Last Chance Harbor (37 page)

“Like how?” Zach asked.

“The Chumash had what was known as The Brotherhood of the Tomol. Ryder mentioned that you thought of yourselves like three blood brothers. Maybe you could use some form of that.”

About that time Mona ambled over with a new look, sporting short, spiky, bluish hair. “Hey, Troy, how’s it going?”

“I’m good. How about you? Last I heard you were headed back to Texas.”

“Maybe this summer. What can I get you guys? It’s Tuesday so you already know the special is Max’s chicken-fried steak.”

Zach decided on that and Troy went along with it.

“Make it three,” Ryder stated. “But make mine with fries instead of mashed potatoes.”

Julianne and Bree decided to split a basket of chicken tenders. When Mona left to put in their order, Bree turned to Troy. “At least you can still be friends with her.”

“I wouldn’t call it friends exactly,” Troy returned. “She still isn’t comfortable around me. How can someone who claims to know me think I had anything at all to do with what happen to Gina Purvis?”

There was an awkward silence until Bree intervened. “Sorry. Bad vibes and bad memories. But it’s hard to avoid this place when it’s the only eatery around.”

“It’s okay,” Troy said.

“If Nick gives me the loan after graduation to ferry people back and forth to the island and to the shipwreck, maybe I’ll be your first customer. You can build me a boat.”

“It takes about three months to build one,” Troy told her with a kiss on the lips. “Starting out, the dinghy will work. But for the trip farther out to the shipwreck, you’ll need one of those sixteen-footers to ferry them there. You’ll need certifications to dive. I checked.”

“You’re graduating?” Julianne asked looking over at Bree. “When? That’s a big deal.”

“It’s just community college,” Bree said with a shrug.

“I don’t care. It’s still a big deal. You need a graduation party.”

Bree’s eyes grew wide. “Really? That would be fantastic. But you know I’ll still be pushing drinks at McCready’s until I decide what to do. It isn’t even a sure-thing about the loan. I haven’t even approached Nick yet.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m still throwing you a party.”

“Where?”

“Depends on how many people you invite. I’ll figure something out,” Julianne promised, wondering how many people her little house would hold. “In the meantime make a list of who you’d like to see there. When’s commencement? You’ll need a cheering section.”

“That’s a great idea,” Troy agreed. “We’ll all show up and when they call your name, we’ll whoop and holler like they did tonight at the meeting.”

“You’ll embarrass me.”

“That’s the point. We’ll do our best,” Zach teased.

“What with Zach’s friend, Hettinger, and Nick’s getting the word out for us, we might actually have a few customers right up front,” Ryder reasoned. “When not building and designing, we’ll focus on refurbishing older boats, putting in new hulls and decks to help our cash flow.”

“Maybe pick up emergency work from the fishermen in the area,” Troy added. “Keegan and Cord have that research vessel they take out all the time. It could use an upgrade.”

“Good call. As long as they don’t come to us needing engine repair and understand we’re strictly doing metalwork and carpentry,” Zach reminded.

“Exactly. Now if we could only settle on a name.”

“I like the brothers’ angle.” Bree threw in.

“Yeah, but we’re not really brothers or Chumash,” Ryder concluded. “Besides, Blood Brothers Boatyard is kind of a mouthful.”

“Simple then. What about Tradewinds Boatyard,” Julianne concluded.

Ryder’s eyes went wide. “Not bad. I like it. Guys?”

Zach nodded. “It’s a keeper. How about you, Troy?”

“Tradewinds Boatyard it is.”

About that time a young woman walked through the door, a beautiful exotic creature that all but had Zach coming up out of his seat.

“Who is that?”

Troy elbowed Bree in the ribs, nodded his head in the direction where the woman had taken a seat at the counter, waiting to pick up her to-go order. “
That
is Logan’s new tenant. He calls her Izzy. She helps out Kinsey with the babies sometimes.”

“Izzy,” Zach repeated as if in a trance. “You mean like a nanny?”

“Never said she was the nanny. Since Kinsey doesn’t have any family, she needed help with the twins. All I know is that Isabella showed up here about the same time the Doc put Kinsey on bed rest. She’s from Italy, I think.”

“Then she won’t stay. A woman like that won’t stay around here for long.”

Bree slapped at her brother’s arm. “What a thing to say! How would you know? What exactly does that mean for the rest of us? What are we? Excess waste hanging around waiting for a better place to go?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t,” Bree snapped back. “This town isn’t the dump you make it out to be. And you’re getting ready to start a business here with these guys? Invest in a future? Sometimes I wonder about you, Zach.”

Troy snickered out a laugh. “So much for hooking Zach up with the florist, I don’t think he’s interested in Drea.” He snapped his fingers in front of Zach’s face. “Hey, you want to meet Izzy?”

“You could arrange that?”

“Maybe. But what will you do for me?”

Like brothers, the two men quibbled about it first, railed on each other next, then got down to striking the deal. Troy would set up a meeting with the enchanting Izzy and Zach would forever let him pick the music when they worked next to each other.

After they finished the meal, Zach, Troy and Bree took their squabble and went their separate ways.

On the walk back to Julianne’s minibus she’d left parked at the church, Ryder tugged her along on the sidewalk as if in a hurry to get somewhere.

Once they reached the van, he pushed her up against it, fused his mouth to hers, kissing her breathless. “You’re here in town already. Come home with me. Or I’ll go home with you. I don’t care which. Either way I want to spend the night with you.”

“Same here,” she whooshed out. “But your place is a lot closer.”

M
arch kept its lion tendencies intact as it roared into April. The same kind of intense storms hung around to wreak havoc on Julianne’s plans to take her class to Taggert Farms. Twice she’d been forced to cancel the field trip. She refused to set out in bad weather with her charges after what had happened in the orchard. That’s why she didn’t mind bumping it to later. The previous month, she’d sent out permission slips to parents. She’d even talked a few of them into volunteering to come along. Turns out, the kids were excited about tromping around a real farm while the adults could meander through the fruit stand.

So when the elements finally gave way to spring like conditions, Julianne lined up the driver again, did the scheduling and prepared for an adventure with thirty kids in tow. 

With skies that looked as though an artist had dabbed his brush into cobalt blue and put it to canvas, they started the long drive into the countryside. 

From the minute her rambunctious, inquisitive class piled off the yellow school bus en masse, she had a difficult time maintaining order and getting them to stay in line. Spending ninety long minutes cooped up inside a vehicle, the kids itched to bust out and go every which way at once.

While it certainly wasn’t the first field trip she’d taken with students, it was the first time she had so much ground to cover. In addition to the cows, there were newborn calves to hold, seeds to put in the soil, sol
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to learn about, along with water conservation. For many, it was the first opportunity to see where food started out, how it was packaged and how it ended up at their local market.

She wished Ryder wasn’t stuck at the job site. But she had to give it to Silas. The man knew the ins and outs of the farm, knew how to capture the imagination of children and keep their attention for more than five minutes.

While touring through the vegetable patch—grown specifically for “you-pick your own”—Julianne’s curious troop handpicked their own berries, tugged carrots up out of the dirt, and plucked cherry tomatoes off the vine. She could see there was a joy on their little faces in the simple harvesting, the filling up their own baskets with what they’d chosen themselves to take home.

The group peppered her with questions. On any given day she’d come to expect queries out of the mouths of babes that could range from the silly to the profound.

“Can we grow stuff when we get back to school?”

“What about growing Twizzlers? They’re vines.”

“Um, um, can I take a chicken home with me?”

Ryder found her there surrounded by a slew of kids who all seemed to want to talk at once. They vied for her attention like tiny adoring fans. He wondered how she kept her sanity in such chaos. It was a testament to her patience and temperament.

“How’s it going?” he asked when she finally noticed him watching her.

“Ryder. It’s almost time to get these minions rounded up and back on the bus.”

“I know but I wanted to see the teacher, tell her what I’d like to do to her…later.”

She sent him a wide smile, made sure the kids weren’t within earshot. “Coming to Santa Cruz?”

“After I get done with my work, count on it.”

She ordered the
stainless steel appliances for the kitchen and laundry room the same day she fitted the new mantel over the fireplace and put down polyurethane coating on the hardwood floors.

The days were speeding toward the end of school and her self-imposed deadline. It seemed she couldn’t work fast enough to get it all done. Sometimes, like today, it scared her that she still had so much to do. But then she’d look over at Ryder and the look he gave her seemed to embolden her to believe she could do it.

Every spare minute Ryder helped her complete some chore that needed doing she hadn’t considered. He’d installed new windows in each bedroom, the bathroom and kitchen. He’d even designed a new railing for the upstairs landing.

While they spread a second coat of Seashore Teal on the living room walls, they discussed the last time either one of them had seen Scott.

She didn’t bring up the magazine incident because she was pretty sure that Scott’s absence meant only one thing. He was angry with her. “Last time for me was during the street fair. I’d walked down to the bookstore, was headed back to the car when I saw him moving toward the lighthouse. I remember thinking that I hope he doesn’t scare Logan’s new renter. Although I do wonder why he’s been avoiding me, I realize he only sticks to Pelican Pointe, never shows up in Santa Cruz. And since I spend most of my time there... What about you?”

“A couple of nights ago I heard him walking around the farmhouse, creeping around in the middle of the night like the restless soul he is. Strange that he hasn’t been back in the house in weeks though.”