Chapter 3
Reeve
"So what do you do for work?" Jett asks me from across the dining room table.
"Oh, you know, nothing too exciting," I answer, taking a bite out of the grilled chicken salad.
Granny's eyes sparkle, and she lets out a loud cackle. "He's being modest, boys. Reeve's a wee adventurer. Explores some of the most remote and exotic places in the world. Gets to see things most people never have."
That's met with a raised eyebrow from Wilkin. "An adventurer?" he asks, cocking his head as he takes me in across the massive table.
"Is that even a real thing?" Jett adds.
Wilkin's raised eyebrow drops into a frown.
I chuckle and give a small nod. "It is a real thing. But Granny tends to make it sound more exciting than it actually is."
Granny smacks my chest with her napkin. "Oh, pish. I'm underselling it if anything. He's being modest."
My neck warms with self-consciousness. We weren't given a lot of information about these guys, but we do know they're big shots from LA. I'm a college dropout who uses his dead adoptive parents' trust fund to travel around the world and check out some cool stuff. I'm hardly in their league.
"I'm not being modest," I correct her. "I'm being real."
"Pish posh." Granny leans over the table to speak directly to Wilkin and Jett. "Get him to show you the films he makes. Then you'll see what I mean."
I let out a small cough, hoping she'll get the hint to zip it.
I love Granny more than anyone in this world, and I know she means well, but I don't like talking about myself.
An anomaly in my family. My two brothers and my sister?
Main characters in the lives of everyone around them as well as in their own.
"So how do you guys know each other?" I ask since that wasn't mentioned in the information we were supplied.
"We…work together," Wilkin answers after a pause that feels a little longer than necessary.
My initial thought was that they might be brothers, or at least related, since they look a little similar. Same shade of blond, same lean physiques, heck, they're even the same height. But there are signs they both—actually, mainly Jett—give off that suggest a distance between them.
Like Jett literally striding out of Wilkin's way when he passed him in the kitchen.
The way he deliberately avoids making eye contact with Wilkin.
Him pulling his chair a few inches away from Wilkin when we sat down for lunch.
Don't know if it's just a me thing, but I notice small details like that.
A work relationship explains some of the animosity, especially if Jett works for Wilkin and Wilkin's a nightmare. Not that he strikes me as that. Seems too calm and laid-back to be a dragon manager. Then again, I met them less than thirty minutes ago, so what the heck do I know?
After lunch, Granny suggests I take them to the guesthouse, where they'll be staying with me, to get settled in.
As soon as we step out the back door, Jett says to Wilkin, "Are you sure you don't want to stay with Penny? Wouldn't want her getting lonely in this big house all by herself."
Wilkin's lips curve into a smug grin. "Or you could stay with her. You two seemed to hit it off."
I lift my arm and sniff my armpit. "Do I give off an odor I'm not aware of?"
"You smell great," he assures me then turns back to Jett, narrowing his eyes at him. There is definitely some work-related drama going on there. You could cut the tension with a knife. "I'm going with Reeve. You're free to do whatever you like."
"I'm coming, too."
And with that sorted—I think?—I lead them to the guesthouse.
In silence.
I show them around the place first before taking them upstairs to their rooms.
They don't say a word to each other the entire time.
Coming home to spend the summer with Granny is usually the highlight of my year. I have a sinking feeling this summer might be the exception to the rule.