Jacques looked more animated than he had since they arrived. “We should talk to him and show him a picture. I’d love to pay a visit to that island. Byron said he felt more at home there than anywhere.”
Luna glanced up eagerly. “He did?”
“Oh, yes, and it made perfect sense. He was never a city boy. He loved the woods, and the sea. Watching a pod of orcas play along the shore was his idea of heaven.”
Luna made a small sound deep in her throat, one that Colin didn’t think anyone noticed but him. But he could imagine the intensity of her reaction to all of this. She might look like Sophie, but in so many ways, she was her father’s daughter.
He sensed that she was on emotional overload. The Reynauds had been different than he’d expected, but welcoming in their own way. It was more than he could have hoped for. Yet Luna might need time to process what she’d discovered so far.
He turned to Edwina. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us, but we have a helicopter to catch, and I’ll be leaving for Scotland tomorrow, so there are plenty of loose ends to tie up before then. We should probably get going.”
Next to him, Luna sagged in relief. He’d made the right call.
Jacques frowned. “But there was something about a benefit for the foundation, wasn’t there?”
“Yes.” Luna straightened. “I’m managing the inn, because Colin will be in Scotland a good bit of the time. I considered setting up opening weekend as a benefit for the Byron Reynaud Foundation, if you would agree.”
Jacques nodded enthusiastically. “I think that’s a very—”
“Problematic idea,” Edwina finished for him. “It’s not your fault, Luna, but some of the older Weres in the Trevelyan pack remember the circumstances of Byron’s death. If they discover Sophie was pregnant when she left, well, they might not be… happy… to support her daughter’s enterprise.”
That was Colin’s cue to get Luna the hell out of there before things got ugly. He stood and drew her up with him. “Maybe involving the foundation isn’t such a wonderful idea. As owner of the inn, I won’t advocate anything that would make my manager uncomfortable.”
“We need to talk about this some more,” Jacques said. “Let us digest everything. Take stock, as it were.”
“And talk to George,” Edwina added. “He’s been one of our chief advisers for the foundation. I’m sure he’ll have some good advice.”
Now Colin knew they really needed to leave. “We’ll be in touch,” he said. “Luna, the cab is waiting.”
Edwina stood. “Before you go, Luna, let me take another good look at you. Turn loose of this Colin person for one minute. I swear you two act the way Sophie and Byron did, like you can’t bear to be parted.”
Luna released his hand as if his touch had burned her. “Colin is only a friend, Mrs. Reynaud. I was nervous about coming here and he’s been a steadying influence.”
Edwina looked from Colin to Luna and back at Colin again. “If you say so. That’s not what I see, and I haven’t lived on this earth for seventy-six years without learning a thing or two about mutual attraction.”
Colin’s gut clenched. He hoped Edwina was wrong about the depth of their involvement, both for Luna’s sake and his own.
Edwina took Luna by the shoulders and gazed intently into her eyes. “You are a Reynaud.” She gave Luna a quick, awkward hug. “So you must stop calling me Mrs. Reynaud and call me Grandmother. Now, go before I start blubbering like a fool.”
“Same for me.” Jacques hurried over and gave Luna a pat on the back. “I mean, don’t call me Grandmother, but call me Grandpa. I rather like the sound of Grandpa.”
“Okay, I’ll do that.” Luna’s voice was suspiciously thick.
“We’ll see you again,” Jacques said.
“Yes.” She gave a short cough. “Yes, you will.”
“Thanks for everything,” Colin said as he recaptured Luna’s hand. To hell with what Edwina might think of him doing that. He needed to guide her out of there before she broke down. She would hate that. The hallway seemed endless, but at last they were in the open air.
“Oh, Colin.” She put a hand to her mouth and her green eyes filled with tears.
“Come on.” He slid has arm around her waist. “Let’s get in the cab.”
“I don’t… I don’t know if I’m up to this. It’s so emotional!”
He urged her toward the cab, where the driver had the back door open and the motor running. “I know. But it wasn’t bad for a first meeting.”
“No.” She was quivering. “I guess not.”
“George may complicate things.”
“Yes.”
“Bloody hell, I wish I didn’t have to leave.”
“So do I.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and hugged him back before she climbed into the cab. “So do I.”
Once they were safely inside the cab and on their way, Colin called Knox and told him they’d be a little late. Luna couldn’t imagine what she’d do without Colin to handle the details right now. Her mind was reeling with discussions of ears, toes, chins, and whether or not her newly discovered grandparents would support her in the long run. The jury was still out on that one.
Colin disconnected his call to Knox and put his arm around her again. “Look at it this way. They didn’t reject you.”
“No, and they didn’t trash my mother. The closest Edwina came was when she called her this Sophie person. ”
“I think that’s her way. She called me this Colin person.”
Luna rested her head on his shoulder and relished the solid feel of him. “They were blindsided by this. I’ve had years to imagine what it would be like to meet my grandparents, and they didn’t know I existed.”
“I think they’re going to come to love the idea of having a granddaughter with Byron’s chin, ears, and toes.”
She sighed. “This is going to sound dopey, but I adored that part. Nobody’s ever looked at me and said you have his ears ! It made me feel connected in a way I haven’t been since my mother died.”
“What about your other grandmother?”
“She never carried on like that. I was illegitimate in her eyes, and that’s all she saw. I can only imagine how she would have reacted if she’d learned how truly different I am.”
With a murmur of sympathy, Colin reached over and stroked her hair.
Luna sighed. “She’s lost to me and I’m lost to her.”
“But these two we just met,” he said as he continued to stroke her hair. “They have possibilities.”
“But will they become a tool of the manipulative George?”
Colin hesitated.
“Give it to me straight, please. I’ll have to handle this after you’re gone.”
“I’m afraid he’s going to try. If Edwina thinks he’s some kind of business guru, and he tells her you need him on this project, she’ll push for you to involve him in some way.”
“And if I resist, that will be a bone of contention with my newly minted grandmother.” She looked up at him. “Tell me again why you think I need family in my life?”
“It has to do with the ears and the toes.”
She laughed, the first time she’d felt like doing that since before they’d stepped into her grandparents’ house. “I’m going to cling to that discussion, because it was the truly real part of going there.”
“There were other real parts. Like when you told Edwina that your mother had been true to your father.”
“Yes.” Luna snuggled closer. “That got to her, and I’m glad, because it’s true. All the discussions you and I have had about those who are truly mated have convinced me that my parents were. But going to live in that world was too frightening for my mother.” She paused. “Or maybe it was the scary prospect of having Edwina as a mother-in-law.”
“Personally, I think Edwina has a soft, squishy center that she does her best to hide. I’ll bet you’ll discover she’s more of a pushover than you think the next time you visit.”
“Don’t.” Colin kissed the top of her head. “They need you and you need them. And I just had a great idea. They’re family, so why don’t you dedicate Geraldine’s room as their private suite? Let them come there free of charge, whenever they want to.”
“Do I dare do that?” The idea both thrilled and terrified her. But it would be something she could do for her grandparents, and she wanted to be able to give them something special.
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t,” Colin said.
“It’s probably the premiere room in the whole castle. We could get a small fortune for that room.”
“Money isn’t everything, lass. If it pleases you to do that for them, by all means, do. I can guarantee that Geraldine would have approved.”
Turning in the seat, she lifted her face to his and kissed him. “You’re the best.”
“The best what?”
She grinned. “You have too many talents to name, My Much Honoured Laird of Glenbarra.”
“You could try.”
“I will, I promise. While we’re sitting in that new hot tub later tonight, I’ll do my best to list every single one.”
Chapter 23
Knox seemed especially cheerful when they walked out on the roof of the Trevelyan Building, ready to climb into the helicopter. Luna wasn’t sure why he was being so nice considering how they’d messed with his schedule. She thanked him for being so patient with all their last-minute changes to their plans.
“No worries.” Knox got them settled into the helicopter in the same order as before, with Colin in the back and Luna in the front passenger seat. He glanced over at her before putting on his headset. “My dad says you and I are practically kissing cousins. I didn’t know that!”
Luna stared at him as anxiety twisted in her gut. George had been busy. “What did your father say, exactly?”
Knox gave her his typical uncomplicated grin. “That you are the newly discovered granddaughter of my great-aunt Edwina and great-uncle Jacques. My dad’s really excited about this inn you’re opening. He wants to keep it all in the family.”
“What family?”
“The Trevelyan family, of course. You’re officially part of the pack now, and that means you get the full support of my father and his cronies. He’s ready to back you a hundred percent. I think it’s exciting.”
With the noise of the rotors, Luna doubted that Colin heard any of that, but her stomach churned right along with the blades. George was slick, all right. He’d try to sweep her right into the Trevelyan net, and he wasn’t above using her grandparents as bait.
But there was one major problem with that plan. She didn’t own the inn. Colin MacDowell, Laird of Glenbarra, owned it. And he had no intention of turning control over to George and the Trevelyan pack. But as she thought of that, her blood ran cold.
George had so much power in the area that if he decided to boycott the inn because she and Colin wouldn’t let him have a controlling interest, he might be able to shut them down. Eventually she hoped to draw guests from all over the country, but initially she’d depend on local traffic to keep the inn profitable. In fact, she’d planned on making local traffic her mainstay.
George could indeed ruin everything, and if he had the lust for control that Colin seemed to think he had, he might be ruthless in trying to get what he wanted. Driving Whittier House into bankruptcy would mean that he’d eventually get it, after all.
Knox, bless his heart, saw only the lovely family connection now that Luna was going to manage Whittier House. He knew that she and Colin were involved, so he might even think that made Colin an honorary member of the pack. She hated to disillusion Knox, so she said nothing.
But the flight back to Le Floret wasn’t quite as fun as the flight to Seattle had been. All the way back, she was in a mental wrestling match with all the complications that had popped up. When she’d first thought of opening Whittier House as an inn, it had seemed like such a simple plan.
Now, whether she wanted to be or not, she was enmeshed in pack politics. She thought about something Colin had said not long ago. He told her that maybe she wasn’t meant to hide herself away on the island, that maybe she was meant for greater things. She hoped that didn’t include taking on George Trevelyan.
The helicopter landed on the island only minutes ahead of the motor launch bringing the new hot tub and the prefabricated redwood decking that would surround it. The dealership had hired a boat big enough to accommodate a forklift, and Luna, Colin, and Hector all supervised the work crew as they brought the hot tub and the deck materials up from the dock and began installing everything on the bluff overlooking Happy Hour Beach.
Luna realized that she still hadn’t told Hector about the plan for the inn, and either she or Colin needed to inform him. With a hot tub arriving, he might suspect that something was afoot. That could explain why he spent so much time grumbling during the installation.
“Plain foolishness, if you ask me,” he said to no one in particular. “Who needs to climb into hot water when they’re outdoors? You won’t catch me in this thing.”
Colin stood back to admire the way the hot tub looked with the redwood deck added. “It’s supposed to be good for arthritis, Hector.”
“So is using a shovel and a pair of hedge trimmers. Keeps a body nimble. Don’t need a damn tub for that. And what about critters getting into it?”
“We bought a cover, too,” Luna said. “In fact, it will be covered a good part of the winter. It’s more for summer use.”
“Then I don’t see the point of it. There are plenty of other things to do in the summer besides sit in a giant bathtub staring at each other.”
Before hearing the story of Hector’s lost mate, Luna might have been irritated by his rant. But now she was less so, although she thought it was a terrible shame that Hector’s life had ended when his lover died and he’d chosen to nurse his misery for so long.
When the hot tub was almost installed, complete with the buried electric cable required to run power out to it, Luna decided the time had come to fill Hector in on what was about to happen at Whittier House. Yes, she could ask Colin to tell him, and Colin would do it, but she was the manager. She might as well get used to managing.
She touched Hector on the shoulder. “Could I talk to you for a minute?”
“Guess so.” He looked wary.
“Let’s go over to that bench and sit down. It’s been a long day.”
“Look, if you think I’m so old that I need a bench to hold me up, then—”
“I need the bench. You’re free to stand.” She marched over there and hoped he’d follow. She chose a spot at one end of the backless stone bench so that he had plenty of room to sit and still avoid her.
He ambled over and sat on the opposite end of the bench.
She gazed at him and tried to imagine him as a young Were in love. Nope, couldn’t do it. Fifty years of unhappiness had stamped him with a face that didn’t inspire her to think of gentleness and compassion. And yet he was a link to her father.
“I realize you’ve never warmed to me,” she said.
“Don’t think about you one way or another. Just do my job.”
“Colin said you thought I was hiding something.”
His head whipped around toward her. “That was a private discussion. He shouldn’t have—”
“I was hiding something, Hector.”
Under his bushy white eyebrows, his eyes widened. “I knew it!”
“But before I tell you my secrets—and I will tell you—I want to ask if you remember a teenager who worked for you named Byron. It would have been almost thirty years ago.”
Hector rubbed a hand over his shock of white hair, displacing it even more. “Byron… Byron… Do you know his last name?”
“Reynaud.”
He stared at her as
comprehension slowly dawned. “That’s why your name sounded so familiar! I knew I’d heard it somewhere before. Yeah, now it’s coming back to me. I remember Byron Reynaud. Tall, gangly, earnest. Nice kid… ”
Luna’s heart ached for the person she would never know. The next time she visited Edwina and Jacques, she’d ask to see baby pictures, sports trophies, school essays, anything they’d saved. She was suddenly hungry for any little detail.
“So he was a good worker?” she asked.
“Yes, yes, he was. Better than most. Certainly better than that stuffed shirt George Trevelyan. Can’t believe how well he’s done, all things considered.”
“George worked for you?”
“Only for a couple of weeks, when both George and Byron were around eighteen. George wanted to be in charge, which didn’t sit well with me, but that wasn’t the only problem. He was always trying to outdo his cousin Byron, and when he couldn’t, he’d pick fights with him. I had to let George go.”
“I don’t think George has changed. He’s still very competitive.”
“Most don’t change, not really.” Hector shook his head. “George was a hothead, and Byron wore his heart on his sleeve. Got killed in a car wreck on his way to stop his sweetheart from leaving town. If I remember right, she was human, so he should’ve just let her go.”
No matter how many times she heard it, the story always broke Luna’s heart all over again. “Hector, she was human. She was also my mother. Byron was my father.”
He stared at her, dumbstruck. “Oh, hell. I’m sorry, Luna. I truly am. Is your mother still alive?”
“She died when I was eight.”
He shook his head. “That’s pitiful.” Then something seemed to occur to him. “Does that mean that you’re… you’re…
“I’m half-Were, half-human.”
He peered at her. “I’ve never met a mixed-breed before.”
His response was so openly curious that she couldn’t be offended. “Neither have I, except for me. I felt like some kind of freak, and I’d planned to keep it a secret forever.”
Werewolf in Seattle: A Wild About You Novel Page 23