The object on the ground in front of me was a tray. That still didn’t explain the cry I heard. Panning my phone across the pool area, I saw someone sitting on one of the chaise lounge chairs that surrounded the pool. What the hell?
I moved closer. The person was wrapped up in a blanket. Surely they didn’t have homeless people on a private island? That made no sense. Then I got even closer and a familiar face looked up at me. “Maddie?”
She blinked up at me. For reasons I couldn’t begin to imagine, she’d been asleep out here, and she seemed confused. She’d had a lot to drink tonight, too.
“What are you doing out here?”
She rubbed her eyes, and the blanket fell from her shoulders. “I couldn’t stay there.” Her voice was so soft I could barely hear her.
“Stay where?” Maddie had on shorts and an oversized t-shirt. Her bare feet rested on the ground with sandals on the pavement under her chair. “Are you okay?”
“I—I think so. I’m just so tired. It was such a long day.”
The poor thing looked exhausted. It had been a long day of travel for her, too. I pulled a chair over and sat down across from her. “Why aren’t you at your cabin?”
Maddie smoothed her hair back, though I loved the way her curls looked when they were unruly like that. But at least she seemed more alert now. “Our cabin only has two twin beds, and the… what’d you guys call them? The Annas took those. There was a third mattress, but it was up in this loft thing, and there was a really heavy ladder you had to prop up to get there.”
“That sounds dangerous.” I couldn’t believe she’d considered doing that. “Did you climb up there?”
“I was going to, but they got home first, because I was hanging out with you guys. And when I got back, the light in the cabin wouldn’t even turn on.” Her voice grew shaky. “I think they actually took the lightbulbs out.”
“What? Why?”
“Because of the way I got you away from them,” she said, her voice so soft that I leaned forward to hear it. “Or because they saw the four of us talking or drinking together. I think they wanted me to get hurt.”
“God, that’s awful.” Without conscious thought, I closed the distance between us and sat down next to her. I picked up the blanket that had fallen and put it around her shoulders. “You could’ve been seriously injured.”
Maddie looked up at me, her eyes so wide they were practically glowing. “I can’t stay there. I just can’t.”
I put my arm around her. “You don’t have to.”
“But there’s nowhere else.”
“We’ll find somewhere else. We’ll go into the lodge and demand they give you a room. They have to have something.”
“No, we can’t,” Maddie said, looking upset.
“The hell we can’t.” Despite the success of my tech firm, I wasn’t usually the sort of man who threw money at problems, but if ever a situation called for it, it was this.
“No, I mean, we really can’t. I’ve been in contact with them daily since the hurricane. There literally aren’t enough rooms. It’s going to be even harder once the rest of the guests arrive, especially if they can’t get the east wing open.”
“Maddie, you’re one woman. They’ll have room for you.” Determined, I stood up, but Maddie grabbed my arm and tugged me back down.
“I’m serious, Jessie. The people who work here have been through hell these past few weeks. I’m not going to put this on them—I’d rather sleep out here all night.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said with a growl that almost made me sound like Brock.
“Then where will I sleep?” She looked so young, all of a sudden, even though she was only in her mid-twenties. The other guys and I had a good six or seven years on her, but it felt like even more right now.
“At our cabin.”
“Yours?”
“Yes, Brock, Kincade, and I are sharing one.”
As exhausted as she was, she still looked ready to object, so I cut her off before she could. “It’s either stay with us or I’m going into the lodge right now to get you a bed.”
Maddie stared at me for a long moment, and then she nodded. “Do you have enough room?”
Truthfully, no, but we’d make it work, even if I had to sleep in the bathtub. Or, come to think of it, our small cabin didn’t have a bathtub, just a small shower stall. But we had a hot tub on the back deck, and I’d sleep on a pool float in there before I’d let Maddie stay out here. “We’ll make it work.”
I put my arm around her and urged her to her feet, being careful to keep the blanket on her. She had a pillow out here, too, and I grabbed that while she slipped her feet into her sandals.