Harbor Lights

by Sherryl Woods

  Jake frowned at him. “What’s going on with you? It’s not even seven in the morning.”

  “I’m telling you, he’s totally messed up,” Will said.

  “Is that your professional opinion?” Mack retorted. “What kind of shrink tells someone they’re messed up?”

  “One who cares, dammit!” Will retorted. “This nonsense has to stop. Either date the woman or don’t, but this ridiculous denial you’re both in isn’t working. The last time I ran into Susie, she was as much of a basket case as you are.”

  “Did you share that insight with her?” Mack asked.

  Will looked appalled by the suggestion. “Of course not.”

  “Well, FYI, I’m not the one you need to be lecturing,” Mack said. “Now, can we please drop this? If not, I’m going back home.”

  Trace took out a beer and dropped down into the chair next to his. “I think I’ll join you,” he announced. “Misery loves company, right?”

  Kevin’s head snapped around at that. “Misery? What do you have to be miserable about? You and my sister are about to get married.”

  Trace shrugged and took a long, deep drink from his bottle of beer. “Couldn’t prove it by me. Have you heard a date? I haven’t. Every time I ask, I get the look.”

  Mack nodded sorrowfully. “I know that look.”

  “Me, too,” Jake said.

  Kevin stared at all three of them. “What look is that?”

  “The one that says we’re idiots for pushing something, am I right?” Trace said glumly. “Wouldn’t you think Abby would want to get on with this? I’m surprised that ex-husband of hers hasn’t raised a ruckus about us living together with the twins under the same roof. Of course, Wes has his own relationship issues, which is probably the only reason he hasn’t been on Abby’s case about this.”

  Feeling the need to defend his sister, Kevin said, “Abby’s been pretty busy whipping that brokerage office into shape. She’s in Baltimore as much as she’s here.”

  “And that’s another thing,” Trace said, seizing on the remark. “You’re exactly right, Kevin. She’s hiding out up in Baltimore half the time, and I’m down here with the twins.”

  Before Kevin could question why he thought Abby was hiding out, Trace gave him a quelling look.

  “Not that I don’t adore those little girls as much as if they were my own,” Trace added. “And taking care of them is not a problem, since I’m working at home. Believe me, that is not the point.”

  Kevin regarded him with skepticism. “Not a problem? Are you sure you’re talking about Carrie and Caitlyn? I love my nieces, but those two are a handful.”

  “We have a system,” Trace insisted.

  All three men stared at him.

  “A system?” Will echoed. “Really?”

  Trace scowled at their doubting expressions. “I’m telling you, I have everything under control at the house.”

  “Are you locking them in their rooms?” Kevin asked, not entirely in jest.

  “Absolutely not,” Trace insisted. “Could you all please focus? The girls are not the problem. Abby is. I think she’s getting cold feet. Why else would she get that look on her face every time I mention setting a wedding date?”

  Kevin didn’t believe for a second that his sister didn’t want to marry Trace. He was the man she should have married years ago. “I’m telling you, you’re wrong. She’s just been too focused on work.”

  “You know what I think?” Will said to Trace. “I think you need to leave the girls with someone here and go to Baltimore to be alone with your fiancée for a few days. Abby jumped into a new job. You jumped into living together and being a parent. All of that requires some significant adjustments. You need some time to be a couple, to get your emotional feet back under you and remember why you fell in love in the first place.”

  Trace regarded him with a thoughtful expression. “You could have something there,” he agreed.

  Will grinned. “I don’t get to charge those big bucks without having some credible insights every once in a while.”

  “I’ll take the girls,” Kevin offered. “Gram will love having them at the house for a few days. And it’s the least I can do after all the times you and Abby have bailed me out by looking after Davy.”

  “There you go,” Will said. “Problem solved. Am I good or what?”

  Mack grinned and draped an arm over his shoulder. “Oh, you’re good, all right. Maybe one of these days you’ll use all that expertise to hang on to your own relationship for more than a few weeks.”

  Jake nudged Will in the ribs with an elbow. “He’s got you there, pal.”

  Will sighed. “Give me one of those beers.”

  Kevin stared at the other men and shook his head. “Do any of you actually want to go fishing? Or did you just want to sit here at the dock and drink?”

  “Staying right here works for me,” Trace said.

  “Me, too,” Jake confirmed.

  “Never did care that much about catching fish,” Will added, settling into one of the lounge chairs on the deck. “Sitting here like this, though—” he sighed deeply “—now, this is the life.”

  “Amen,” the others chorused.

  Kevin grinned and reached for his own beer. “At the price of fuel, this suits me just fine, too.”

  “And there are some mighty fine-looking women who wander around these docks wearing next to nothing,” Mack said.

  “Look all you want,” Jake taunted. “But it’s not going to change the fact that you’re hooked on Susie.”

  Mack sighed heavily. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said glumly.

  And though he wasn’t about to say it aloud, Kevin knew that no amount of babe-watching was going to change the fact that recently he hadn’t been able to get Shanna out of his head, either. Maybe, though, it would distract him from the overwhelming guilt that attraction was causing him.

  It had not been a good morning. Shanna had walked into the shop to find water all over the floor in the back room. The pipe under the sink in the bathroom had apparently sprung a leak overnight. She’d turned off the water, but so far she hadn’t been able to locate a plumber who could get here until tomorrow.

  She’d had so many customers this morning that she hadn’t been able to get into the back room to thoroughly mop and to check out the damage to the boxes of inventory that had been sitting on the floor. At least she’d managed to move most of them off the ground so they wouldn’t be further damaged.

  She sighed with relief when the last of the customers left right on schedule around one o’clock and the usual lull set in. She was halfway to the back room when the bell over the door rang. She heard a familiar squeal and turned to have Davy launch himself at her. He was followed at a slightly more sedate pace by Carrie and Caitlyn and Kevin.

  She forced a smile for the sake of the children, but suspected it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Kevin noticed at once.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “A plumbing malfunction in the back,” she told him. “And I haven’t had two minutes to do more than shut off the water and get some boxes out of the puddles. I couldn’t locate a plumber who could get here today, either. This is the first chance I’ve had all morning to get back there and try to deal with it.”

  “Show me,” he said at once. He turned to Carrie and Caitlyn. “Girls, I want you to stay in the children’s section and look at books with Davy, okay? If you’ll do that for me for a few minutes, you can each pick out a book to take home.”

  “Yay,” Carrie said, her expression eager. She grabbed Davy’s hand. “Come on. What book do you want us to read to you?”

  “I’ll keep an eye on them,” Shanna offered.

  “After you show me the problem and sit for a minute,” Kevin said. “You looked completely frazzled.”

  She tried not to take offense at the description, especially since he was right. She was frazzled. “It’s been a hectic morning. If you can deal with this leak, you’ll b
e a lifesaver. I think I could fix it, if I had the right tools, but I don’t.”

  She showed him the pipe and where the water had been coming out.

  “Sounds like a bad washer,” he concluded.

  Suddenly she recalled something his father had said to her a few weeks back. “Kevin, not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but do you have any idea what you’re doing under there?”

  He poked his head out from under the sink and winked. “There are a few household repairs that not even I can mess up. I drove over here in Dad’s SUV because I had the girls. His toolbox is in the back. I’ll have this fixed in a jiffy.”

  Taking him at his word, she debated dealing with the damp boxes, then decided that she really needed to be with the kids. Though they were being fairly quiet, there was no telling what mischief they might be up to. Besides, nothing would more quickly take her mind off her problems than listening to those three chatter about anything and everything.

  “Ms. Shanna,” Caitlyn said as soon as Shanna had sat down with them, “do you have a book about girls?”

  Puzzled, Shanna said, “I have lots and lots of books about little girls.”

  “No, it’s about a family with little girls. Mommy told us about it. She said Grandma Megan read it to her when she was our age. It’s a movie, too.”

  “Are you talking about Little Women?”

  Caitlyn’s expression brightened at once. “That’s it. Do you have it?”

  “Of course I do,” Shanna told her, going to the section of classic children’s books. She reached for the Louisa May Alcott book that had once been her own favorite. “This copy has wonderful illustrations, too.”

  When she’d pulled it from the shelf and sat down, all three children settled down with her, Davy in her lap and the girls on either side. The immediate feeling of contentment that stole over her was amazing.

  As she began to read, the girls leaned in closer to study the illustrations. Davy fell asleep. When she finished reading the first chapter, she closed the book and looked from Carrie to Caitlyn. “Do you like it?”

  Carrie nodded.

  “Me, too,” Caitlyn said. “That’s the book I want Uncle Kevin to get us.”

  “Uncle Kevin would be happy to get that book,” he said, startling Shanna.

  She met his gaze. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Long enough to see what a pretty picture you make sitting there with all three of those kids,” he said. “You have a way with them.”

  Shanna blushed. Because she didn’t know how to respond to a comment like that, she asked, “How’s it going with the pipe?”

  “All fixed and the water’s back on. I mopped the floor, but you’re going to need to go through those boxes. I think a few things got pretty soaked.”

  “I was afraid of that. I’ll go back there and deal with that now.”

  Kevin shook his head. “Not until you’ve had lunch. We’re going for pizza. You’re coming with us.”

  Carrie and Caitlyn immediately jumped up and reached for her hands.

  “Yes, Ms. Shanna, you have to come,” Caitlyn said.

  “Please,” Carrie coaxed.

  “And we’re going to have ice cream after,” Caitlyn added.

  Shanna regarded Kevin with amusement. “This is your idea of babysitting? Feeding them till they’re so stuffed, they’ll fall into a stupor?”

  “What’s a stupor?” Carrie asked.

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” Kevin told her. “They have big appetites.”

  “And small tummies,” Shanna countered.

  “Not these two,” Kevin insisted.

  “We can eat lots and lots,” Caitlyn confirmed.

  Carrie held her arms wide. “At least this much pizza and then ice cream.”

  Shanna handed Davy to Kevin, then stood up. “I need to see this,” she said, then grinned at Kevin. “And I definitely want to see how you handle it when they start turning green.”

  “Former EMT and army medic,” he reminded her. “It’s all good.”

  She laughed at his confidence. “We’ll see.”

  An hour later, Kevin was tucking two very sick little girls into his car and trying to avoid Shanna’s told-you-so expression.

  “I had no idea anyone could get so sick, so fast,” he mumbled as the girls groaned in misery.

  “Two and a half slices of pizza topped off by hot fudge sundaes could explain it,” Shanna said. Though she’d jumped right in to take care of the girls when they’d thrown up, her sympathy boundless and her tone gentle and soothing, with him she hadn’t even tried to hide her amusement.

  “I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?” he asked.

  “Probably not,” she admitted.

  “Are you going to feel the need to spill the beans to my sister?”

  “You mean Bree?”

  “Bree, Abby, Jess. It doesn’t matter. Once one of them finds out, they’ll all know.”

  “They won’t find out from me,” she assured him, then glanced pointedly at the girls sitting in their car seats. “But they will find out.”

  Kevin frowned. “Maybe I could bribe them not to blab to their mother or father.”

  Shanna immediately shook her head. “Not a great idea. Children shouldn’t be encouraged to keep secrets from their parents.”

  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Oh well, maybe Abby and Trace will be in such a good mood after their romantic little getaway without the kids, they won’t yell at me about this.”

  As they stood on the sidewalk, Bree walked out of her shop and joined them. She peered into the car, then frowned.

  “What have you done to those girls?” she asked at once. “They look green.”

  “Don’t start on me,” Kevin told her.

  “Too much pizza and ice cream,” Shanna said.

  He whirled on her. “I thought you weren’t going to say anything.”

  “She’s here. She saw them for herself.”

  “You could have stopped me, you know,” he accused.

  Shanna chuckled. “Not me. You said you had it all under control.”

  Bree looked from one of them to the other, a grin spreading across her face. “This is too good. I’m going inside to call Abby.”

  “You most certainly are not,” Kevin said, latching onto her arm. “She and Trace are…well, let’s just say that interrupting them to rat me out is not a good idea.”

  Instantly distracted from her pale nieces, Bree regarded him with fascination. “What do you know about Trace and Abby that I don’t?”

  “They’re in Baltimore—alone, if you catch my drift,” he responded.

  Bree’s eyes lit up. “Really? A little prewedding honeymoon?”

  “Something like that,” Kevin confirmed. “Trace wanted to get Abby’s mind focused on the wedding, so I volunteered to help out by looking after the girls for a couple of days.”

  “Really? And you did that by making them sick?”

  He scowled at his sister. “Bite me.”

  Beside him, Shanna chuckled. “I love this family. You two are a riot.”

  “You think this is fun?” Kevin asked.

  “I do,” she confirmed.

  “My own sister is bugging me, even though I’ve been doing a good deed, and you find that amusing?” he persisted.

  “You know what they say about no good deed going unpunished,” Bree chimed in.

  “Yeah, well, see if I ever do a favor for you,” he told her, then turned to Shanna. “As for you, is this the thanks I get for fixing your leaking pipe?”

  Shanna flushed guiltily. The pink in her cheeks made her more beautiful than ever. “Oops!”

  Bree studied her. “You let Kevin fix a plumbing problem?” she asked, looking worried.

  “I can replace a washer,” he said, scowling at the pair of them. Women really were more trouble than they were worth at times. Obviously these two didn’t appreciate a good deed.

  “Mayb
e I ought to get Dad over here to take a look,” Bree said. “He’s back from New York, isn’t he?”

  “Dad does not need to be involved. The pipe is no longer leaking,” Kevin said. “Ask Shanna. Was it leaking when we went to lunch?”

  “No,” she said at once.

  Bree glanced toward the bookstore, then gasped. “Then maybe you can explain why there’s water coming out from under the front door now.”

  Kevin turned and felt the color drain out of his face. Shanna wore a horrified expression that he was pretty sure matched his own.

  “Bree, take the girls and Davy home,” he ordered. “Call Dad on the way and ask him to get over here, okay?”

  “Done,” Bree said, racing inside her shop to let Jenny know she was leaving.

  “Give me your key,” Kevin said to Shanna, who seemed to be immobilized by the sight of all that water flooding into the street. When she didn’t budge, he took the key she was clutching in her hand.

  Inside, he sloshed through the water into the back room and turned the cutoff valve until the water slowed to a trickle, then a few final drips.

  Shanna waded in after him, looking around in dismay at the mess. “What happened?”

  “Apparently the problem was more than the washer,” he said succinctly. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll clean this place up for you. In a couple of hours, you’ll never know anything happened in here.”

  “There’s inventory that can’t be salvaged,” she whispered, obviously near tears. “I can’t afford a loss like that.”

  Kevin stared at her in dismay. “Don’t you have insurance?”

  “Of course I do, but I can’t make a claim on my insurance a few weeks after opening. My rates will go sky-high.”

  Kevin went to her and pulled her into his arms. “Please don’t cry,” he whispered into her hair. “I can’t take it. This is all my fault and I’ll make it right.”

  “You were only trying to help,” she said, clinging to him. Her tears were soaking his shirt.

  Kevin tilted her chin up and met her gaze. “No more crying, okay? The last thing we need in here is more water.”