I rolled my eyes, settling back into my couch and taking a pull of my beer. “That’s the federal government. They have way more resources than I do. I make do with what I have, and what I have is a couple deputies and Beck’s cooking.”
“And your time, apparently,” he said dryly.
Not to mention my sanity. “Apparently.”
Aiden grunted, his ire cooling dramatically. “At least she plugged the diner on the Live. That was…amiable.”
Amiable wasn’t exactly a word I’d use in reference to Luna. Infuriating, insufferable, recalcitrant…yes. Amiable? Not around me.
“Speaking of amiable,” I said, “how long do I have to keep her…occupied?”
I had absolutely no excuse for why my brain supplied a litany of options I could enlist to keep heroccupied, many of which involved my handcuffs but none of which involved talking. Or clothes.
“Probably a week.” He paused. “Starting next week.”
“Why the hell didn’t you just say two weeks?”
“Because I figured you’d get pissy about that. I was right, by the way.”
I bit back a growl of frustration. “I don’t think you understand what you’re asking of me.”
Being around Luna tested my patience, my resolve, and my control more than anyone had ever done before. And I fucking hated it. Control was what had gotten me where I was today. It was what had kept this family running when everything else was crumbling down around it. Control kept me sane.
And Luna was like freeing a swarm of bees in the middle of Main Street or setting a zoo’s worth of animals loose on the interstate—pure, unsuppressed chaos.
The smart thing to do would be to stay as far away from her as possible. Wait out the storm until she decided she’d had enough of Starlight Cove and took her tiny little tin can house and left in a haze of incense and essential oils, never to be seen or heard from again.
My stomach cramped as the thoughts flitted through my mind. Fuck, I needed to eat.
“Come on, it’s not that bad,” he said. “It’s just until the journalist can get the lay of the land and see if the resort would be a viable option. And I fucking hope they see it as a viable option.”
“Did you know the journalist scouting the place is Harper?”
“Harper?” he asked. “As in…Levi’s Harper?”
“Don’t think she’s been Levi’s anything for years, but yeah. She didn’t look real happy to be here, or to hear his name.”
“Fuck,” he groaned, drawing out the word, and I could nearly see him scrubbing a hand over his face. “We need this, Brady. I…I don’t know if we’ll survive without it.”
Hearing Aiden admit what I already feared felt like a vise gripping my heart. This resort was the last thing we had of our mom—the one parent we’d always been able to count on, no matter that the other wasn’t far. It’d been in her family for generations, and the six of us would do whatever we could to make sure it didn’t crash and burn on our watch, with no help from our father.
“I know.” I ran a hand over my jaw, resting my head back on the couch cushions. “I’ll handle Luna, all right? She filed some bullshit paperwork that’s going to pause progress on the demolition for a bit anyway. It’s a waste of time and resources for us, but it should keep her out of trouble until we’ve secured our place in the article, at least.”
“Well, that’s great for a temporary solution, but how exactly are you going to handle her otherwise? You can’t just handcuff her anytime you want.”
The image of her on my bed, hands stretched over her head and handcuffed to the headboard, popped into my mind, and I had to bite back a groan. Whether it was of frustration or need, I didn’t know. The two seemed to coalesce whenever my thoughts turned to her.
“I’ll figure it out.”
Regardless of what I did, I just needed to keep my head straight when it came to her. Especially if I was going to be around her when I didn’t have the badge between us. I’d never once been in her presence out of my uniform, and I’d have preferred to keep it that way.
Too bad I wasn’t going to get my wish.
CHAPTERSEVEN
LUNA
This week hadn’t gone exactlyas expected. Rain had been a blessing and a curse—it had kept any deforestation from happening, but it had also kept me from leading any yoga classes outside. And without any guests currently staying at the resort, I’d run through my sequences by myself in the parlor overlooking the ocean. It wasn’t as good as outside, but I was going to take advantage of the space, considering I couldn’t exactly practice in my van.
