Lured In (10 page)

But walking downwind of her wasn't helping, because,
damn,
she smelled good.

“Spare the rod, spoil the day.”

Finn's first group consisted of Les and Ken Dryden, the brothers from Tacoma, and the three women from Edmonton, who made it clear right from the start that they weren't even a little bit happy about being up so early and that they had no intention of doing anything other than relaxing. And they chose to do most of their relaxing up on the bow.

The good thing about that was it gave Les and Ken plenty of room on the stern to work their rods; the bad thing about it was that the women's idea of relaxing meant talking pretty much nonstop all day, and there wasn't a single topic that was off-limits.

They'd paid the same money as everyone to be out on the water, so if they wanted to talk about the “performance problems” Patsy's boyfriend had the night before she left, or the pros and cons of threading versus waxing (Finn didn't even want to know what that meant), that was their prerogative, but it sure made for some awkward moments for the men.

Finn had never had a situation like this on his boat before; people didn't pay
not
to fish at the Buoys, and they sure as hell never lounged across the bow of his boat in the hopes of catching rays instead of salmon.

During a particularly uncomfortable discussion, where Jacqui was detailing her night with some dude she picked up at a club a few weeks earlier, Ken and Les both chuckled quietly and offered Finn sympathetic looks.

“Nothing you can do about it,” Ken murmured. “If it was guys talking like that, we probably wouldn't even notice.”

He was right, but that didn't make it any less awkward. Halfway through their day, Finn even offered to run the women back to the lodge, but they declined, saying they were quite happy where they were.

It was the first time Finn could ever remember counting the minutes until he could turn the boat around and head in. It was also the first time he ever asked Jess to rejuggle the groups.

And as she did with everything else around the Buoys, Jess had everyone sorted out lickety-split, with minimal inconvenience to any of them. The next morning, Finn's boat left right on time, loaded down with his scheduled six passengers, plus the added Ken and Les, while Kate got to sleep in because her three passengers were only too happy to wait for the sun to get a little higher before they headed out.

The weather held, the fish were biting, and spirits were high, making it infinitely easier for Finn to make damn good and sure everyone on
Fishin' Impossible
had a great day.

He made sure he enjoyed it, too, because he knew his turn with the three Green-cabin women was coming again, and going by Kate's expression when she met Finn later in the restaurant, it wasn't something he was looking forward to one little bit.

“Good luck tomorrow,” she muttered. “And you better not make plans to be anywhere at a specific time. You'll be lucky to pull away from the dock before noon.”

Sure enough, it was well after ten the next morning and Finn was still pacing the length of the lobby, waiting for the three women.

“The day's wasting away,” he muttered. “Where the hell are they?”

“Relax,” Jess said, laughing lightly as she pointed out the front window. “They're coming up now.”

“ 'Bout damn time.” He pulled the door open, then twisted to look over his shoulder. “You better have a pint ready for me when I get back.”

“I always do.”

And just like that, his foul mood melted, because she was right; somehow she always seemed to know when to have a pint ready for him.

His mood was so much better that he actually waited until the three women made it up to the lodge so he could wish them a good morning before heading down to his boat.

“Grab some breakfast and meet me down on the dock,” he said, even managing a smile. “We'll leave in fifteen. See ya, Jess.”

The door swung shut slowly behind him but not before he heard one of them whistle quietly, followed by Jacqui's clear, unapologetic voice.

“Does he have a girlfriend?”

Finn didn't hang around to hear anything else, just headed down to his boat and waited. And waited.

Well over an hour later, he finally steered
Fishin' Impossible
through Fitzhugh Sound and out toward the open water that had always been his refuge, the place he always felt free.

At least that's how it used to be, right up until he found himself saddled with three early-twenty-somethings who weren't happy to lounge up on the bow this time but chose to crowd around the helm while he piloted them around Calvert Island.

“So Jessie says you're single, is that right?”

Patsy shimmied over in her seat to let Jacqui squeeze in beside her, while Charlotte stood between their seat and Finn's, holding on to the backs.

“Uh, yeah,” Finn said, a little warily. “That would be right.”

“Jacqui's single, too.”

“Patsy!” Charlotte croaked.

“What? I'm just saying; in case he was wondering—”

“I wasn't.” Finn tried to keep his voice gentle but firm. “But thank you.”

“Are you gay?”

The rest of his day probably would have been a hell of a lot easier if he'd said yes. Instead, he spent far too much of the afternoon politely deflecting Patsy's attempts to get him and Jacqui together.

Yes, he was sure Jacqui was a great girl, yes, she was pretty (in truth, she was supermodel gorgeous), but, no, he still wasn't going to hook up with her.

“Company policy,” he lied.

“Enough already, Pats,” Charlotte said with a click of her tongue. “You sound like her pimp, and you're making all of us look like idiots.”

Finally—someone with an ounce of sense.

For her part, Jacqui just laughed every time Patsy lobbed another question at him. Finn tried to steer the conversation elsewhere, but the three of them weren't the least bit interested in the history of the area, the cruise ships heading past them on their way to Alaska, or the pods of whales they passed. Apparently they'd already seen whales and dolphins the day before with Kate and they were of the “seen one whale you've seen them all” school of thinking.

They weren't even the least bit impressed that Sam Ross was going to be filming his show at the Buoys, because they didn't know who Sam Ross was.

The only thing that helped Finn stay sane was that at the top of every hour, Jess would radio in to check on them. He doubted that Jacqui and the others could tell, but there was no question Jess was trying not to laugh at him every time she radioed in; he didn't care, though, because the sound of her voice for those few moments got him through the next hour until she radioed again.

“So tell me, Patsy,” he said. “Why come all the way up to a fishing lodge if none of you want to fish?”

“Easy. We had to get Charlotte somewhere her dingledorf of a fiancé couldn't reach her by cellphone, and your place was the farthest we could afford.”

A quick glance over his shoulder showed Charlotte looking about as miserable as a girl could.

“Hey,” he said. “Anytime you want to call him, Jess has a landline in the office. Help yourself.”

And just like that, her frown melted.

Finn stopped the boat at least a dozen times, hoping they'd want to throw out a line somewhere, but they never did. All they wanted to do was ride around in the boat and talk—but at least they'd stopped talking about him getting together with Jacqui. And he was so thankful for that, he didn't even care that they went into great detail about how awful Patsy's last period had been.

Exhausted, his head pounding, Finn almost cheered when the dock finally came into sight again. But just when he thought he'd be free of them, they putzed around for almost another fifteen minutes, laughing and collecting their stuff after he'd secured
Fishin' Impossible
to its spot.

“Too bad,” Patsy sighed, as he finally helped her off the boat. “I bet you and Jacqui would be great together.”

Finn hoped he wasn't expected to respond to that, because he didn't. Jacqui, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious.

“She says that to every guy she tries to hook me up with.”

Still stuck for a response, all he could manage was a tip of his head and a tight forced smile.

“Great day, Finn, thanks!” Charlotte waved back at him as she hurried after her friends, leaving him to wonder if she was actually serious or if she was messing with him.

He'd rather have an ice pick shoved through his ear than spend another day like that. The only good thing about it was that Jess not only kept her promise to have a pint waiting for him, she brought it down to him while he cleaned up his boat.

“They leave tomorrow,” she said.

If anyone else had laughed at him like that, he probably would've clocked them, but for reasons he refused to let himself think about, hearing her soft breathy laugh loosened some of the knots in his neck and eased a little of the pounding in his head.

He knew Jess wouldn't join him on the boat, so he hopped out and they sat side by side on the dock, she cross-legged, he with his feet dangling over the side.

After a long pull on his beer, he set the glass down, then lay back on the deck and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes.

“God, I must be getting old.”

“Easy there,” Jess warned. “We're the same age.”

“I sure don't remember girls being like that when I was that age.”

“Like what? Confident? Bold?”

“I was going to say brazen and scary.” He bent his knees up, then pulled himself to a sit again. “Nothing's off-limits anymore, is it? It's like…I don't know…it's like they don't have a filter; they just blurt out whatever's on their mind, whether it's appropriate or not.”

“Appropriate?” Jess snorted. “Now,
that
makes you sound old.”

Finn shook his head slowly as he blew out a low breath. “Maybe, but I learned more about Patsy's period today than the three of them combined learned about baiting a hook.”

He was serious, but the sound of Jess's laugh again had him laughing, too.

“Sounds like you've had a day of it,” she snickered. “Why don't you take the night off after dinner and we'll—”

“No!” He didn't mean to bark like that, but it didn't matter what his day had been like—he wasn't giving up those few minutes alone with Jess in the lake for anything.

“You sure?” A tiny frown puckered her forehead as she stared back at him, no doubt looking for the slightest hint of hesitation from him.

“Absolutely,” he said. “So don't even think about standing me up.”

It took a few seconds, but her frown slowly smoothed out.

“Okay,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “I'll see you there.”

She pushed to her feet and headed up toward the lodge, leaving Finn sitting there staring after her, watching the way her hips swayed ever so slightly and the way her hair blew out behind her in the wind.

He didn't even realize he was smiling until she looked over her shoulder and smiled back at him.

This would be their fifth time in the lake, and even though she knew she was making progress, Jessie was already getting impatient with herself. She'd managed to get in waist-deep, but all she'd done so far was walk around in the water, clutching Finn's hands for dear life.

Surely Finn didn't want to spend any more time out there than absolutely necessary, so she needed to push herself to do more, to go deeper, and tonight was the night.

She moved with purpose all the way up the trail, and even though she was sure she was about to have a heart attack, she grabbed Finn's hand and marched straight into the water until she was waist-deep again.

Without a word, she took a huge breath, closed her eyes, plugged her nose, and dropped. Finn's hand instantly tightened around hers as the water pulled her down, pushed her sideways, and he held on, just like Tracy had that day.

Panic clawed at her, and her lungs burned, but she fought it, found her balance, and shoved herself straight up, breaking through the surface, gasping for breath.

Finn was right there, and before she could even reach her free hand out to him, his arms were around her, holding her tight, safe and strong.

“Holy shit.” His half-choked breath, warm against her neck, sent shivers racing down her spine, which made him tighten his hold even more. “Are you okay?”

Unable to speak yet, she fisted her hands into the back of his T-shirt and nodded shakily against his shoulder.

“Are you sure? Do you want to get out?”

God, yes, she wanted to get out, but she forced herself to shake her head.

“I—I need to d-do that a-again.”

And before she could talk herself out of it, she did it again. And again. And then again. When she came up for air the fourth time, Finn didn't give her a chance to go under again; he just scooped her up and walked her straight out of the water, something she would have kissed him for, right then and there, if her teeth weren't rattling and her lips weren't trembling so hard.

Once he had her towel wound around her, he lifted her sweater off the rocks, then led her over to a fallen log and sat down. At first she thought he was going to pull her down beside him, but instead he tugged her onto his lap, set the huge sweater over her, then wrapped his arms around her good and tight.

It should have been awkward sitting there like that, because as close as she and Finn were, they'd never been close like this. This was almost…intimate, but Jessie didn't care.

She felt safe and protected from the nightmares that plagued her, and when was the last time she'd felt anything close to that?

Shifting slightly, she pulled her feet up so they rested on Finn's thigh, then tugged the sweater around her legs and finally let herself expel the rest of the breath she'd been holding.