Page 44 of Five
Well, it’s too late now; she’s here. I need to keep her safe, so all I can do is try to run interference and do my best to offer Jesse the only kind of support he’ll accept—the silent variety.
I hurry to catch up with Neve and Cope, casting my eyes over the island and trying to see it through Neve’s eyes as she gets her first impression of our home.
“What’s that?” she asks, pointing to the billowing clouds of steam that cut a furrow of white into the pristine blue sky.
Just the sight makes me smile, because I know Remi will be putting his talents in the kitchen to good use. Cooking up a storm is his way of welcoming Neve to the island.
His island.
“It’s steam from the vents in the restaurant.”
She looks surprised. “There’s a restaurant here?”
I shake my head. “Not in the sense you mean. This place used to be a resort, so all that original infrastructure is still here.”
I wave my hand towards the communal structure, a sprawling stone and stucco building with a tiled roof that looks more like a chateau on the French Riviera than a former hotel, and the eight similarly-styled individual cottages that extend off of it. Light spills from arched entryways and windows, illuminating pots of tropical flowers and greenery that Jesse, of all people, busies himself caring for. “Remi inherited it from his parents. But he never wanted to run the place, so he closed it down and made this his home.”
“Wow!” I can see her struggling to process the information. “It’s beautiful. Why didn’t he want to run it as a hotel?”
“He loves to cook, but he hates being obligated to do it. Working here as free labor for his parents when he was a kid sucked the life out of him.”
I smile as my eyes roam over the place we all now call home. “And of course, it works perfectly for all of us. We live here together, but we each have our own cottage, which provides privacy when we need it. But when we want company, there’s the communal building where we can all come together.” I tip my head toward the entryway in front of us. “The former lobby was repurposed as a sort of great room, and there’s a dining room for when we want to eat in, and a terrace for when we prefer to eat outside. His parents’ former living suite is still here, too, which is where we’ll put you.”
Jesse, who has been walking silently at our side, his long legs having quickly caught up with Cope and Neve, rolls his eyes and dumps her luggage at the entrance to the main building with a careless thud before he stalks off toward his own cottage without another word.
I cringe, thinking of the photograph she has in there of her brother, and I hope it didn’t break.
While I’m staring after Jesse, wondering if I should try to talk to him some more, Cope shoulders the bag he dropped and grabs Nev’s hand again, pulling her into the house. I can hear him chatting cheerfully, which I’m grateful for, but I know Neve well enough to understand that she’ll find the information dump he’s throwing at her completely overwhelming. So I’ll have to put off any further conversation with Jesse while I go and save Neve from Cope’s animated brand of over-enthusiasm.
When I walk in, he’s showing her to Remi’s family quarters. We’d already agreed over text that she’d be better housed there with one or more of us around at all times, rather than hiding out in a cottage of her own.
I’ve no doubt she’d have holed herself up and rarely come out to join us if we’d given her that option. This way we can keep an eye on her.
Neve is clutching her cat, Jamie Fraser —I still need to find out the significance of that name— to her chest, her eyes wide and a little panicked. The guys and I are used to it, but Cope’s a jokester and he can be a bit overwhelming upon first meeting.
I walk over to the bedroom where she’s hovering in the doorway, placing my hand at the base of her spine as I usher her in.
“Okay, Cope. Chill,” I say, stopping him from following her in. “Why don’t you go and let Remi know that Neve’s here safely, and tell him we’ll be good for dinner at five-thirty?”
Cope nods, throws Neve a wink, and lopes off, and I can’t help but chuckle when Neve lets out a relieved breath.
“I’ll give you the full tour when you’ve had time to acclimatize to your new surroundings a little,” I tell her. “For now, why don’t you shower and unpack?”
She looks at me gratefully, and it makes me feel a weird sense of protectiveness. “Like I told Cope, dinner will be served at five-thirty, and we’ll eat on the terrace, just over...”
She follows me to the rear door, and I point in the direction of the former restaurant which stands opposite the building we’re in. Its stucco walls are covered in the long orange flowers of a flame vine which provide a welcome burst of color throughout the winter, though they’re coming to an end now we’re getting into spring. “There.”
The two buildings form a natural enclosure for the idyllic sheltered courtyard, which is flanked on the other two sides by cabins. They’re not close enough to make it feel hemmed in, but it all contributes to giving the flagstoned area, with its massive rustic wooden table that easily seats ten, a secluded, private feel, and plenty of shade.
I check my watch as Neve takes Jamie Fraser back to her room, stroking and crooning to him in a way I wouldn’t mind experiencing myself. She’s barely got an hour until we sit down. Hopefully, that will be enough time for her to catch her breath and settle in, but not enough time for her to overthink things.
Grabbing a beer from the outdoor cooler Remi has already stocked, I take a seat at the table, close my eyes, and relax, taking a long pull at the bottle and leaving my face upturned to the pleasant evening sun.
I’ve barely had time to decompress when Cope comes bounding back again. Damn, the guy is always a little extra, but today it’s like he’s swallowed a handful of uppers.
He flops into a chair opposite me and grins from ear to ear. “Hot. As in smoking, as in smokeshow. I can’t believe you talked her into coming and staying here.”
He doesn’t wait for a response, but he does suddenly show the opposite side of the Cope joker coin. The side that’s riddled with gut-wrenching insecurity that he might not be enough.