"Do you know if Cordelia is coming to the island?" Grayson asked Andrew, assuming he would know the whereabouts of the oldest Thorpe sister. Last he knew, Cordelia moved to London as well. But maybe he was wrong.
Andrew's brow puckered in confusion...
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"Charlotte?" Grayson called up the stairs after he perched on the edge of the seat in the wingback chair in the Thorpe's newly renovated living room. He avoided stepping inside the house for a few minutes, expecting to be overcome with uncontrollable nostalgia. However, the Thorpes completely revamped, refurbished, and remodeled the entire Martha's Vineyard Thorpe mansion. Instead of walking into the twilight zone, Grayson found himself in a distant universe.
When did they renovate? Is the entire house renovated?
Most importantly, what are they hiding behind this pretty new interior?
Grayson couldn't put his finger on it, but some of the love and happiness that once welcomed him at the door in his childhood was missing.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! I promise!" Charlotte answered from the top of the stairs. "I just can't find my scarf!"
"Scarf?" He asked curiously, leaning against the oak banister.
Charlotte popped her head around the corner. She was pinning back hairs with a few pins. "It's most pertinent!"
Most pertinent.
Grayson shook his head at the fact that he found himself waiting at the bottom of the stairs in the Thorpe household, tapping his fingers impatiently at the girl that always kept him waiting. He thought he escaped this life; but here he was again.
In the flurry of a beautiful fluttering light pink dress that stopped just below her knees, Charlotte sashayed down the stairs with a pair of high heels in one hand and a silky scarf along with her purse in the other. "I found the scarf!" She announced with a wide smile. In her absence, she painted her lips a sultry pink color that offset her flowery patterned dress. "Allez!"
"What car are we taking?" He asked as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs to slip on her shoes.
When she rose to her feet, Charlotte stood to a hair's breadth under his nose. "That's what I wanted to show you!" She whispered in a hushed tone while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "I instructed Harold to prepare our ride whilst I was getting ready."
His mind ran with several different scenarios. Charlotte had a way of dragging him into a secret, always promising a surprise around every corner. Most importantly, Charlotte's surprises never let anyone down. She didn't know how to hold silly secrets. Her wonders always left a person feeling loved and cared for by Charlotte, like one saw a piece of her heart that no one else saw.
"Ready?" She asked.
"Whenever you are."
Swinging open the front door, Charlotte flounced down the porch steps while the sun shined in his eyes, rendering him blind for a moment. He squinted into the sun and threw up a hand to shield his eyes. He heard Charlotte's heels click-clacking over the cobblestone drive. While his eyes adjusted, he followed the sound.
