatically retold the legend of Last Chance Beach and how the island got its name. They’d heard it at least a dozen times, but the way Trudy told it, it never got old.

  Eleni loved the story of the young woman who had waited for many years to find a perfect love. But when an impoverished young man entered her life, she felt as if they’d always known each other. Her wealthy father, seeing his daughter’s infatuation, ordered the young man to be imprisoned in the hold of a ship that was leaving port the next day. Then, he locked his daughter in her room to keep her away from him. The daughter schemed and bribed until she could run away to the land her beloved had told stories of. But he wasn’t there. She searched from town to town, until she finally made it to an island not far from the mainland. A minister and his wife invited her to stay with them. However, they had one other guest who had escaped from a ship and been battered by the ocean’s waves. When the young man came down to dinner, limping along on crutches, she ran into his arms. It was the man she’d fallen in love with. Fate had provided them with one last chance to find each other.