Nobody But You(33)

She swiped at her eyes. “Gone.”

“No more yelling at me?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” she said demurely. “You’re bound to piss me off again.”

“No more punching me,” he said firmly.

“Oh, like you felt a thing.” But she shrugged. “Fine, no more tears and no more punching you. And you—” She stared up at him, smile gone. “No more leaving without saying good-bye, without a plan to come back. Without a plan to keep me and the rest of us in your damn life. You hear me?”

“The people in China can hear you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Tell me about the cabin you’ve leased.” She smiled when he went brows up. “People talk. I drove by last night actually, but you weren’t home. I saw you have a boat in your slip. You didn’t have to buy one. We still have ours. It’s moored at South Lake Campgrounds right now, but we’ll be moving it to the north shore for several upcoming lake events we’re running.”

“It’s not my boat,” he said. “It belongs to Sophie Marren. I’m just letting her moor there while she figures out where she can live on the lake without paying fees.”

“Wait—really? Sophie Marren’s living on her ex-husband’s boat?” She grinned. “Serves that * right.”

“You know him?”

“Yeah, and soon enough, so will you. Lucas Worthington’s our new attorney for the resort. We needed a high-profile, bottom-feeding, soul-sucking lawyer to help us outthink Dad and the mess he left the resort in.”

“Mess?”

She sighed. “You’ll see soon enough.”

Right. One problem at a time. “Sophie was married to Lucas Worthington?” Jacob had gone to high school with the guy. He’d been class president, taken the debate team to three state championships in a row, had enough charisma to light up everything on this side of the Continental Divide. He’d used that charisma to his benefit, sleeping with more girls than all four of the Kincaid brothers combined.

And that was saying something.

“Yeah, and he raked her over the coals too,” Kenna said. “How’s she doing? I thought maybe she’d left town.”

Jacob thought about how Sophie had looked striding up to that cab to get to work earlier. Strong. Beautiful. Determined. Gutsy. “She’s not cowed by this, and she isn’t going anywhere.”

Kenna stared at him.

“What?” he asked.

“So you and her…?”

“No.”

She arched a brow but wisely didn’t say anything more. In fact, she made him love her all over again when she changed the subject. “The meeting’s at two. I’m keeping you in my sights until then.”

“I’ve got a thing for lunch,” he said.

“No problem,” she said. “I’ll come with.”

He grimaced, knowing he’d never be able to shake her. Which was how he ended up standing in line with her for tacos at Paco’s taco truck.

And there was a line. There was always a long line because the food was so great, but today it seemed even longer than usual. When they finally got up front to order, Sophie stuck her head out of the server window with a polite smile and froze.

She was wearing a GOT TACO? apron, and Jacob wanted to offer to eat her taco all day long—

“Hi,” Kenna said brightly to Sophie. “Are you the one responsible for the goofy-ass look on my brother’s face today?” She hitched a thumb over her shoulder at Jacob, as if there were any question of who she was talking about. “Because if so, I totally could kiss you.”

Sophie opened her mouth, but Jacob shoved his sister behind him. “Ignore her,” he said. “You look good up there.”

Sophie blushed and glanced around her to see if anyone was watching.

Everyone was watching.

Jacob leaned in close. “You’re all flushed.”

“I get like that when I’m cooking. Or irritated,” she said meaningfully.

He smiled. “That isn’t the only time you flush.”

She went a little redder. “Are you ordering something?”

Kenna pushed in front of Jacob. “I need three chicken tacos, an iced tea, and the scoop. How did you two meet?”

Jacob managed to get in front, placed his order, tipped Sophie for double the price of the food, and yanked Kenna away.

“Fun sucker,” she said.



The “board meeting” was a family gathering in a large room at the head offices of the resort. Each of the Kincaids were there, and when Kenna walked in with Jacob, both Gray and Aidan grinned like he’d just made their day.

Hud glanced up from his iPad to see what was going on. He met Jacob’s eyes briefly, nodded once, then went back to the iPad.

Jacob sat, and the meeting began.

An hour later, he excused himself and made his way out of the office, stunned. Pissed. Predictably, there’d been a lot of yelling inside the boardroom—they were, after all, the Kincaids—but there’d been a lot of solid decisions made and fires put out. None of which was what had him in shock.

No, that went to the knowledge that the resort, left to them by Richard Kincaid before he’d vanished years ago, had been mortgaged through the roof five years ago, leaving a huge balloon payment due at the end of the year.