Lie to Me (Pearl Island Trilogy #4)(6)

Whoa! He shook his head to clear it. That was a bit too freaky, even for him. As much as he wanted to obliterate the line between reality and imagination in the gaming world, seeing something he’d imagined appear before him like a hologram gave him pause. Clearly he’d been working too hard. Losing himself in coding Vortal for too many days on end tended to play tricks on his brain.

“Focus,” he told himself. And find Chloe. She and the kids couldn’t have just vanished. Looking in the direction his hallucination had gone, he noticed wet footprints on the floor. They led to the same wall of paneling under the stairs.

A secret door? Why not? Hidden passages for servants were common in old mansions. Delighted at the possibility, he went to examine the paneling, looking for a secret handle. Finding none, he simply pushed and the middle panel swung inward on silent hinges, revealing a dark, narrow hall. Halfway down the passage, light spilled from a wide doorway on the right, along with the buzz of agitated female voices. The area shouted “off limits to guests,” but as Blade would say, those who hesitated rarely won the day. With a shrug, he slipped into the dark hall.

The doorway opened to a light-filled kitchen. The mouth-watering aroma of baking brownies drifted from commercial-grade ovens that blended in seamlessly with exposed brick and wooden rafters. A wrought-iron rack hanging from the ceiling held an array of well-used pots and pans over a center island cluttered with baking supplies.

Beyond the island, he spotted Chloe talking rapidly to two other women. The taller of the two was a stunning strawberry blonde wearing a white T-shirt and blue shorts. Her hair spiraled in corkscrew curls to her trim waist. The other woman, a petite brunette in a floral sundress, possessed a quieter beauty. The twins stood nearby, arms crossed and mutiny written on their faces, while the older girl held the sniffling toddler.

The tall blonde gasped at Chloe’s tale and pulled the dripping wet boy to her, wrapping her arms about his head, pressing his face to her stomach. “Adrian Jackson Chancellor, what were you thinking!”

“Mom, I’m okay.” The boy’s voice sounded muffled as he flailed his arms. He managed to pull back and grin up at his mother. “It was cool.”

With a growl, the boy’s mother cupped his face. “What are we going to do with you?”

“Well, I know what I’m going to do with you two.” Arms akimbo, the brunette narrowed her eyes at the twins.

“It wasn’t our fault,” the twin in blue swim trunks insisted, while the one wearing red trunks stood silently by, his scowl growing darker.

“You dared him to do it,” the older girl accused. Her long curls, while blonder, matched those of the woman hugging the equally blond AJ, so Luc grouped them together as one family. The sniffling toddler bore more resemblance to the petite brunette and the twins.

“I don’t want to hear it.” The brunette held a hand up for silence. “We’re all going downstairs to get clean and dry.” She pointed at the twins. “Then you two are in for some major time out.”

“Time out?” the twin in the blue trunks protested. “We’re almost ten. We’re too old for time out.”

“You would prefer another punishment for egging AJ on?” The brunette tapped her foot. “Maybe no beach time for a week?”

“No, no.” The talkative twin held his hands out. “Time out’s good. We can do time out. Can’t we, Rafe?”

The silent Rafe sent his brother a glare that promised retribution.

“Chloe,” AJ’s mother said as she lifted the boy onto her hip, “will you keep an eye on the brownies in the oven while we take this band of heathens downstairs?”

“I need to change, too,” Chloe protested, looking down at her wet shirt.

Luc’s gaze followed and found the orange fabric clinging transparently to her wet skin and hot pink swimsuit, which somehow looked more provocative than the string bikini alone.

“I’ll be quick,” the stunning blonde assured her.

“Come on. All of you.” The brunette waved the children into a huddle. The minute she turned and spotted Luc standing in the dark hall, she drew up short, surprise widening blue eyes that looked disarmingly similar to his hallucination. “Oh! Hello.”

Chloe spun toward the door at her aunt Allison’s greeting. Her heart bumped when she saw the hunk from the beach standing there, watching them with open curiosity.

“Can I help you?” Allison asked, friendly but with a hint of wariness at a total stranger wandering into the private area of the inn.

“I just wanted to be sure everything’s all right,” he said, stepping forward into the light. His shirt had lost the half-tuck and his hair was damp and mussed. Chloe found the less calculated look far more attractive.

“Everything’s fine,” she assured, feeling breathless. “Well, considering one of my cousins nearly drowned.”

“Cousins?” His brows quirked up over green eyes that seemed to take in every detail of the gathering before returning to Chloe with a silent question.

“Pseudo cousin, in AJ’s case, since his mother is my aunt’s sister,” Chloe explained, then turned to Aurora. “Rory, this is the man who saved AJ’s life.”

“Actually,” he said, “you’re the one who dove in after him.”

“But you’re the one who did CPR.”