The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(105)

“Are you fucking serious? You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Calm down, bossman,” Nina soothes, taking his hand and walking him from the room.

Elliot follows them back out onto the terrace.

“Are you okay?” Maxwell asks Scarlet.

“Fine now.” She nods, picking up Waverly and taking Ellis’s hand. “Luce, will you give me a hand bathing the kids before dinner? Megan, I need you to go down to the staff’s hut and ask them to have dinner ready for six. The phones have been down since the storm. Take Elliot with you, and he can carry back the canopies.”

“I won’t be long,” I tell Maxwell. “See you at dinner, yeah?”

“Sure. I’m going to go have a nap anyway.” Maxwell leans in and kisses my cheek before disappearing down the corridor.

Scarlet walks ahead of me, and I go to follow, quickly leaning around the door to see Elliot sitting back on the lounger again.

“This entire week is going to be a giant fuckup. I can feel it.”

“We’ve got your back.” Megan throws me a wink, giving me a soft smile before walking out of the door.





Elliot and Mason didn’t come to dinner last night. If ever there was any doubt in my mind that they didn’t want us here, that pretty much confirmed it. They said they had business in the town, but we all knew it was absolute bullshit. Thankfully, Charlie stayed and chatted with Maxwell.

Ellis spent the whole meal asking where his daddy was, and Nina sat with a hard face for the majority of the night.

Everything feels wrong. Me being here is causing a rift between us all, and it’s not fair.

“I’m going to go home.” I drop the book I’m pretending to read and look across at the girls. They are sat out on loungers next to me.

“Shut up,” Nina mumbles, not even flinching.

Scarlet and Megan don’t say a word, and I know it’s because they can feel it too.

Maxwell has stayed home at the pool today, he couldn’t get a signal down here, and with the internet being out for the first day of our stay, he was desperate to get back online.

“I’m serious,” I tell her. “It’s not right me being here with Max. You’d all have a nicer time if we headed home.”

“You aren’t going home.”

“I am, Nina.”

She sits up in a rush, pushing her sunglasses up and levelling me with a stare. “Ignore them. Especially Mase. You need this break, Luce, and you need time with us.” Her lips purse as she looks at the girls. “We’ve been so worried about you, and I’m not letting you leave yet. I need to see you, spend time with you. Let them do them and enjoy this with us!”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” My words come out in an almost inaudible whisper as my emotions rise. “It’s hell to be around Elliot and have him ignore me. And I don’t blame him.” I pull my sun hat low and wipe the corner of my eye. “He has every right to feel the way he does.”

“But it hurts. It’s hurting the both of you,” Scarlet adds.

I nod, rolling my lips. I want to be honest with them about how I feel, but it terrifies me. If I’m honest with them, then I have to say it out loud. And that means being honest with myself.

“I want to scream at him to hear me out, but what do I even say?” I frown. “That I don’t feel anything for Maxwell. Would that make it any better?”

I see the sympathy in my friend’s eyes, and it makes me feel like shit inside. I’m ruining their holiday.

I’m hurting him.

“I think…” I close my eyes, letting the lie go because I know. I’ve known it for a long time. Maybe before I even started to fall. “I love him.”

Can you do that?

Fall in love with someone you’re already in love with?

We sit in silence as tears run down my face.

“Then why Max?” Scarlet utters softly.

I shrug, frowning as my face screws up in pain. “I don’t know.” My chin wobbles, and Nina comes to me. “I don’t know anymore,” I sob. “I want to come home.”

“Luce.”

“I just want to come home. I want to forget about New York and go back to before.”

“Shit,” Megan cusses.

“Luce?” I hear Mason’s voice and spin around.

He, Elliot, and Charlie stand a few feet away, a volleyball clenched tight in Elliot’s hands as he watches me.

His face is like stone, and I quickly hide my tear-lined cheeks under my hat.

“We’re heading back,” Nina tells them, picking up my things and grabbing my hand. “Can you sort the kids?”

“Sure,” Mason tells her.

We walk back up the beach and up the steps to the lodge. The girls do their best to lift me up, telling me random shit things, knowing talking about Elliot or the situation will only make things worse.

We put on a movie and end up passed out on the bed, not waking up until there’s a knock at the door.

Nina gets up first and answers it, and I slowly sit up, rubbing at my eyes as they find focus.

“Shit fuck. What time is it?” Megan groans, rolling over.

Mason walks past Nina and looks at us sprawled out on the bed. “Unbelievable,” he says with a smile, his hands on his hips.