Off the Hook (23 page)

When Finn finally got himself under control, he pulled two mugs out of the cupboard, filled them both, and handed one to Ro, who’d reluctantly flopped down on one of the chairs.

Liam let Jessie do most of the talking, only filling in bits of information when prompted. And by the time she’d finished, Ro was no longer the hulking mass of anger he’d been when it all started. Instead, he was sitting back in his chair, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, with his coffee mug resting against his belly as he nodded slowly.

To hear Jessie tell it, the Buoys wouldn’t be in half the shape it was if it hadn’t been for Kate, and that wasn’t far wrong, because she really had worked her ass off for them.

And what a cute ass it was. For the better part of the last week, Liam had spent his nights getting reacquainted with it and every other part of her, and he’d been handsomely rewarded for his time. Hell, it wasn’t just nights he’d spent with Kate—they took every moment they could with each other. Even this morning in the sweatbox, he’d—

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Ronan choked as he suddenly sat up, his sharp gaze narrowed right in on Liam.

“What?” Liam asked, blinking himself back to the conversation at hand and away from that cute little ass he’d had in his hands a few hours earlier.

“Please tell me you’re not stupid enough to hook up with her again.”

To Finn’s credit, he didn’t actually rat Liam out, but he didn’t even try to stop the snort that ripped out of him.

Liam didn’t care what any of them said. Being with Kate again was the best thing that had happened to him since…well, since being with her the first time. It didn’t matter that there were things they avoided talking about; all that mattered was the way it felt having her with him, beside him, under him.

Or even better—on top of him.

“So where is she anyway?” Ro asked. “Working out what she’s going to do with her commission once her boss buys this place?”

A streak of red shot across Liam’s vision so fast it was as if something had exploded in his retina.

“Go fu—”

“Whoa.” Kate’s voice froze the rest of his words on his tongue. “That doesn’t sound like it’s going to be something you should say in front of ladies.”

If Liam didn’t already love her, watching her glide into the kitchen and head straight to Ronan with her hand out would have done it.

Decked out in a filthy pair of gray sweatpants and an old, ratty blue T-shirt, with her long hair pulled back in a messy knot and a couple of dark smudges across her forehead, she looked even better than she did the day she arrived.

But, holy hell, did she stink.

“You must be Ronan,” she said. “I’m Kate; it’s nice to meet you.” She didn’t give him time to say anything, and when he made to stand up to shake her hand, she waved him down. “I’m guessing by now you’ve heard the whole sordid story about your brother and me, yes?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Kate’s eyes widened as she chuckled uneasily. “Believe me, I think we’d both like to say it wasn’t quite as crazy as it sounds, but…yeah.”

Without even looking, she reached over, tugged Liam’s coffee mug from his hand, and took a long sip, wiggling her free hand back and forth until she returned the mug.

“Oh, and by the way,” she said as she swiped her forearm over her mouth, “I don’t work on commission, so even though it would have been much more fun planning a retail retreat, in case you can’t tell, I’ve been out in the garden all morning, literally up to my elbows in manure.”

“Oh, we can tell.” Liam snickered.

“Watch it,” she warned. “Or I’ll make you help. Jessie gave me the rundown on what you guys usually plant, but I made the executive decision to increase the size of the plot a little, because Liv’s going to need a big garden to work with.”

Ro’s mouth opened slightly, then closed hard, his eyes getting wider and wider as he watched Kate lean against the counter next to Liam, as if she was as big a part of the Buoys as any of them.

And she was. At least to Liam.

He shoved that thought down as deep as he could, then lifted his mug again, not to hide his grin this time but to hide his frown.

“Anyway,” Jessie muttered, rolling her eyes over a small smile, “you’ll be happy to know, Ro, that the only big job left to do is the landscaping. I don’t think Jimmy cut the grass or weed-whacked since he shut this place down, and he clearly didn’t spend a single minute working on the path or trails.”

“That’s it?” It seemed to take Ro a second to blink away from Kate.

“Well, no,” Jessie said. “We still need to give everything another once-over before we open, but the yard work is the only big thing left.”

“What about the plumbing? The sink in Orange has been leaking since—”

“Done.”

“The dock? Those chains were—”

“Done.”

Ro continued to spout off things and Jessie continued to respond the same way, until Finn tossed the clipboard with the torn-and-tattered list at him.

“It’s done,” Finn snapped. “All of it.”

They all watched as Ro’s eyes moved slowly over each handwritten line, squinting around the scrawls and strike-outs as he tried to make it all out. Then he whistled quietly and lifted his mug in salute.

“Well, shit,” he said, finally smiling. “I guess that means I can spend my three days here out on the water, then, eh?”

“Yeah, right,” Jessie snorted. “There’s still stuff to do, so finish your coffee and suit up.”

“That reminds me,” Kate said. “The showerhead in my cabin started dripping this morning. I tried to tighten it but it didn’t help, so if one of you has a second, would you mind having a look at it? Just watch the bucket—I’m trying to catch as much of the water as I can to use on the garden.”

Liam cleared his throat quietly, trying to cover up his smirk. It was Kate’s fault the thing was leaking; she was the one who insisted there was enough room in the shower for both of them. There wasn’t, but neither of them cared, not even after Liam bashed his head on the damn thing twice.

To see her standing there now, though, innocent as light, no one else in the kitchen would have guessed.

Once they’d finished their coffee, Kate went back to the garden while Jessie took the boys into the office and tried to explain the new reservations system to them. Unlike before, when Jessie did it all by hand, everything was online, including payment options. She could still add reservations manually if need be, but the whole thing looked fairly user-friendly, and with Olivia moving in next week, she could be their tech support if anything went sideways.

The first two weeks of June were booked, and spots were filling up in July and August, which was great, but if they didn’t fill up the whole of June, none of the rest would matter. They needed every single spot filled and paid for if they were going to get anywhere close to what they needed.

As they sat there watching, another reservation popped up in the admin side of the system: half of the third week of June booked.

“Hell yeah!” Finn cried. “Now we’re cookin’.”

Liam wanted to be excited, too, but he couldn’t be. Not yet. Two months from now, if they were all huddled around that computer with their name still on the deed, then he’d be excited. Until then, he was going to keep trying to come up with ways to bring in more cash.

There was one option, something he hadn’t told any of them about yet, but going that route brought a whole slew of other problems with it.

They spent most of the afternoon in the bar, going over the business end of the whole operation, from schedules to the boat situation to where they might be able to cut expenses. With the number of people they had booked in at the start of the season, they were going to need both boats in the water every day, which meant they were screwed if something went sideways with either one.

It was a chance they’d have to take, though, and all they could do was hope that regular daily maintenance would keep both boats in top running condition.

Finn leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over the top of his head. “So if we scrap hiring a dockhand, that’ll free up those wages plus save a little on what it would cost to feed that person, and then Liam and I’ll just have to do that job.”

Jessie’s head was already shaking. “You can’t be out on the boats all day, come back, clean and package the fish, and then do maintenance on the boats; that’s crazy. When are you supposed to sleep?”

Finn turned to Liam and they both shrugged.

“Season ends in mid-September.”

“That’s not funny,” she said. “I can work the fish shack. I mean, I’m not as good as Finn—”

“Who is?” Ro snorted.

“—but I can clean and fillet better than most people.”

“That’s true.” Finn nodded. “But then we’ll need someone up here in the lodge while you’re in the shack.”

“What about Kate? She has a degree in hotel management. I could train her up in no time, and if she has any questions, she just needs to call me on the radio.”

She lifted her gaze to Finn first, then to Ronan, before they all turned to Liam. He knew what they wanted him to say, but he couldn’t, because he didn’t know.

“What?” Ronan asked, swiveling on his stool. “You don’t think Kate can do it?”

“No, I’m sure she can do anything you throw at her.”

“Then what? Is the shine wearing off already? You ready for her to leave?”

Liam ground his teeth together for a second, then cocked his jaw to the side. Punching Ro wouldn’t help, but it might wipe that freakin’ smirk off his face for a while.

As if he could feel it coming, Finn stepped away from the bar and moved a little closer to Liam. “She works for Foster, remember?”

“Thanks, dipshit, I’m aware of that. But I thought she and Liam were—” Ro stopped, dragged his impatient gaze to Liam. “Aren’t you?”

Liam bobbed his head slowly from side to side. “It’s complicated.”

“So uncomplicate it for me.”

“What do you want me to say?” Liam asked, annoyed not just at Ronan but at himself.

Neither he nor Kate had come out and said anything about the nights he’d spent in her cabin, but it wasn’t a huge secret, either. Everything from the way she helped herself to his coffee to the dwindling box of supplies in Finn’s drawer gave evidence of what was going on.

“She’s only been here a little over a month, Ro, so it’s not like we’ve really planned anything.”

“Why not?” he scoffed. “It only took you a couple days to marry her the first time, so what’s the holdup now?”

“You know what?” Liam pushed off his chair and charged toward him, but Jessie and Finn both stepped between them.

“Stop it,” Jessie said, sounding about as annoyed as Liam had ever heard her. “Don’t be an ass, Ronan, and Liam—back up.
Back up!
”

Liam stared his brother down for another few seconds before finally shaking his head and turning away so he could go lean against the wall.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s talk about this like normal civilized human beings. Liam, what do you think she’s going to do?”

“I don’t know. Seriously, I have no idea. I sort of jokingly told her she should quit her job and stay here, but she kind of blew me off.”

“What do you mean you ‘jokingly’ told her?” Jessie asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“We were talking and I just said it, and then I think I rattled off all the great things we have to offer her, like long hours and no pay.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Turning his back to Liam, Ronan scrubbed his hands over his face and groaned.

“It’s too bad,” Jessie said quietly. “She works like a dog, that woman. I’d love to have her here permanently.”

Liam would love that, too, but he couldn’t ask that of her. Not now.

No one said anything for a long moment, all seeming to chew on their own thoughts and none coming up with a solution, until Finn hopped off his stool and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Jessie asked.

“To ask her.”

Liam’s breath froze in his lungs, and he was pretty sure his heart stopped beating altogether for a second.

“Wait!” Jessie cried. “You can’t do that!”

“Why not? We need her help, and God knows she works harder than any of us—I mean, jeez, Jess, look around. The four of us are sitting in here drinking coffee and shootin’ the breeze, and she’s outside up to her armpits in shit.”

“What about Liam?”

“What about him?” Finn shot him a halfhearted apologetic shrug. “He’s been on the phone with his agent twice this week that I know of, so if he’s planning to take off, we’re going to need her more than ever.”

Both Jessie and Ronan turned shocked wide eyes to Liam, but he kept his eyes fixed squarely on Finn’s. There was no point denying it, but there was no point getting worked up about it, either, because like everything else lately, it was complicated.

And one of the things complicating it was the fact that his fingers hadn’t even twitched when his agent called, and his fingers always twitched at the thought of throwing the ball again.

Weird.

By the time Liam shook that from his brain, Finn had left. Jessie turned and pointed her finger at Liam first, then shook her head and pointed it at Ronan.

“Go with him.”

“But—”

“Just go!”

With a hard glare at Liam, Ro reached for his mug and followed Finn outside, as Jessie headed for the window to watch.

“There’s no way she’ll say yes,” she said. “Is there?”

“Well,” Liam sighed, “if you were her, and my family and I were asking you for something like this, what would you do?”

“That’s a tricky question,” she said, never turning from the window. “Because if I were Kate, the second I realized this was your place, I’d have been on the phone calling for a Helijet and charging it to your account, and you can bet your ass you and I wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

“Yeah.” Part of him was dying to go look out the window, too, to try to gauge what Kate might be saying, but fear overruled that part of him, so he stayed right where he was.

“Can I ask you something?” Jessie turned her head just enough to flick her gaze over him before turning back to the window. “Do you love her?”