she had a natural beauty, and her appearance didn’t come across as high maintenance. And as hard as it was for me to admit, the real truth behind her lockdown in the bathroom was that it was the only place away from me. It was her sanctuary, and I couldn’t exactly blame her.
Rather than answering from the other side of the door like she always did, she walked into the room running her fingers through her beautiful red locks.
“Just crawling out of my skin,” she said, shooting daggers my way as I sat with my laptop on my black slacks. “I’m bored out of my freaking mind.”
I nodded. “I get it. I’m losing track of how long we’ve been here. It seems like one day is just blending in with the other.”
“At least you have work to keep you busy,” she said, plopping herself in the chair across from me with her arms across her chest.
“I’ve tried to help. I bought you every book you asked for, bought you puzzle books, notebooks— I’m trying to help.”
Her expression softened. “I know you are.” She sighed loudly and asked, “Can we go for a walk? I need to get out of here. It’s stuffy.”
“It’s nearly a hundred degrees out there with a hundred percent humidity. Stepping outside would be like stepping into the pits of Hell.”
“Regardless, it’s a different hell than we’re in right now.”
I did not agree. The last thing I wanted to do was go sweat my ass off in Georgia’s summer heat.
“What if we go for a walk around the Oleander? You haven’t seen the place other than a few rooms, and it’s really an impressive piece of history.”
Her eyes lit up and she nodded with a little too much excitement. “God, yes. Anything.”
As we walked out of the room and made our way downstairs, I said, “We’ll start with the lower level first and work our way up.”
“Are we allowed to just roam about the mansion freely?”
“Yeah, why not? I actually used to play in the halls of this place as a child. My friends and I made this manor our playground.”
“Odd place to run around in. Especially considering all the expensive antiques. I’d be afraid of knocking over a vase or tearing a rug or something.”
I chuckled. “Oh, we did. Trust me on that.”
“Life of a blueblood kid,” she murmured.
I bit back my retort but said instead, “I won’t attack your past if you don’t bash mine.” I took a deep breath, realizing that we had walked different paths in life, and she didn’t understand mine.
She stopped walking and when I turned to see why, her eyes locked with mine. “I’m sorry. You’re right. That was rude of me.” She continued walking next to me. “Tell me about your childhood. I genuinely want to know.”
The question seemed odd to me. I wasn’t used to it or being asked something so intimate. Women of my past didn’t ask… maybe because they didn’t care. They knew what they were getting from me and that was good enough. I think I had the habit of finding women who were as emotionally detached as I was.
“It was just me and my dad growing up,” I began. “My mother died when I was really young from cancer. I don’t remember her really.”
I led her into the grand kitchen first. The chef was in there making some sort of sauce and looked over his shoulder at us and nodded. He didn’t engage in conversation but returned his attention to his culinary masterpiece. The kitchen was the only room in the house that didn’t have any real historical elements. It had been upgraded over time with the most up-to-date appliances and steel surfaces. It was the only odd one out with the industrial feel, but still impressive, nonetheless. I wasn’t a chef, but I was pretty sure it was any cook’s wet dream.
“Wow,” Abilene said under her breath. “Our meals are made in here? I pictured something so very different.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Like some sort of medieval witch’s den or something. Old. I expected old.”
I touched her lower back and led her out of the room with my favorite room as next on the agenda.
“My father and I ate a lot of meals here,” I said as we continued walking. “Just the two of us unless you counted Mrs. H. Mrs. H was like a mother in many ways for me.” I smiled at warm memories of the woman helping me with my