by Laura Drewry
“This is Liam,” Jessie said, thumbing toward him.
“Yeah, I know; it’s good to see you again.” Ashley’s smile was bright and breezy, even though Liam had that look on his face, as if he had no idea who she was.
But of course she’d know who he was; she’d probably seen him play or recognized him from pictures on the website.
After a quick round of handshakes, Jessie waved her up toward the lodge.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s start inside.”
With Olivia busy prepping takeaway boxes for the guests’ trips home, Jessie set out a quick snack and put the kettle on to make Ashley some tea, which turned into a bit of an ordeal because they didn’t have oolong, white, or anything loose. All Jessie could offer her were regular old tea bags in a variety of flavors (or not), none of which appealed to Ashley at all.
“Lemon water it is,” Jessie said, smiling as she set a tall glass down on the table.
“Thank you. When will Finn and…Kate, is it? When will they be back?”
“Anytime now,” Jessie said. “The guests all leave this afternoon, but if you need measurements or anything, Buoy O’Buoy is down at the dock, and it’s the exact same model as Finn’s boat, Fishin’ Impossible. We can go down and have a look if you like.”
“That’s okay, there’s no hurry.” After a few tentative sips of her water, Ashley went into detail about what the camera crew would be looking for when they arrived, the types of shots they’d need—wide angle, aerial, et cetera. The whole time she kept checking her watch.
At first Jessie thought she was imagining how often she checked it, but when Ashley wasn’t looking, Liam raised a quizzical brow at Jessie. All she could do was shrug.
They took Ashley on a tour of the grounds and through the fish shack before making their way back up to the lodge, where Jessie showed her the rooms the crew and Sam would be staying in.
“We have a cot we’ll bring in,” Jessie said. “So the two crew members will each have their own bed. The rooms aren’t fancy, but I think they’ll do.”
“Mm-hmm. I’m sure they’ll be great.”
It wasn’t until Kate’s voice came over the radio, followed immediately by Finn’s, announcing their arrivals, that Ashley finally seemed to fully relax.
“Once the guests have all cleared out,” Liam said, “I’ll take you down there and you can have a look at the boats yourself.”
While they waited, Jessie did her best to engage Ashley in conversation, but it was awkward at best, which was why Jessie was ever so grateful when Kate finally came through the door a while later.
“Damn that Finn,” she grunted. “How does he always know where to go?”
“D’you get skunked?” Jessie asked, trying not to laugh—and failing.
“No, but it felt like it when we pulled up next to them and saw their catch.”
“Want some coffee?”
“No thanks,” Kate mumbled. “I should probably be a good sport and go help Finn process the rest of their catch. Unless someone else wants to go help him.”
She started to look at Liam, but Jessie was already nodding.
“I’ll go.”
Less than a minute—that’s how long it took Jessie to get into her boots and grab her fish gloves—but by the time she got back, Ashley was gone.
“Where’d she go?”
Liam, who’d not only given up his chair to Kate but was now massaging her shoulders, grunted, “Down to the dock.”
The rain had let up a couple of hours earlier, but it was still dank and windy, so Jessie grabbed Jimmy’s big sweater before heading out.
Ashley wasn’t too far ahead, but she’d walked straight past the fish shack and was heading down the dock toward Fishin’ Impossible.
“Finn?” She leaned over the side of the boat and called again, louder. “Finn?”
A second later, Finn stepped out of the fish shack, wiping his hands on a rag.
Jessie couldn’t see his face, because he had his back to her, but she had a clear line to Ashley’s beaming face.
“Finn! It’s me, Ashley.”
Jessie stopped dead in her tracks, even as Finn kept walking toward Ashley’s perfect toothy smile.
No. It couldn’t be, could it? That day at the Green cabin, he’d called out the name Ashley Poplawski. Could this be her?
Of course it was. Why else had she sat there checking her watch every three seconds? And why else had she bolted for the dock the second she knew Finn was alone?
“Ashley?” Finn sounded confused for a second, then, “Ashley Poplawski?”
“LaCroix now, but yeah.” Arms open, she walked straight at him until he backed up a step.
“I’m all covered in fish,” he said. “And I don’t want to—”
He didn’t finish, but the message was clear. Ashley Poplawski LaCroix should not be covered in fish guts.
“Oh. Right.”
And as Jessie watched, Ashley put her hands on Finn’s shoulders, leaned in, and kissed him on both cheeks.
“It’s so great to see you again!”
“Uh, yeah, you, too. What are you doing here?”
“I’m Sam’s producer, silly.”
Silly? Really? What was she—six?
Straining against an eye roll, Jessie turned and headed into the fish shack so the two of them could have their little reunion with some kind of privacy.
There were only about a half dozen fish left, so she set straight to work on them, and, no, she wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on the giggle-laced conversation going on out there on the dock, but it was hard not to hear most of it. Especially after she slid the window open a couple of inches and leaned closer.
Apparently “Poplawski” got dropped when Ashley got married, and then she never went back to it after the divorce. Yes, the divorce was hard, but it was so great, too, because she’d come out of it a much better person. She’d been working with Sam for two or three years now and, wow, he was so great. Imagine her surprise last spring when she found out that Finn and his brothers were going to reopen the old lodge—it was so great of them to do that—and then what a double shocker to find out the girl Sam had been dating was the same one—Jessie, right?—who worked here. How great was that?
And wasn’t life funny?
“Real knee-slapper,” Jessie muttered as she tossed a fish head into the bucket.
As soon as Ashley got Kate’s call—it was Kate, right?—Ashley knew she had to make this work somehow, because it would be so great to see the O’Donnells again, and look at them now, there they were. It was just all so great.
“Yeah.” Jessie ran the gutted salmon under the stream of salt water, then slapped it up on the cutting board. “And getting greater by the second.”
To his credit, Finn did try to get back into the fish shack a couple of times, but Ashley just kept bubbling on about how great it was to see him, how she’d missed him at the class reunion a couple of years back, and wasn’t it funny that Liam hadn’t recognized her when she first got there? He’d only been a year ahead in school, and she hadn’t changed that much, had she?
Jessie swiped her sleeve across her face and snorted before sealing the final box and stacking it inside the freezer. Ashley was still gushing after Jessie finished processing the fish and cleaning up, and she kept right on even after Jessie pushed the hose nozzle into Finn’s hand and pointed it toward the stern of his boat.
“Oh, Finn, I’m so sorry.” Ashley’s laugh was light as air as she laid her hand on his arm. “I’ve been talking your ear off nonstop and I’m sure you have all sorts of work to do, don’t you?”
“Actually, yeah, I—” he started, but Jessie cut him off.
“No it’s fine,” she said, showing how big she could smile, too, and waving away Ashley’s oh-so-sincere concern. “You keep right on talking; just watch yourself, ’cause he doesn’t always shoot straight, if you know what I mean, and I’d hate for you to get hit by something.”
With a q
uick wink at Finn, Jessie gathered up her stuff and headed up the dock, only turning when he called her name.
“Where are you going?” Eyes wide, his gaze desperate, Finn ground out his words through clenched teeth. “There’s still stuff to do.”
“Mmmm, nope,” she said, swallowing a laugh. “Everything else is done, and I’ve got…stuff…up at the lodge. Maybe you could go over the boat specs with Ashley while you’re there.”
“Oh, would you? That’d be so great.” Ashley nodded. “Thanks.”
Leaving Finn on his own, Jessie snickered all the way back to the lodge.
“What’s so funny?” Liam asked.
“Does the name Ashley Poplawski mean anything to you?”
“Mmm, no, I…oh yeah! I think she went to school with Finn. Why?”
Jessie tipped her head in the direction of the dock, even though they couldn’t see it from where they were.
“No way! Really?”
“Uh-huh. And she’s a little put out that you didn’t recognize her when she first got here.”
“Me? Why would she care about that? It was her and Finn who had a thing, not her and me.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, I think it was her anyway.” Liam frowned through the memory. “She used to call him all the time there for a while and then suddenly…I don’t know…it just sort of stopped.”
“What happened?”
Liam’s eyes widened a little, but then he shook his head and scrubbed the heel of his hand over his right eye, but not before Jessie noticed the twitch.
“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging as he looked away from her.
“Oh, please. You’re one of the worst liars I’ve ever met, Liam, but before your eyeball twitches right out of its socket, relax. It doesn’t matter to me what happened, I was just asking.”
“Yeah. Right. I know. But I don’t know.”
“Uh-huh,” she snorted. “Okay.”
She’d ask Finn later.
And once Ashley was finally on the Helijet, heading south, the guests were looked after, and everyone else had gone to their own cabins, Jessie did ask, but not before Finn glared at her good and hard.
“God, that was worse than listening to Patsy go on about her period.”
“Aw,” Jessie teased. “You mean you didn’t think it was just so great that you two connected again after all this time?”
Finn blew out a slow raspberry. “How many times do you suppose she said that?”
“I don’t know; I quit counting.” They were working on a puzzle in the great room, putting in an appearance in case Liam came looking for them again. “Liam says you two used to be a thing.”
“He—” Finn stopped, chuckled quietly. “No, we weren’t.”
“He said she used to call you all the time.”
“Well, that’s true.” He lifted a couple of pieces, eyed them carefully, then tossed them back in the box.
“Oh, poor Finn,” she said, putting on a teasing pout. “Did pretty little Ashley break your heart?”
“Uh, no,” he choked. “I mean, I liked her because…Well, you met her. Is she not the cutest and sweetest girl ever?”
“Yeah, very funny, I see what you did there. So what happened?”
Finn’s wolfish smile and wagging brow earned him a smirk and an eye roll.
“You happened,” he said.
“Me? What did I do?”
“You stepped off the Cessna onto our dock. How did Liam put it? ‘Green around the gills and shaking like a leaf.’ ” He didn’t even look up, just set one of the pieces in place and nodded. “Sweet little Ashley never stood a chance after that.”
“But that was—” Jessie stopped, dropped both her hands on top of the pile of pieces, and didn’t even care that she knocked a bunch of them to the floor.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Wasn’t like I had a crush on you forever. Was like a couple months…year, tops.”
When he glanced up at her, she knew it was to make sure he was getting the sympathetic look he was shooting for, and that’s exactly what he got.
He’d had a crush on her? She knew he’d tried to show off a bunch of times, but she chalked that up to him being a stupid boy.
“Aww, Finn.” Stumbling around the table, she wrapped her arms around his neck, dropped down on his lap, and smacked a loud kiss against his cheek. “That’s so sweet.”
“What can I say?” he said, running his hand up her back. “I’m a sweet guy.”
He was only halfway through speaking when the back door opened. Jessie tried to shove off his lap, but he caught her around the waist and held her until she let him kiss her.
“Finn,” she cried quietly, laughing against his mouth. “They’re coming!”
His hands opened, and with no time to make it to her chair, Jessie dropped to her hands and knees behind the table.
“Hey, Finn.” Liam stepped into the room ahead of Kate, and they both stopped.
“Hey.”
“Did, uh, Jessie go to bed?”
“Nope, I’m down here.” Lifting her face, and a handful of puzzle pieces, Jessie gave her best smile and pushed to her feet. “Knocked half the box off the table.”
A look passed between Liam and Kate, one that made Jessie think they were wishing she hadn’t popped up, but then they each pulled up a chair and went to work on the puzzle, too.
“We didn’t get a chance to debrief after Ashley left,” Liam said, eyeing Finn carefully. “So how did it go with her?”
Finn tipped his head a little, smirked at Jessie, then grinned, big and toothy. “Just great.”
Why was Jessie the only one who thought that was funny?
With a wary glance at Kate, Liam cleared his throat and turned to Finn.
“I’m serious, Finn. Don’t be a dick to her again.”
“Again?” Finn choked. “When was I a dick to her the first time?”
“Oh, come on.” Mouth set firm, Liam stared straight at Finn, while both Jessie and Kate glanced back and forth between the two of them. “You know what I mean.”
“No,” Finn said, all traces of joking gone. “Actually I don’t.”
“What he means,” Kate said, “is that apparently she had it bad for you, and you were…well…”
Finn dragged his disbelieving gaze from Kate to Liam, then back again.
“Are you two shitting me right now?”
“No. She’s just as important as Sam when it comes to that show, so—”
“Hold on there, Kate. I don’t know what numb-nuts here told you, but Ashley and I were never a thing. And even if we had been, it was high school—who cares?”
“She’s a woman, Finn,” Kate said. “She would care.”
“Even if that’s true, then today should prove that she’s not holding any kind of grudge, not that she had any reason to.”
“Okay,” Kate said, twisting her hands together. “That’s good, then.”
In the momentary silence that followed, Jessie dared to hope that that would be the end of it. She should have known better.
After a long sigh, Liam cleared his throat and folded his hands loosely on the table, and even though he didn’t say anything, the look he shot Finn said plenty.
“What?” Finn snorted. “You don’t believe me?”
“Come on, you guys.” Jessie shoved all the pieces in front of her toward the middle of the table. “Don’t turn this into something stupid.”
“No, I want to hear what they have to say.”
Once cornered, an O’Donnell didn’t back down, so Liam didn’t even hesitate.
“Gimme a break, Finn. Can you blame us for being a little skeptical? It’s not like you have the best track record with women.”
“Oh for God’s sake,” Jessie muttered. “Six months ago we could have said the exact same thing about you.”
Cocking her jaw slightly, she started to shake her head, then stopped when she saw the way Finn was looking at Liam: pointed, irritated, a
nd daring his brother to spit out whatever else he had to say.
And going by Finn’s expression, Jessie would bet he already knew what that was going to be.
“Tell me you’re not going to play her the way you play every other girl.”
“And by her,” Finn said, drawing out each word as though he was trying to bait Liam, “you mean…Ashley?”
Liam didn’t even blink, which made the already weird vibe between them even weirder.
“Untwist your panties on that one,” Finn grunted. “I couldn’t give half a shit about her.”
“See, but that’s part of the problem,” Kate said. “Even if you don’t like her, you still need to be nice to her.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I am nice! Tell ’em, Jess, tell them how nice I was to her all afternoon.”
“He was nice,” Jessie said, nodding quickly. “Super nice, in fact.”
“Yup, that sounds about right,” Liam said, tipping his head to the side. “He’s always super nice at the beginning; knows just how to lure them in, doesn’t he?”
Jessie didn’t usually take sides between the brothers, but Liam’s tone was really beginning to get on her nerves.
“Meaning what?” she asked, but Liam didn’t answer her; Finn did.
“Meaning this has nothing to do with Ashley.”
“What do you mean? Then who?”
Neither Finn nor Liam answered her. Instead, Liam sat back in his chair, his mouth twisted to the side a little, and he looked at Kate for a couple of long seconds before she answered his unspoken question with a slight quirk of her brow.
“Okay,” he finally said, leaning over the table with a sigh. “Forget about Ashley for a second. What about Sam?”
Stuck between the way he’d said Ashley’s name, almost as if hanging finger quotes around it, and the mere mention of Sam, Jessie was still trying to make the transition when Finn spoke.