Page 103 of Rosie and the Beast Next Door

Normally the salt sprayon my face as we rode the dinghy to the cabin was my favorite feeling in the entire world. This time, though, it stung my skin in a way that felt deserved. Justified.

I couldn’t believe I’d trusted him. My brothers had told me Dad was bad news, but I hadn’t listened.

Apparently Jules was calling my work and getting people to take care of my shift while Haydn picked up a bag of my belongings from the Savage’s house and went shopping for food. They’d use my dinghy to come to the cabin later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Bennett took the two of us out to the island. Around me, the world was a haze that even Bennett’s worried expression couldn’t penetrate.

Once at the cabin, Bennett convinced me to take a long, hot bath—and tracked down some sweats of my sister-in-law’s that had been left behind last time she was here—while he made hot chocolate and got a fire going.

I tucked my head under the bath water and let it muffle my senses. The world was so much calmer under here.

My family’s cabin was on an island a few hours away from Winterhaven. We owned the entire tiny island, so our cabin was the only house on it—unless you counted the abandoned cabin and its ghost residents.

Which I absolutely counted, for the record.

And avoided at all costs, for obvious reasons.

I loved coming here. It was the perfect escapist location. No wi-fi, cell service only in one high spot on the island (if thestars aligned and you were living your life right), and the closest neighbor was on an island several hundred yards across the bay. By the time I got dressed and went into the living room to drink my hot chocolate, Haydn and Jules were pulling up to the island’s dock. I wanted to tell Bennett everything first, because he was the calmest of my brothers.

“Dad’s been living in my houseboat.” I rushed the words out.

Bennett didn’t react at all, other than to take a leisurely sip of his raspberry hot chocolate. We all had our favorite flavors, and it was tradition to drink hot chocolate at the cabin on our first day there.

Maybe he didn’t understand what I’d said.

“Like,ourdad. Orin Forrester.”

“I know,” he said. And the way he said it, I realized, he knew before I told him.

“How?”

This finally got a reaction out of him—a wince. “I’ll let Jules tell you.”

“Bennett,” I warned. “Tell me right now.” From the window, I saw Jules hop out of the dinghy and prepare to tie it off.

Bennett hesitated and darted a glance out the window next but then turned back to me with a sigh. “Fine. Last night at the restaurant, he came to find you, and he overheard your conversation with Dad.”

“Wait. The same one Dylan overheard?” I didn’t expect Bennett to know what I was talking about, but he nodded.

“The two of them followed Dad out and confronted him.”

“What?” Dylan hadn’t mentioned that part. Or that Jules had been with him. Pretty big conversational omissions.

“Dylan offered to pay Dad off to leave.”

“WHAT?” I jumped up, and some of my hot chocolate spilled over onto the wood floor. “He. Did. Not.”

Bennett grabbed a napkin from the coffee table and wiped up the spill. “It reminded me of that movie you made us watch. When Mr. DingDong pays off Wickham to save Elizabeth Bennet’s family.”

“It’s Mr. Darcy. FromPride and Prejudice.”

“I know—I watched six hours of it. I’m just teasing you.” He paused, then added, “But Dad didn’t take Dylan’s money.”

I let out a sigh. Of course Dad didn’t take his money and agree to leave. But the fact that Dylan even offered—I was going to kill him. Except, I didn’t plan on ever talking to him again for his own good, so … The thought had me sitting back down and slumping into the couch.

Bennett continued, his voice pained as he spoke. “Dad took Jules’s money, though, in exchange for leaving town.”

In exchange for leavingme. I felt like I’d been punched in the ribs.

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