“What?” She sat up a little. “I . . .”
“Easy . . .” Zoey came over to hug her, and Elle heard her breath hitch. “You’re safe now.”
“I didn’t know.” She closed her eyes and felt tears building. “I thought . . .”
“You scared the crap out of us. All of us.” Zoey held on to her tightly.
“I seriously need a drink now.”
Zoey chuckled. “Maybe just a little.” She walked over and poured them each a small glass of wine.
“What would have happened to this place, to you guys, if . . .”
“Don’t think about it,” Zoey said, waving her glass. Elle noticed it was a lot fuller than her own. “But I think we would have eventually picked up the pieces and tried to continue on. Our hearts are in this place.” Zoey smiled and looked toward the windows. “More than just ours. Everyone who works here is invested in making this place great. When you pitched this idea to us, I never thought . . . I thought it would be great, don’t get me wrong, but I thought it would just be . . . a job. You know?”
“Yeah.” Elle lifted her glass in a small toast. “It’s more than that.”
“Yes, it is.”
“It’s the place where I found Dylan.” Zoey’s smile changed. “The place where we’re going to build our first home. He proposed.”
“What?” She jerked the wine glass, and if it had been full, she would have spilled it all over herself.
“I was going to tell everyone . . . after we bought a ring, but . . .” Zoey glanced down to the unicorn ring that sat on her finger where a wedding band would go, and Elle could see her eyes grow dreamy. “Seeing as you almost died. I made an exception and told you before the others.”
“I guess another toast is in order.” Elle held up her glass. “Congrats.”
“Now I’ll have to tell the others tonight.” Zoey smiled. “I’ll text them and tell everyone to meet here after dinner.”
While Zoey pulled out her phone, Elle thought about Hannah and Owen.
“Has Hannah talked to you yet?” she asked. “About Owen?”
Zoey frowned. “No, there’s something else going on there. I don’t know what, but . . .”
“Let’s get her drunk,” she suggested.
“You sneak!” Zoey accused with a laugh.
“What?” Elle held up her hands. “It’s the only way sometimes to break that outer shell of hers.”
“I’ll arrange everything.” Zoey stood. “You need some more rest.”
“I’m tired of being tired.” She pulled the blanket back around her.
“You sound like you’re five,” Zoey joked. “Sleep. I’ve got some scheming to do.”
The next time Elle woke up, she convinced Zoey to let her take a bath, so long as she left the bathroom door cracked open so Zoey could make sure she hadn’t drowned.
Elle washed her hair and, more importantly, shaved her legs for the first time in days. It felt wonderful to pull on a fresh pair of yoga pants and a clean tank top.
When she stepped out into the living room again, the coffee table was full of food and drinks. Hannah and Scar were already there; they were just waiting for Aubrey to get the party started.
“She had some issues down at the pool house,” Zoey explained.
“Anything . . .” Elle started, but she stopped when everyone turned to her with the same look on their eyes. The look that said, “Not your problem.”
“Okay, geez.” She held up her hands. “I get it. I’m off duty for now.”
Less than ten minutes later, Aubrey rushed in. “Okay, seriously, I’m sorry.” She picked up a full glass of wine and downed it like it was grape juice. “There, now I’m caught up.” She sat down in a chair and put her feet up. “What are we talking about?”
“The Costa men,” Zoey supplied. “Dylan has gotten a few updates from Owen since he left camp.”
“And?” Aubrey prompted, seemingly unaware of Zoey’s brief glance at Hannah.
Zoey said, “The phone call to Elle was a fluke. They had word that he’d been spotted in one of his buildings in London, but after that . . . he just disappeared again.” Zoey turned to Elle. “You haven’t heard from him again?”
“I only found my phone the other day with the stuff I wore to the hospital . . .” She pulled it out of her pocket. “No new calls.”
“Where could he be?” Zoey asked. Elle could hear the frustration in her tone.
“I’m sure he has his reasons for staying out of touch,” Elle added, causing all eyes in the room to turn to her. She didn’t know exactly where he was at this moment; Leo had given her a clue where he’d been when he’d called her. He’d told her a basic outline of what he was going through, why he was hiding, but he’d confided in her and made her promise, for his safety and for that of his sons, not to tell anyone. Including her best friends. Did that mean that he believed someone was watching them? She shivered at that thought. As much as she wanted to tell her friends everything, she would never put them in danger.
“What do you know?” Hannah asked.
“Me?” She sipped the rest of the half glass of wine she’d been allowed and thought for a moment that she could trust her friends, but then she remembered Leo’s words: “Not even your Wildflowers. The walls have ears, and this is the most important secret you’ll have to keep in your entire life. Lives depend on it.” Swallowing the answers down, she answered, “Nothing.”
“You’re lying.” Zoey sat up straight. “Why?”
She glanced around. “I promised I wouldn’t say anything. Besides, they’re not my secrets to tell.”
Aubrey jumped in. “Secrets? He told you where he was?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not that—well, except that he had been in Europe at that time. I doubt he’s still there.” She thought about Leo being spotted at one of his London buildings. He could have easily called her from there and moved on after.
“What is going on? This is their father we’re discussing. And, oh, yeah,” Zoey said sarcastically, “he’s been missing for more than six months.”
“No, he hasn’t,” Elle said. “He’s been . . . busy, yes, but not missing. Just because he didn’t check in—”
“How would you have felt if Joe had left without a word for six months?” Zoey asked.
Elle hadn’t thought of it like that before. It would have killed her knowing her grandfather had disappeared and that someone might know more about where he’d gone. But this wasn’t her grandfather. This was Leo—what he’d told her about his reasons for disappearing had made sense and scared her, especially now, since she had fallen for Liam. “He made me promise.” She knew she sounded like a child.
Hannah poured herself some more wine. “Is there anything you can tell them and us?”
“He’s not missing. He’s doing . . . something important, and . . .” She thought about it. “He’ll be back by the end of next month.”
She didn’t want to scare her friends by telling them that lives depended on her keeping this secret. She’d doubted Leo’s story at first and still didn’t know if it was true, but she just couldn’t chance it—not if it meant that Liam could be in danger.
Hannah stood up, taking her glass with her. “Why couldn’t you have just told them that?”
“Because, I—”
“Don’t say promised.” Hannah turned on her. “Owen left because . . .”
Everyone was silent.
“Because I didn’t, couldn’t, tell him about his father?” Elle filled in.
“Well, yes.” Hannah waved her glass.
“He would have left anyway. He was planning to before Elle got the phone call,” Zoey said.
“Yes, but . . .” Hannah drank again. “Because of that call, he believed he could . . .” She set the glass down. “I don’t know, find him faster.”
“You’re mad at me?” Elle said, feeling her heart aching.
“A little, but . . .” Her friend’s eyes scanned hers, and then sh
e watched as Hannah relaxed. “I get it. You can’t tell. You were always good at keeping promises.”
“If I could tell you . . .” She looked around the room at all her friends, her family. “Believe me, I would.”
“I’m not mad at you.” Hannah rushed over to her side. “Not really. But I am pissed at Owen.” She sat next to her. “That bastard left me without even saying a single word to me.”
“Are you okay?” Elle asked, taking her hand.
“I’m pissed,” Hannah said, standing back up.
“So, have you called him and told him yet?” Zoey asked.
“No.” Hannah shook her head quickly. “No way.”
“Why not? In this day and age, you don’t have to sit around waiting patiently for him to come calling. Go.” Zoey waved her glass again. “Not right now, but tomorrow. Go to Destin and show up at his office building and demand he talk to you.”
“What would I say?” Hannah sank down on the edge of the sofa. “‘Hey, you didn’t say goodbye to me’?”
“You should go and conveniently bump into him,” Aubrey suggested, earning her looks. “What? It happens all the time in the movies.”
“Cheesy movies.” Scar shook her head. “What about going to him under the pretense of giving him more information about his dad?”
“I have an idea.” Zoey sat up slowly. “Elle, you have an appointment with the lawyers next week, right?”
“Yes, I was going . . .” She frowned. “Their office is in Paradise Investments’ main building—downtown Destin.” She turned to Hannah. “Since I haven’t fully recovered from my bout of meningitis, I think I’ll send a representative from the camp instead.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“You did what?”
After lunch, Liam had found Dylan swimming laps when he’d shown up at the pool bar.
“I sold my condo.” Dylan smiled up at him.
“That soon?” He edged closer to the pool, wishing he had time for a dip. The summer heat had hit full force that day, and already he had sweat dripping down his back. It was just past noon.
He chuckled. “I got full price too.”
“Where are you going to live?” he asked.
“Here, stupid.” Dylan splashed water in his direction.
“In the cabin?” He shook his head.
“No, now we can start building our own place.” Dylan pulled himself out of the water.
“But I thought . . .” What? That he’d changed his mind? “That it would take longer.”
“What about you?” Dylan asked. “You’re planning on sticking around here.” He dried his hair with a towel, then shook it like a dog for good measure. “Planning on gaining a few new roommates?”
He shook his head, but the tree house popped into his head. A plan formed. “What are you doing for the next few days?”
“What do you have in mind?” Dylan sat on the edge of a pool chair.
“Some manual labor.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ve got a couple buddies that owe me.” He started sending text messages to a few of his local friends.
“What do you have in mind?” Dylan asked again.
“Elle has a tree house. It would be nice to turn it into something . . . better and maybe bigger before she’s back on her feet.”
Dylan was silent for a while. “Have you talked to Aiden about this?”
“Good idea. I’ll message him.” He added a new text and got one back almost immediately. “He’s meeting us over there now. Seems like he’s eager to do something special for Elle while she’s down.”
“Lead the way,” Dylan said, pulling on his shirt and tugging on his shoes.
“Don’t you want to change first?” He nodded to his brother’s flip-flops.
“Show me what you’re thinking first, then I’ll go change.” Dylan slapped him on the shoulder.
He stopped by the bar and filled Britt in quickly.
“Go. I’ve got this tonight. You do what you need to.” She waved him away. “Elle deserves something nice after what she’s been through.”
He walked with his brother down the pathway and met Aiden at the base of the tree house.
“I’m thinking we can take the next few days to make some improvements,” he told them.
“Fixing this place up was on Elle’s radar,” Aiden said. “Elle didn’t want to siphon any funds from the camp, so all I could do was fix the stairs.”
“We won’t be spending any of the camp money,” Liam said. “I’ve got this covered myself.”
“What kind of improvements are you thinking?”
“What did Elle have in mind?” he asked.
“I brought the plans . . .” Aiden started to pull them out.
“Let’s head up; we can talk about them in the space. I’ve done some drawings too.” He pulled the stairs down.
Dylan looked up at the tree house. “I’ve been by this area a dozen times in the last week. I never knew it was even here.”
“That’s what Joe wanted for Elle. A place she could disappear to when things got too . . . much,” Aiden said.
“You knew her grandfather?” Liam asked the other man as they started up the stairs.
“Yeah, he was my second uncle . . . or whatever . . . my grandmother was his sister,” Aiden answered when they stepped into the cabin. “Elle and I are second cousins.”
“I didn’t know that.” Liam looked at the man now. There were similarities—the blond hair and blue eyes—but for the most part, he never would have guessed the connection.
“Nice,” Dylan broke in as he glanced around the tree house. “Good space.”
“Yeah.” Aiden smiled. “Here’s what I was thinking . . .” He laid the plans out on the small table, and Liam spread his out next to Aiden’s.
Less than two hours later, half a dozen men were working on clearing everything out of the tree house and beginning the gut. The supplies to start building the extension were due to arrive first thing in the morning. Aiden had shifted around the supplies meant for the next cabin to go to the tree house instead. He’d replace the order for wood, which would delay the cabin’s construction by a few days, but Liam thought it would be worth it.
He figured at the rate they were going, with a few more days working like they were, the place would be done.
“Where do you need me?” he asked Aiden after taking a break to check on the sleeping Elle.
“We can’t hoist the new floor beams until the truck gets here tomorrow, but you can cut out where the door will be for the new room.” He nodded upward. “The saw is already up there. I’ve marked where you’ll cut.”
“Sounds good.” He looked around.
“None of this would be possible without your friends.” Aiden motioned toward the crew. “I guess it pays to have friends who own their own building companies.”
Liam chuckled. “Yeah, they’re really Owen’s friends, but I helped them out one summer. So they owed me.”
“They’ll be welding the new floor joists on site. Rob says the metal will arrive tomorrow. He thinks they can even replace the stairs going up to the roof with aluminum-framed stairs as well. They’ll curve around the tree this time, taking up a little more space. Your drawings really helped this entire process. Elle said you had a few other ideas for tree houses?”
“Yeah.” He glanced up at the frame hanging up in the air. “It helped to have a good solid frame in place already.”
“Joe didn’t cut corners,” Aiden said. “On anything. The electricians should be here tomorrow. As well as the plumbers.”
“About that. We had a thought . . . I’ll show you. Come on up.” Liam motioned to him, and Aiden followed him up the stairs.
The tree house was totally gutted. Even the small kitchen was bare. Wires and plumbing stuck out from the walls. The only things still in place were the toilet and shower.
“We’re going to cover all of the walls with reclaimed wood like you suggested. Except in the bathroom and kitchen—we’ll
patch those stucco cement walls and slap a fresh coat of paint on it. Which got us thinking . . . since we’re building a new room, for the bedroom, there’s enough space here for a tub along this wall. The windows won’t be here until the day after tomorrow, which gives us plenty of time to hoist a Jacuzzi tub up here,” Aiden said.
“Can the structure support it?” Liam asked.
“Rob seems to think so. He’s the engineer, so . . .” Aiden glanced around. “Then, we’ll separate the kitchen and bathroom instead of this space being one giant room. You’ll have a nice kitchen with a sitting area and the privacy of a full bathroom.”
“Do it.” Liam smiled as he looked around the space.
They were making a lot of changes in the old cabin: new wood-paneled wall coverings and hardwood flooring, along with fresh paint. The old fridge would be replaced with a full-size one, and the old kitchen cabinets had been yanked out, and new ones would be arriving in two days. But he questioned whether the new extension would be done in time.
Rob and his crew claimed they could have it all done in less than five days. Liam just had to figure out how to keep Elle away until everything was finished. The way he figured it, with the help of her friends, they could keep her busy and away from the tree house long enough.
For the next hour, he cut a massive doorway in the existing tree house. A crew of seven people, including his brother Dylan, worked around the place, preparing it for the new extension that would be hoisted up in two days.
They were building the skeleton of the new addition on the ground; then they would finish the rest once it was up in the air.
“We might have a problem,” Aiden said shortly before dark.
“What?” He knew things were running too smoothly so far.
“I got a call. Elle is awake and wanting to come stay here while she recuperates.” Aiden ran his hands through his hair.
“What are we going to tell her?” Liam started pacing. They needed at least five more days to finish everything.
“I don’t know.” Aiden sat down on the bench, then stood up quickly. “It stormed two nights ago.”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “So?”
“So, I could come to her and tell her that a tree limb went through the roof of the place and that I’m repairing it.”
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