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“Hell, I don’t know. I know I don’t want to be a lawyer. I don’t want to be a suit. The idea of corporate anything kills my soul. And anything else is going to cause a family war. I need to know that Willa’s okay before I think about rocking the boat that much.”
Beside me, Sawyer tensed. “That sounds like she’s not okay. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that she is now eighteen and determined to get out from under our parents’ thumbs. She’s always resented that they took her off-island after…” Jace waved a hand, encompassing the whole messy situation.
The same night Gwen Busby had disappeared from a beach party, Willa had nearly drowned while trying to save a dog on the ocean side of the island. She’d gotten caught in a riptide. Sawyer had been the one to save her. The one to keep up the rescue breathing until paramedics could arrive. I didn’t know any of the other details about what had happened after, only that her parents had moved off Hatterwick, and taken Willa with them against her protests. Jace and Willa’s grandparents were still here, but none of the rest of the family had been back to visit besides Jace.
“So, what are her plans?” Gabi’s voice was cautiously hopeful. She and Willa had been friends, but I knew that they’d fallen apart over the last couple of years. Privately, I thought that was more because of Willa’s parents than Willa herself, for all the same reasons they hated Jace being friends with Rios.
“She’s moving back to the island. Supposed to get here at the end of the week. She’ll be looking for a job, so if anybody knows of anything, please let me know.”
I perked up at that. “Well, it may not pay enough, but we just lost a server at the tavern and haven’t replaced her yet. I feel certain I can talk Ed into taking her on.”
“Oh, thanks. That would be awesome. I’ll pass that along.”
“Obviously, her first priority will be a job and a place to live,” Rios said. “Think she’ll stay with your grandparents?”
Jace shook his head. “No, she’s very insistent that she be on her own. She doesn’t want help from any of them.” He lowered his voice. “Not that it’s likely our parents would help her stay on-island anyway, given how they feel about the place.”
I wondered what the Sutters would do or say with the return of their granddaughter. Except Ford and his moms, none of the rest of us had great family situations. There was a lot of strain and tension in the Hollingsworth household. I didn’t know if their grandparents would welcome Willa or not.
Gabi cocked her head, considering. “Why is Willa so determined to do everything on her own?”
Jace’s jaw went hard. “Let’s just say that our parents aren’t great people. And the things they’ve put her through the last couple of years…” He shook his head again. “Being away at school, I didn’t realize how bad it was. And I don’t think she’s told me everything. It’s good she’s getting out on her own.”
We all exchanged worried looks. Somehow, the lack of details made everything he didn’t describe that much worse.
After a long minute, Gabi asked, “Is she going off to college in the fall?”
“Right now, she’s taking some time. She wants to come home and see what she can manage. I’ll help however I can.” Jace’s tone made it clear he didn’t think it would be enough to make up for whatever she’d been through while he was off at school.
All of this was just proof that it didn’t matter what social class you came from, you could always have shitty family. It was why we fought so hard to hang on to the one we’d made.
I laid a hand on his arm. “You know we’ll all look out for her, too, the way y’all have always looked out for me and Gabi.”
“Appreciate that. She can definitely use some people she can trust.”
Don’t we all.
I thought again of Hoyt. Obviously, I trusted him on some level. He’d proved himself to be an honorable man. But did I trust he could handle whatever might come of us being legitimately involved? Did I trust him enough to take a risk with my heart? Because there was no question that if I made that choice, I’d catch feelings. That high school crush had only been the beginning, and he was so much more now than he’d been back then.
There was only one way to find out.
11
Hoyt
I left the firehouse well after the end of my shift, having stuck around to assist with some training exercises with the volunteer firefighters who helped round out our small department. It had been a long few days. In my off-time between my last two shifts, I’d been pulled in to help my family diagnose and repair an engine problem on the cabin cruiser Drew had purchased with long-term plans to book fishing trips for tourists, so I’d barely spent any time at my own place before heading back to work, where we were slammed with several medical calls and a string of trash can fires at the same end of the island as the beach house that had burned. We’d been able to get out there and put out the flames before they’d jumped to the houses themselves, save for one, and that one had been caught by the renter on premises and put out with a garden hose. In all three cases, the origin had been a smoldering cigarette butt. If there’d been only one, we might have chalked it up to carelessness. But three set not more than an hour apart, at houses within the same mile stretch as the original arson? That was something else. Were they connected? I didn’t know. If there’d been progress on the beach house fire investigation, Chief wasn’t sharing. It was just as possible we were still in that holding pattern.
During all those days, I hadn’t communicated with Caroline beyond a quick text to make sure she’d gotten everything she needed. Her answer had been one word—Yep—and nothing more. She hadn’t been at the house during my brief stay at home. Working, probably. But the whole thing made me feel like our disagreement over who was paying for supplies had been a real fight that was fucking up a real relationship, and I wanted to fix it.
That would require finding her first. She hadn’t mentioned when she was moving in. I wasn’t sure if she intended to paint beforehand or was more eager to get out of her father’s house. If I were a betting man, I’d have wagered on the latter, but I suspected that her getting her own place and taking her siblings with her was going to involve a more careful extraction than it would for normal people. Given her insistence on driving herself to our dinner, I sensed that my showing up at their house looking for her wouldn’t go over well if her dad was around. I didn’t want to cause her any more trouble than she already had, so I’d be patient. Meanwhile, I’d figure out what I could do to make up for the fact that I’d probably wounded her pride over the renovation supplies.
All intentions for planning flew out the window when I got home and spotted Caroline’s car peeking out from behind some of the overgrown beach grass. Faint strains of music reached me from her side of the house as I stepped out of my truck. She was here.
My exhaustion fell away as I climbed the steps and made my way around to her door. I just… needed to see her. The closer I got, the better I could make out the music—something old school. Was that Dean Martin? My mom loved him. The windows were cracked, and I heard the faint sound of her singing along to “Mambo Italiano” in a rich alto. The sound of it made me grin. I liked the idea that she had music while she was working. At least, I assumed she was working, either on the house or on unpacking, since she was here instead of on shift at the tavern. It sounded like she was having fun.
Without giving myself time to overthink it, I knocked.
