Page 26 of The Pilot

Spending time with Kash after school was awesome. He was energetic and funny. And so damn smart it was almost scary. He was also like a sponge, soaking up everything Linc taught him. Hanging on his every word. The afternoon they’d gone out into the crisp November air to look for different kinds of birds—and only seemed able to spot seagulls—was a fail, but Kash had turned the day around by explaining why the moon was sometimes visible in the daytime sky.

When Harper came home and found them sitting on the floor in front of the living room fireplace, wrapped in blankets and drinking hot chocolate, the smile on her face seemed to light up the very air around her.

And that was the problem.

Linc liked her. A lot. The adult Harper he was coming to know was empathetic, worked her ass off for pennies, and didn’t accept help easily . . . for just about anything. As if doing so would somehow make her seem weak.

But Linc didn’t see her that way at all. She couldn’t be weak and live through what she’d endured—and he had a feeling he didn’t know the half of it. Like him, she kept a lot of her past close to the vest. Didn’t share about her time in New York at all. He knew the basics, but nearly twenty years was a long time to live somewhere and not talk about it.

Kash, on the other hand, was very open about New York. About how he’d hated their tiny little apartments and rooms they’d rented. How scary it was to sleep in their car. How he’d stay awake all night to guard his mom while she slept. How he’d befriended a few homeless men and women and still worried about them to this day.

In short, there were depths to Harper that Linc hadn’t expected. And the more time she and her son spent under his roof, the more he was already wishing they’d never leave.

Doing his best to push away thoughts of rattling around his big house by himself when the pair found their own place, Linc’s focus returned to the here and now with the sound of Britt’s laughter.

She, Marit, Harper, and his mom were sitting out on the deck at Lobster Cove. It was chilly, too cold to be sitting outside, really, but they’d piled blankets on their laps and Chad had lit the portable heater he’d bought earlier in the fall, when it became obvious Mom and Britt’s favorite place to sit together was out on the deck.

They were watching Kash and Knox down on the beach, hunting for treasures. Linc wasn’t sure what they’d find, since Lobster Cove wasn’t known for sea glass or cool driftwood, and it was rare that there were any neat shells that washed ashore. But that wasn’t deterring the pair. They were still scouring the beach for anything of interest.

The women were chatting and drinking wine—well, his mom and Harper were—and seemed to be getting along as if all of them had known each other for years rather than a few months.

Britt had one hand on her belly, which had finally started to round with her and Chad’s child. And Marit seemed to glow. She was a tiny dynamo who’d proved herself resilient and tough as nails recently, when a lobsterman decided he was going to kidnap her and leave her to die on an uninhabited island. She’d turned the tables on him, and by the time Linc, Victor, and Zach had arrived, she’d subdued the asshole who’d dared try to kill her.

Now the Young family had two court dates they were waiting for, which sucked. Linc hated that for his brothers and mom. Things had settled down a little bit in the meantime, and he felt blessed to be spending the holidays with everyone.

“She fits in,” Chad said, coming up next to Linc. He took a long drink of the beer he was holding.

Linc didn’t have to ask who he was talking about. “Yeah,” he agreed.

“Things between you seem good.”

His brother was fishing, but Linc didn’t mind. “They are.”

“Not feeling talkative, huh?” Chad joked. Then he got serious. “I wasn’t sure about her, you know. I remember how miserable you were in high school. Harper and her friends really did a number on you.”

Linc pressed his lips together and nodded. As the brother closest to him in age, Chad remembered more about Harper from back then. Linc hadn’t talked much about how her and her friends had treated him when he was at home, but it was hard to hide how difficult they’d made his high school years.

“But she seems different,” Chad went on. “Vulnerable. On edge. As if she expects everyone to turn on her at any time.”

Linc nodded. His brother had summed up what he’d sensed perfectly. She seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the good things in her life to turn to shit.

“She’s had a rough go of it since returning. I had the room, so it wasn’t a big deal to offer a place for her and Kash to stay until she gets her feet under her again.”

“And Rogers? He’s okay with her staying with you?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care what he thinks, to be honest,” Linc said.

“And he’s still coming over today, right?”

“As far as I know, yeah. Kash and Harper love him, he’s just . . . difficult to live with.”

Chad barked out a laugh. “Ya think?”

Linc hid a small smile behind the bottle of beer he brought to his lips.

“Never thought I’d see the day Victor Rogers was sharing a Thanksgiving table with us,” Chad mused. “What’s the saying, ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer’?”

“Rogers isn’t our enemy,” Linc felt obligated to say. He didn’t particularly like the man, but listening to Kash chat about him in a positive light had him thinking about their neighbor in a different way.