Suddenly Last Summer. Sarah Morgan
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his grandfather, lying pale and still in a hospital bed while their mother, the family glue, struggled to hold everything together and Jackson did more than could be expected of one man.
He was sure his grandfather wouldn’t want him there, but the rest of his family needed him.
And as for Élise—it had been a single night, that was all. They weren’t in a relationship and never would be so there was no reason to mention it to his brother.
He made some rapid mental calculations.
The journey would take him three and a half hours, and that was without counting the time it would take to drive home and pack a bag.
“I’ll be with you as soon as I can. I’ll call his doctors now and find out what’s going on.”
“Come straight to the hospital. And drive carefully. One member of the family in the hospital is enough.” There was a brief pause. “It will be good to have you back at Snow Crystal, Sean.”
The reply wedged itself in his throat.
He’d grown up by the lake, surrounded by lush forests and mountains. He couldn’t identify the exact time he’d known it wasn’t where he wanted to be. When the place had started to irritate and chafe everything from his skin to his ambitions. It wasn’t something he’d been able to voice because to admit that there might be a place more perfect than Snow Crystal would have been heresy in the O’Neil family. Except to his father. Michael O’Neil had shared his conflicted emotions about the place. His father was the one person who would have understood.
Guilt dug deep, twisting in his ribs like a knife, because apart from the row with his grandfather and his wild fling with Élise, there was something else he’d never told his brother.
He’d never told him how much he hated coming home.
“I ’AVE KILLED WALTER! This is all my fault! I was so desperate to have the old boathouse finished in time for the party, I let an eighty-year-old man work on the deck.” Élise paced across the deck of her pretty lakeside lodge, out of her mind with worry. “Merde, I am a bad person. Jackson should fire me.”
“Snow Crystal is in enough trouble without Jackson firing his head chef. The restaurant is the one part of this business that is profitable. Oh, good news—” Kayla leaned on the railing next to the water, scanning a text “—according to the doctors, Walter is stable.”
“Comment? What does this mean, ‘stable’? You put a horse in a stable.”
“It means you haven’t killed him,” Kayla said as she texted back swiftly. “You need to calm down or we’ll be calling an ambulance for you next. Are all French people as dramatic as you?”
“I don’t know. I cannot help it.” Élise dragged her hand through her hair. “I am not good at ‘iding my feelings. For a while I manage it, but then everything bursts out and I explode.”
“I know. I’ve cleared up the mess after a few of your explosions. Fortunately your staff adore you. Go and make pizza dough or whatever it is you do when you want to reduce your stress levels. You’re dropping your h’s and that is never a good sign.” Kayla sent the text and read another one. “Jackson wants me to drive over to the hospital.”
“I will come with you!”
“Only if you promise not to explode in my car.”
“I want to see with my own eyes that Walter is alive.”
“You think we’re all lying to you?”
Her legs were shaking so Élise plopped onto the chair she’d placed by the water. “He is very important to me. I love him like a grandfather. Not like my real grandfather because he was a horrible person who refused to speak to my mother after she had me so I never actually met him, but how I think a grandfather should be in my dreams. I know you understand because your family, they were also rubbish.”
Kayla gave a faint smile, but didn’t argue. “I know how close you are to Walter. You don’t have to explain to me.”
“He is the nearest thing I have to family. And Jackson, of course. It makes me very happy to think he will marry you soon. And Elizabeth and dear Alice. And Tyler is like a brother to me, even though sometimes I want to punch him. It is normal for siblings to sometimes want to punch each other, I think. I love you all with every bone in my body.” The dark side of Élise’s life was carefully locked away in the past. Loneliness, fear and deep humiliation were a distant memory. She was safe here. Safe and loved.
“And Sean?” Kayla lifted an eyebrow. “Where does he fit into your adopted family? Presumably not as another brother.”
“No.” Just thinking about him made her heart race a little faster. “Not a brother.”
“So you won’t be telling him you love him? Aren’t you worried he might feel a little left out?”
Élise frowned. “You are not funny.”
“Is this a good time to warn you he’s coming home?”
“Of course he is coming home. He is an O’Neil. The O’Neils always stick together when there is trouble and Sean hasn’t been home for a while.”
And she was worried that was her fault.
Was it because of what had happened between them?
“So it isn’t going to feel awkward when he shows up?”
“Why would it feel awkward? Because of last summer? It was just one night. It’s not so hard to understand, is it? Sean is un beau mec.”
“He’s a what?”
“Un beau mec. A hot guy. Sean is very sexy. We are two adults who chose to spend a night together. We are both single. Why would it feel awkward?” It had been her idea of the perfect night. No ties. No complications. A decision she’d made with her head, not her heart. Never again would she allow her heart to be engaged.
No risks. No mistakes.
“So seeing him isn’t going to bother you?”
“Not at all. And it isn’t the first time. I saw him at Christmas.”
“And neither of you exchanged a single look or word.”
“Christmas is the busiest time of year for me. Do you know how many people I fed in the restaurant? I had more important things to worry about than Sean. And it is the same now. We probably won’t even have time to say hello. All he thinks about is work and I am the same. It is only a week until the Boathouse Café opens and at the moment it doesn’t have a deck.”
“Look, I know how much this project means to you—to all of us—but it is no one’s fault that Zach crashed his dirt bike.”
Élise scowled. “He is their cousin. Family. He should have shown more responsibility.”
“Distant cousin.”
“So what? He should have finished my deck before he crashed!”
“I’m sure that’s what he told the boulder that jumped into his path.” Kayla gave a fatalistic shrug. “He has O’Neil DNA. Of course he is going to indulge in dangerous sports and have accidents. Tyler says he’s lethal on a snowboard.”
“He should not have been indulging in anything lethal until my deck was finished!”
“So does that mean Zach has been struck off the list of people you love?”
“You make fun of me but it is important to tell people you love them.” It wasn’t just important to her, it was vital. Sadness seeped into her veins and she breathed deeply, trying to block the spread. Over the years she’d learned to control it. To keep it locked away so it didn’t interfere with her life. “I should never have let Walter step in. It is because of me he is lying there all full