Page 6 of Hargrave Health Kick (Brookwell Island)

Chapter Five

When Veronica returned from her run about an hour later, Celeste and Nat were in a giddy mood. She eyed the half-empty mimosa pitcher. “Are you drowning sorrows or celebrating?”

“She did it!” Nat declared, pumping her fists in the air. “Chef, zero. Celeste, one hundred. She gets the win with a perfect score!”

Veronica stared at Nat, then asked Celeste, “Did I run into an alternate universe? What did I miss?”

“Only a bit of everything,” Nat replied. “Celeste and Marley were poetry in motion. Although technically, I was the only witness.”

“Stop,” Celeste protested, her cheeks pink from the praise. “We got lucky as much as anything.”

Nat handed Veronica a big glass of water.

“She’s being modest. Celeste is my new public relations hero.

She and Marley coordinated behind the scenes and with a few precise questions and comments, they steered the chatter.

In the middle of a live feed.” Nat did a pirouette.

“I’m telling you, our sister is a genius. ”

“You did your part too,” Celeste said.

Nat shrugged it off. “I just made a few speedy comments when you told me to.”

Veronica felt a niggle of guilt between her shoulder blades. “Should I have stayed to help?”

“No. You can’t text as fast as me,” Nat teased. “Although we couldn’t get the credit for the food y’all made for her.”

“No biggie.” Both of her sisters gaped at her. “The run cleared my head,” she explained. “Staying mad about it only hurts me.”

Nat turned to Celeste. “I thought it would take her the rest of the week to get there.”

“Same.” Celeste’s smile faded. “Did Nash have any insights? What did Jess say?”

“Nothing profound from Nash. We’re doing all the right things. Jess is taking a closer look.” She didn’t mention Brayden. “She’ll call when she has something.”

Her sisters stared at her. “Fine. I’ll check my phone.”

She retrieved the device from her bedroom, scanning her messages. “Wow. Jess works fast. She says the camera closest to the slider shows the rat falling to the patio.” Her sisters looked as baffled as she felt.

“What the heck?” Nat came over to read the message for herself.

“Right?” Veronica showed the last text to her sisters. “Sounds like she’s sent the footage to the agency tech wizards.”

Her phone hummed with another incoming text and she paused to read it. But it wasn’t about the Hideaway problems. She stopped short as she read the message. “Um.” She was terrible at improvising. “She’ll call when she knows more.”

“Bull!” Nat grabbed for the phone, but Veronica spun away and held it out of reach.

Celeste shouted at them to stop wrestling. “You are adults!” she hollered, exasperated.

Right now, Veronica felt like a kid again and after all the stress she’d put on herself, she wasn’t ready to return to adult behavior. She lunged for Nat and tackled her into the couch. She had to sit on her to get leverage, and then she tickled her until her little sister begged for mercy.

“Stop! Quiet!” Celeste shouted again, phone to her ear as she dashed into the other room.

Veronica climbed off Nat. “What’s that about?”

Natalie snatched her phone while she was distracted. Veronica swore.

“I knew it!” her sister crowed. “Brayden asked you out.”

Sort of. They were friends and his time on the island was limited.

Though she wanted to demand her phone, she kept her cool. Showing any aggravation would goad Natalie into action. Most likely an uncomfortable or embarrassing action in public. “We’re friends, you jerk. Stop harassing me.”

Before she realized what Nat intended, her sister was entering some kind of message.

Then the phone came flying at her. Veronica caught the device.

The chat with Brayden was open. Natalie had sent a reply, accepting Brayden’s invite to dinner on his next day off.

And Brayden had responded with a smiley face emoji.

“I’m gonna kill you,” Veronica threatened, advancing on Natalie as her sister scampered away. “You don’t even know my schedule.”

“Stop!” Celeste shouted. “Y’all need to practice getting along.”

“We’re fine,” Veronica grumbled.

“One of us will be soon.” Natatile turned to Celeste, all innocence. “Why?”

“Practice being professional then,” Celeste said in the tone of oldest sisters. “I might be able to turn all of this around before Susannah and Marley check out.”

“That was a lot of complaining to overcome in a short time.” Veronica was wary.

Natalie, always so carefree and positive, gave another victory shout before she dashed off to get into her messy working clothes. “Call if you need me.”

Veronica could see the concern in her older sister’s gaze. Irritated that the chef had put a damper on her own plans, it was a much bigger concern for all of them if Susannah’s live stream rant put a real dent in the Hideaway’s reputation.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

Celeste gave her a faint smile. “I think we’ll make a full recovery.”

“Okay,” she said when her sister didn’t elaborate. “I’ll let you know when Jess calls.”

Celeste tapped her phone against her palm. “I just asked her to send everything through me.”

“Oh.” Veronica didn’t know how to respond.

She hadn’t expected to be shoved out of the whole process.

And she still wasn’t eager to engage with the celebrity chef after their troubling encounters.

So why was she disappointed? “I guess I’ll just keep to my schedule as if nothing’s gone off the rails. ”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Roni,” Celeste assured her, sounding more like their little sister. “It’s all going to work out.”

Veronica hoped she was right.