Neal glanced Robert’s way, and then back to the smudge on the horizon that was preceding the sun. “It wasn’t the island that hurt me,” he said, in a weird echo of Robert’s hart. “This is my home now.”
They were quiet for a while and Robert thought that Neal, as quiet as he was, was not the best person to draw him out. Robert had no interest in meeting his effort halfway.
“Pretty amazing view,” Neal said, as the sun finally burst upwards and the sky briefly colored and then brightened to blue. The ocean below them came into focus, and the morning birds came alive in the trees around them as the night insects went quiet.
“It’s amazing,” Robert agreed. The sunlight warmed his skin again, but not his heart. He was this, now; a living man around a core of ice that no tropical heat could ever thaw. His stag gave a sigh of resignation, then was sorrowful and still.
After a while, his stomach rumbled, and Neal said kindly. “We could probably get back in time for one of Chef’s breakfasts. I can show you a shorter way than you came.”
“I ate some plants,” Robert said, not feeling sorry about it.
Neal gave a dry chuckle. “I think Scarlet will let it slide this time. As long as you don’t make a habit of it.”
CHAPTER9
“Pale and gorgeous is back and better-looking than ever,” Felicity said, carrying in the last of the breakfast dishes. “He didn’t want to put Chef out by making a late request, so he’s going to help himself at the buffet. Theodora, darling, will you sort these for me, pleeeeaaaaase so I can go talk to him before he gets away?”
“Leave them,” Theodora said briefly, pointing at the counter. “And take this pan of fresh lettuce out for the buffet!”
Felicity gave a squeak of joy and hugged her before darting out with the produce.
Robert was standing at the buffet, putting a fresh roll on his plate as Felicity came out. His nose was red with sunburn and Felicity regretted not warning him about a hat.
“Hi,” she said, even though they were half the length away from the salad bar and she was just standing there like a dolt. “I’m just here with fresh leaves for the rabbit food. Don’t mind me. Oh, I had one of those rolls earlier. Darla is such a sublime baker, isn’t she? She has a really pretty singing voice, too.”
Robert looked at her blankly, because she was blabbering, and holding a pan full of lettuce, and probably giving him cow eyes.
“Isn’t it a lovely day? Though, oh my gosh, so hot and it’s not even noon! Isn’t it hard to believe that it’s almost Christmas? I’ve never had a Christmas without snow before. It doesn’t feel like‘tis the seasonwhen there aren’t actually seasons. Though they’ve done a beautiful job decorating, have you seen the tree? And Chef is making special holiday hams and cookies and pies. I guess that, plus gifts, is all you really need. Snow is optional. I mean, gifts are optional, too. Christmas shouldn’t be all about the commercialism. They’re just nice. People saying they’re thinking about you, you know?”
Robert still gazed at her, perfectly neutral and distant.
Felicity felt a pang of pity. He didn’t look annoyed with her chatter or afraid of her—she was tiny, but had a lot of personality, and that was sometimes intimidating to people. He looked like he was far away, cool and uncaring. But Felicity wasn’t fooled. There was something else there, something so strong and sorrowful that he couldn’t keep it from his eyes.Washe one of the shifters that had been captured? Was he...tortured?
There was no way to bring that question up, and none of Felicity’s business if he had been, but she desperately wanted to make him smile again, the way he had so fleetingly when they first met. No one had ever smiled at her like that, as if she was the sun after a long, cold winter, or a long-lost friend.
“Am I in your way?” he asked in confusion, because she was still standing there gazing at him even though she had uncharacteristically run out of words. Well, words she could say out loud. Some days, her mental editor worked.
“Oh, no, no, not at all. I’m just putting lettuce out. For the salad bar. In case any rabbit shifters are hungry. Excuse me.”
Felicity left the tray of lettuce in the appropriate empty slot and scurried back into the kitchen as Robert returned to filling his plate and finding a place to sit.
“I’m a dolt,” she confessed to Theodora when she returned to busy herself unloading the dishwasher and cleaning counters.
“You aren’t!” Theodora protested. “You’re very clever.”
“I talk fast,” Felicity laughed. “That’s not necessarily clever. You’re the one who figured out how to fix the drink dispenser when it broke!”
Theodora flushed happily. “I like machines,” she said. “They make more sense than people sometimes.”
“Amen,” Felicity agreed.
“The salad bar needs fresh lettuce,” Breck said, bustling in with a crate of empty glasses from the bar.
Felicity and Theodora exchanged a look of confusion.
“I just switched it out for fresh,” Felicity said.
“It looked pretty wilted,” Breck said, loading the dirty glasses into the washer that Felicity had just emptied. “Go check it out.”
