Stolen Kiss (The Turners of Copper Island #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Jason

“ C ome on, we’re starting,” Daisy Turner shouted out as she ran through the kitchens of Edward Hall.

“Five minutes. I’ll meet you down there,” Jason called over his shoulder, frowning at why his sister was running through his kitchen.

After she ran through the open side door, he turned back to what he was doing. Jason was adding the finishing touches to a three-layer chocolate cake for Ralph’s kid. Ralph was a third-generation gardener for the Turner Estate. He took care of the grounds and seemed to spend most of his time at the Turner Hall, making sure everything was immaculate for Cynthia Turner’s exacting standards. Archer, his brother, had hired him for Edward Hall to keep the gardens in perfect condition for our wedding business. That meant Ralph spent more hours working for the Turners than he spent at home. Something they weren’t happy with. Archer had told him to hire an assistant, who they would pay for, or Archer would give Ralph the sack. Archer didn’t actually intend to fire Ralph, but it was effective enough to get the point across. But like anything on Copper Island. Things took time.

The least Jason could do was bake Ralph’s son a birthday cake.

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, covered in chocolate flakes, which was the kid’s favourite. Pressing the last round of chocolate into the icing, Jason stepped back and admired his work. He hoped the kid had some friends to help him to eat the damn thing.

Once he’d transferred the cake to the walk-in refrigerator, Jason washed up, changed his clothes, locked up, and took off down to the lake on the far side of the cottages.

It was the last day when all of them would be together before Luke and Daisy headed off to college to take their courses to help with the business. Daisy couldn’t wait, but Luke was less keen and still scowled at Archer whenever the word college was mentioned.

Each of them got a role similar to what they were doing on the oil rigs. Luke did not. He was a trained medic and landed the job of events manager. Jason knew he’d rock it, but the stomping and tutting Luke did, said it did not impress him. However, there was little need for a medic in a wedding and hotel business, so he had to suck it up.

Jason could hear his brothers and sister before he reached the lakeside. It was a favourite spot for them as kids, when the sea was too turbulent on stormy days. Ralph’s grandfather, at some stage, built a giant table in the middle of the lake with a dozen wooden high-backed chairs. Archer was next to his wife, Erica, and Daisy was next to Luke. Wading into the lake, Jason swam the last three metres to join them. Hauling himself up onto the chair at the head of the table, he stared at the giant deck of cards. When they were kids, Daisy could barely hold them up to shield them away from her cheating brothers. Now she was wiser and stronger. Daisy twisted at the waist and angled her body so it was only she who could see her cards, keeping them from Luke.

Even though it was mid-September, the sun shone hard, and they were all in their swimmers. Daisy and Erica were in one-piece suits, and Luke, Archer, and Jason were in long board shorts. All the colours they wore clashed badly.

“Is the cake finished?” Erica asked, passing him a bottle of beer from the ice bucket next to her.

“Yes, tucked away in the walk-in fridge. None of you lot goes near it.”

“Why can’t we have some?” Luke said as a protest, reaching for a beer and turning his finished one upside down in the bucket.

“It’s not for you, Luke,” Daisy said like she was a mother hen.

“I’m sure Ralph’s son won’t mind,” Luke reasoned, raising his eyebrows to his hairline and grinning widely.

“He’ll know if there is a massive wedge taken out of it,” Jason replied, then took a long swig from the beer bottle.

Erica laughed at the conversation and sat back in her chair, giving us all a megawatt smile.

“Fine. I’ll just invite myself along to his party,” Luke huffed.

“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled,” Archer said around the neck of her beer bottle.

They all burst out laughing at the comment and Luke’s sweet tooth.

“There might be boxes of treats on your bed to take to college in the morning,” Jason said. He reached for the cards and dealt them out.

Daisy practically melted into her seat, and Luke gave him a shy smile. “Thanks, dude,” he muttered.

Everyone took their cards. Erica shifted up a seat away from her husband and placed her feet on the chair she had just vacated. Archer let out a whine and slumped in his seat. “Daisy has warned me about your cheating ways, Archer Turner.

“Damn sisterhood,” Archer grumbled and gave Daisy a wink.

“Okay, what are we playing for?” Luke asked, putting his cards face down on the table and rubbing his hands.

“If Jason loses, he has to come to the gig racing tomorrow night,” Archer said.

“What’s so special about the gig racing?” Erica asked.

“The entire island turns out for the last races. There is a race for amateurs, which is tomorrow, and then at the end of September is the semi-profession races. In March, the serious gig racers come and take over the island for a long weekend. World class rowers with fine legs swarm the place,” Daisy said.

Erica ignored the scowls they made at Daisy’s comment and ploughed on.

“Don’t you want to go?” Erica asked Jason.

“I’m happy up here at the estate,” Jason replied with, he hoped a disinterested gaze at his cards. He was trying for a poker face for more reasons than his cards.

“He’s avoiding someone,” Archer loudly whispered.

“I think you’ll find she’s been the one avoiding me. For ten years,” Jason said, knowing exactly who they were talking about.

“Eleven technically,” Luke said and then hid behind his cards when he caught sight of Jason’s face, no longer poker-like.

“Does it matter?” Jason barked to Luke.

“For the sake of the cakes on my bed, I’m not saying any more,” Luke said.

“You can’t leave me hanging,” Erica said, her cards abandoned to her left, away from Archer.

“One summer after he’d finished culinary school and before he was joining his brother and father in the rigs, my big brother fell in love with a girl called Heidi. Then the day after he arrived in Scotland to fly out to the North Sea rig, he received a message to say she never wanted to see him again and he wasn’t welcome at her door,” Daisy said.

Erica hugged her fists to her chest, her eyebrows knitting, and she looked at Jason. “Oh Jason, that’s so sad. Did you contact her?”

“Nope,” Jason said, really interested in his shit hand of cards.

“The message came from Heidi’s brother, Keith,” Archer said.

“Keith was Jason’s best friend,” Daisy informed Erica.

“Do we have to hash this up?” Jason said.

“Erica needs bringing up to speed. She needs to know what she’s playing for,” Daisy said, clearly not caring about losing her cake supply.

“I’m not going,” Jason said, knowing full well he’d lose at cards. He always lost at cards against his siblings. Looking at his hand, anyone would lose.

“You know the rules, brother,” Archer said.

“Let’s play,” Daisy said.

“Hang on, how do you know Heidi will be there?” Erica asked.

“She’ll be there,” they all answered together.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Erica said, picking up her cards. “I have a good feeling for a joyful reunion.”

Jason loved his sister-in-law, but her perpetual optimism pissed him off. He knew Heidi would be there because she’d always rowed in the gigs. No doubt about it, Heidi would row in the last race with the semi-professionals. While he thought it unlikely, he hoped she’d skip the amateur race, or be on call.

After three games, Jason slammed his cards down and pushed them into the middle. “Stupid fucking game,” he muttered. He’d lost, badly.

“What time does is start tomorrow?” Erica asked, grinning with glee. She’s won all three games.

“Midday and finishes about five,” Archer said.

“I’m going up to my cottage. I’m getting wrinkly,” Daisy said.

“Dinner at ours?” Erica said to the group.

They agreed on a time and swam to the shore and trudged up the bank to the pile of towels and flip-flops. They dispersed to their cottages to get ready. Jason hung back and looked at Edward Hall in darkness and then across to Turner Hall. He could see his aunt’s light on in her rooms and wondered if she ever felt lonely in that big house.

Shaking his head of thoughts of how she cheated them into taking over the wedding business that wasn’t actually a business, he headed for Victoria Lodge, the cottage he’d picked. Well, he hadn’t actually picked. Daisy had decided that they should live in age order and as Archer was the oldest and already moved in at Emma Lodge, he took the next one. Luke moved into Sabrina Lodge and Daisy took Frances Lodge. The fifth lodge in the row was called Pearl Lodge, and they decided they’d keep that for visiting friends.

Jason’s grandmother, Victoria, had named all the cottages after the female ancestors, seeing as they named the Halls after the male ancestors.

He showered, changed and strolled along to Archer and Erica’s place and admired how quickly they had made it a home. All five cottages had been build designed identically. The furniture, although of different colours, was the same size, placed in the same places and had matching curtains. Erica hadn’t thrown her money around their cottage. She’d kept all the large furniture but had dressed every room with personal touches. The cottages were staff houses before but his aunt put a stop to that when her father died, saying the staff shouldn’t live in such luxury. The staff moved out and his aunt had them redecorated and had spent frivolously, so much so Archer had to fix the electrics.

If he was going to stay permanently in Victoria Lodge, then he needed to pick up some tips. Luke and Daisy joined them a few minutes later, and they crowded around Archer and Erica’s dining table, heaping mounds of chilli beef onto their plates. They passed all the dips and side dishes around. It was a farewell dinner for Daisy and Luke.

“How’s your charity thing going?” Jason asked Erica.

“Oh, it’s taking off. I’m going to need to find premises at this rate, otherwise I’m going to be a permanent postie,” she said.

Her eyes lit up talking about her latest project. Erica had run into one resident when she had to go back to the mainland to get her wedding dress. She brought over on her return flight stacks of goods for the charity to sell. After some thinking, she decided it would be better for the environment if the goods already came from the island. So she set up the Swap Shop. It wasn’t a physical shop, it was currently all online. People would take snapshots of their unwanted items and send them to Erica. She would then put them in her virtual shop. But many people wanted to remain anonymous, which meant the purchaser couldn’t go to the owner’s house to pick up the items. Erica was forever borrowing the buggy and was a mediator. This soon got out of hand, so now she had an assistant who lived in town to do the ferrying, and another virtual assistant to take care of the online side of things. Erica took care of communications.

“I’m sure we can find a place to build a small warehouse to hold the items. Everyone pays online, so it’s not like real money will need to be collected,” Archer said.

“There has to be some square footage Aunt Cynthia will give up,” Luke said.

“Are we talking about the same woman?” Daisy said, her eyes growing wide.

“I’ll ask her,” Jason said.

“Yeah, you ask her. She seems to like you at the moment,” Luke said.

“Christ knows what I did wrong to deserve that, but I’ll take one for the team,” Jason replied, grumbling.

“Thanks Jason,” Erica said, and blew him a kiss across the table.

Archer scowled and Jason then grinned.