Page 48 of Hunter

“Fine,” she groans, and I allow myself to breathe again.

“Good!” Phoenix says, looking happy with himself. “Lou, could you give us a minute?”

“Why?” she asks confrontationally.

“Will you just do it?!” he snaps, and it’s the first time they look like brother and sister rather than father and daughter.

“Why don’t you go and explore upstairs?” I suggest, trying to defuse the situation so I can get Phoenix to leave. I’m glad he seems to be accepting me, but I also want Lou all to myself. “You could decide on which room you’d like next week.”

Phoenix waggles his fingers smugly as she huffily walks toward the staircase, her footsteps echoing across the marble flooring as she goes.

“I’m not going to waste time and beat around the bush, Hunter,” he says as soon as she’s disappeared from view. I shove my hands inside my jeans’ pockets, bracing myself for the warning he’s no doubt going to lay on me. “Lou is beyond important to me; she’s the only family I have left.”

“I know that. Phoenix,” I sigh as I sit down in the chair opposite, “but it doesn’t mean you own her. She’s a grown woman who has her own decisions to make.”

“I pretty much raised her, ever since she was toddling,” he scowls at me, “so that makes me her mom, dad, and big brother. Don’t make me regret trusting you, Hunter!”

I open my mouth to answer him back, but when he puts it like that, I can see why he’s so protective of her.

“It’s not your fault, you know, what happened to her. She doesn’t blame you.” I try to sound genuine instead of condescending but I’m not sure I pull it off. “If anything, I think she feels bad about putting you through it.”

“Gee, thanks, Mommy, but I don’t need a let-me-share-my-feelings’ session with my little sister’s boyfriend; her boss no less.” He gets up huffily and I decide it best to keep my opinions to myself. “Just don’t fuck up, Hunter, and we’ll get along…well, not fine, but ok enough!”

He opens the door like it’s personally wronged him, shoves his sunglasses back into position, and then smiles tightly at me.

“Thanks for the trust, Phoenix,” I offer quietly, but just want him to go because the guy makes me feel awkward no matter what I say. “I promise I’ll take care of her.”

He merely shakes his head before marching over to his bike. I close the door with a breath of relief before he’s even left the courtyard.

“Did you hear all of that?” I ask the girl who is sitting on the middle step of the staircase. Her chin is resting inside the palms of her hands while she sits there with a coy smile on her face. She nods twice before dropping her hands to flop over her legs, laughing softly at the smirk I’m throwing her way.

“Sorry,” she says, “but now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, what do you have planned for us tonight?”

“A picnic!” I reply chirpily to her beaming smile. “You and me on the beach, a bottle of wine, and plenty of food to go around. I might not be able to make anything as delicious as you can, but I do rustle up a mean picnic…which I may or may not have been helped out with by my mom.”

_____

Louisa

By the time Daniel has laid down his grandmother’s picnic blanket onto a flat patch of sand, I’m still giggling at him. Never in my years as Daniel’s PA would I have expected to be sitting on a beach with a picnic, hand-prepared by him (and his mother), only a stone’s throw away from his house. He ignores my giddiness and instead, begins to pour us both a glass of wine. I clink my glass with his and take a sip of the delicious rosè, which could slide down far too easily.

After laying out delicious morsels for him and me to feast on, Daniel invites me to dive in and take the first offering of what he’s prepared – fancy-pants doorstep sandwiches, olives and dips, quinoa salad, strawberries and whipped cream, and handmade empanadas. I am less than ladylike when I dive into the spread, and I actually groan when I try his mother’s Spanish pastries, which are almost as good as the ones Ava used to bake when I was little. He laughs over my obvious delight.

“Sorry,” I say around a mouthful of olive, “no one ever cooks for me, and food is always so much more enjoyable when someone else has made it.”

“No, you go ahead,” he says with a proud grin, “I like a girl who loves her food as much as I do.”

He then sinks his teeth into one of the sandwiches that are filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese. I watch him enjoying his sandwich and recall the times when I got to be ‘normal’, and I realize they usually involved food. I wonder if he knew how perfect this would be. So simple, so easy, just like sitting on the couch with Phoenix and eating crap, just like it was when I had dinner with Ava and Tony, just like it was when I cooked Dad his favorite meals. I don’t need anything else, just this.

My phone buzzes, snapping me from my thoughts, so I pick it up and check the message. I’m already dreading it being from Javier, telling me that something awful has happened to Phoenix, even if he did only leave about an hour ago.

Try not to get pregnant! Jake. X

I have to smile over his stupid text, rolling my eyes before chucking it back on top of my jacket, instantly gaining Daniel’s attention.

“It’s just Jake, my very immature cousin.”

“Is that the guy who works behind the bar?” he asks and I nod. “Very much a family business then, huh?”

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