Page 5 of Colton's Last Resort

He waved a hand. “If I must.”

“Good man,” she praised and put a check mark next to Adam’s Speech on her list.

An infinitesimal smile wavered across his lips. “You enjoy painting me into a corner and patting me on the head when I have no choice but to comply.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” She tapped the hollow of her collarbone. “Is that the tie I bought you?”

“Yes,” he said after a glance at it.

“It looks very nice,” she said. “And I was right. It does bring out your eyes.”

His smile strengthened. “Clever girl.”

The door to the conference room opened. Laura eased back in her chair as Joshua loped in. He smiled distractedly through dark-tinted shades when he saw the two of them seated on either side of the table. “Greetings, siblings.”

“You’re late,” Adam pointed out.

“Oh, you noticed,” Joshua said, unfazed as he pulled out a chair and dropped to it. “How thoughtful of you.” He caught Laura’s look. “You’re not going to tell me off, are you?”

He was so charmingly rumpled, any urge to scold him fell long by the wayside. Joshua was twenty-seven. His dirty-blond hair was perpetually shaggy. When he took off his glasses, his eyes laughed in the same shade as hers and Adam’s. At six feet, he was trim and muscular. He couldn’t claim to eat and sleep work as they did, but he was just as devoted to Mariposa. He was very much at home in his role as the resort’s Activities Director.

“No,” she replied.

He pecked a kiss on her cheek. “You’re my favorite.”

“For the moment.”

He leaned his chair back and crossed his legs at the ankles. “What’s the latest?”

“Clive is coming,” she warned, handing over her thermos easily when he held out his hand for it.

He took a long sip. “And how do we feel about that?” he asked, squinting at Adam across the long, flat plane of the table.

Adam answered without inflection. “Indifferent.”

“Oh?” Joshua said with a raised brow. He looked at Laura for confirmation.

Laura cleared her throat. “We’re placing him in Bungalow Twelve.”

Joshua laughed shortly before setting the thermos on the table between him and her. “I approve.”

“I thought you might,” Adam said, again without looking up.

Joshua had been only ten when their mother had died. His memories of Annabeth were the foggiest—most of them mere reflections through a vintage-cast mirror. Though he remembered well how Clive had abandoned them to their grief. As the youngest, he’d needed the most stability and guidance. It was Adam and Laura who had stepped into that role—not their father.

“Glenna won’t stand being demoted to anything below the amenities of Bungalow Ten,” he warned.

“We don’t know she’s coming,” Laura revealed.

“I’m just saying,” Joshua said, holding up his hands.

None of them had gotten to know their stepmother well. But Joshua was right. Glenna may keep her thoughts to herself, and she could be perfectly cordial. But she also had a discerning eye and was accustomed to a certain type of lifestyle. One reason, no doubt, she had been drawn to Clive Colton. As CEO of Colton Textiles, he lived in a Beverly Hills mansion she had already refined to her tastes.

Laura sighed. “I’ll deal with that if it comes.”

Joshua sketched a lazy salute. “I’ll have Knox loan you a helmet.”

“I have one,” she reminded him. Not that she’d need it. She could handle Clive, and she could certainly handle Glenna. She shook her head. “Are we being unkind?”

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