Page 50 of Bound to You

“Welp, I could use some extra cooling off,” Heath says seconds before diving into the pool right in between the girls splashing them with water, resulting in an echoed sound of annoyance from all of them. May decides to splash him back as soon as he comes up, resulting in them wrestling in the water until they get too tired and give up calling it a truce.

The sun has lowered in the sky, leaving us looking out over golden fields as we lounge around the pool. A complete feeling of peace filling the air.

“So what’s for dinner?” Marina asks.

“Ooh yeah I’m getting hungry too,” May adds. Isla sits there quietly smiling.

“Oh shit,” Heath says. “I hadn’t planned that far ahead. I think I have some freezer pizzas?” He raises his shoulders in question as he looks around the group.

“Do you not have a chef at this fine estate?” May mocks.

“Ha-ha. No, I usually just whip something up for myself, but I can’t say you’d appreciate my cooking.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Rafael cuts in. He and I have been subjected to Health’s “cooking” one too many times.

“I’ll make something,” he gets up from his spot against the edge of the pool starting into the house. “I hope you at least have basic ingredients.” He throws the comment to Heath over his shoulder.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” I throw back. Heath has never been the most organized of us.

An hour later Rafael comes out with six bowls of his signature carbonara. We eat in silence as we all scarf down our first meal in hours. The only sounds being crickets and the occasional satisfactory groan from my hungry friends.

The few beers I had were holding me over, but I couldn’t have gone much longer without a meal, and this is exactly what I needed after a big day. It takes all of my control to stop myeyes from flicking to Isla who’s sitting across from me. The girl loves her food, and I love watching her love it. Something about the pure bliss on her face when she eats a good meal makes me smile.

There’s a comfortable silence between us all, Isla and May have slotted into our routine perfectly. I can’t imagine how quiet it’s going to feel when they go home at the end of the season. Dread settles at the bottom of my stomach thinking of not seeing Isla’s pretty face again. She’s become a part of my everyday life, whether that includes actually seeing her or just my mind involuntarily thinking of her multiple times a day. Though not that I believe that would stop even if she wasn’t around.

After dinner, Marina slowly takes May up the stairs to one of the ten bedrooms here to sleep off the one too many Margaritas she had, while me and Isla bring the dishes in to wash up. She’s a little wobbly on her feet as she stands at the sink rinsing the dinner plates.

“Let me do that,” I say taking the dish brush from her before she falls asleep standing.

She’s been quiet all night and I hate it, I feel like she’s avoiding me, but I can’t think of why. Did I overstep the other night at the fundraiser? When we were talking about her family and her ex?

I was walking that fine line again, wanting her to open up but not wanting to scare her off. Maybe I misjudged how the conversation went, because after that night I felt like we took a step forward, but today it feels like we’ve taken a few steps back.

She finally breaks the silence between us. “I’ve got something for you,” she says, shuffling over to her bag by the door on wobbly feet.

She walks over to me with something clutched behind her back. I lean back on the counter, tossing the towel over myshoulder before crossing my arms in front of me. “What do you have there?”

She’s got a funny look on her face as she sways in front of me. “This.” She pulls out an envelope from behind her back.

The envelope.

She won’t ever give up, will she?

She pushes the envelope into my chest, but she can’t get away quick enough as I close my hand around her wrist. “When will you learn that I won’t take this from you?”

I got housekeeping to drop the envelope back in Isla’s room after they tried to give it to me last week.

“I can look after myself Caio.”

“I know you can, and I’ve never doubted that. Except for when it comes to a handbrake, of course,” I tease, and narrowly miss her swatting my chest in retaliation. “But just because you can look after yourself doesn’t mean you always have to.”

She frowns up at me and it makes me smile. I like her frowns, especially her drunk frowns when I can’t tell if she knows she’s even doing it.

“I don’t want anything but you, here, under my roof. I won’t let you pay for something that I’m implementing.” I might be exposing myself too much here, but I take the envelope out of her hands and reach around her to tuck it into the back pocket of the little denim skirt she put on earlier in the night. “I don’t want to see that anywhere but in your room again. Okay?”

She nods, slipping free of my grasp and moving to sit on the stool under the other side of the bench. She rests her head in her palms with this look on her face like she’s contemplating life.

I go back to the sink, continuing to wash up the rest of the dinner dishes, if I couldn’t see Isla in the reflection of the window in front of me, I wouldn’t even know she was there, she’s so quiet. The only noise filling the room is the swirl of thehot water beneath my hands, until she finally breaks the silence between us.

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