by Jill Shalvis
He grimaced, knowing he’d never be able to shake her. Which was how he ended up standing in line with her for tacos at Paco’s taco truck.
And there was a line. There was always a long line because the food was so great, but today it seemed even longer than usual. When they finally got up front to order, Sophie stuck her head out of the server window with a polite smile and froze.
She was wearing a GOT TACO? apron, and Jacob wanted to offer to eat her taco all day long—
“Hi,” Kenna said brightly to Sophie. “Are you the one responsible for the goofy-ass look on my brother’s face today?” She hitched a thumb over her shoulder at Jacob, as if there were any question of who she was talking about. “Because if so, I totally could kiss you.”
Sophie opened her mouth, but Jacob shoved his sister behind him. “Ignore her,” he said. “You look good up there.”
Sophie blushed and glanced around her to see if anyone was watching.
Everyone was watching.
Jacob leaned in close. “You’re all flushed.”
“I get like that when I’m cooking. Or irritated,” she said meaningfully.
He smiled. “That isn’t the only time you flush.”
She went a little redder. “Are you ordering something?”
Kenna pushed in front of Jacob. “I need three chicken tacos, an iced tea, and the scoop. How did you two meet?”
Jacob managed to get in front, placed his order, tipped Sophie for double the price of the food, and yanked Kenna away.
“Fun sucker,” she said.
The “board meeting” was a family gathering in a large room at the head offices of the resort. Each of the Kincaids were there, and when Kenna walked in with Jacob, both Gray and Aidan grinned like he’d just made their day.
Hud glanced up from his iPad to see what was going on. He met Jacob’s eyes briefly, nodded once, then went back to the iPad.
Jacob sat, and the meeting began.
An hour later, he excused himself and made his way out of the office, stunned. Pissed. Predictably, there’d been a lot of yelling inside the boardroom—they were, after all, the Kincaids—but there’d been a lot of solid decisions made and fires put out. None of which was what had him in shock.
No, that went to the knowledge that the resort, left to them by Richard Kincaid before he’d vanished years ago, had been mortgaged through the roof five years ago, leaving a huge balloon payment due at the end of the year.
Everyone had clearly had some time to get used to this betrayal, used to the hurt on top of hurt from the father who’d not given a single one of them the time of day in years. But Jacob actually had to leave the room in the middle of the meeting to try to absorb it.
He stood in the hallway, the offices around him buzzing, thanks to a Tough Mudder event going on and also an upcoming Wounded Warriors competition.
There were pictures on the walls of events that had gone on over the years. Jacob took them all in, moving slowly down the hall, anything to clear his head. He’d managed to keep pretty updated on things via the Internet, but he’d missed a lot.
Too much.
He’d been through hell overseas, a couple of times over. He’d thought there’d been some self-righteousness in that. Like because he’d been putting his life on the line for his country, it might excuse him for being a dick and going non-communicative for so long.
But his brothers and sister had been through hell too.
To his shock, Hud came out of the conference room and put a hand on his shoulder. “Look, Dad sucks. We all know that. Don’t let yourself get caught up in anger over it now.”
Jacob turned and met his brother’s gaze. “Are you kidding me?”
Hud’s expression stayed even. “Anger is a useless emotion.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes,” Hud said. “It takes away your ability to think straight, and we all need to be able to think straight to get out of this mess.”
“So you’re saying you don’t do anger,” Jacob challenged.
Hud shrugged. “I get over it.”
“And how about me? When are you going to get over being angry at me?”
From Hud’s pocket, his phone went off. When he pulled it out and looked at the screen, his entire face softened, telling Jacob who was calling.
Bailey.
Kenna had filled Jacob in on the love lives of the Kincaids, which Jacob was still a little in shock about. If he hadn’t been looking right at Hud’s face as he talked to his girlfriend, Jacob would never have believed it.
His hard-ass brother had fallen in love.
Immediately following Bailey’s call, Hud’s phone continued to go off in quick succession. Jacob went into the meeting since Hud was obviously not going to answer his question. He stood at the head of the table and eyed his siblings. “I want in. I want to help.”
“Yes!” Gray said as Kenna and Aidan high-fived each other.
Jacob didn’t know what he’d expected, but it wasn’t this easy reception.
Gray cocked his head at Jacob. “Why do you look surprised that we want you here?”
“I don’t know.” But he was. He was also relieved, making him realize he’d been braced for a rejection that wasn’t going to come.
Kenna had moved on and was simultaneously playing a game on her phone and eating a donut. Sensing his interest, she offered him a bite.
When he’d been overseas, Jacob had eaten fairly strictly, mostly because that’s all that’d been available, but also because he needed to stay in shape. That discipline was deeply ingrained, but he wasn’t trying to save the world at the moment. He was just a man, one who’d stopped being a machine the instant he’d stepped into Cedar Ridge and gotten one look at Sophie and let himself want her. Feel for her.
Have her.
He eyed the old-fashioned glazed chocolate donut and heard his stomach rumble in anticipation.
Kenna waved it enticingly, teasing him. Wrapping his fingers around her wrist, he guided the donut to his mouth and took a huge bite.
Kenna laughed in delight and set her head on his shoulder. He slid his arm around her and squeezed, and that’s when Jacob realized everyone was watching them with varying degrees of shock. “What?” he asked.
“Kenna just laughed,” Gray said in the kind of voice you use at the zoo when you don’t want to startle the animals. His gaze was warm and filled with a silent thank-you.
Aidan’s too. “Looks good on you, babe,” he said to Kenna.
Kenna rolled her eyes. “I smile.”
“Yeah, when you’re planning the slow, painful death of one of us,” Aidan said.
Kenna threw a donut hole at him. It bounced off his chest and into his hand. Not one to waste an opportunity, Aidan tossed it into his mouth and winked at Kenna.
“Time for the board,” Gray announced, and everyone groaned.
“The board?” Jacob asked.
“Wait. I smile and now we have to do the board?” Kenna asked. “Remind me to never smile again.”
“What the hell’s the board?” Jacob repeated.
“Each week there’s a list of jobs that none of us wants to do,” Gray said.
“We handle the situation with a process that would’ve made our founding fathers proud of their hard-won democracy,” Aidan said. “We play darts.”
Gray slapped a handful of darts onto the table and gestured to the wall behind Jacob. It’d been divided into three categories: Asshat-ery, Craptastic, and Shit Even Yo Mama Don’t Wanna Do.
Gray spun Aidan in his chair three times and handed him a dart. Aidan threw and got Craptastic.
“Tough break,” Gray said when Aidan groaned.
Gray pulled a sheet of paper from the Craptastic section and handed it to Aidan.
“What did you get?” Kenna asked.
“I’m in charge of the fifty preschoolers coming to learn about living green on the mountain,” Aidan said with a frown. “Fifty? Who in their right mind would want to ha
ndle fifty preschoolers?”
“You,” Gray said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Oh, and I wouldn’t feed them too much. At that age they still need help with the paperwork in the bathroom, if you know what I mean.”
Aidan stood and pushed Gray into the chair. With huge enthusiasm, he whipped Gray around three times and then slapped a dart into his hand.
Gray threw and got Shit Even Yo Mama Don’t Wanna Do.
Aidan gleefully handed him a piece of paper, which Gray read out loud. “Make a sweep of the employee locker room—Shit,” he muttered.
“Sorry,” Aidan said, clearly not looking sorry in the slightest. “But we’ve been told that the room smells like skunk, so someone’s broken the no-drugs rule. The stash has to go, and if we let Hud do it, he’ll have to arrest the idiot.”
Gray sighed again, then pointed at Jacob.
Jacob craned his neck and looked behind him.
“Nice try,” Gray said. “But you’re a part of this family, like it or not, so move your ass.”
Jacob sat in the chair, and Gray spun him while the words sank into his head.
Like it or not…
Fact was, he did like it.
When Gray finally stopped his chair, Jacob narrowed his eyes on the board, but aiming the dart Gray had given him wouldn’t help. First, he was dizzy as shit. And second, he didn’t know which of the jobs were the shittiest. And the truth was, he was actually enjoying being included.
When his dart landed on Craptastic, Aidan grinned. “Nice,” he said, and slapped a piece of paper to Jacob’s chest. Jacob pulled it away and read, “Bring in a new load of firewood for the weekend bonfires.”
Aidan whistled. “Tough break,” he said, not sounding sympathetic in the least.
“This doesn’t look so hard,” Jacob said.
Aidan snorted. “We’ll talk when you’re done.”
He looked at Kenna, who explained, “We can’t get anyone to deliver firewood because it can’t be driven in past the parking lot. It has to be carried in from there to the fire pit by wheelbarrow, which as you know, is a good hundred yards.”
Jacob pocketed the paper, and when the meeting was over, he started thinking maybe this whole family gig was like getting back on a bike. Not easy, not always a good fit, but worth the trouble. “I can do more than load wood.”
Kenna immediately claimed him. “Me! Me! I need his help. I’m in over my head and losing my mind.”
“Spoiler alert,” Aidan said. “You lost your mind a long time ago.”
This caused a momentary rubber band fight. When they each had at least one welt, they got back to it.
“No, but seriously,” Kenna said. “It’s summer season, so you guys all have it easy right now. I’m the only one doing the work of five people—so I claim Jacob.”
“Works for me,” Gray said.
Kenna pumped a victorious fist. “Events coordination is too big for just one person,” she told Jacob. “But now there’s two of us.”
“But we’ve got something going on every weekend,” Hud said, coming back into the room, pocketing his phone. “Our next big event is Wounded Warriors, and that’s only two weeks out.”
“So?” Gray asked.
“So how do we know he’ll even be here?” he asked without even looking at Jacob.
“I’ll be here,” Jacob said. “I told you, I’m on leave. I go back shortly after the event.”
Hud didn’t acknowledge this or take his gaze off Gray.
Gray held out his opened hand, indicating that Jacob had just answered the question.
Hud left the room again.
Okay, then. Yep, things were going just great.
Several days later, Jacob was heading to his cabin, tired but feeling good about the past three days of working as one of the Kincaids, feeling for the first time like he’d actually been of some use.
And if it was Gray and Aidan—the brothers he’d never felt like he’d fit in with all those years ago—who’d made him feel the most welcome, he told himself he could wait for the rest.
For Hud.
He eyed his refrigerator. Empty.
The same way his dock had been for three nights…
With a shake of his head, he headed out to the store. He stood in the frozen-foods aisle, trying to figure out what he could toss into the microwave that might pass for dinner when he felt compelled to look behind him. Yep, there Sophie stood in front of the ice cream section, and suddenly he was ravenous.
But not for food.
Seeing her had relief filling him. He’d been missing her, foreign as that felt to him. Missing her and worried about where she’d been staying at night, hoping she was safe, wishing she trusted him enough to stay at his dock.
She hadn’t seen him yet. Her back was to him and she was on the phone, so he didn’t approach her. But he wanted to.
Stand down, soldier, he told himself. You already know she’s not for you. Or more accurately, you’re not for her.
Chapter 12
Sophie stood in the frozen-foods aisle at the grocery store, staring at a two-gallon tub of ice cream. She was doing her damnedest to stay upbeat, but between her and the very tiny bathroom mirror on The Little Lucas, she was having a hard time.
She was on the phone with her parents, and her dad didn’t sound happy. But then again, he never did. She wished she could find the magic button to cheer him up, wished—
“How’s the hotel chain management job going?” he said.
Her stomach sank. “I was fired from that one.” She paused. “A month ago.”
The deafening silence made her wince. Being fired was the ultimate failure in her dad’s eyes. After all, it was after he’d been let go from the job at NASA that he’d hit rock bottom.
“You’ve got to work harder at things,” he said. “Like being married. Like your job. Look at Brooklyn. She has it all: a husband, kids, a good job with benefits.”
“You didn’t finish college because it wasn’t for you,” her mom said. “You left your great almost-a-paralegal job? Sophie…”
She closed her eyes at that and thunked her forehead right there on the glass door in the frozen-foods aisle.
“You’ve got to hold yourself to a higher standard,” her dad said quietly.
“It’s not what you think,” she said, not quietly. That had always been part of the problem. Her parents were calm, internal people.
She didn’t have a calm bone in her damn body and she’d never been able to keep much inside. “And I do hold myself to a high standard. I’m working hard, on everything.” I want to make you proud…But she didn’t say that. Instead, she said what she always said. “You’ll see.”
“You’re like a loose tumbleweed, twisting in the wind,” her mom said. “Find what you love and the money will follow.”