Page 35 of He Loves Me Knot
Her smile lit her entire face as one drew closer, hanging from a tree branch. “Do you know what it is?”
The dark face was almost as much of a giveaway as the noise they made.
“That one is a howler. There are white-faced capuchins around here, too, but you got lucky. The howlers rarely come down from the treetops as readily.”
She snapped a picture of the monkey that had descended. It watched them with curiosity, dark eyes keenly aware of them. “It’s amazing.”
Moving with speed, the howler swung closer to them. Lydia snapped a few more pictures, and Callum couldn’t help but be intrigued by how different she seemed here. Her hair was loose and over her shoulders—he still couldn’t get used to it being dark—and she wore a long sundress that flattered the curves of her fantastic arse.
He blinked away from her figure, noticing, too late, just how close the howler had swung to her phone. “Wait, Lydia?—”
Callum darted forward, but it was too late.
The howler extended a hand, scooped up the glowing phone, then scrambled back up the tree as quickly as he’d descended.
“No!” Lydia set the camera down around her neck. “Oh my God. That little son of a bitch just stole my phone.”
Callum almost chortled at her words, then grimaced, shading his eyes in the bright light as he scanned the treetops. He couldn’t even see where the damned thing had gone, but from the shadows up above, he imagined the howler had gone to join his friends.
Lydia took a helpless step toward the foliage. “H-how do I get my phone back? Can I tempt it back with a banana or something?”
Callum laughed dryly. “I think it’s gone for good. If you’re lucky, it might drop it eventually and you can use theFind My Phonefeature to locate it.”
“Why are you laughing?” Lydia slugged his bicep with the back of her hand. “This isn’t funny.” She stomped, looking up at the trees. “Oh my God. What the fuck am I supposed to do without my phone? And my credit cards! My credit cards are in my case.”
“Why the hell are your credit cards in your case?”
“It’s a wallet-case combo thing. I don’t know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” She grimaced at the trees. “Can we shoot them?”
Callum rubbed the back of his neck with a snicker. “I don’t know, it might be antithetical to the whole eco-tourism thing going on here.”
“Stop laughing at me,” she said, stomping her feet again.
“It’s a little funny.”
Lydia face-palmed and looked at him, chagrined. “No, no, no, it’s not. It’s only funny to you because . . .” Then she shook her head and let out a helpless chuckle. “Because you’re an asshole. Of course you’re laughing.” She strangely didn’t sound angry. “Of all the damn things. A monkey stole my cell phone. This has been the theme of today.”
“I’ve seen monkeys steal passports, rental car keys . . . really, the sky’s the limit.”
Her eyes widened. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t think it would come down here and take it. Normally, it’s the capuchins you have to worry about. The howlers like to keep away.”
“Buenas!” Mum greeted, and they both looked up to see her coming down the path. Callum nearly groaned. After the encounter with Sophia, the last thing he wanted was to deal with his mother right now.
“Buenas,” Callum said, instead. The Spanish language had come back to him quickly enough despite years of not using it regularly. His family had lived in England until his parents divorced when he was nine. Then Mum had agreed with Dad to allow him to stay with his father during the school year, for the expensive all-boys boarding school in Connecticut. His summers and holidays were usually in Costa Rica, though occasionally he’d gone to England to be with his grandparents.
And that was why, maybe, England had been more of a comfort. His grandparents’ house was the only place where he’d continued visiting regularly until he was eighteen and had gone to Oxford. Every other place had been somewhere to sleep but without roots.
Mum stopped a few feet away and smiled broadly at Lydia. “How are you liking the bungalow?”
“The bungalow is great,” Lydia said, still squinting at the monkeys. “But a monkey just stole my cell phone.”
Mum gasped. “Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear it.” She came over and stood next to Lydia, hands on her hips. Mum had maintained her svelte figure over the years, though her short dark hair was significantly grayer than it had been. She joined Lydia in looking up at the shadowy figures above them. “Maybe it will drop it?”
“I’m not sure my phone will survive a drop like that.”
“So sad.” Mum grimaced. “But I’m sure Callum will share his phone with you.” She hesitated then went on, “Anyway, I wanted to invite you to yoga in the morning, Liddy. I thought it would be a nice opportunity to spend time with you and get to know you better.”