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“We could watch a movie,” I offered.
“You wouldn’t mind?”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “As if it would make a difference if I said I did.”
“What shall we watch?” he asked, grabbing the remote for the flat-screen television he’d purchased then mounted on the wall for me. Actually, it was more for him since I almost never watched it unless he was here.
“You pick,” I said like I always did.
While he flipped through the channels, I fluffed my pillow, stretched my arms over my head, then got in bed and pulled the sheet and blanket up to my chin. I rolled to my side and wrapped my arms around Wanda as if she were a pillow. A heated one.
It was always cold at this time of year, more so close to the ocean. I lived a mile away from it, not in one of the grand mansions dotting the shoreline. My apartment was smaller than one room in houses like that, but it was mine—as long as I paid the rent every month—and I loved it.
After I was settled, Beau kicked off his shoes, walked over, straightened the blanket on the other side of the bed, propped up two pillows, and sat down.
“Are you asleep already?” he asked, peering over my shoulder since my back was to him.
“Yes.”
He sighed. “I’m a wanker for doing this to you, aren’t I?” he ventured, overexaggerating his English accent.
“Yes,” I repeated.
“If you really want me to leave, I will.”
“Good night, Beau.”
I got up once in the night to use the bathroom. The TV was still on, and he was in the same position, sitting up, but sound asleep. I covered him with the extra blanket I kept at the end of the bed for occasions like this and went back to sleep. The next time I woke, shortly after dawn, he was gone.
Rather than getting out of bed, I snuggled the cat, my sole companion when I wasn’t at work. I’d heard her meowing at the back door of the wine bar where I worked and had gone out to give her some scraps from the kitchen. When she purred and wrapped herself around my leg, I fell in love.
It had been two years, almost to the day, since I brought the kitten home. I was grateful for her company, especially now that my best friend had married and lived in Mexico the majority of the year. I didn’t mind being alone, though. It was exponentially better than dealing with roommates like I’d been forced to do for most of my adult life.
Once my boss promoted me to manager and gave me a raise, I decided to finally get a place of my own. Most of my income went to rent, but it was worth it.
When Wanda shifted out of my reach, I closed my eyes, hoping to catch another few hours of sleep since I had the day off. Normally, I was lucky if I got six or seven in.
This time of year was when I banked as much rest as possible. Stave, the wine bar and tasting room where I worked, was closed from Christmas Eve until the middle of January, so I still had fourteen days before I’d have to get back to what was beginning to seem like a daily grind. I hoped after some time away, I wouldn’t still feel that way.
“Not again,” I growled when I heard another knock at the door. I jumped up to answer it, not bothering to grab my robe in my haste to give Beauregard Barrett—the most inconsiderate human alive—a piece of my mind.
Instead, I came face-to-face with a man in a uniform. “Samantha Marquez?”
“That’s me.”
“I need you to sign for this.”
Once I had, he gave me a large envelope. The minute he placed it in my hands, a feeling of dread swept over me as if whatever was inside was about to change my life—and not for the better.
2
BEAU
My mum was dead. No matter how many times I reminded myself, it still didn’t seem possible. If only it were a terrible nightmare I couldn’t wake myself from.
I lowered my head when a gust of cold wind blew sand across my face, then raised it and looked out at the ocean.
She’d loved this place, being able to take morning walks by the sea when she and my father visited. While I stayed here often, even had a bedroom of my own, the estate belonged to my older brother, Lavery, whom everyone called Press.
