Hooked on You

by Cathryn Fox

  “Nate—although some of you may know him as the cow whisperer,” I say and stop when the crowd laughs. “Well, first, I’m going to tell you what he’s not.” Nate’s brow raises, and I continue. “He’s not a very good hunter. Then again, we may be dealing with a Ninja mouse at Gram’s.” I pause for the laughter, and when it dies down, I say, “He’s not a great liar, either.”

  When our eyes meet, we both know I’m talking about the coat. “He’s not good at understanding quantum mathematics, although I give him props for trying. But seriously folks, Nate might be cheesy,” I say and grin when he groans. “But he’s a great cook and a quick-thinking fireman when the need for one arises. Yes, it’s true, I nearly burned down Gram’s house.” The crowd chuckles. “He loves all boats, even when they come in the form of a pumpkin. He’s kind to children and animals, and he’s my personal hero. You may not know this—but then again, word spreads fast in this town,” I say, and bobbing heads agree. “When I first arrived, Nate saved me from a runaway horse. He literally threw himself at me, with no regard for his safety.”

  “I still owe you a ride,” a man says from the audience, and I glance out and see Doug.

  I wave to him and smile. “A ride with a horse who tried to kill me. I would normally say sure, right after the second coming, but we all know how that turned out for me last time.” Nate grins at me. And I turn things back to him. “Okay, ladies, he’s one of a kind, so let’s get the bidding started. You don’t want to lose out on this one.”

  I step back and let Heather take over. Nate runs his fingers through his mess of hair as I go get my drink. I catch Izzy’s knowing look. I finish my drink and order another as the bidding continues.

  Nate pulls in over four grand, and I nearly choke on my drink. Like the true gentleman he is, he makes his way to the highest bidder, a lovely elderly lady with blue hair, helps her into her coat, and glances at me. Emotions churn in my stomach as his eyes narrow, and I will my knees not to give. He has a strange look on his face, one I’ve never seen before, but makes me think he’s waging some sort of internal war. He helps the woman into her coat, and they disappear out the door.

  I go back to the stage, and it’s nearing nine when I finally finish. I thank everyone for organizing it and slip on my coat. Nate drove me here, and I could wait for him to finish his date to drive me back, but it’s such a gorgeous clear night, the stars glistening in the velvety black sky, that I decide to walk, get my thoughts in order.

  I might have revealed a little too much of my feelings for Nate tonight. Perhaps that’s why he had that strange look on his face. Oh God, I hope he doesn’t think I’m falling for him, or that I’m asking for more.

  Tonight, when he comes to my bed, I’ll have to make sure he knows otherwise. It’s almost the end of the lobster fishing season, and he’ll be out of here soon. We had set upon terms when we started this, and I want him to leave here with a clear conscience. He didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the fool who went and fell for him.

  I walk by the Grand Banker and glance in the window. I catch sight of Nate and his date through the glass. They’re sitting at the same table I sat at with Nate my first night here. He doesn’t see me, and attentive man that he is, he is entirely focused on the woman, and my heart swells. I love that about him. No matter who he’s with, he gives them his undivided attention.

  I zip my coat to my neck and hurry my steps. The house is quiet when I arrive. All the guys are on dates, and Izzy is helping with cleanup at the Anchor. I pull my coat off, toss another log into the fire, and walk around the house, admiring the freshly painted walls. My heart swells a little more when I think about Nate working with the boys. Tears fill my eyes, and I’m thinking another mocha latte to calm my emotions might be in order.

  “Gram, I’m in love with a fisherman and have to sell this house when I don’t want to. Please tell me what to do.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, the fire flames brighter, and I turn to it, feeling Gram’s presence like a warm hug.

  I can almost hear her whispering in my ear. It will all work out in the end.

  The only problem is, I can’t see how anything can work out for Nate and me, or for the B&B, in the end. I head to the kitchen to put on a pot of tea, and after I make it, I go into my office and lose myself in my work for the next couple of hours.

  A noise outside pulls me from my equations, and my heart beats a little faster when I hear Nate’s voice. I head to the kitchen to investigate and peek out to see him chatting with Ellen, but no Bridgette. I open the door, and my breath catches when he turns those green eyes on me.

  “Hey,” he says, quietly, and before I can answer, he presses his lips to mine. His kiss is so tender, so steeped in desire and need it does weird things to my insides. My lids flutter, right along with my heart. I step into him, despite the cold, but he puts his arms around me and warms me with his body.

  Ellen moos, and we break the intimacy. “How was your night?” I ask.

  “Mrs. Hendricks is an amazing lady. Her stories about her life, this town, I loved them all. I would love for you to meet her, Kira. She even told me tales about your grandfather.”

  “I would love that,” I say, and begin to well up all over again.

  “How did you get home?” he asks.

  Home.

  There was that word again.

  “I walked,” I say, loving his show of concern.

  “I went by the Anchor to pick you up, but Izzy said you left hours ago.”

  “I had some work to do, and the walk was beautiful.”

  Ellen moos again, and Nate turns. “I think she’s trying to tell me something. I better go find out if Bridgette is okay.”

  “Wait, I’ll come with you.” I hurry to the closet and grab my outerwear. I slip into my coat and put my boots on at the back door. Nate wraps his hand around my waist, and we follow Ellen to the barn. We get there and find Jack and Martha kneeling next to Bridgette.

  “What’s going on?” Nate asks, real panic in his voice.

  The second Bridgette hears Nate’s voice, she climbs to her feet and lets loose a loud moo.

  “I can’t believe it,” Jack says, pushing to his feet and brushing hay from his jeans.

  “What?” I ask, running my hand along Bridgette’s back.

  “We thought she was sick, but I think she was just lovesick,” Martha exclaims, pressing her hands to her face.

  I laugh, and Nate shakes his head. “I haven’t been around much. Sorry girl,” he says, and she gives him a big sloppy kiss. “My God, Bridgette, haven’t we talked about this,” he says playfully, his affection for the blind cow evident, and we all chuckle. Honestly, I was doomed from the beginning.

  There was no way I couldn’t fall for him.

  I stand back and take a few breaths, working double-time to pull myself together. We all stay in the barn until Bridgette gets her nightly loving, then we head outside, and Jack locks up.

  Nate and I say goodnight and make our way back to the B&B. “Poor Bridgette,” I say. “She’s going to be devastated when you leave here next month.”

  He goes quiet for a minute, opens his mouth, and closes it again.

  “Bridgette might think it’s a love affair, but don’t worry,” I say, needing to put his worries to rest. “For me, it’s just sex. A hookup until the end of the season.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Nate

  As November bleeds into December, and the lobster fishing season is about to come to an end, we all gather around the tables at the Shore Club for their world-famous lobster supper—a good place for us all to be hanging with the B&B’s first viewing.

  I glance around the room, and a sign on the wall informs me that the club has been open for eighty-two years now, the last of the greatest dance halls and home to the original lobster supper. It’s tradition toward the end of the season for all those who wo
rk at Hooked to get together. Management, fishermen, men and women from the processing plant, as well as their families, have all gathered. Conversations range from the weather, to the successful season, to what comes next.

  What comes next for me is to get the owner to finally sell the cottage. Oliver said the place had recently changed hands, and he was able to track down the new owner through her application to the Heritage Society, which met for their December meeting yesterday. He’s sent an email with a huge offer, one, he said, there is no way she’ll refuse. My father will likely lose his mind that I’d gone so high, but I know what I’m doing. Everyone has a price, and we just have to find hers.

  Kira takes a sip of her wine and leans toward me. “Did you know that Mariah Carey and Mira Sorvino ate here when they were in Nova Scotia filming the movie Wisegirls. And in 1983, Prince Charles and Lady Diana dined here.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, long before my time, but Gram has the plastic lobster bib that Diana wore. I haven’t come across it yet at the B&B, might even be in her safety deposit box, but I think it would be a great keepsake.”

  Just then, the server comes by with plastic bibs for us all and ties them around our neck.

  “Selfie,” Kira says, and pulls out her phone. She takes one of us, and the waitress approaches.

  “I can get a group shot if you’d like.”

  “Thanks.” Kira hands over her phone, and the server snaps a few pictures of the crew at our table—Izzy, Jason, Sam, Cody, Albert, Faith, Amber, and Julie, one of Amber’s friends, Jenny from the Grand Banker, and her husband Jeremy, who works with Albert and went as a lobster to the Halloween party. Then she takes a few more of the other tables in the room. Sam, of course, had put two fingers over Izzy’s head when the camera pointed his way. When Izzy sees that she’s going to put her foot so far up his ass, he’ll be tasting her steel-toed boot for a month.

  The server hands the phone back, and a wistful look comes over Kira’s face as she slides her finger across the screen to view the photos.

  “Refill on wine?” I ask and reach for the carafe in the center of the table.

  “Yes, thanks,” she says quietly. “I wonder how the viewing is going?”

  “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.” She nods and looks off into the distance. “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

  She turns back to me and blinks. “What?”

  I look around, take in the happy crowd. “This…”

  She follows my gaze and swallows. I get the sense that she’s fighting her emotions again.

  “Nate,” she begins quietly. “I’ve never really experienced anything like this. These people, the comraderies…they’re all like one big happy family. I see what Gram has always seen in this town. I get it now.”

  My heart pinches as I take in the longing in her eyes. “You’re going to miss this place, aren’t you?”

  She nods.

  “You don’t have to go, you know.” I work to keep my voice steady. Only last week, she reminded me of our timeline, reminded me that it was just sex between us. Damned if that wasn’t a hard kick to the balls. But I can’t fight the things that are happening to me.

  Over the last month, my goals have shifted, and while building the processing plant is important to me, there’s no doubt I’ve realigned my priorities. It’s crucial that I move on to the next processing plant, bring it into the twenty-first century for the company’s and the workers’ sake, but maybe I could make a home here and travel. Or maybe I can get the project started and hand it over to someone else to complete.

  Then again, if Kira has no interest in staying, building on what’s between us, then…shit, I don’t even want to let my thoughts go there. She makes me want to be a better man than those in my family. I never thought I had it in me until I met her. I have to find a way to convince her that we’re right together.

  “I know you already talked to the mayor about donating the money to the town, but twenty grand will make a nice down payment, and if you ran the B&B properly, it could pay the mortgage,” I say.

  She looks down at her drink, but not before I catch the sadness in her eyes. “I can’t manage a B&B with my work schedule. That, and my life and my family… Well, they’re on the other side of the country.”

  Her voice falls off, and my gut clenches as she tells me the reasons that she doesn’t belong here, but fuck me, she does. So do I. She once said to me that we can’t pick our families, but she was wrong. We can choose our families, and I choose this one right here. I want to be a better man than my father, my brothers. I want to be a man who puts the community ahead of the bottom line. I want to stay here with these kind and caring people. I want Albert to call me son. I rack my brain, try to figure out how to convince her she belongs here, as the servers come with our huge two-pound lobsters.

  “Oh my, that’s big,” she says.

  I lean into her and whisper, “Thankfully, Sam is out of earshot, or he would have blurted out, that’s what she said.”

  She laughs at that, and her mood lightens. It’s all I can do to stop myself from pulling her in for a hug. From my pocket, my phone buzzes, but I ignore it. The only people I want to speak to are here. Yet, the damn thing won’t stop.

  “Your pants are lighting up,” she teases.

  “I guess I’d better get it.” I excuse myself from the table and slide my finger across the screen and step into the bathroom for privacy. “Dad,” I say when I answer.

  “I take it you have good news for me?” His gruff voice booms through the phone.

  “Yeah, we tracked down the owner, and an offer is in place. Looks like everything is a go. We can break ground in the spring.”

  “I wanted that done by now, Nathan. Time is money.”

  “It was out of my hands,” I say, understanding it was supposed to be well underway by now, and I was supposed to move on to the next venture once construction started. Now, I’m not in such a hurry to do that. “We’ve done everything we could.”

  “Maybe I should fly there myself to make sure this gets done.”

  I pinch the bridge of my nose. The last thing I need is my father here undermining my decisions. “No need. It’s all under control.”

  “Don’t disappoint me,” he says, and the line goes dead. I exhale loudly and turn on the water. I splash it on my face and work to pull myself together. Talking to my father always leaves me angry. But I do have this under control. He just has to trust me.

  My phone buzzes again. “What now?” I pick it up and read the text from Oliver, and the world goes a little fuzzy around me as I sag against the sink. She refused the offer, is all the message said.

  Goddammit. I text back: We need this. She’s playing hardball. Up the offer. She’ll give in when we get the right amount.

  I shove the phone into my pocket, run my hands through my hair, and take a deep, fueling breath. Laughter swirls around me as I exit the men’s room, and the second I sit next to Kira, who is tucking her phone away, it lightens my mood.

  “Everything okay?” she asks.

  “My father.” She nods. “Now, let’s eat these bad boys,” I say and dig into the lobster. Juice squirts from the claw and gets me in the face. “Dammit,” I say, and Kira laughs.

  She uses her napkin to wipe my face, and I don’t miss the way Izzy is watching us. I’ve given up trying to hide what I feel for Kira. This has grown into so much more than a hookup. I listen in as Albert tells a tale about his younger days fishing, elaborating on everything, and making those around the table laugh. We enjoy our lobster and finish our wine, and once the shells and dishes have been cleared, the lights dim for the Saturday night dance.

  I check my phone a few more times, as it keeps lighting up in my pants. Caller display informs me it’s my three brothers who keep calling, and I don’t answer.

  “I need to go wash up,” Kira s
ays, and I note the way she’s looking at her phone again, a frown on her face, as she enters the women’s room.

  When she comes back, it’s my turn to ask if she’s okay. She nods, but her body language says otherwise. Whatever she has on her mind, she’s keeping to herself. Who am I to talk? I’m doing the same thing, but I don’t want to ruin this night with my troubles. Maybe she’s feeling the same way. Hopefully we can talk later because I want to be there for her if she has something weighing on her.

  The music starts, and Sam grabs Kira and takes her to the dance floor. It’s easy to tell how much they like each other, but I no longer feel the jealousy because Sam is one of the good guys and would protect his sister with his life.

  Izzy grabs my hand. “Come on, boss,” she says, and I groan.

  “Don’t make me.”

  “Well, I’m not going to let you sit here and mope because Kira is in Sam’s arms and not yours.”

  I follow her to the dance floor and step in beside Sam and Kira, who are laughing and having a great time. My heart swells to see her happy. I want to make her this happy every fucking day if only she’d let me.

  The song changes to a slow one, and Izzy pulls me to her. We sway on the dance floor, and she says, “You like her?”

  I pause for a long while. “Yeah, I do,” I say.

  “Guys in your position rarely stay here long. Always making changes that affect us workers, not always in a good way, and then moving on to bigger and better.”

  “I know,” I say, and I do know. The bottom dollar has come first over the people, but the new processing plant will actually help them, create more jobs, but I can’t tell her any of that just yet. Past experiences have jaded these guys, and they probably wouldn’t believe me, anyway, until they see the new hires, the influx of people and money into the town.

  “Then you better get your shit together and figure out what comes next,” she warns in a soft but serious voice.

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t hurt her, Nate. She’s a good girl.”

  “I’d never do anything to hurt her.”