Page 20 of Bound to You

Wait, this one smells familiar. Maybe this one is Swiss? Or...no, it’s got more to it than that. “Feta?”

“Yes!” Caio shouts. “Okay, another one, you’ve got this.” He sounds excited and it makes me laugh. This is ridiculous.

I recognize the smell of the next cheese as soon as it’s at my nose. “Oh! Oh, Parmesan!” I’m basically shouting now. The teams beside me are amping up as well but I focus in on Caio’s voice amongst the chaos.

“Yes! You’re catching up, come on.”

We go through three more rounds, and I manage to identify every one, surprisingly overtaking my competition and landing Caio and me in second place. We walked away with a plushie roll of cheese that’s only mildly smaller than the two girls who won first place got.

“You really impressed me there.” Caio looks down at me with some sense of pride before stealing the plushie cheese from my arms. He throws the toy up into the air, spinning it around with every toss.

“Why, thank you. I really thought we were going to come last, but I do love a good redemption story.”

A warmth settles in my stomach as Caio lets out a chuckle. I’m coming to enjoy those far more than I should.

I find myself walking slower as we make our way away from the cheese stand. I’m distracted by the way his forearms flex the tiniest bit as his fingers release the cheese toy up into the air, then watching the way his eyes track the movement, making sure not to drop the toy on the grass beneath our feet.

He’s different than I assumed when I first met him. In fact, he’s a far cry from the Fernando May and I assumed he was. He’s softer, and he exudes confidence, but this morning when he asked to come with me, he almost seemed hesitant. I should be hesitant myself. I should’ve said no, but there’s just something about him that makes me curious to learn more. I know I should be staying as far away as possible, but I couldn’t say no. I’mgoing to hope that’s a one-time thing, or I might find myself in some trouble.

chapter eight

CAIO

I never knewthat watching someone else enjoy my town would be so exceptionally fun. Isla’s eyes light up each time we come to a new stall. I’m aware that Ruby Cove is unlike any other place in the world—most places don’t have ‘best jam’ awards or cheese sniffing competitions—but sometimes it slips my mind what this place must seem like to outsiders. Seeing it through Isla’s eyes reminds me of what a special place I get to call home.

God, her facials during that cheese sniffing competition had me nearly doubling over. I could just imagine the puzzled look in her eyes under the blindfold.

Every time she sees a stall she wants to go to, she squeezes my bicep before dragging me over. Not that she really has to drag me. I think I’d willingly follow Isla into a bloody Sephora if she squeezed my arm like that and looked up at me with those big brown eyes. The puppy dog eyes work on me apparently. Or maybe it’s just her.

We’ve nearly done the whole fair by now, and there’s only a few stalls left before we’ve circled back to where we started.

I’ve seen glimpses of Isla’s personality being here with her. Don’t get me wrong, she still has this whole independent thinggoing on, but it’s cute. I’ve learned the way to her heart is a good pastry, and that she knows absolutely nothing about cheese. Mind the fact that all those facts are about food, but I’ll take anything I can get.

There are only a few stalls left on our way out, one of them being Nora’s.

“Come va, Nora?” I say over the sound of excited children around us. Nora loves to get involved with the community, so every year she does face painting from her stall, giving some parents a chance for some alone time to peruse the fair. Plus, she loves hanging out with the kids—she claims it keeps her young.

Her eyes light up when she sees Isla at my side. She flicks me a look, raising her eyebrows, before turning her attention to Isla.

“Ciao Bella! How are you?” She grabs Isla by the arm and takes her back under her tent, leaving me standing here with a gaggle of children running around my feet.

“I’m good, thank you. Caio has been showing me around,” Isla says as she gestures toward me, taking her eyes off Nora for the split second Nora needs to look at me with mischief glinting in her eyes. Nora has known me since I first rocked into town with nothing but a wad of cash and an idea for the hotel on the hill.

That was the last thing I did before I left. I went to the bank and extracted as much of my trust fund as I could. As much as I’d hated the idea—I didn’t want anything from my parents—I needed a way to get started. I packed my life into my suitcase at twenty-one and never looked back. I haven’t been back since I opened Hotel Dolce, not that there’s anything there for me anymore. My father made it clear when I left that I wouldn’t have a family to go back to. A small part of me felt like he might have been bluffing, or that my mom would stay in contact.

He wasn’t, and she didn’t.

If anyone in this town knows what I’ve been up to over the last six years, it’s Nora.

I haven’t had many relationships over those years, and any I did have I kept to the confines of either their house or mine. God knows this town loves a bit of gossip, but I can’t help but want to take Isla out. Her energy is sucking me in like a whirlpool that I can’t seem to escape. I can’t swim out of the rip, but I’m not sure that I want to. I want to spiral all the way in and see where I land.

Nora and Vanessa have been trying to find me a bride for years, telling me I’m getting too old. So I know exactly what those sneaky looks mean when she sees me with Isla.

“This is all pretty…interesting, to say the least,” Isla continues.

“Oh, I have something for you,” Nora says, walking further into the tent to rummage through her bag, before pulling out a sketch pad and a pencil and handing it to Isla.

“Oh, thank you, but I don’t?—“

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