It was already worn; he must have taken it out and refolded it a dozen times over the past several days. Some of the pencil had rubbed off, but Neal had already committed the numbers to memory.
He could hear some of the other staff rising and heading off to work as he made his way to the empty common room, and he could smell the breakfast that Chef must have been working on for several hours already.
The rain had let up, but it was still cool, and a thick mist lay over the resort. Neal tried to absorb some of the peacefulness from it as he lifted the receiver. While it rang through the international lines, Neal stared at the black TV screen across the room. Travis and Bastian had tried playing a shooter game with him a few weeks back, but his hands had shaken too much to aim at the animated bad guys. It was a far cry from his steady-handed sniper days.
When his unit commander, Judy Washburn, answered, her voice was a jarring reminder of his long-ago life.
For a moment, he could only consider that she probably wasn't still a major, and it seemed terribly important that he didn't know what rank she had now. He stabbed the button to hang up without speaking and buried his face in his hands.
He wasn’t ready for this yet.
Mary would tell him he didn’t have to be, he thought, and just the idea of her brought him back into balance. He could almost hear her voice in his ear, reminding him to take whatever time he needed. He didn’t have to heal in a day.
He almost dialed again, but was interrupted by Travis, who walked briskly into the room and said, “Oh, good timing. I’ll be needing your help at Cottage 12 this morning to get the new interior walls raised.”
Travis said nothing about the phone that Neal still held in his hands, and Neal didn’t volunteer anything.
“I’ll be right there,” Neal said, hanging up the receiver and standing.
“Neal.”
They both turned to find Scarlet in the doorway. She looked out of place in the shabby room, with the pearls at her throat and her starched linen skirt.
Neal stood at attention out of instinct, and caught Travis doing the same out of a corner of his eye, thoug
h he didn’t think that Travis had any military background.
“I’ll need you out of the resort this afternoon.” While Neal was still trying to process the speed of his ejection, Scarlet continued, “Go with Bastian on a mainland boat trip, or head out to clear the waterfall trail, I don’t care, but don’t come back until late tonight or even tomorrow.”
Neal furrowed his eyebrows. If he wasn’t being thrown out…
“I’ve got an investor coming here with Beehag’s heir, Benedict, and I don’t want any… incidents.”
“I don’t know what you think I would…”
Scarlet raised a silencing hand. “This is not a topic that is open for discussion.”
Neal remembered Mary’s quiet assessment that he’d never gotten revenge, and surprised them all with a grim smile. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Scarlet nodded, and then swept out as abruptly as she’d come.
“We’d better get to work while we can then,” Travis said, looking bemused.
“Right you are,” Neal said cheerfully.
Chapter Fifteen
Mary couldn’t swim her laps without blushing and remembering the night before in vivid detail, so it wasn’t long before she was crawling out of the water and toweling off more vigorously than usual. Neal had been nowhere to be found since breakfast, but the head waiter had winked at her and said, “He’ll find you for lunch.”
Scarlet-cheeked, Mary slipped her sundress on over her damp suit and went to the bar for a cold water.
Tex was behind the bar, strumming melancholy chords on his guitar along with the radio, but he put it down as she approached.
“What can I get you, darlin’?” he drawled.
“Just ice water, please,” Mary said, putting the towel carefully over the barstool before she sat.
“Coming right up.” Tex reached up to get the glass and filled it with a swift scoop of glittering ice from the ice bin.