“Why ‘Satan’ anyway?” I ask, still not having figured out why I earned that one.
Besides being an absolute asshole to her.
“Ask Tally,” she deflects with a shrug.
I miss that little minx hanging around the house all the time. She’s fun and nice, and at leastshehas a reason to hate me.
“So, is all of this for her?” I ask, gesturing around the bathroom at the pictures.
“It’s for her, Tim, and their baby shower in two weeks. I don’t have the money for anything else as a present.”
“That’s nice of you,” I mumble, and she furrows her brow at me. “Do you know if they might need some other stuff for the baby? I think we have a lot left from Lio, and I bet we could fix them up a bit.”
“That would be amazing. Most of their money goes into the renovation of the house, so there is a shortage of a little of everything.”
“True,” I mutter, making a mental note to give Tim a raise. He’s earned it. He’s one of our best captains and a good team player.
“You really can be decent.” Sloan looks at me critically as if just realizing it now, but her concession feels almost like a truce, an acknowledgment of some common ground.
“I thought we already established that.” I cock an eyebrow at her.
“Yeah, but I didn’t really believe it.”
As Sloan inspects her pictures once more, I lean against the sink, watching her. This encounter, this forced intimacy, makes me reflect on things I usually shove aside. There’s a weight to the silence that follows her last comment, a weight I feel in my chest.
I’m not used to this, to caring about what someone thinks of me. But here I am, caught in a web of my own making.
The timer dings, signaling the end of the wait, but the spell isn’t completely broken as her gaze finds mine. “You can go now,” she breathes out, but I hesitate, my whole body wanting to step closer and not leave.
I force it to listen and mutter, “Night,” before I turn and open the door.
THIRTY-NINE
A screw clattersfrom the tool table, echoing in the empty shipyard. Everybody is out on the boats except for Stephanie, the secretary, who is up somewhere in her office, and North, who’s walking past me and out of the shipyard with his phone to his ear.
“A week? Yeah, that sounds like a good sign, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up, Mom. You know it happened before, even if not that long,” North mutters into the phone before he closes the door behind him.
Even if I would love to know what that was about, I haven’t looked in his direction.
I have a new game calledAvoid the Jones Boys.
Yesterday, I left the house before anyone was up again and stayed at the restaurant, mopping the floors until I was sure they would all be asleep when I got back. Besides the little bathroom encounter with North two nights ago, I’ve managed not to be seen. It’s exhausting, and I can already feel it weighing on me. But tomorrow is Saturday, and I don’t have to work in the shipyard, so I can finally get my stuff back into the van. It’s going to suck balls, but it’s better than being on pins and needles and hiding all the time.
I have way too many feelings and no idea what to do with them. It’s terrifying. I need to keep my distance from Nash since he just wants one thing from me, and I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to refuse his charm repeatedly.
I need to stay away from Hunter because he makes me feel things that aren’t good for him nor me.
Saylor is still gone, maybe keeping his distance from me because he’s figured out I’m falling for him andallof his brothers.
Or he found the light.
That’s something I can’t consider. He can’t just be gone without so much of as a goodbye.
He just can’t.
And North…
“Are you working or daydreaming?” comes a deep voice from behind me.
