She introduced me to the group scattered around the room who—while all being so good-looking it kind of made my head hurt—didn’t seem too scary. Her husband, Joshua,was carving meat off a chicken. His warm brown cheeks bunched with a smile as he waved a hand vaguely in my direction. Captain Errol sat at a round table, his head snuggled under a knitted hat and his expression one of pure delight at seeing his bestie again. His muscled arm was slung around a red-headed woman who I wanted to interrogate about every aspect of her make-up, hair, and outfit. If the others were casually gorgeous, she flaunted her good looks. I vaguely noted her name was Louisa while fawning over her bright pink lips that matched her nails and complemented the tight jumpsuit doing nothing to hide her generous curves.
Without a pointed introduction to unglue my eyes from the walking marvel that was Captain Errol’s wife, I might have overlooked the other guy sitting at the table. I got the sense Kit preferred it that way. His light brown hair fell in waves over his forehead and his grey eyes darted away from mine as he said hello.
Bonnie pushed me into a cushioned seat and slammed a glass with a finger of amber liquid onto the table in front of me. ‘Since I’m sure my socially inept sibling hasn’t given you a halfway decent welcome, here you go.’
Her assessment was correct, so I couldn’t defend Callum without lying. I settled for lifting the glass and taking a sniff instead. My nostrils burned with the pungent fumes.
Blinking through the pain, I set the glass down. ‘What is that?’
‘Only the best whisky known to man.’ Bonnie’s husband placed the chicken he’d carved on the table. His almost-black eyes crinkled with a smile not quite lost in a beard that would give Callum a run for his money. Didn’t look as soft as Callum’s though.
Bonnie clapped Joshua’s back so hard I would have beenthrown across the room, but he chuckled and turned to a second bird steaming on the kitchen counter.
‘Joshua’s the master brewer on the island.’ Bonnie thumped a bowl of carrots onto the table and nodded at my glass. ‘Drink up.’
I wrinkled my nose. ‘I’d rather not.’
Bonnie lowered her eyebrows. I got the sense not many people refused her requests. ‘You can’t truly say you’ve arrived on the island until you’ve choked down one of these.’
‘Choked down,’ Joshua muttered, but it did nothing to deter Bonnie’s unwavering attention.
‘I’m not a big drinker,’ I hedged.
‘It’s one drink.’ Bonnie leant her hip against the table. ‘A rite of passage.’
I flicked a glance at the others sitting around the table. Their expressions were hard to read. These were Bonnie’s friends, and there was clearly some power dynamic at play here I didn’t fully understand. Maybe they had trouble saying no to her as well.
I picked up the glass and set it even further from my plate. ‘I’m grateful you want to welcome me to the island. Thank you. But I’m not going to drink this. I’m sure it’s great if you like whisky, but I don’t.’
‘You haven’t even tried it.’ Bonnie’s eyes narrowed.
I pressed my lips together. I’d hoped she wouldn’t keep pushing, but if I needed to drop truth bombs to get her to leave me alone, then on her head be it.
‘My mum died when I was twelve.’ I threaded my fingers together on my lap so no one would see my hands shake. My grief over losing Mum wasn’t the howling wound it had been for years, but talking about her always made me wobbly. ‘It was sudden, and my dad didn’t cope very well. He drank tonumb the pain. A lot. Which put me off alcohol for life. So thank you for your kind offer, but I’m going to have to ask you to back off.’
Bonnie stared at me for long seconds. I looked at everyone else, anticipating the normal reactions to playing the dead mum card when people put too much pressure on me to drink. Pity. Uncomfortable glances. Sympathy.
I didn’t expect the barely contained glee on Louisa’s face. Errol was grinning. Kit bit his lip. His eyes briefly met mine before flicking away.
Joshua broke the tension by sliding another perfectly roasted chicken onto the table. ‘You got told, Bonbon.’
Bonnie huffed and grabbed my glass, downing the contents in one gulp. ‘Yes, I’m an arsehole. We all know it. You don’t have to look so delighted about someone calling me on it.’
‘That was amazing,’ Kit whispered, as Bonnie helped Joshua bring the final heaped bowls of vegetables to the table.
‘Stop drooling,’ Bonnie snapped as she sat down. ‘He’s clearly taken.’
I frowned between the blush on Kit’s cheeks and Bonnie’s feral grin. ‘I didn’t realise I’d mentioned a boyfriend in our emails, but he broke up with me before I came here.’
Boyfriend was a stretch. And could someone who refused to define what was happening between us really break up with me? Sure felt like Jamie could.
‘Yeah, that’s absolutely what I meant.’ Bonnie’s grin didn’t falter.
‘You should help yourself, Aster,’ Joshua urged. ‘Otherwise these animals won’t let you get a look-in.’
The roast spread across the middle of the table had already been heavily depleted. I took a hearty helping, whichlooked modest compared to the amount of food piled on everyone else’s plates. Callum was just as ravenous. It must be living in such fresh air.
The others talked over one another as they ate seconds and thirds, their conversations swinging between the strange things people had left on Errol’s boat this week—a single shoe and a condom wrapper—and Joshua’s gentle needling of Bonnie—joined by Louisa’s not-so-gentle mockery—when she moaned about her mayoral duties.
