Reclaimed Hearts: A second chance, forced proximity romance

Echoes of Eleanor

The house was quiet by the time I got out of the bathroom. I jumped into the shower quickly, just to warm up, then pulled on some warm pajamas from the towel warmer.

I tiptoed out of the guest bedroom and down the hallway, not sure who or what I was going to find. Would Reid still be as pissed off as he was a few minutes ago? Had he calmed down?

I had. Once I had warmed up, all sorts of sense came back to me. I hadn’t meant to argue with Reid. We never really had before.

Noodle and Marshmallow were asleep on the couch, barely moving their heads to look at me as I passed them. Reid must have taken them for a long walk or something, because they were tuckered out.

As hungry as I was, I didn’t head for the kitchen. While in the shower, I remembered the clue I had wanted to work on. The one that I had all but forgotten about lately, except for telling Declan.

Declan, who had shown exactly zero interest in helping me solve it. Making me extremely embarrassed that I had even brought it up in the first place.

Eleanor had said to find someone I trusted implicitly. That person hadn’t been Declan. I had just been so wrapped up in what was going on, how he had just defended me against Grace, made me feel wanted and appreciated, that I made a mistake.

Hopefully, he had forgotten all about it by now.

I opted for the library. Maybe if I were around books and stuff, I would be able to think smarter.

It was a dumb idea, but at this point, I would try anything.

I avoided the chair Reid had occupied the other night and sat in the matching one in the corner. My phone stayed in my lap; I had already memorized the clue word for word.

Thinking outside of the box was my next step. I thought past the words itself and more about where they came from. Or who they came from.

Eleanor Covington. What kind of relationship did we really have? It was very maternal, even though Eleanor had never been a mother herself. She had been like a grandmother to all of us on the island, but for me, it was more personal than that.

However, the main part of our relationship had been within the confines of the mansion. Occasionally we’d see each other in town, but we really connected the most there.

Could that have anything to do with the clue? I had walked by a dozen staircases while working the Masquerade, wondering of their importance.

For Eleanor, the mansion and the entire island could be considered nostalgic. She had lived there all her life and had been one of the only people remaining on the island that knew an original Covington. Though Genevieve had passed the year before Eleanor was born, she still grew up with Charlotte—

I sat up straight, thinking about Charlotte. Charlotte and Eleanor. Eleanor and me. How she—

“Am I seeing things?” Reid’s voice interrupted my thought process and caused me to jump with fright in the chair.

My hand flew to my chest, my heart pounding behind my ribcage. “This is getting old. My heart can’t handle it,” I joked, even though he truly had scared the crap out of me. Every nerve ending in my body went into high-alert mode.

He seemed to be in a better mood. I didn’t want to disrupt that by saying anything about earlier, so I opted for my standby of cracking jokes again.

Reid chuckled, his tone low and deep, sending shivers through me. “It’s a big house. It’s bound to happen. Unless you want to wear one of those little bell collars like cats do.”

I narrowed my eyes and smirked at him. “You’re the one doing the sneaking right now. Maybe you should wear one.”

He let out another small laugh, and the tension in my shoulders relaxed slightly. “May I?” he asked, gesturing to the chair across from me.

Once again, the image of him raising his arms above his head, his abs on display, flashed through my mind. That chair held a memory I didn’t know if I’d ever get out.

Or if I wanted to.

“Um, sure.”

He sat down, crossing one ankle over the other knee and sitting back, his hands falling into his lap as he stared at me. “What are you up to? Reading anything good?”

I blinked a few times, then looked down at my empty hands. I held them up to show him I had no book in them, and he just laughed again.

“Guess not. Ever finish that Sage Patel novel?”

I scrunched my nose, trying to remember the name. “Oh, Tarak? Unfortunately not… sorry.”

He shook his head and waved me off.

That had been the last book we buddy read together. All last summer, we switched off books, him picking one, then me. We would get two copies, read them, then discuss. It was the only way he got me to read, as I wasn’t big into doing so for fun and not for a grade.

Thankfully, he usually chose really good books. They were mostly sci-fi or fantasy, or a mixture of both, but still captivating. I chose rom-coms, but he never complained. Not once.

But since we broke up… I hadn’t picked up a book again.

“I’m sorry, Mars. For yelling. And everything I said.”

All I could do was sit there and stare at him. I appreciated the apology, and of course I accepted it, but I was at a loss for words.

“What are you doing in the library then, if not reading?” he asked, changing the subject and saving me from sitting there in silence.

It felt like yesterday all over again. Sitting on the pool deck with Declan, thinking about Eleanor’s clue, telling him because I thought he was interested.

The only difference is that I knew Reid would be interested. He would help. He wouldn’t disengage the second it didn’t sound fun for him, like Declan had.

I made a mistake telling Declan. But telling Reid wouldn’t be the same mistake.

I took a deep breath and went for it. Reid was one of the smartest people I knew. I had just gotten a light bulb idea, and if I could run it past anyone, it would be him.

“If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone?” I started. It was a stupid question, because I knew he wouldn’t. The realization that I really didn’t have to ask versus praying that Declan wouldn’t say anything wasn’t lost on me.

He mimed zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key, then nodded, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his gaze on me intently. He didn’t have his glasses on yet, and the intense stare from his dark eyes held me captivated.

“You heard that Eleanor Covington died recently, right?”

He nodded again, but remained silent, allowing me to continue.

“I got a video from her the other day.” His brows raised in surprise, but I kept going. “It… was really sweet. It made me cry, actually. But that’s not the point. Right before I left for the Masquerade, I got another text from the same number. With a clue.”

His jaw dropped at that. He shook his head, as if to clear it, then ran his hands through his hair. “Okay, back up. What?”

I rewound and caught him up to speed with everything that had happened since I found out Eleanor had died. Once we got to the clue, I pulled out my phone to show him.

“That’s what I was doing when you came in. Trying to solve it. And I think I figured it out, but I want to see what you think.”

Reid’s fingers brushed against mine as he took the phone to study the message. A shock shot up through my arm. I sucked in a breath and held it while he fixed his eyes on the screen.

“It looks like we’re dealing with a—actually, tell me what you thought first,” he said, stopping himself as he handed me back the phone.

I clutched it in both hands and bit my lip. Suddenly, my idea seemed stupid.

“Well, I was thinking about Eleanor, and our friendship, and how it existed mostly in the mansion. Then I wondered what would be nostalgic for Eleanor, and Charlotte Covington came to mind. Then… Well, there’s one staircase that leads directly to a room. Just one. All the others in the mansion come up to hallways. But this one staircase, it’s not a main one. At the top is one specific room before opening into a hallway. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but…”

Reid’s eyes grew. He leaned even further forward, on the edge of his chair now, and reached out, laying a hand on my knee. I stared at it, his fingers burning into my skin. “And? What room is it?”

“Charlotte’s playroom,” I whispered. I cleared my throat before speaking again and tore my eyes away from where he touched me. “Normally, they only allow tourists to look at it from the door, but Eleanor brought me in there numerous times. She loved to show me around, telling me all about the toys, about Charlotte, about growing up in the mansion. It was one of her favorite rooms.”

His face lit up. “Mars! That’s genius! Honestly, an amazing catch. I was thinking of the stairs and key and maybe something under a staircase, but no, I think you’ve got it!”

I bit on my lip again and blushed, but my heart grew about five sizes in that moment. Reid was outstanding at giving compliments. And they were always genuine, too, not fake or superficial. If he praised you, he meant it.

“Wow, Marlowe. What a cool opportunity you’ve been given.” Reid sat back and folded his hands behind his head, the smile on his face even bigger than before. “It’s obvious that you were a huge part of Eleanor’s life and she really loved you.”

Tears prickled at the corner of my eyes. “I really loved her too,” I whispered back, trying not to think of it too much, or I would probably start crying.

Eleanor was the grandmother I wish I had sometimes. Even though I loved Grandmum, she wasn’t the maternal sort. She and I had a different sort of relationship than I had with Eleanor, and that was alright.

I wiped my eyes and glanced over at Reid. His face lit up, and he looked at me like it was the proudest moment of his life. But instead of sharing in his excitement, a yawn rifled through me. I covered my mouth and looked away, but a wave of sleepiness hit hard.

“I’m going to get some sleep,” I said sheepishly.

Reid stood, but allowed me out of the door first. “Are you going to go?” he asked as we got to the living room, where he would head upstairs and I down the opposite hall.

“Go where?” I asked, not following.

“Charlotte’s playroom. If it’s a scavenger hunt like you think, wouldn’t the next clue be there?”

Ideally, yes. But for some reason, my mind refused to let me hold on to the thought. What if it wasn’t the playroom? What if I was completely off base?

“What if you don’t try, Marlowe?” Reid said softly, his hand on my arm.

I hadn’t spoken out loud. But he must have known what I was thinking, anyway.

“Yeah… yeah, I guess I’m going to go.”

“Good,” he said with a gentle smile. “Proud of you. Goodnight.”

He started up the stairs, but I couldn’t just let him walk away like that. My heart gave a pull as I opened my mouth.

“Reid?”

He paused and turned, one hand on the railing. “Yeah?”

My eyes met his, the dark brown framed by his long lashes. “Do you want to go with me?”