Page 21 of Enter if you Dare: Part Three

“Thank you for everything you’re doing to get him back.”

She holds my gaze for a moment. “He is mine too. I would go to war for him, for all of you.”

Nixie is a mother figure to a lot of the staff here. I see it every day when she checks in with those who need her and makes sure everyone has what they need. Nixie nods once and leaves.

The shed is quiet for a moment. Noa still has an arm around me and I lean into him, then Cipher puts down the tool in his hand.

“Right,” Noa says. “Who wants breakfast? And not shed breakfast, I’m thinking Rue’s eggs. We eat and pretend everything is fine, even just for a few minutes.”

“Give me ten minutes to clean up,” Cipher says.

“Okay. Are you in, Valli?”

I nod. “Sounds good. It gives me a chance to check on my sister. You will need a jacket—it’s cold outside.”

Noa grins and goes to find his jacket, while I look around the shed, wondering when it started to feel like home. It’s not the house I grew up in and spent years trying to hold together while my life fell apart around me. I may have ended up here by accident, but now I cannot imagine being anywhere else. Cave may not be here, but he knows we are waiting for him to come home and that we’re doing everything we can. With a deep breath, I pull my jacket off the hook by the door and wait for my men to be ready.

Noa

Nobody on the island appreciates my Christmas spirit or the system I have developed to get everything done. If they would just trust me, everything would go so much faster, and with a lot fewer arguments about where the lights should go.

“The lights go on the outside of the tent.”

“You said the inside,” Clay snaps.

“I said outside, then inside. It has to be in that order. Outside first, so you can see them from all over the island, and we make sure they look right. Then we do inside, so the guests feel like they get the entire experience.”

Clay gives me his infamous death glare. “You did not say that,” he seethes.

“I most certainly did. You must not have been listening.”

“Noa,” Leni says, appearing beside me with a box of decorations and string lights looped around her arms. “You definitely said inside.”

“I said . . . Fine, I may have said inside, but I meant outside first and then inside.”

Clay takes the lights from Leni and walks away without argument. He should have known since we do this every year, and it’s the one time of year I’m in charge. Christmas is my holiday, and I want everything to be perfect for Valli.

Leni watches Clay walk away and then turns to me. “You are a terrible project manager.”

“I am an excellent project manager. I’m working with people who don’t listen.”

Leni snorts at me. “You have given three different people three different instructions for the lights.”

“Let’s just call it delegating with flexibility.”

She throws her head back and laughs. This year has been more stressful—Cave isn’t here, it’s Valli’s first Christmas on the island, and she has her sister visiting. It’s a lot of stress for one man.

Khodi lingers nearby, which has been entertaining to watch, as he has appeared a few times under various pretexts. Once to check on the generator for the lights, which is Cipher’s job. Once to ask Clay something that was not important, and another time to carry boxes that Leni could have carried herself. Each time he talks to her, she blushes and laughs at things that are not funny.

Currently, Leni is sorting through a box of ornaments, with her back to the tent, while Khodi is talking to Clay, but every few seconds he looks her way.

I walk over to where they stand.

“You know I can see you,” I say to Khodi.

He diverts his gaze to me. “I’m working.”

“You are looking at my sister.”