Page 108 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“Don’t you dare throw those words at me,” he said. “You just said exactly what I did. Made a decision in the moment based on the information at hand. I handled a situation before it escalated even more. What I want to know is why you weren’t called last night when I stepped in. No one told you the owner was here last night?”

“I was told this morning,” Christian said.

“Then maybe we need to find out the rules of when an owner or manager is informed,” he said.

“The night manager is the one that went out there to calm them down the first time. It hadn’t happened. They were trying to find Carl.”

“We’ll deal with Carl another time,” he said.

It hadn’t escaped his notice they were having this conversation in the doorway of his room. That though Christian wasn’t raising his voice, he was still giving Van shit.

He was positive Kelsey was listening to it all too.

No way Christian would talk to Kyle like this and it amused Van it was happening to him.

“I’ll deal with it,” Christian said. “Just like I’ve been dealing with this mess you created. I’ll make sure Kyle is informed on how it all went down too. That maybe you should just be looking at things behind the scenes rather than getting involved. I’m sure he’s going to listen to my side of it once I’ve got everything gathered. The last thing anyone wants is someone unfamiliar with how hotels are run to be damaging what was working just fine.”

Kelsey started to laugh and Frankie barked and the next thing he knew the dog was next to his leg and wanted to make a dash for it.

Van reached down to get the puppy and picked him up before he became a fugitive again.

“It’s fine, Frankie.”

Christian frowned. “I didn’t know you weren’t alone.”

“Because like everything else you’ve done this morning, you’ve assumed rather than gathered all the facts.”

He turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Good morning, Christian. I’m not sure if we’ve officially met or not. I’m Kelsey Raymond.”

Christian stopped and just stared at the hand Kelsey had extended. “No,” Christian said. “We haven’t met.”

“Now we have,” she said. “Maybe you should gather all those facts of yours and get them lined up before you talk to my father since we witnessed the whole thing from our room last night.” She took Frankie out of his arms. “Come here, Frankie. Mr. Franklin thinks he knows it all. Some people just have to learn the hard way.” She was talking to the dog as she walked away and he had all he could do not to burst out laughing.

When they were back on Amore Island a few hours later, Kelsey flopped down on the couch in her living room.

“Sorry about this,” he said. “I hadn’t expected it to turn out the way it had.”

“Are you kidding me? That was awesome. I don’t often throw my name around. It could go to my head.”

He frowned over that. He hated that she’d come in and almost saved him when he had it under control.

“I didn’t need you to do that,” he said. One more thing for Christian to think, that Van needed a woman to save him.

“Then why did you fight back the laugh? You think I didn’t see that?”

“It had more to do with you calling him a motherfucker.”

“I didn’t call him that. I said Mr. Franklin. Only you know what I meant.”

She had a point. “It doesn’t matter. I wanted to see how far Christian would go talking to me the way he was. Once he saw you, he stopped.”

“Sorry about that,” she said. “It wasn’t my intention. Frankie got away from me and I figured I might as well make myself known at that point.”

“You sure you didn’t let him go?”

“Nope, I didn’t,” she said. “I held onto him as long as I could. You know he likes to meet people. What’s the big deal?”

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