TWENTY-ONE
Cat hadn’t liked watching Aiden go home without her that night, but with everything that had already happened and her sincere concern that something else might happen again, there was no way she could allow herself the indulgence of going with him, and she told him in no uncertain terms that he couldn’t spend the night with her or Legolas might get jealous. They two of them were still chuckling over this when they parted.
Now it was about nine at night. The dining hall was closed, so the only remaining entertainment was the bar, which was frequented by mostly males and couples. The kids, as to be expected, were all safely tucked away in their various rooms, so Cat didn’t expect to be bothered by any calls, and she was just about to take a long, hot bath and relax before heading to bed.
She turned on the television so see if there was a movie she’d want to watch in about an hour, but she didn’t get the menu she was expecting. Try as she might, the only stations that seemed to be tuning in were the porno channels. And if her television was doing that, it was likely that they all were. Frowning, she picked up the house phone, with its direct line to the front desk.
“Maggie, has the front desk received any complaints about the selection of shows on the televisions this evening?”
“Yes, ma’am, we’ve gotten four,” she confirmed. Cat gripped the phone receiver a bit harder. “Something about nothing but porno. I was about to give you a call.”
“Why do I think this is another attempt from somebody to cause trouble?” Cat groaned. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now, we’ll have to deal with it tomorrow I suppose.”
“Should we maybe create apology notes and post them around so the guests know we’re having a bit of trouble?”
“That’s too much work in the middle of the night,” Cat sighed. “How about whenever someone calls the desk, you just let them know, and we can have the maids post notes during their rounds in the morning? That should be good enough, I’d say.”
“It’s your call, Miss Addison,” she agreed.
After she hung up the phone, Cat forgot about taking the bath in favor of calling Aiden. He would probably want to know about the current situation. Using her cell this time, she wasted no time in tapping the button she’d set up to his direct line.
“Hey sweetheart, what’s up?” he asked warily. “Trouble in paradise?”
Cat scoffed. “You could say so. Someone has been tampering with the satellite feed. The only shows the televisions can receive appear to be porno. Which means there are currently eleven children who have nothing to do on Friday night vacation—well, unless you count sex education anyway.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Aiden snorted. “Well, that rules Brynn out for sure. The last thing she wants anything to do with is sex. Well, at least from my personal experience.”
“God, I don’t want to hear the details,” Cat grumbled. “So, I told Maggie to just field calls until morning, when we might be able to do something about it.”
“No, I don’t think they’ll come fix it on a Saturday—at least I was told no one is there over the weekend while they were setting the whole system up over the summer. We can’t do anything about it before Monday.”
“Well, that’s just great,” Cat complained. “Do you suppose that’s why she decided to wait?”
“You’re just determined that she did this, aren’t you?” Aiden snickered. “But Brynn has no concept of how to program a VCR. There’s no way she’d have a clue how to mess up the satellite feed. It had to be someone else.”
“Yeah? But that doesn’t mean she didn’t tell whoever it was what she wanted done.”
“Okay, I get it,” he sighed. “You don’t like her, you’re mad at her for abusing your team, and you’re pissed off because she came down here hoping to get me back. That’s a pretty good reason to dislike her. But without any proof that she’s done any of these things, we can’t point fingers. As much as I’d love for her to be the cause so we could cure it by making her leave, it’s just not that easy.”
“So what, we’re going to have to keep on housing her and catering to her every whim until she decides to go home on her own?” Cat grumbled. “That hardly seems fair, does it?”
“I wouldn’t be too worried, sweetie, if she’s still there in fifty-six days, I’ll have her removed just as soon as the divorce judge’s signature is on the page saying she’s no longer my wife. Trust me, I won’t even wait for the ink to be dry.”
“Fifty-six days?” Cat groaned. “You really know how to torture a person, don’t you?”
Aiden chuckled. “Just think, baby, if you’d been over here tonight, you wouldn’t have been troubled by this situation before tomorrow. I hardly think bad reception is a matter that should have had you so worried. Tomorrow, though, my two security boys will start work, and then you won’t need to worry at all. We could enjoy the weekend without needing to be apart.”
“I’m afraid of ever stepping foot off the grounds at all,” Cat admitted, laughing at herself. “How can you do it yourself? And you with six other properties to worry about as well.”
“I can do it because I’m used to it, I suppose,” Aiden admitted. “I received the first four all at the same time, and they are in different cities throughout the states, so naturally I couldn’t be there to oversee them all. When you’ve hired the best possible staff and put the best people in charge of them, it becomes easy enough to let your businesses run themselves, I find. But this place is entirely another matter. First, it was born of my lifelong dream. And second—this may sound corny, I suppose—but it’s where I met you.”
Cat chuckled. “Corny as hell,” she agreed. “I think I’m going to take my bath and watch a movie now.”
“But I though you told me the only stations working were the porno,” he pointed out.
“I did indeed,” she told him, grinning. “Pleasant dreams.”
*****
As she headed in to work the next morning, Cat ran across the Wilson family, packed and ready to depart, all sitting dejectedly in the chairs near the check-in area. Confused, she approached Mrs. Wilson to ask what was wrong.
“Jason is upset about the television situation,” she sighed. “Just as soon as he found out all we can watch for the weekend is porn or rental tapes, he started having a cow. He’s upset because he’ll have to miss a big football game he wanted to watch tomorrow, and he’s already started looking for better accommodations. There’s no talking him out of it, I’m afraid.”
“Surely he understands it’s a technical difficulty, and not any fault of the resort’s?”
“Yes, so the letter we received this morning says, but that doesn’t seem to have deterred him. He’s over there right now demanding our money back.”
“I see,” said Cat, frowning. “Let me see if Mr. Whitney has arrived this morning. Perhaps we could work something out.”
“I sure hope so,” said the daughter, Sally. “We were supposed to go on a dolphin encounter today, and now he says it’s cancelled. He’s talking about killing the whole vacation and making us go back to Pittsburg.”
“Which would royally suck,” added her brother.
“Oh, I’d hate to see you do that,” Cat said sympathetically. “Maybe we can find a way for your dad to watch his game, and maybe set you kids up with some entertainment for the evening on the house. I’ll see what I can figure out.”
“Would you? That would be awesome,” said Mrs. Wilson. “You’ve got no idea how much we needed this trip, Miss Addison. You might not just be saving the day—you could be saving the whole marriage.”
Cat looked at her sympathetically. “Well, I can’t promise to fix that issue, but I’ll see if there’s anything else I can do to help.”
She found Aiden and told him, “I think if you want to keep your reputation solid, you may want to make friends with Mr. Wilson and invite him to watch football with you tomorrow afternoon, Aiden. At the moment he’s at the front desk threatening to check out.”
“God, why can’t he just go to a bar in town with the others,” Aiden grumbled.
“Here’s an even better way to get brownie points,” said Cat. “Invite all ten of them. Make it into a party or something.”
“Come on, Cat, have a heart,” he complained.
“I do have a heart,” she replied. “And I’m using it to help save your hide.”