Davin and Nina both turned and gave me looks like I was speaking a foreign language, but Caspian laughed. “It is summer here, in fact. But this isn’t Southern California. It’s northern Scotland. I’d say it’s about...Fahrenheit? Forty degrees.”
Nina held up her phone, pressing a few buttons, then nodded. “Forty-two.” Then she turned to me and shrugged. “I’d rather be in SoCal too, but Scotland is pretty. As long as we don’t have to go to Vegas or Cairo. My skin can’t handle that much dry. The pressurized cabin in the plane all the time is bad enough.”
“I told you I’d buy you a skincare company,” Caspian offered.
She rolled her eyes. “Just buy me the skincare products, dumbass. What am I gonna do with a company? I don’t have time to play CEO.” She reached up and scrunched her halo of ebony curls, frowning. “Something for my hair, too. This humidity is going to kill it.”
“Anything you need,” he agreed. “Just put it on the card I gave you. You’re wasting your whole life flying me around. I will buy you anything you need or want. House on the French Riviera. A new plane.”
“A house I’ll never visit, gee, thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And the plane is good enough. It’s one of the nicest I’ve ever flown. Any more complicated and I’d need a copilot, even with you being my emergency backup.”
They went on like that, and it struck me as very much like my own banter with any or all of my friends. I supposed if they spent all their time flying around the world together, it made sense. It would suck to spend all your time with someone you didn’t think of as a friend.
There was a car waiting for us, and I wondered if Caspian had arranged everything, or if there was another employee, or army of employees, hidden in the wings making things happen. In the moment, it didn’t matter enough to ask. I just dumped my bag in the trunk with everyone else’s and climbed into the back of the car, where Nina was eating the last of the scones Amelia had sent along with us. I’d offered it to her, since there was no reason to throw away perfectly good food, and I didn’t think she’d eaten since we left California.
“This is the most delicious thing I’ve had in my life,” she told me. “It’s from a shop in Avalon?”
“Teas(e), I agreed. The, um, last e is in parentheses. Like, it’s kind of a pun?”
Caspian took pity on me and interrupted. “They also make excellent chocolates, which we’ll have to get you when we get back to California. I’m afraid I ate all of them.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes while shoving the last of the scone into her mouth. “If they’re half as good as that strawberry jam, I’ll come out of my cockpit and fight you for them next time.”
“He makes one with the strawberry jam in it,” I offered, and she narrowed her eyes at Caspian.
He threw up his hands defensively. “That wasn’t in the box. Just chocolate covered caramels. I did not withhold strawberries from you.”
“Kaz, I swear to you, I will turn this car around and go back to California.” Her tone was perfect, just like something my mother would have said to me when I was a kid, making trouble on the way somewhere.
He pouted, but pointed out, “You’re not even driving.”
That brought out the also-familiar “bitch, please” face I knew all too well. She didn’t even have to point out that she could do the job without being the driver.
I was almost disappointed when the drive to the hotel was on the short side. Or maybe it had been long, and I’d just been so entertained by the two of them, I hadn’t noticed. I couldn’t hear planes overhead anymore, so...maybe that one.
The hotel was...fuck me, we got out of the car, and it looked like we’d stepped into a resort. If it hadn’t still been freezing cold, I’d have wondered if we were in Hawaii instead of Scotland.
There were tall columns and marble stairs, heading up into a huge front room that was more lounge than check-in desk. In fact, despite the hour, there were waitstaff meandering between chairs and tables, bringing drinks to the people sitting in the area.
Damn.
We didn’t go up to the desk at all, but were approached by a man with a handful of...maybe brochures? “Mr. Bardia,” he said, smiling and holding out the—oh, not brochures. Those folders hotels gave out that contained room keys. “Two suites, as requested. The two in the north wing, right across from each other.”
His accent was the first thing that reminded me yeah, we were actually in Scotland.
He slid his fingers apart, revealing that it was just two glossy folders in his hand, and Caspian took both, then turned and held one out toward Davin and me. “I thought the two of you would want a bit of privacy, since you haven’t been getting any for the last few days. I love Fiona like a daughter, but she’s not the kind of woman who’s ever going to butt out of your life.”
I took the folder with a nod, and tucked it into the front right pocket of my coat, so as not to annoy Twist. “True. But that’s okay. She’s a good mother, even if sometimes it feels like it verges on smother. I couldn’t have asked for better.” Then I turned to the guy who’d brought the keys. “Any chance of getting room service at this hour?”
“Of course,” he agreed. “The kitchen is always open for our guests. You’ll find the menus in your rooms, or on the hotel website, if you like. You can either call or order online for delivery to your room.” He leaned forward to touch a QR code on the front of the folder in Caspian’s hand.
Nice. “Thank you so much.”
“Mmm, food,” Nina muttered from next to Caspian. “Kaz, order me a steak while I shower?”
“Of course,” he agreed, motioning for her to go ahead of himself, and then turning and making the same motion for us. “Shall we? Might as well get as much rest as possible before the storm.”
“Oh, I hope you’re not flying out in it,” the man said as we started to walk away.
