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“Then come with me, I’ll show you around.” She glanced over my shoulder at Marianne. “You mind giving us a little privacy, Mary-Moo? I’m going to show Emily here to her bedroom.”
Marianne’s eyes flashed. “I can see her later, right? Oh! Tonight’s movie night! Can she watch with us?”
“We’ll have to see how she’s feeling. Emily came all the way from New York, so she might need a little relaxing on her own.”
“Movie night?” I asked.
Marianne nodded eagerly. “That’s right. Every Friday night. And I get to pick whatever I want.” She grinned with pride. “Oh! And there’s popcorn and soda too. But you don’t have to eat that; the staff are really nice and they’ll make you whatever you want. Last time, I had nachos with extra cheese.”
My stomach grumbled at the mention of nachos. “That sounds so fun. Let’s do it!”
Marianne let out a squeal, clasping her hands together in excitement. “It’s going to be so much fun!”
“Let’s not overwhelm Emily,” Pearl said, putting her hand on my upper arm and leading me away. “We can talk about movie night later.”
“So nice to meet you, Marianne!” I said, waving as Pearl and I made our way around the corner.
“You too, Emily!”
With that, we left the veranda and started back toward the garden. Pearl waited until we were a little bit of distance away before speaking.
“That was sweet of you, the way you were back there.”
“She seems really nice. I was happy to meet her.”
“You’re right about that—Marianne’s as nice as they come. But, as I’m sure you noticed, she’s a little different. Mary-Moo’s twenty-five, but here…” she touched the side of her head with her fingertip, “…she’s only around twelve or so. No one’s really sure what happened with her. She grew up like a normal girl, nothing physically wrong. But around the age when she should’ve begun to grow into a woman, her mind just stopped.”
She shook her head, as if the mystery of the situation still puzzled her.
“Logan, who’s over a decade older than her and was already high up in the company when we realized what was going on with Marianne, vowed to take care of her no matter what. When their parents passed, he became even more adamant about it.”
Her words settled in my mind. Logan, who seemed like such a standoffish jerk at times, clearly had a heart big enough for his disabled sister. The revelation made me immediately view him in a different light.
“So, she lives here?”
“It depends. Logan likes to keep her close, but Marianne loves it here on the island. And with a staff here to attend to whatever she needs, it makes sense to not take her out unless it’s necessary. Speaking of which, might as well start the tour here.”Pearl swept her hand toward the house we’d just passed, the one that the veranda was attached to. “This is Marianne’s place.”
“She has the whole house to herself?”
“Sure does. She’s pretty independent, for the most part. Mary-Moo can do all the important stuff on her own. But now and then she’ll need a hand with things, so we’re never too far away. Just over there.” Pearl pointed to the building on the other side of the garden, a tall, three story structure that was just as big as the main building. “Those are the staff’s quarters. As you can see, the big man takes good care of us. Logan can be… well, I’m sure you know how he can be.” She chuckled in a good-natured sort of way. “But he makes sure we all have plenty of living space and whatever else we need.”
We returned to the garden. I was still stunned by the sheer size of the estate.
“You alright over there, little lady?”
I smiled, coming back into the moment. “Just trying to wrap my head around all of this. I thought the house where I grew up was big, but you could put it right on the island and not even notice.”
“That’s Logan. He’s a hard worker but he enjoys the finer things. Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”
She guided me up the stairs of the main building. Once at the top, Pearl turned and gestured. Where we were standing allowed for a panoramic view of the property, all the way down to the dock where theEndeavorwas moored.
“You’ve got the garage over there,” she said. “Pretty nice cars inside if you’re into that kind of thing. That building over there’s for gear and storage. Over that way is the guest house, thoughhouseis hardly the right word for it, it’s more like a small hotel. Then you’ve got the pool house.”
“I can’t believe how big this place is.” I felt silly saying the words, but it was how I felt. Everything was so much bigger than the bedroom where I’d spent most of my life up to that point.
“It’s good to be a billionaire,” Pearl said, nodding toward the doors to the main building behind us. “And it’s good for those of us who work for him.”
“Really? What’s Logan like as a boss?”
