Page 83 of Sapphire Sunset

For a solidtwo hours, the visits went surprisingly well. It helped that Connor and Loganarrived with two room service waiters bearing trays of cookies and tea servicesfrom a well-stocked rolling cart. Less enthusiastically received was the newsthat mental health counselors were already on site and willing to talk to thegrieving guests individually. And no one seemed interested in the larger groupmeeting scheduled that evening for those who’d lost homes.

One woman, a single motherwith three young children, actually threw her arms around Connor when he toldher they were moving her to a larger villa until she figured out her nexthousing option. Connor accepted this attention with the restrained dignity of aseasoned politician. And Logan, matching him step for step, felt like hisSecret Service detail. Which Logan loved. It allowed them to stay close,turning their moment of frenzied passion into something steadier and constant.

No running this time, no awkwardtext messages giving way to a half decade of silence and obsession. No hoveringin the open door of a Rolls-Royce wondering what might have been.

But aside from enjoying theirnearness, Logan was checking entrances and exits, stepping silently betweenConnor and the sliding glass doors in each room, shielding him from whoevermight be lurking outside. He hoped he was overreacting, but he’d seen somethingterrifying in Rodney’s eyes when he’d held the man to the lobby wall. Somethingthat reminded Logan of his fellow vets who’d treated their PTSD with a combinationof booze and harder things. Men who’d convinced themselves they had nothingleft to live for.

But Logan didn’t regretdefending Connor. Not for a moment. Rodney’s insane spiral was well underway bythen, from the moment he thought it would be a good idea to show up drunk,ready to begin a day’s work at a place that had fired him.

And it made him happy, trulyhappy, to watch Connor claim the position his uncle had tried to deny him.

After two hours, there was onlyone name left on the visit list. A woman named Donna Langdon. According to someof the staff who’d talked with her the night before, she was a widow and a retiree,and along with her home, she’d lost a painting studio full of her canvases. Shewasn’t in her guest room when they knocked. A few texts with the front desk andthe waitstaff inside Camilla’s and someone finally reported her sitting outsideby the pool. Alone.

They found her on one of thelounge chairs nearest the cliff’s edge, giving the beautiful ocean view athousand-yard stare. It was clear she wasn’t seeing sparkling blue water andwhitecaps rolling toward shore, but the smoldering ruins of a decimated homeshe hadn’t yet been cleared to visit. She had a proud, hard profile, and herhair was a great gray mane she’d tied back with a scrunchie. In younger years,it had probably been blond, making her look even more like a lady Viking thanshe did now.

At first, she didn’t react totheir approach. Logan sensed, right away, that this visit wouldn’t be as easyas the others, and his protective feelings for Connor surged.

Connor took the tea tray toher himself. When he set it down on the lounger next to hers, she waved a handat him without looking at him. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve had your big show withus. There’s no need, really. And I hate tea. It tastes like half of something.”

Connor took a seat beside thetray, as if he too wanted to stare meditatively at the view. A few paces awaywas where Logan stayed, mostly because he didn’t want the hostile woman to feelcrowded. Also, it gave him a better view of their surroundings. The pool wasn’tquite as crowded as it had been after breakfast. But it had plenty of sideentrances through which a drunken Rodney could emerge in search of Round Two.

“Seriously,” Donna Langdonsaid, “you can drop the whole nursemaid routine. It’s not my first time at themisery rodeo.”

“We have coffee too,” Connoroffered. “And Diet Coke. And whiskey.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry it feels like ashow.”

“Isn’t it?” she asked. “Imean, no offense, but after my house burned to the ground, it wasn’t like I wasgoing to keep watching wildfire coverage. Like, here’s Donna house. Still burnedto the ground. So I looked up this place. Your uncle’s an ass, by the way.”

Connor nodded. “That he is.”

“But still, I don’t appreciatebeing used like this. I mean, that’s what this is, right? You brought us all inhere yesterday in front of the cameras, and now you’re coming to ask me toleave.”

“No.”

“What then?” she asked.

“I’m going to move you to amuch bigger room until you have your housing figured out, and I’m going tooffer you free spa services for as long as you’re here. Along with the three mealsa day and everything else.”

Donna Langdon seemedgenuinely surprised. “For how long?”

“As long as you need a placeto stay.”

“You say that now…”

“I’ll say it three monthsfrom now if I need to.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you lost your house,and it feels like the right thing to do. And you came alone, and no one’s beento visit you yet.”

That he’d gone to the troubleof finding out this additional personal detail caused her to flinch and lookback out to sea. “Why you, though? I mean, come on, this whole thing is aboutmaking this place look good.”

“Maybe. In part. Or maybe it’sbigger than that.”

“How?” she asked.

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