Frankie
After we get dressed this morning, we call Ronnie and put her on speaker phone so everyone can hear and talk.
After the greetings, I ask, "Has Amy come back yet?" That's the most important thing to me.
"She'll be home in about an hour," she sounds anxious. I know she's worried and will stay that way until she sees her in the flesh.
"How did they get her away from you?" Dylan asks.
"I put her down for the night and then went down to the living room to look at TV. Cook brought a drink out to me like she always does, but the next thing I remember, I'm in my bed and its morning. They must have drugged me and took me up to bed, then took her." I hear her sigh across the line.
"So we can add drugging and kidnapping to their list of offenses. What did they say when you asked them where's Amy?" Rand asks.
"They told me that she's going to be gone for a few days because they need to talk to me. They then told me that I will not be moving when I graduate, I will stay home and work at the firm counseling people for their cases that involve the type of abuse that I received," she's starting to sound pissed now.
"So they have come up with an idea to make money off of you. That's why they are so adamant now when they couldn't have cared less before. We have the whole summer to come up with a plan. We may have to call in the grandfather's," Cameron says.
"I thought your grandfather's were dead," I'm confused.
"Only mine Peach. The other two are still alive. They told us if we need anything to come to them, but don't make it a habit. If we go through our fathers for anything, they always want a favor in return. We've only gone to the grandfather's once before and saw what happened. We reserve that power until we really need it," Dylan kisses me on the side of my face and entwines my fingers in his.
"I see them pulling up. I'll see you all next week. Talk to you later," Ronnie tells us.
"We'll talk to you later. Give Amy a kiss for us," Dylan disconnects the phone. "If we don't come up with anything before school starts, we'll pull in the grandpa's."
Everyone agrees. "When do we leave?" I ask. They have shipped all of our clothes down there already. They'll be at the house when we get there. We will all only have a carry-on as luggage. Works for me.
"We leave on Sunday," Rand responds. That's two days away.
"What are we doing until then?"
"We have to close up the house. We have to empty the refrigerator, have the mail redirected for the next two months, make sure every things locked up and a few other things," he informs me.
"What are we going to do right now?" I ask.
"We are going to have some lunch and then relax," Cameron tells me.
"Okay."
The next couple of days go by quickly with us closing the house. Before I know it, we're on a plane to Florida. Ronnie and Amy will be down in a couple of days.
I look around outside of the airport and it's beautiful. It reminds me of Hawaii a little bit except the mugginess is a little thicker which is funny since Hawaii is an island.
My nose is pressed to the glass of the limo as we head towards our house. I look at the palm trees and the buildings all around as they fly by. I turn to the guys who are all looking at me indulgently and ask, "How long until we get there?"
"About another twenty minutes," Rand pulls me to his lap.
"What do you want to see first, Peach?" Dylan asks.
"I think I would like a nap first and then we can go downtown and walk around," I tuck my head into Rand's shoulder.
"Sounds good to me," Cameron says.
The rest of the ride is made with me looking around and all of us making small talk. When we pull up to the house, I'm stunned. This house is even bigger than the one in Hawaii. It's amazing! We step out of the car and Rand takes my carry-on from me.
"How do you like it?" Amusement dances in his eyes as he looks at me.
"This is humongous! What will we do with all of this house?" I'm still staring at it wide-eyed.
"For one thing, we can christen every room," Cameron growls as he bends down to kiss my neck. He lifts me in his arms, carrying me to the front door of the house. Dylan unlocks it and Cameron carries me inside straight into the dining room where there is lunch waiting for us. He sets me down into a chair and sits beside me. Dylan and Rand sit across from us. We dig in and then take our naps.
A couple of hours later, we wake up and ride downtown to walk around. We did a little souvenir shopping and looking around the general area. It's so beautiful! We find a chain restaurant that we all like and have dinner there. It's late when we get back to the house, so we change into our pajamas and watch a little tv before bed.
The next morning, we decide to relax on the beach, since we have two months to take in all of the sights and we know that Ronnie and Amy will want to go to Disneyland and Epcot center when they get here.
The guys get into the water and I decide to try to make a sandcastle. While I'm getting everything together a couple of girls come over and ask if they can help. I don't mind so they bring their pails over and we get to work. Soon a few more people join in and we have a very large one going. When a few more people arrive, my guys decide to join in the fun with me.
By the time we are finished, we have a colossal sand castle, per say. It's a street with five buildings on each side of it. There are cars in the street driving and parked. Someone made people walking up and down the sidewalk. The buildings even have window dressings. It's amazing! Everyone runs to grab their phones and take pictures of it. I send one to Ronnie and she says that she can't wait to come down.
I'm invited to a party by a couple of guys and Rand steps up and takes their information with one hand, while the other is around my waist. I guess this is his way of staking his claim. I'll ask Ronnie when they get here, she'll let me know for sure.
We spend the rest of the afternoon resting and eating. Ronnie and Amy arrive the next day. Amy is excited to see what's left over of the sand castle and makes me promise to make one with her later.
A week later Cameron hands me two envelopes. I open the first one and there's a check for a thousand dollars in it. The accompanying letter says that it's a reward for helping to catch Nicole and Amy. Apparently, they've been doing this for a couple of years. I'm excited that I could help catch them.
I open the second envelope and when I pull out the paper, another check falls out. Before picking up the check, I open the letter. I need to know who's sending me money and why. It's a letter telling me that I won some modeling competition and I'm the face of some swimsuit company for the summer.
I look up at the guys and they are all looking at me expectantly. "I didn't enter any contest. Do you know anything about this?"
"The pictures that I took of you when we were in Hawaii. I looked at a couple of them and found that there was a contest for someone to be the face of the designer that you were wearing and I entered you in the contest. I didn't say anything because after I sent it in, I forgot about it," he shrugs.
I start to glare at him. "Before you say anything, look at the check." He picks it up off of the floor and hands it to me, before stepping back quickly like I'm going to hit him or worse. I take a look at the check and it's for fifty thousand dollars. I almost choke and Rand comes over quickly rubbing my back.
"I just thought if you won, you wouldn't worry about money so much since you will have a big chunk of it," Cameron soothes.
I sigh, "I understand why you did it, but why didn't you tell me?"
"Sweetie, I really didn't think about it after I did it. I figured if you didn't win, you couldn't be disappointed. If you did, the money would keep you from worrying so much," he cajoles.
"But my face is going to be everywhere. What happens if someone recognizes me?" I start to bite my lip.
"We'll hire security for you. We're with you all summer, we won't let anything happen to you," Dylan tries to reassure me. He walks over to where Rand and I are standing and kisses my cheek.
"Please sweetie. You won't have to take anymore pictures. They'll just use the ones that they have. Can I see the letter?"
I hand him the letter and he scans it. "It says here that they don't need you for now, but they'll call you and set up something for an afternoon if they'll need you. They are also sending you a few more of their bikini's to wear this summer. Good thing we are staying on the beach." He slowly makes his way over to me and when he reaches me, he tentatively drops a kiss on my lips, "Sweetie, this is great for you. Just accept it. We'll protect you. We promise."
I'm surrounded by my men, all of them have pleading looks on their faces. I roll my eyes up in my head, "Okay. But if anyone recognizes me, you better run interference."
All of their faces relax, and I feel their arms come around me. "We won't let you down Sunshine."
Cameron finishes reading the letter, "It says that they are going to use the one where you and Amy are spinning around also. They need her address so they can send her a check. I'll take care of that." He pulls out his phone and calls Ronnie.
Five minutes later, she and Amy have come over and she's giving me a hug, congratulating me. We tell Amy that she's going to be on a billboard with me starting next week. She's so excited that she's jumping around the house.
We decide to spend the rest of the day at the public beach. We have a great time and Cameron reminds me that this will probably be the last time that I can come here without being recognized since my posters will be up next week. That just makes me more nervous.
We spend the rest of the summer finishing our online classes, relaxing and finding things to do. We've gone to Epcot and Disneyland twice and we even went sailing and other types of tours. As the summer wound down and it was time to go back home for school, I reflected back on this summer as a very relaxing one. I would love to come back to Florida. I thank my guys and say a prayer of thanks for something else that I got to experience.
Rand
I would love for all of us to stay down here. She looks so relaxed and she's had a great time. We've had to warn a few guys away from her, but other than that, we're really glad that we gave her something that she needed and probably wanted to do. She was recognized all summer and we kind of kept her in a bubble so she wouldn't get nervous about it. We made it through without incident.
The plane ride home is done in silent contemplation. All of us thinking over our summers. I want to take her into the bathroom and join the mile-high club, but I think that's something to be discussed with her before we decide to do it.
We walk inside the house and all automaticallygo up to her room and go to sleep. Asrelaxing as Florida was, home is always the best.