Chapter 21
Sunny: You like him.
Pepper: No, I don’t.
Sunny: You so do.
Pepper: I like puppies, ice cream, and sunbathing. Not Chase Walker.
Sunny: Yeah but none of those things have big muscles.
Pepper: Big muscles are overrated.
Sunny: Said no one ever.
Pepper: What would you know about that?
Sunny: I’m 15. All I think about are boy’s muscles.
Pepper: You need to go and touch grass.
PEPPER
“Gee whizzlepops, this place is huge,” Sunny mutters as we stand before the large sprawling home that sits low and wide amongst the dunes, a wraparound private boardwalk cutting through long wisps of beach grass.
This place screams quiet luxury, with its cedar-shingle exterior bleached to a bone grey and multi-gabled roof with pitched sections meshing together at clean angles.
“Let yourself in, it should be open,” Chase calls out from behind, where he’s unloading our luggage.
I hear a sharp intake of breath to my right, and look to see Mr. Clay limping slightly, his walking sticks shifting on the sandstone gravel beneath our feet.
“Can I help you, Terrence?” I’m determined to try and make a clean slate of it with him after the debacle in the car. If leveraging his unauthorized cat is what it takes, then so be it—the one who happens to be cradled in Sunny’s arms.
“No,” he snaps a little, but quickly follows up. “Thank you. I’m just stiff from the journey.”
“Okay, well you go ahead and stretch your legs. We’ll take Lord Bartholemew here inside and get him settled.” I turn to Sunny and mouth, “He said thank you!” She looks almost as shocked as I feel.
“No, Bart!” Sunny tuts and wrestles the struggling ginger ball of fur in her arms back into line. The yowling had become so much that we had let him out during the journey, and he spent most of it curled up on Sunny’s lap. “We need a leash for this dude.”
“He’s a feline, not some common hound,” Mr. Clay grumbles, the sounds of his canes clashing with stone telling me he’s making his way over to the steps that lead up to the decking.
The sound of tires crunching on gravel reaches us, and we turn to see two sleek black cars pull into the long driveway. Chase’s head pops up over the top of the trunk, too.
“What the hell,” I hear him rumble quietly as the two SUVs park next to us. The windows are too blacked out to see the occupants clearly, but when they begin to disembark, I recognize all of them. His sister-in-law greets him with a wide smile, her brunette ponytail swishing as she walks over.
“What are you doing here?” Chase asks her, leaning down to give her a brief hug. “And you!” He directs the latter at a beautiful redhead that I only know because she was pinned to my investigation board two days ago.
Chloe Guerra beams, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “We didn’t know you were coming!”
Two tall and formidable men appear behind them, both handsome and with dark hair, one of whom is the size of a bear and has his two young sons in each arm.
The other I recognise to be Zeke Guerra, Chloe’s husband, and a boy I presume to be their son follows close behind.
It’s hard to judge his age, but I’d place him under ten.
“Comms?” Chase swivels his head between them. “Or are you determined to leave me out of these things?”
“Oh, give it a rest, we’re only here for two nights—it was a last-minute decision.” His sister-in-law swats his shoulder affectionately.
“Mommy, Mommy!” The young girl I recognise leaps and bounds over the gravel, nearly tripping in her strappy jelly sandals. She skids to a halt when she sees her uncle, her eyes going wide. “Uncle Chase!” she roars, running into his legs at collision speed.
“Hey, kiddo!” He picks her up, flipping her over in his arms and causing her to let out a torrent of giggles.
Jesus, aren’t these lot just the picture of domestic bliss? Something I don’t want to examine too closely aches in my chest. I’m witnessing the kind of family system that I never had: uncles, aunties, kids, and friends that become family along the way.
“Come on, Macey. Let’s get inside.” Mason Walker speaks, and by default it comes out as a growl. Something tells me that’s how he always sounds, too. What surprises me is the unmistakably arctic glare he affords his brother, his face like cold granite.
“Missed you too, bud,” Chase flings in his brother's direction as he storms away, sarcasm dripping from every word while he releases his niece back onto the floor. She runs off after her father and no one in the group bats an eye at this, which tells me it’s not an abnormal interaction.
Light blue eyes land on us, and I feel my back stiffen to be faced with a woman so intimidatingly beautiful. In my experience, the beautiful ones are always the meanest.
“Oh, hi!” The redhead smiles at me and Sunny, then walks swiftly over the gravel to greet us, pulling us both into a warm welcome hug.
I’m too stunned to move, my arms floppy and useless noodles at my side.
“Oh, cute cat!” She squeals when she sees Lord Bartholemew in Sunny’s arms, cooing and scratching his chin.
“Um, hi,” I respond weakly.
“I’m Chloe, and this is my husband Zeke.” The woman motions to the stoically silent man with a scar running down his upper lip. “And this is our son, Diego.” Chloe beckons softly to the boy currently glued to his father’s side, and he hesitantly comes forward.
“Hi, Diego.” I smile, something about his timid nature reminding me of a much younger Sunny. He flashes me a smile that is distinctly gappy at the sides.
“We’ve got a little one in the car too, but she’s sound asleep—typical, considering she screamed most of the way here!” Chloe snorts, placing her hand on her son’s shoulder.
“This is Pepper.” Chase appears out of nowhere at my side, and only then do I realize I haven’t introduced myself. “And this is her sister Sunny.” Sunny attempts to wave around the struggling cat.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Pepper. We didn’t get introduced before.” Mia Walker appears and again I get folded into a warm hug. These people are way too huggy for my liking. My instinct is to hiss like a cat until they stop touching me, but I manage to resist.
“Good to meet you all,” I reply, thinking that I would have double-guessed my decision to come had I known that everyone in the Forbes richest list would be here.
One of the car’s back doors opens again, and an older woman I instantly recognize steps down onto the gravel, clutching a champaign-colored shawl around her shoulders against a breeze that doesn’t exist.
Esther Walker is undeniably a beautiful woman, but somehow, today she looks awful. Her eyes are sunken, hair slightly ruffled, and she even seems unsteady on her feet.
“Mom,” Chase says in alarm, shooting forward to help her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, darling, thank you.” She whips her hand away from him quickly, and if I’m not greatly mistaken, a streak of something that looks a whole lot like pain travels across Chase’s warm brown eyes. “Just tired, I need to lie down.”
“Okay, of course. Let me help you—”
“Who the fuck is this rude old asshole in our house?” The unmistakable gravelly tenor of Mason Walker travels loudly across the driveway.
***
“You okay?”
I jump, having been so entranced in the rhythmic swishing of long grass and the crash of the ocean at the end of the private beach that I didn’t hear Chase approach.
“Yeah, I’m good.” I tuck my legs tighter against my chest, the natural wood decking brushing roughly against my bare feet. “Just needed a minute.”
“I love them to pieces, but they can be a lot sometimes.” Chase takes the spot beside me, offering me one of the chilled green bottles in his hand. I take one gratefully and swig a mouthful of ice-cold beer.
It’s beautiful here, and even in the late dusk of a summer evening, still hot as balls. If it weren’t for the brisk ocean breeze, I’d be sticky with perspiration.
“They’re great,” I say truthfully, fixing my eyes on the dark rolling waves that crash and foam on the sandy shoreline.
They really are, too. The kind of chaotic family who love fiercely, laugh, enjoy each other's company, and support each other.
Even his mom came out of her shell somewhat, taking special care to ask Sunny about her likes and dislikes, asking the chef to prepare her favorite food—which is just an abundance of pizza.
The more time I spend with them, the more apparent the gaping hole in my chest becomes. I rub at it absentmindedly, trying to fathom my reaction.
“What’s going on in that magnificent brain of yours, Peppercorn?” Chase bumps my shoulder lightly with his, his long, tanned legs hanging over the edge of the decking in black denim shorts. I force myself not to look at the definition of his muscles there or the dark sprinkle of masculine hair.
“It’s nothing—silly, really.” I shake my head and take another swig, feeling the zesty bubbles pop on my tongue.
“You don’t have to tell me, but I’m sure it’s not silly, whatever it is.
” He takes a swig of his own beer and the night air is punctuated by a burst of warm laughter from inside.
I’m not sure if it’s the salt air, or the three bottles of beer that I’ve already consumed, but I feel the truth bubble up uncontrollably.
“It’s hard for me to be around families, sometimes,” I whisper, hopeful that the pitiful admission might get whisked away on the wind. “It’s something I’ve never had, except with Sunny, of course.”
I release my legs and dangle them over the edge of the decking before my thighs begin to stick together, the flowy material of my sage linen dress dusting over my thighs.
“That makes sense,” Chase responds evenly, running his thumb over the curling label edge on his bottle. “I don’t know your situation exactly, but what I can tell you is that a family who doesn't love you right is not a family worth having.”
“You mean I’m better off without?” I lift one eyebrow and risk a glance sideways.