Holly had said not many people stayed there this time of year, but on the off chance others were there, she didn’t want any neighbors staying mere feet away.
“Unless they’ve changed things since I was last there, it depends on the one you stay in.” She grabbed a slice of cucumber off the cutting board. “If you’re worried about neighbors, you could always stay in one cottage and rent out the ones on either side of you. That’s what I’d do.”
Juliette added an equal portion of cucumbers and tomatoes to each bowl before reaching for the bag of shredded carrots. “Exactly what I was thinking.” Depending on how many cottages were available right now, maybe she’d just rent them all out for the next two or three months and guarantee she had the place all to herself.
“If you have the number, I’ll call before we eat lunch.” The sooner she made reservations, the sooner she’d get away from the city.
Chapter 2
Aaron logged out of his email and closed his laptop. Quasi-vacation or not, work emails never stopped. While some he could leave until he returned home, others required more immediate attention. With all those out of the way, he considered himself free for the rest of the day.
“Uncle Aaron, Dad says breakfast is ready,” his eleven-year-old nephew, Mason, called from the other side of the door.
Since he was attending a conference in South Carolina anyway, he’d decided to fly down a few days before the conference started and visit his older sister and her family. While not exactly a vacation in some tropical location or Europe, the visit gave him a break from his normal routine and allowed him to spend time with people he saw far too little. And as much as he loved every minute here, sometime soon, he needed a true vacation. One that included either doing nothing on a warm beach while soaking up the sun or seeing all the historical sites in Europe he still hadn’t checked off his very long list—a list he’d started to compile while in high school. So far, he’d only crossed off a handful of places in England.
After shoving his cell phone in his back pocket, Aaron opened the door, not at all surprised Mason was nowhere to be seen. If there was food in the kitchen, the kid would be there filling up his stomach. In that regard, his nephew reminded him of himself at that age.
The scent of bacon greeted him before he reached the kitchen. The popular breakfast meat might not be the healthiest thing in the world, but man, it tasted and smelled heavenly—at least to him. His younger sister would disagree.
As he expected, Mason sat at the kitchen table shoveling food into his mouth as fast as humanly possible while Aaron’s older sister, Elise, sat across from him sipping coffee and reading a magazine. Elise looked like a younger version of their mom. In fact, if he looked at pictures of their mother at Elise’s age, you’d think Elise had somehow traveled back in time and sat for the photos. That being said, Elise inherited none of their mom’s skills in the kitchen. The woman ruined even oatmeal, and forget about something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich. Thankfully, her husband possessed all the skills his wife didn’t and prepared most of the family’s meals. At the moment, he stood at the stove cooking pancakes.
Aaron snagged a slice of bacon off the plate on the table on his way to the coffeepot over by the stove.
“Is the next batch done?” Mason asked after he stuffed a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.
“Almost, but your uncle gets first dibs.” Nick flipped a golden-brown pancake and glanced over at him. “Aaron, these have blueberries in them, but I can make some without if you want.”
“As long as you’re the one making them and not my sister, I’ll eat whatever you put in front of me.”
“Hey, your sister is getting better. She managed toast last week.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Aaron added a generous amount of cream and sugar to his coffee—no self-respecting New Englander drank it any other way—before sitting down at the table. “I can’t believe you read that—”
He caught himself before he finished, although Aaron suspected his nephew heard a lot worse than the four-letter word he had in mind while on the school bus. At least he’d heard much worse when he rode the bus at Mason’s age. Still, it never hurt to be more selective with one’s language.
“—stupid magazine.” He didn’t understand why anyone cared what people with more money than brains did on a daily basis.
Nick set a plate full of pancakes on the table and grabbed a slice of bacon. “I ask her the same thing.”
Elise closed the magazine and grabbed her son’s hand before he stuck his fork in the newest stack of pancakes on the table. “If either of you bothered to read it, you’d know Today Magazine isn’t a tabloid like The Star Insider, and it doesn’t just publish celebrity pieces. Besides, it has great crossword puzzles every week.”
Before his nephew made a second attempt for more food, Aaron took three pancakes and added them to the bacon on his plate. Then he pointed his fork toward the magazine. “Could’ve fooled me.”
A photo of a gorgeous blonde he’d seen on countless covers while standing in the checkout line at the supermarket occupied much of the magazine cover. Below the too-perfect face—no doubt the publication removed any imperfections prior to publication—was the headline “Caught In The Act.” Then, in the bottom left corner, there was a smaller picture of a man and—he assumed—the same blonde woman kissing. At the same time, a picture of another woman and who he guessed was the same dark-haired dude as in the left-hand picture occupied the bottom right corner. And while there was also a photo in the top right of a Connecticut high school student who’d started a program that helped the less fortunate get prom dresses, the main headline, unfortunately, overshadowed it. Even without opening the magazine, he assumed he’d find more photos of the blonde with the dark-haired man and a story about how the guy had been caught cheating on the brunette with the blonde. After all, it seemed to be the norm among celebrities.
“The story about Juliette Belmont isn’t the only one in there.” Elise added another pancake to her plate and poured maple syrup over it.
“Let me guess, she’s an actress and got caught with a married man?”
Elise shook her head, her expression asking what rock he’d been living under. “A model and President Sherbrooke’s niece.”
And those two facts make her so much more important than everyone else. If he’d been about twenty years younger, he would’ve rolled his eyes. Instead, he stuffed a forkful of food in his mouth.
“When are we leaving?” Mason asked.
He’d promised to take his nephew to the science museum today. Since Mason lived more than a thousand miles away, he didn’t spend as much time as he’d like with him. A day at the museum would give him a chance to spoil his nephew while giving his older sister and her husband some time alone. It seemed like a win-win for everyone.
“Let your uncle at least eat his breakfast,” Elise said. “And while he does, why don’t you go upstairs and work on cleaning your room.”
He’d seen his nephew’s room. It’d take some effort and maybe some heavy machinery before it even resembled moderately neat.