I guess it’s true what they say—when it rains, it pours, and right now I’m standing in the middle of a category five hurricane with no shelter in sight.
Lucky me...
CHAPTER FOUR
Penn
“Hey, you got a second?” Alec jogs to catch up with me as I make my way toward the office, which is really just a small little building about thirty steps from the dock. One room. One bathroom. It’s really all we need, given that the majority of our business happens on the water.
“Make it quick. The temp bookkeeper is coming in this morning, and I need to get her situated before Cherry Twist and The Raven get in.” I refer to two of our ships that are due in after three days at sea.
“Patty found you someone?”
“She did. Said she’s pretty green but seems competent enough. That’s about the gist of what I got out of her.”
“You didn’t want to meet her first?”
“She’ll be here for ten weeks max. If Patty says she’s adequate, that’s good enough for me.”
“I think sometimes you forget whose mother that is.”
“Well aware.”
“And is Patty well aware that you’re using her daughter and you’ll drop her the second you get bored?”
“Did you actually need something, or did you just follow me up here to annoy me?”
“Both.” He laughs. “Actually, I wanted to remind you about Thursday dinner this week. Walker is coming, which means you’re coming. If he can pull himself away from his studies and all his extracurriculars...” He gives me a knowing look. “Then surely you can manage to show up as well.”
“Alec.” The name rumbles deep in my chest.
“Penn, it’s Mom. I know you don’t like being in that house after... Well, after what happened.” How casually he refers to me finding my father dead in the foyer. “She just wants us all to have dinner together. Surely, you can manage that.”
I blow out a hard breath, not having the time or patience to deal with this at the moment.
“I’ll think about it,” I promise, rounding the corner to where our office sits, my focus on the cell phone in my hand.
“Heard that bef—” His words die on his tongue, and it takes me longer than it should to realize he’s no longer next to me. I slow to a stop, turning back to see a shocked and yet equally amused look on his face.
“What?” I look at him like he’s grown a second head.
“Is that your new bookkeeper by chance?”
I glance over my shoulder and in an instant, the world seems to tilt, almost as if the ground is eager to come up and meet me. I have to resist the urge to reach for my brother in order to steady myself as I take in the sight of the one person I’d recognize even from a million miles away.
She’s still as beautiful as she ever was. Even from a distance, that much is apparent. Her brown waves fall across her shoulders, longer than they were the last time I saw her. Her petite frame tucked into the corner of the bench she’s sitting on just outside of our building, hands clasped in her lap, looking in the direction of me and my brother, though she’s too far away to know for sure if she’s actually looking at us, or just staring off into the distance.
“Is that...” He doesn’t finish the question.
“London Voss,” I confirm, putting my back to her as I fully face my brother.
“No way Patty hired her, right? She must be here for another reason.”
I can tell he’s as shocked as I am to see her here, though where I feel panic, he seems to find only humor.
“Sadly, I don’t think so. Explains why she was so cryptic on the phone,” I finally say.
“Well, hell.” He shakes his head with a grin.
