Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Gideon snorted. “I realize she probably feels like a week in the middle of nowhere is a tragedy, but it’s really not.”
“Will you guys just shut up and listen?”
Gideon and I stared at Brady. He never spoke to us like that. Or to anyone.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“She’s having nightmares. Bad ones.”
I frowned. “I thought that that thing I gave her was supposed to solve that.” That wasn’t very clear, but Brady would know what I mean.
Gideon didn’t, though. “What’d you give her, a sedative or something?”
“No.”
My old friend just stared at me.
Finally, I shrugged. “I gave her back one of her toys. Apparently, if she comes before she goes to sleep, then she sleeps deeply and doesn’t have bad dreams.”
Gideon swore. “You gave her royal highness some of her tech back just so she could get herself off before bed?”
“It’s not like that,” Brady said. “Her nightmares are really bad. They’re about her dad dying.”
Gideon’s head swung around sharply. “Is that what she told you?”
“It’s the truth,” Brady insisted. “I saw her today, thrashing around. Crying out about how her dad wasn’t supposed to be there. I think she was dreaming she was at his funeral.”
“Why were you in her room while she was asleep?” Gideon asked. His normally tan face was paler than usual though I couldn’t figure out why. I’d gotten the impression that he wasn’t much of a fan of our guest.
“I heard her crying out and I went in there,” Brady said. “I’m serious, it was bad.”
After a long moment, Gideon’s tense posture relaxed. “Well, if that’s the case, let her have her orgasms.”
“We already did,” I said.
“But it’s not just that,” Brady continued. “I overheard her and Penny talking. Being out here has caused them a drop in viewership.”
Okay, I was sympathetic about the nightmares, but this was a different story. “So? She makes enough to afford an assistant from her social media channels. Ours barely make enough to buy drywall.”
“We didn’t bring her out here to torture her,” Brady said.
“Torture?” Gideon echoed, his voice tinged with sarcasm. “We’ve given her free room and board, some truly excellent meals, and a week in a beautiful forest. How’s that torture?”
“Because being out here is upsetting her.”
I couldn’t disagree with that one. “Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know.” Brady sounded upset. “But we tricked her into coming out here, took away her tech, and took her completely out of her element.”
“All she ever would’ve had to do was to make a full, public apology,” Gideon commented. “We’ve always agreed on that.”
“But we set it up so she’d accept the challenge to save face,” Brady reminded him.
“Look, she’s here now. If that’s stressing her out, let’s figure out how to fix it,” I said.
“If only we knew why she’s stressed,” Brady said.
Stressed. A few days ago, I’d thought of her as sassy. But, yeah, stressed seemed more apt now.
Brady was still trying to figure out why. “It can’t all be because we took away her sex toys.”
Gideon snorted. “It’s not.”
Brady took offense at that. “What makes you the expert? You’ve spent the least time with her.”
“But I’ve watched her online. I’ve seen what makes her tick.”
Okay, his superior tone was getting to me, too. “Care to enlighten us?”
“Her career, hell, her whole life involves talking to people.”
I said what Brady must’ve been thinking, too. “So? Don’t we all talk to people?”
Gideon shook his head. “Not like that. We’re talking to each other here. But Lila only talks to people, it’s not a conversation. Perhaps I should’ve said she talks at people. As in, she’s the only one talking.”
“Okay, so she spends her days in podcast mode,” Brady said. “But I don’t get why you think that affects what’s going on here.”
“She lives alone. She talks at people, not to them. She never connects with anyone.”
“There’s Penny.”
“I’m guessing that’s one of the few people she has in-depth conversations with.”
Brady clenched his jaw. “Are you saying she’s lonely?”
“I’m saying she spends a lot of her life alone,” Gideon responded. “And now she’s here, staying with us, and connecting with us every day. It’s a lot different than what she’s used to.”
This was starting to make sense. “I guess it could be a form of culture shock for her. It’s likely every bit as strange to her as it was going from a city of three million people to Donovan’s Mill.”
Everyone was silent for a moment as we thought that over.
“So that may be the problem, but I have no clue what to do about it. Does anyone?” I didn’t expect anyone to have an answer, but apparently, Brady did.
“We get rid of Penny,” he said.
Silence greeted that, and then Gideon turned to sarcasm—naturally. “Should we stash her in the storm cellar or feed her to the fish in the lake?”