“Don’t be an ass.” Holly narrowed her gaze and shot him a shrewd look that made him smile. She hated to not be in the know. “Janny. I think something happened with you two.”
“Do you really?” He lifted his chin and smiled wide. “I think you’ve been listening to the blonde one.”
“Kristin is convinced something happened. But Janny denies it, and I can’t tell if you’re being cagey or just enjoy messing with us.”
“You know the answer to that.” By the position of the sun overhead, he guessed it was about one, and he hadn’t even made it through half of his mental to-do list. He grabbed a tub of fruit and tucked in, because stopping for dinner wasn’t on his agenda.
“Are you going to see her tonight?”
“Depends on if she shows up here.” He focused on the tart sweetness of the tropical fruits and everything he had to accomplish before he ran out of daylight.
“Nik, I’m asking if you’re going to make some kind of move, because I don’t really think now is the right time.”
He raised a brow but didn’t bother with a response. Holly would keep talking without any encouragement from him.
“Janny doesn’t know that Kristin is moving in with Antonnis, or that Sebastian is thinking of moving here. So I’m just saying, she has a lot going on, and hooking up with you again isn’t going to help things.”
“What’s the deal with Janny and the Prinsens?” He stacked the empty containers and then leaned back in the chair, the wood hot against his bare back. He didn’t want a slice of Janny’s family drama. Hell, he didn’t even care to partake in his own. But if she needed a soft place to fall, or a warm place to hide, hell, he’d be her huckleberry.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. Harm says there’s history with Sebastian and Janny’s mother, and I know she had her concerns about the guys not being serious about relationships. But she’s coming around. With the guys, at least. She has no patience for Sebastian, but then Harm barely tolerates him, and they’re related.”
Holly didn’t see it, and it had been so clear to him. Sure, he’d had a lot of time to sit and ponder these last few weeks, but that mirrored animosity he’d seen with Janny and Sebastian at the wedding, that wasn’t about history. And those haunting clear-blue eyes. He couldn’t recall the eye color of most of the men he’d ever known, but he knew Antonnis and Sebastian’s blue gaze matched Janny’s.
“You’re infuriating, you know that?” Holly rose, smoothing the pale pink dress she wore. If he didn’t know she was pregnant, he never would have guessed. “You look at me like you’re listening, and I can tell by your smug expression you don’t plan on taking my advice.”
He nodded. He hadn’t traded hemispheres to steer clear of Janny. He just wasn’t sure what it was he wanted from her. Yet.
“You sure you don’t want to have a sleepover for old times’ sake?” Janny grinned at Kristin, glad to be back in her own house even if it did feel strange without any of her best friend’s things here. They’d lived together for over a decade—at boarding school, college and here. But Antonnis had bought Kristin a villa within walking distance to the school where she taught kindergarten. A best friend couldn’t really compete with new love.
“Let’s plan on it for the weekend when I don’t have to be at work so early. Maybe after the engagement dinner.” She pulled her blonde braid over her shoulder and sat up straight, as if she were about to rise from the couch and head home. “Or you could come stay with us. There is a rooftop deck where we can watch the sea and drink punch.”
And watch them swoon over one another. Gag. Janny was doing her best to get used to Antonnis, but he was still a Prinsen. And in her book, that would forever mean not to be trusted. And yet her dearest friends had all hitched themselves to Prinsen men. The inevitable downfall made her shudder.
“You have the weekend off, right?”
“It’s scheduled that way.” After being away from the hospital for two months, she doubted she’d be free. Just because she wasn’t on the schedule didn’t mean she wasn’t expected to be there. And after being a guest in someone else’s hospital for so long, she wanted to get back on her home turf and see patients she couldn’t help but care about because she knew their story. “I’ve spent all our time telling you about Boston. Catch me up on what’s been going on at home. Any medical emergencies I should know about?”
“Medical, no.” She twisted her braid and glanced out the window.
Janny leaned forward. “Oh, something fun must have happened. You might as well tell me the gossip. You know I’ll find out at the hospital tomorrow.”
Kristin cleared her throat and stood. “Maybe we should have a drink. I put champagne in the fridge.”
“Okay, sis. You’re scaring me. What kind of news would I need alcohol to stomach?” She knew the answer before she finished speaking. “Sebastian’s here, isn’t he?”
Kristin crossed the room and then pulled open the fridge. “What makes you say that?”
“You’re trying to get me to drink, for one. Plus, you’re being shady. You’re not the secrets type.”
Kristin closed the fridge with her hip and set the bottle of champagne on the counter. “Which is why it’s been so hard on me to not tell Antonnis that you’re his sister.”
Jannis had spent too much time thinking about the situation in the lonely hours of her time away. “So tell him. But also let him know I have no intention of ever discussing it. The truth is quite different from the fiction Sebastian tries to sell people. Your conscience can be clean and I don’t have to deal with Prinsen bullshit. Win-win.”
“Just like that?”
“You’ve known for almost twenty years. Sebastian’s secrets aren’t worth keeping. Personally, I’d rather not know my DNA came from such a bastard, but it is what it is.” She sank back into the sofa, her pulse kicking up. She didn’t want to have to deal with the situation, but she didn’t want her best friend to feel torn about it.
Kristin rushed to the couch with a hug that nearly popped Janny’s head clean off.
“You’re being a little extra right now,” Janny said, trying to squirm her way into some breathing space.
“I know. I’m just so relieved,” she said before squeezing close again.
“I’m going to need you to get it together.” She laughed in spite of being treated like lunch for a boa constrictor.
“Right. You’re right.” Kristin released her hold but stayed close, the way they used to sit as teens telling secrets. “There’s something I should tell you before someone else does.”
Her heart jumped. “You’re pregnant?”
“What? No. I mean, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. After the wedding. This is about you. Kind of.”
“Well, then you should kind of tell me.”
“You remember Nik? The guy you left Harm’s wedding with after fighting with your dad?”
“Sebastian is not my dad. We share DNA.” She counted to four before her heart beat again. It had taken her weeks to put her memories of Nik in a box, to lock them down under the weight of never again. Yet the mere mention of his name and the intensity of the way she’d felt with him came back in full force.
“Anyway, Nik is here.”
“Visiting Holly?” Why did her voice have to go all pitchy? And how in the world was she going to see him again without revealing how shaken she’d been by their encounter. She’d never allowed herself to be that vulnerable and couldn’t sacrifice the reputation she’d built here for the momentary gratification of mind-blowing sex. Because that’s all it had been. Kristin shook her head. “He’s here, on the east side of the island, Harm has him trying to make a cattle ranch.”
“A what?” The bad-boy tycoon couldn’t be a cowboy too. She’d spent every free moment trying to shut Nik out of her head, reading everything in her to-be-read folder about cowboys and professors instead of
bikers and billionaires. It had almost worked, but now with him close enough to touch…
The words kept coming out of Kristin’s mouth, but Janny couldn’t understand a word. Her one indiscretion half a world away had followed her home. Why would he do that? Had he felt it too? That undeniable longing for more, the primal sexual bond.
She refused to hope. Refused. She wouldn’t breed that kind of disappointment.
“I know you said leaving the reception with him was for show, but I didn’t want you to be shocked when you heard. Everyone is talking about him.”
“Why?” So many times, why.
“No one really understands what he’s doing, or what Harm is up to buying up all that land. It’s nothing but scrub brush and trees out that way. He’s clearing parts of it, and then piling food waste in other parts. The stories of what their plans could be are getting rather elaborate.”
“What do you think he’s got going on?” She forced her breathing to slow though her pulse raced as if she’d just finished a ten-mile run. No telling what a billionaire biker wanted with the barren side of Anguilla. Except he wasn’t either of those things. How could she have such a solid connection to who he was and yet not know a thing about what he did?
“Harm wants to see if Anguilla can support its own agriculture instead of importing so much. It’s just the stories about why Nik’s here that are getting outlandish. He’s camping out by Slick’s old place. I haven’t been out there, but I’ve heard he’s fencing the parcels as if it’s one property.”
She gave her best nonchalant shrug. She almost couldn’t believe it worked. But there was no reason to push. Kristin didn’t have any of the answers she needed. She faked a yawn, though she wouldn’t be able to rest until she saw Nik and could make sure he wanted what had happened in Alaska to stay in Alaska.
Janny hadn’t been to Slick’s place since before college, yet she remembered every turn on the unmarked dirt road. She’d actually never met Slick, but island mythology said she’d been a poet who’d welcomed all artists to her sparse homestead. Until a wealthy painter had decided she was his muse and whisked her away on his yacht. Who knew if the romantic story was true, but local teens used to flock there, hoping to find a bit of their own escape.
It had been the place to party, but a hurricane five years back had sent waves washing over the entire island. The abandoned clapboard house hadn’t stood a chance. Once the house was gone, people had stopped coming around the undeveloped roads. Goats and iguanas had taken over, consuming what vegetation the dry side of the island sprouted. Over a low hill, a small fire glowed in the distance.
As she inched her car closer, she couldn’t see a soul in the twilight. Harm’s giant black truck sat at one side of an expanse of bare dirt and an old pickup that looked like it had given up on the other side. She parked the car, her headlights illuminating the space. Makeshift furniture sat on the left of the campfire, and to the right she saw him.
Naked.
Her heart jumped at the sight of his broad back, bare ass. He stood in a half barrel, water showering down from somewhere above him. A pair of jeans rested on the arm of a chair, a straw cowboy hat on the seat and worn boots on the ground beside it. He turned and shaded his eyes against the glare of her headlights. Maybe she could just turn tail and run.
And then he smiled that sexy grin and she knew she’d been made. Janny turned off the car and killed the lights, shoring up her resolve to do what needed to be done. Find out exactly why Nik Hansen was on her island.
Hot damn. Nik let the last of the water drain from the solar shower bag and pushed the water out of his short hair. He hadn’t imagined Janny would find him within hours of arriving home. Had to be a good sign. It meant she hadn’t had her fill of him yet.
He’d planned on looking her up once he’d had a chance to truly shower and shave. Out here, he rinsed off just enough to stand himself when he crawled into the bed of the truck at night. And because he thought it a bit wasteful to use clean water to make compost tea. Nik stepped out of the half barrel and onto the pile of rocks he’d collected. He grabbed his towel off the chair and rubbed down his head, shoulders, back. He wanted to give her the opening line, but she didn’t seem to have the words. He wrapped the towel around his waist and turned to watch her walk toward him.
Now that was a beautiful woman. Her wild curls rivaled with the serious expression on her face. Once she reached him, she squared her shoulders, yet she cocked one curvy hip to the side.
“Did you miss me, Princess?” He licked his lips as he took her in, from her sandaled feet to the sway of her red sundress.
“The only thing I missed was your last name, Nik Hansen.” Her pale eyes sparked in the firelight.
Why did it sound like an accusation? “It was in the wedding program, and I had to stand still and smile for lots of pictures.”
“You said Holly was your best friend.”
“I am her best friend. I’m on a rock in the middle of the Caribbean Sea because she needed me here. If that isn’t a best friend, I don’t know what is.”
“That’s a brother.”
“Nope. She has eight of us and I’m the only one here.” He kept the towel in place while he slipped back into his boots to make the walk to the truck bed.
“What are you doing here?”
“Me? I’m cleaning up. Things out this way get pretty dirty.” He winked, loving the way her shoulders jumped. Oh, yeah, she’d come for him, all right.
“Whoa there, cowboy.” She held up her hands like he was robbing her train. “I’m only here to make sure you don’t think anything like what happened at the wedding is going to happen here.”
“You came all the way out here, the day you get back, just to tell me that?”
“I don’t want any confusion.”
“Like how you told me that if I ever visited Holly, I ought to look you up?”
“I never dreamed you would.”
“Yeah, I don’t believe you.” He leaned against the side of the truck, watching the flickering firelight lick over her body. “You dreamed it. I’m literally the man of your dreams, Janny.”
Her throat undulated as she swallowed. “That was a fantasy, and this is my reality. I don’t even know who you really are. You’re a different person every time I see you.”
“I’m better as myself than playing a role.” He couldn’t help the wink. It made her breath hitch. Without touching her, it was the best he could do right now. He stretched out his arms. “This is me, at least right now. I’m gambling that I can raise cattle on limestone, but I’m going to try harder than anyone ever has before. I’m happiest when I can turn dirt and sunshine into food. I never thought I’d be piecing together a ranch between beaches, but on an intellectual level, it’s fascinating. My team at the university has become a virtual think tank.”
“I’m confused. You work at a university?”
He nodded. “When I left for college, I went to learn how to run fish hatcheries, since fishing was all I knew. Once I learned about food animal ranching, I never looked back. We’re standing on what will become my doctoral thesis. I hope. If this project works, the economic impact on Anguilla will be huge.”
“The cowboy professor.” She gave a choking laugh. “Of course you are. I don’t know why I’m surprised.”
“Me either. Who did you expect to find out here tonight?”
She sighed, her shoulders drooped and the strap of her sun dress slipped. “I was hoping for a bumbling biker with more money than brains.”
“High expectations there.”
“I’ve had my share of disappointment, and I don’t want to get in line for another helping. I thought I’d come out here, you’d be wrong somehow, and I could file away our time in Alaska under lessons learned.”
“Really? That’s why you drove out here tonight?” He grinned when she studied her sa
ndals. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
He opened the truck door and grabbed two bottles from the mini fridge in the center console. Harm’s truck had more add-ons than he’d thought possible. With a twist of his hand, he opened the bottles and turned. He offered one to Janny, but she shook her head.
“I don’t drink on Anguilla.”
“Ever?” He took a long pull from his bottle and the bubbles burst down his throat.
“Very rarely. And never if I have to drive or might get called in to work.”
“Fair enough.” He offered her the bottle again. “It’s mineral water.”
“A cowboy drinking fizzy water? You expect me to believe that?” She took the bottle from the bottom, probably so she didn’t risk touching him.
“Holly puts it in the truck fridge whenever I’m at her place. Her maternal instincts are in full effect.” Shit. He shook his head. He’d been so good at keeping the secret, but Janny threw everything off.
“Relax, I’m her doctor.” She lifted the bottle to her full lips and took the kind of long drink that had him thinking of other things.
“Good, because she wants it to be a surprise. She’ll skin me if I ruin it.” He leaned against the truck again.
“If I’d have known you were her brother, nothing would have happened between us.”
“Lucky for us, I was too focused on you to draw up a diagram of my family tree. But before you harp on that again, you didn’t volunteer that you’re Harm’s sister. If I’m the kettle, you’re the pot.” Her blue eyes went impossibly wide. “I get that it is some kind of secret. I’ve had hours out here alone to do nothing but think. What I don’t understand is why everyone ignores the obvious. Even your father.”
“He is not my father, he’s just Sebastian. A world-class bastard with years of practice ignoring me.” She took another swallow and stared off into the darkness. “Who told you?”
“No one. I spent a lot of our time together staring into your eyes. I’d recognize that color anywhere.”
Her hurt at the mere mention of it radiated from her. “I’m not going to deny it. That’s his forte. But shared DNA doesn’t mean we’re a family.” Her sigh wrapped around him like a fist.
Caribbean Cowboy: Under the Caribbean Sun, Book 4 Page 8