Eleanor, she saw right through me. Her gaze lingered on the storage bins. The folded blankets. The way everything had a place because there was no room for excess.
“You sleep here?” she asked quietly.
“Yep,” I said easily. “She’s got everything I need.” I gave my van a loving pat.
“Belle,” Eleanor said in a cautious tone.
I smiled at her. “What? It’s cute.”
Ava had discovered the tiny shelf where I kept my paperbacks and my extra charger. “It’s like a little house,” she declared.
I swallowed something that wanted to turn sharp.
“Yes,” I said lightly. “A mobile one.”
Eleanor didn’t smile.
Ava flopped dramatically onto the makeshift bed. “I love it.”
“Of course you do,” Eleanor muttered. “You love camping in the living room.”
“Leo and I are going to have a backyard campout tonight,” Ava confirmed.
I laughed and ushered us back inside before Eleanor could start asking questions that required honest answers.
We ate toast and scrambled eggs at the kitchen table. I told them about the estate in vague, sanitized terms.
“Big house,” I said. “Lots of stone. It feels like a castle out of place here in Ohio.”
“Did you meet him?” Eleanor asked, casual but not.
“Raphael Renault?” I took a sip of coffee. “Yes. He introduced himself. Followed us down the hallway like he was making sure I didn’t steal anything.”
Eleanor’s eyes sharpened. “Followed?”
“In a professional way,” I said. “Minimal looming.”
She did not look reassured. “Be careful,” she said quietly.
“Why do you say that?”
“I have met him at a few events my mother dragged me to. He is . . . intense.”
“That’s one way to put it,” I said with a rough chuckle.
“You do know they call him the Beast.”
“I can Google, Eleanor.”
“Okay,” she said, taking a careful sip of coffee. “I’m just looking out for you.”
My phone buzzed against the table.
I glanced at Eleanor, then at the screen.
Geoffrey H. — Renault Estate
That made my pulse do something strange.
