Page 55 of Reckless Devotion

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 recognizeall 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 tellsme 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.