Page 30 of Trust and Obey

I walked back to the employee residence building, troubled. I’d had my job even longer than Andy had been here, and I’d seen a lot of managers come and go. Andy was a cool guy as far as managers went, but he had definitely been warning me. I had the feeling he would be watching me more closely to ensure that I wasn’t blatantly breaking resort rules.

As long as I didn’t get the resort in a sticky situation, things would be fine. Hopefully.

I knew that Deacon had a lot to lose. Not his job, but that settlement with his ex-wife could get complicated if he was discovered to be banging the help.

But the fact was, I had even more to lose. This wasn’t just my job; it was a place where I lived. The entire damned island was my refuge. I couldn’t up and leave it.

“So, we’ll be more careful,” I decided. Obviously spending the night again was out.

Maybe I would try to convince Deacon to spend the day at his private pool. If we weren’t seen together outside the villa, then there was every chance that Andy would forget my indiscretion.

When I reached the employee residence lodging, I jiggled the handle on the door and let out a breath of relief when it opened. The employee facilities were not as well maintained as guest facilities. This door had a bad habit of closing, but not locking. That meant no swiping a badge to get in. That meant I had plausible deniability if Andy or someone else asked why my badge times were off. Not badging in and out was a slap on the wrist at worst.

I made it to my room without incident and crawled into bed. Hands behind my head, I stared up at the ceiling.

I did not get back to sleep.

* * *

“You’re looking chipper,” Sam the cook said, as he set out the trays ordered for Deacon’s breakfast that morning.

I froze in the middle of loading the food into the cart.

“Yeah? Is that weird?”

Sam snorted and gave me the hairy eyeball. “From you? Hell yeah, that’s weird.”

Oh crap. Had Andy talked to Sam? No, Sam and Andy had a legendary rivalry around the resort. Sam would tell anyone who listened that he had been working here since the resort opened, and he was too close to retirement with too high of seniority to listen to a young whelp manager who would quit or transfer out in a year or two.

But what if Andy had talked to someone else who’d then talked to Sam? What if rumors about me and Deacon were flying around right now? What if Human Resources got involved?

Sam continued, slopping out the gourmet oatmeal like he was a cafeteria lunch lady in a middle school. The hairnet helped with the image. “I thought you were part of the curmudgeon club, like me.”

I immediately relaxed. Sam was just messing with me. There was no reason to freak out.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, grabbing one of the trays. “I am the freaking president of the curmudgeon club.”

“Ha. You wish, kid,” Sam grunted and slapped some more perfectly done hash browns on the next plate. “So, your guest this week is a bachelor?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, uh, I guess so. He’s not a big talker. We aren’t close.”

I forced myself to stop talking before I dug this hole any deeper.

“Strange. This guy keeps ordering enough food to feed a family.”

Or enough to satisfy a couple of men who are burning a lot of calories, I thought ruefully. I made myself shrug. “Well, he’s on vacation. Maybe he’s letting himself go a little.”

Sam made another noncommittal grunt and followed up the hash browns with a couple of thick-cut slices of ham. “All right, one heart attack on a plate, ready to go.”

“Thanks,” I said dryly, but he didn’t respond, already picking up the ticket for the next villa.

I quickly put toppers on the plates, loaded them into the meal service cart, and scooted out of there as fast as I could without looking like I was running away.

* * *

Deacon opened the door on my first knock. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him shirtless, wearing only lounge pants. He leaned in for a kiss, but I avoided it neatly, checking over my shoulder to make sure there was nobody down the path who could see.

“Move along handsome,” I told him instead, rolling the cart in with the food.

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