“There’s an engagement party Saturday night. You can invite me over after.”
“I’m planning on missing that one. But I’m up for after.”
“Think you can get me out of it?”
“Can you use the excuse of bringing a new life into the world?”
“Not unless someone brings me a pregnant cow.”
Female voices twittered up the stairs as if a flock of birds had taken residence in his sister’s kitchen. Nik paused at the top of the staircase, listening to see if he could grab breakfast in the kitchen or should exit out the front door. And then the lilting sound of Janny’s laugher made his decision for him.
He bounded down the floating planks of the staircase, still not sure how his sister managed to feel at home in a house that seemed to come straight out of an architecture magazine. Maybe that’s what Harm’s money bought—designer furnishings and magic beans.
In the kitchen, he shot straight for the coffee. He preferred it black and rich, but Holly did something with cinnamon he still hadn’t gotten used to. Janny sat between Kristin and Saskia at the long marble bar. All conversation had ceased when he’d walked into the room.
“Is it even?” He ran a hand over his newly shorn hair.
Holly pulled a face. “I wouldn’t give you a bad haircut.”
“You have before.” He leaned against the bar. “Tell me the truth, Sass. Did she scalp me?”
The redhead let out an exaggerated sigh. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but she’s cut off all your hair.”
“Damnit, Holly.” He chuckled then nodded at Janny. “When did you get back to the island, Janny?”
“Last night.” Her crystal-blue gaze dropped to her coffee cup. Lucky for her, Holly had opened the fridge, because his sister would have read that tell from a mile away.
He cleared his throat and turned to Sass. “I need a favor.”
“It’ll cost you.” She leaned her elbows on the countertop, her freckled cheeks lifting in an impish grin.”
“I can pay in compost or manure, your choice. You need to keep Joe busy today so he can’t sail us to Scrub Island.”
“Really, Nik?” Holly closed the fridge with a swing of her hip. “You haven’t even tried sail boating.”
“I’d rather not be involved with anything involving the word boat.”
She started opening tubs of brightly colored fruit. “Just tell Harm you want to take the helicopter.”
“I did. He said Joe wanted to sail the gang over from Saint Martin, so it would be easier to make a loop.”
Janny’s gaze volleyed with the conversation. “Not that I would want to be stuck on a boat with them, but sailing is probably the best way to go between the three islands. Though what anyone wants with Scrub is beyond me.”
“Scrub had a failed cattle operation twenty years back or so. I need to figure out why it failed so I don’t repeat history.” He sipped the coffee, wishing it were stronger. And that Janny would make eye contact. It was damned strange to do the morning after with someone pretending it had never happened.
“If that’s all you need to know, I can save you a trip.” Janny spoke to the air beside his left shoulder. He had half a mind to sidestep and force her to look him in the eye. “Foreign investors are a real joy to work with. Their money ran out and they abandoned everything. Scrub used to be sparse and natural, now it’s a deserted wasteland of half-finished buildings and rusted equipment. They decided it wasn’t worth the effort and left their garbage behind them.”
“Trolling a dystopian wasteland is one way to spend the day.” He scrubbed his freshly shaven face.
“You’re going to have to tell Harm to take the helicopter.” Holly brought out plates and forks.
“He thinks I’m kidding.” The bowls of fruit didn’t even appeal to him. He’d give anything for a waffle or a cinnamon roll. Because Harm had Celiac disease, there wasn’t a bit of grain in the entire place. One of these days, he was going to have to find chocolate chip cookies or he might go crazy.
“Kidding about what?” Janny almost looked at him.
“I hate boats.” Fair enough answer.
Holly forked a pineapple. “Nik is scared he’ll puke. Which he won’t actually do. This isn’t the Bering Sea.”
Janny caught his gaze and arched a brow. Now she wanted to look him in the eye? He opted to open a cupboard for a travel mug. Best to get his caffeine and go if his sister wanted to run down his list of inadequacies.
“You’ve never had motion sickness anywhere else, just on crab boats. Sailboats glide through the water. They don’t jump ten-foot waves.”
“The sea and I will never be friends.” With his mug full, he turned back to the group and raised it. “Have fun, ladies.”
“You can get a prescription from the clinic to help with motion sickness, but if it only affects you on boats, it could be psychosomatic.” Janny looked at him like he was a medical problem to be solved. “Have you tried therapy?”
“You’re a psychiatrist now?” Oh hell no, he wasn’t going down this path with anyone, but especially not with her. “Seasickness is not in my head. And I’m not going to waste my day just to prove a point.”
The tone must have been harsher than he intended, because Janny studied her coffee, Sass stared out the window and Holly gave him a look that would kill a lesser man. What a way to start the day.
This day had to get better. Janny stared down at the broken grocery bag, cracked eggs oozing onto her welcome mat. She turned the key, pushed opened the door and a blast of cool air hit her. Thankfully, no one could hear her swearing as she deposited three bags on her counter and returned to clean up the remains of the fourth.
Never in her life had she been turned away from her own hospital. Not that she owned the place, but she’d been volunteering there since she could read to the elderly patients. On her breaks from school, she’d done clerical work, shadowed other doctors and acted as a patient advocate. And now, after three months away, they’d banned her until Monday.
Damn Kristin. The charming kindergarten teacher had an in with everyone, and had convinced both scheduling and the other doctors that she needed a few days to get settled before getting back to work. Little did they know her devious best friend was simply one step ahead of her, wanting to get rid of her iron-clad excuse for missing any event the Prinsens had scheduled.
The last thing she needed was to be kept away from the one thing that made her feel useful. So she’d visited all her patients who’d delivered babies while she was gone. The women felt cared for and she’d been relieved to uncover a case of mastitis before it went too far. She loved that Anguilla remained a tight enough community that she knew most of her patients by name.
How she’d spend the rest of the evening she didn’t know. But she would not be calling Kristin. No doubt, that nosy beast thought she’d been helping. But the last thing Janny wanted was time to think. About whether Holly and Sass had suspected anything as she’d ogled a freshly showered Nik this morning, or about what he’d been thinking when he’d stomped out of there. Or how he’d fared while sailing today. Or what that tattoo circling his arm represented.
Enough Nik. She couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him, which had been the case since they’d met. But before he’d been a dream, and now he was all too real. Too close. Too tempting.
What she needed was an escape. To fill her mind with a harmless fantasy so she could forget the one tempting her to get in her car and head to the end of the island. Which she would not do.
Instead, she stashed away the healthy groceries and then grabbed the bag of brownies one of her patients had insisted she take with her. She hadn’t been about to argue; it was a two-brownie kind of day. Clad in a comfy tank and boy shorts, with the air conditioning dialed to autumn in New York, she settled herself on the couch to cue up her latest eBook downloa
ds.
Desired in the Desert. Promising.
Seducing the Soldier. Interesting.
Catching the Cowboy. Not right now.
The Billionaire’s Bride. That either.
The Doctor’s Dilemma. Yeah, no.
Setting Sail with the Boss. Not even.
The insistent knock on her door made her pulse jump. In Anguilla, people simply yelled their presence. Hello, who’s there? shouted through a window was common, but a knock was not. She stared at the door, and then it hit her. There was one particular American new to the island who just might have the gall to show up uninvited.
She set her ereader beside her bag of treats and walked to the door. Again with the knocking. She put her hand to her chest, as unsettled by the custom as she had been at twelve when she’d first been sent to boarding school. It had never struck her until this moment that she might need a peephole, or that the only window on that side of the house was in the guest room.
This was the first time she’d ever lived alone, and she hadn’t even made it a day without getting spooked.
“Janny,” Nik’s husky tone soothed her nerves. “I know you’re home.”
She opened the door and took him in, from his dusty boots and well-worn jeans to his straw cowboy hat. Maybe this would be a night for Catching the Cowboy after all.
He grinned and leaned in, placing a brief kiss against her cheek as he pushed his way inside. “That’s the look that’s going to get you in trouble, Princess. If Holly sees you look at me like that, she’ll be convinced you have a crush on me.”
She closed the door and turned to find him relaxing on her couch as if he’d been there a hundred times. His hat sat in the middle of her coffee table and he pushed a hand through his too short hair. The ease at which he slid into her life made her feel, well, uneasy. “Where did you park?”
“Now you want to be sneaky, after practically telling all in my sister’s kitchen? Relax, Harm’s neglected motorcycle is out of sight.” He had the audacity to grab her brownie bag.
“Those aren’t for you.”
“Please, you’ve already shared your cookies with me.” He peeked inside. “Tell me these aren’t made with black beans.”
“I can’t see why they would be.” She joined him on the couch and pushed her riotous curls behind her ears. He smelled of warm sunshine and hot pheromones.
“I’ve been subject to all kinds of food trickery since I came to this rock. I trust nothing.” He tipped the bag toward her. “You go first and let me know.”
She snagged the bag and got up, too aware of his nearness. Space would fix this. And maybe she could pin down exactly what she wanted to happen. She made her way to the kitchen to create a distraction.
Only he followed her. The bungalow was small, but he couldn’t even give her enough room to breathe, just perched on a barstool and watched her every move.
“How was sailing?” She took two plates from the cupboard and placed a brownie on each.
“I prefer to fly over water, so we took the helicopter. There’s a landing pad on Scrub Island, so we were able to see the remains of the cattle operation from the air, as well as on the ground. Much more efficient.”
“Is that how you sold it to Harm?” She opened the freezer and found the tub of mocha almond fudge ice cream.
“It’s the truth. Plus, we were able to show Mel and Tommy the property from the air when we picked them up from Saint Martin. We went to school together and they’re here to help lay out the ranch.”
“You ditched your friends to come here?” She tried not to be so flattered as she dished out double scoops atop the brownies.
“They traveled all day and hit the hay so we can get an early start tomorrow.”
“Are they sharing your truck bed?” Her heart stuttered and she pressed a hand to her chest. “Did you change the sheets?”
His laugh filled the house. “They’re bunking at Holly’s tonight, and, yes, I changed the sheets this morning. That’s why I was at Holly’s.”
She returned the ice cream tub to the freezer. “Where do they think you are?”
“I don’t think anyone else is as interested in my whereabouts as you, Princess.”
“Fork or spoon?” She held up one of each.
“Spoon. Is that ice cream made from actual cream? Or is it a coconut concoction?”
“You have serious food trust issues.” She set the spoon on his plate and pushed it across the countertop.
“You would too if you kept getting served food that looked like something it wasn’t. They have bread that tastes like almond sawdust.”
“There’s almonds in the ice cream.” She grinned and took her dish to the couch. She sat, tucking her legs beneath her.
He joined her, his jean-clad legs touching her bare knees. He took a bite, then laid his head back and groaned. “You make all my dreams come true, Dr. Baird.”
She chuckled and turned her attention to her own piece of heaven. They ate in comfortable silence, setting their plates on the coffee table when they were empty.
Nik stretched his arm along the back of the couch. “I’m still hungry.”
“There’s more ice cream. You can take it with you.”
He leaned closer. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“I’m not sure why you’re here. I’m not the kind of girl you booty call, and I doubt you came to tell me about your day on Scrub.”
“Maybe I am. You were right about the island, mostly. From the air, it appeared desolate building frames and cisterns. Usually, there is a pond to feed the fields, but I can see why they’d go for cisterns in this climate. I think they wanted to buy their way into a cattle operation, which is Harm’s instinct too. But you have to start at the beginning, by making soil that can support grass that can feed your livestock. That’s why Mel and Tommy are here. They know more about farming than I ever will.”
She blinked. “Is this what we’re doing now? Sharing our agendas like a couple?”
“You’re the one who wanted to slow it down. I might have wanted to take you up against the front door, but I managed to rein it in.” He leaned forward and swiped her ereader.
“Give that back.” She made a grab for it, but he’d already queued up her library.
His chuckle had a sinister undertone. “I think Catching the Cowboy is The Doctor’s Dilemma.”
He had no idea. “Laugh all you want, in your own space. If someone catches you here, rumors are going to start flying.”
“I like it here.” He set the reader back on the table.
“I don’t want things to get messy. I’ve had enough of that.”
“Is that what has you on edge? Is life getting messy?”
“My world is closing in.” The admission sounded too raw, too real.
“That’s not about me though, is it?”
She peered into the dark depths of his eyes, and something inside her heart splintered. With her best friends marrying into the Prinsen family, she didn’t have anyone to talk to. Not about this.
“Janny, we’re friends, no matter what else happens.”
She took a deep breath. “Kristin is going to tell Antonnis that we’re related. And I’m sure he’ll tell Joe. And then they’ll confront their father. Sebastian’s truth and reality aren’t even on the same plane.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t need to run from the truth.”
“He’ll tell them his ridiculous story about my mother. She was eighteen, and yet he claims she drugged him. He cheated on his dying wife and created this elaborate story to cover it. And then he left, and my mother had to stay here and deal with being a single parent and everyone’s opinion of the scandal he created. He went back to The Netherlands and lived his life as if none of it had ever happened. If I have to hear his lies again, I might actually kill h
im.”
He nodded. “You don’t have to listen to it. You can’t stop him, and if anyone wants to ask you about it, you tell your truth.”
“My word against his? Do you not see what a convoluted mess that is? And then it will become the talk of the island again.”
“I know how islands work. Unalaska is the same way. People grab on to a hint of gossip to keep themselves entertained.” He took her other hand in his. “The past doesn’t matter. From what I can tell, Sebastian doesn’t have the best relationship with Harm or Joe. And Kristin is going to tell Antonnis what she knows from you. So it’s Sebastian’s problem, not yours. You’ll be the one to come out ahead in this. Your best friends will also be your sisters.”
“It sounds so much simpler when you say it. But I don’t think—”
“Don’t think, Princess.”
His lips were on hers and she melted into the kiss, into the promise of not thinking. Suppressing her feelings took so much energy, it was easier to let go, to fall into him. But then her real fantasy kept creeping in when she thought of him. The idea of belonging, being part of a family that was proud of her, having someone love her because of who she was, not out of obligation. And ruining that fantasy was more terrifying than any pleasure he could bring with a flirty game of Catching the Cowboy.
She released his hold and stood, pulling her mind to lighter things. “Let’s try Seducing the Soldier. With that haircut, you look the part.”
He braced his forearms on his thighs and glared up at her. “Don’t do this.”
She placed her hands on her hips and pulled her shoulders back. “You have something against me charming you horizontal for an all-night sexathon?”
His voice dropped to a deep grumble. “I agreed to slow things down, not to letting you freeze me out. This isn’t what I want.”
She eyed his jeans. “Your cock disagrees with you.”
“You’re a bad friend, Janny Baird.” He rose and grabbed his hat.
“You’re leaving?” She spun as he made his way to the door.
“I know where I’m not wanted.”
“Wait, I want you to stay.”
Caribbean Cowboy: Under the Caribbean Sun, Book 4 Page 10