Chapter Seven
chapter seven
ISLA
My sneakers squeak as I walk along the marble floor of the lobby. I dressed more appropriately today—a floral blue sundress and my white sneakers. This is one of my favorite dresses. It has those frilly, off-the-shoulder sleeves that make me feel all girly and pretty. It feels perfect for my first day exploring Ruby Cove.
I make my way over to the concierge, picking up my feet as I walk so they don’t squeak again. With my luck, I’d trip and fall flat on my face. Not the best start to the day.
“ Ciao ,” I greet the handsome concierge. He smiles in response. “How long does it take to walk into town from here?” I ask.
“About twenty-three minutes from here, ma’am.”
Oddly specific, but okay.
It’s Sunday so I’m not sure if anything will be open.
“Is there much going on today? Are the shops open?” I check before making the twenty-three-minute walk just to find out that nothing’s open. With the chaos of yesterday, we never got any food for our room. I woke up this morning with a grumbling tummy after only eating so much as the lemon slice from the edge of my glass last night. We didn’t go back to the food table for the rest of the night. Rafael was hovering and May didn’t want to deal with his “bratty teenage girl attitude” again.
“It’s your lucky day.” Caio’s voice cuts through the air as he approaches me. He makes sure to greet the concierge before turning back to me. “The town is hosting its annual fair today.”
“Will there be food?” It’s all I can think about.
“There will be.”
“Sold,” I say. “Can you please point me in the right direction?”
“I could…or I could accompany you?” he says. “If you wanted company that is? I was going to make my way there at some point today anyway. This way you won’t be alone on your walk.” He smiles, but I catch the flicker of doubt on his face—the complete opposite to his confident demeanor from last night. I guess I had little choice in his company last night. But today, I could easily say no, and his eyes hold a hint of anticipation that I will do just that. “Speaking of, where’s your other half?”
“May? She’s in hangover recovery mode.” Which looks a lot like her yelling at anyone who’s in her vicinity until her headache eases and she’s eaten an entire loaf of bread. I took the safer option of leaving the suite with a plan to return with baked goods. “Shouldn’t you be working?” I ask.
“Part of my job means being involved with the community. Plus, I spent the morning going through CVs. I need a break.” I nod mindlessly and try not to blush at the mention of job applications.
“So?” He puts his arm out for me in question, a mirror of his actions last night. I follow his lead, slipping my arm through his and nodding in agreement. There’s something about the look in his eyes that makes it impossible for me to say no to him.
He opens the door for me as we slip out into the summer air. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how clean it feels as it fills my lungs.
We walk in a comfortable silence for a while. I can’t help but admire the peace that seems to have settled over this place. It makes me never want to leave.
Cars only seldom drive by, allowing the symphony of leaves shuffling when the breeze floats through the trees and birds singing as they fly overhead to take center stage.
“So, looks like May and I have jobs for the summer,” I say, interrupting the peaceful silence.
“Already? You must have made some good impressions last night.”
“It’s at Marina’s,” I smile.
“Why am I not surprised?” He laughs. “I guess that means you won’t be needing the cleaning job then.” I blush this time, and make eye contact with my feet, pointedly avoiding his gaze.
“Unfortunately not,” I say, trying to play it cool and failing miserably. But he just nudges my side with his elbow, letting me off, but not before I catch sight of his bright smirk.
“Anyway, now I can truly pay you back for last night, and we’ll pay our way until we can find somewhere else to stay,” I say.
His eyebrows turn down and his smile slips. “You don’t need to find somewhere else to stay, Isla. I meant it when I said you can stay as long as you like.” His tone is serious, and he looks me dead in the eyes as if to make sure I understand. Why is he so stubborn about this? Though I guess I can’t say much.
It’s not like I’m not used to the money. My brother is a pilot, and my dad owns an accountancy firm in New York, so I know money. I just don’t want any handouts. I don’t want to depend on anyone. May is the only person in my life who hasn’t let me down when I’ve depended on her. Everyone else has— my parents, Brandon, even Miles. I love my brother, but he left me behind when he went to aviation school, and he never came back. Since then, he’s always been too far away to truly rely on.
“Okay, we’ll stay,” I say just to get him to look anywhere else. “I’m still going to pay you though.” His head snaps back to mine and suddenly the pavement is the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen. “It’s a nice path, isn’t it?” I say, gesturing to the ground beneath us. He scoffs a laugh under his breath, dropping the argument, and I take it as a win.
Eventually we reach a field littered with gazebos. People are everywhere, going back and forth socializing in between stalls. They’re like ants running around a maze and I’m standing at the entrance.
“Not what you were expecting?” Caio asks, noting my surprised face.
“It’s bigger than I expected,” I admit.
“When this town does something, they go all out. You won’t find one shop in town open right now because everyone is here.” Well, that answers that question. It’s not hard to believe though, considering the “low-key town get together” last night.
The smell of cinnamon drifts towards me and I don’t hesitate another second. My arm naturally finds Caio’s as we make our way down the first row. There’s a mixture of food, art, crafts, and music around us. But all I can do is follow the direction my nose is taking me in, like one of those drug dogs at the airport. I reach a stall with a glass cabinet filled with baked treats. My mouth waters as I feast my eyes on the danishes, croissants, and tarts sitting there just waiting to be devoured. They’re so perfect, they look artificial shining under the bright sun.
“Hey, Vanessa,” Caio greets the lady handing out the goods.
“ Ciao, baby! You want something?” she asks, gesturing to the food.
“Thank you, but I’ve had breakfast. I think she could do with something though.” He nods his head in my direction.
Vanessa looks me up and down with affection before coming around the side of the stand to wrap me in a hug. “I couldn’t make it last night, but I heard all about the gorgeous woman Caio was seen with. You’re the talk of the town, missy.” She runs her hands down my arm before taking my hand in hers. “It’s lovely to finally meet you, Isla.” She says it like I’ve been here for ages. How did she already hear about me? This town talks fast.
“You too,” I smile.
She moves back around the counter and starts filling a bag with pastries before passing it over to me and shooing us off when Caio tries to pay her for it.
We somehow manage to find a picnic table to sit down at in the middle of the crowds.
“Vanessa is Marina’s mum,” Caio says as I start unpacking the bag. I mindlessly take a bite of a fruit tart.
“Mmmm and the best baker in town. Oh my god.” This is fucking delicious.
I look back to her and can immediately see the resemblance—the dark waves in her hair and warm smile that is mirrored in her daughter.
Caio laughs at my facial expressions. “She owns the bakery on Main. Can I safely assume you’ll be visiting often?”
I nod vigorously. This woman is about to be my new best friend. She must be an angel to be able to create something so heavenly.
Caio is failing miserably at holding in a laugh.
“Why are you laughing at me?” I ask while looking for my next culprit in the paper bag.
“No, I’m not laughing.” He rubs a hand over his mouth, trying to hide his amused expression.
“You’re a bad liar.”
The laugh slips from his lips. “I’m sorry, I just...it’s nice to see you enjoying it,” he says.
I take another chomp of the best chocolate croissant my taste buds have ever had the privilege of touching and have to hold back the orgasmic groan that wants to burst out of me. My focus is solely on the pastry, but I can feel Caio’s gaze hotter than the sun as it burns into me. I lift my eyes to meet his and catch the smile teasing the corner of his mouth.
We just sit there for a moment. I can’t tear my gaze from his, but then he reaches over to me, and the world switches to slow motion as he wipes my cheek and comes away with a smudge of chocolate on the tip of his thumb. I stare at him dumbfounded as he casually puts his thumb in his mouth and sucks the chocolate off.
Fucking hell.
I look around to see if anyone else saw that, but people just pass us by. I look back and I can feel my cheeks heating. My mind is blank for how I’m supposed to act in this situation. His eyes glitter from under his dark lashes as he smirks at me. Mr. Caio, ever the gentleman, just wiped chocolate off my face, sucked it off his thumb, and then smirked at me.
He speaks first. “Well, are you going to share?”
I’ve never been a big cheese girl, but I’m suddenly finding myself wishing that I was. I’m sitting at a table with four other girls and Caio is tying a blindfold around the back of my head.
“Okay, so all you need to do is smell the cheese I give you and make a guess as to what it is, okay?” he says as if this is the most normal thing in the world.
Meryll from the cheese stand caught us as we were walking by, insisting she needed another team for the cheese sniffing competition.
A cheese sniffing competition.
May isn’t going to believe me when I tell her about this one.
“Yeah, okay,” I respond. We are so going to lose.
A horn is blown. “Go!”
“Okay, here,” Caio says.
I move my nose around trying to locate the cheese and I knock straight into it. “Ow!” Why did that hurt?
“Don’t move, I’ll bring it to you,” Caio laughs. I almost jump when I feel a hand at the back of my head steadying me in place.
I take a good whiff and it just smells like…cheese. I don’t know. My knowledge of cheeses is extremely basic.
“Cheddar?” I ask.
“No!” I hear Merryl beside me.
I run through the list of cheeses I know in my head.
Blue cheese. Ew.
Parmesan.
Those have distinct smells I feel like I’d be able to identify them easily enough.
Brie, Camembert...does cream cheese count?
“Okay, what about this one?”
I can barely smell anything. “I don’t know. Uhh...Swiss?”
Meryll makes an angry buzzer sound. “Wrong!”
Why the fuck does this feel so serious all of a sudden?
“Okay, you’ve got this one, Isla,” Caio says with false confidence.
I take a sniff while Merryl announces the points the other girls have racked up beside me. Caio should’ve picked a better partner.
Wait, this one smells familiar. Maybe this one is Swiss? Or...no, it’s got more to it than that. “Feta?”
“Yes!” Caio shouts. “Okay, another one, you’ve got this.” He sounds excited and it makes me laugh. This is ridiculous.
I recognize the smell of the next cheese as soon as it’s at my nose. “Oh! Oh, Parmesan!” I’m basically shouting now. The teams beside me are amping up as well but I focus in on Caio’s voice amongst the chaos.
“Yes! You’re catching up, come on.”
We go through three more rounds, and I manage to identify every one, surprisingly overtaking my competition and landing Caio and me in second place. We walked away with a plushie roll of cheese that’s only mildly smaller than the two girls who won first place got.
“You really impressed me there.” Caio looks down at me with some sense of pride before stealing the plushie cheese from my arms. He throws the toy up into the air, spinning it around with every toss.
“Why, thank you. I really thought we were going to come last, but I do love a good redemption story.”
A warmth settles in my stomach as Caio lets out a chuckle. I’m coming to enjoy those far more than I should.
I find myself walking slower as we make our way away from the cheese stand. I’m distracted by the way his forearms flex the tiniest bit as his fingers release the cheese toy up into the air, then watching the way his eyes track the movement, making sure not to drop the toy on the grass beneath our feet.
He’s different than I assumed when I first met him. In fact, he’s a far cry from the Fernando May and I assumed he was. He’s softer, and he exudes confidence, but this morning when he asked to come with me, he almost seemed hesitant. I should be hesitant myself. I should’ve said no, but there’s just something about him that makes me curious to learn more. I know I should be staying as far away as possible, but I couldn’t say no. I’m going to hope that’s a one-time thing, or I might find myself in some trouble.