Page 73 of The Pilot

“If I were you, I’d do it just like you did with us. Casually slip it into conversation. Maybe when you’re all at the hospital, waiting for me to give birth. Around his brothers. They’ll be too busy worrying about the baby to care. And Evelyn will give you shit later, but in the moment, she’ll be all about the baby.”

“And you. They’ll all be worried about you,” Harper added.

Britt shrugged. “Yeah, but we all know the baby will be the focus. As it should be.”

Harper was sure that Chad would disagree. As would all the Young brothers. They were all peas in a pod. Putting their women’s health and safety first. She’d seen it with their mom, and how they all treated Britt, Marit, and even her. Even Knox, the confirmed bachelor, was always asking about the women and how they were doing. If Britt thought for one second the only person anyone would care about when she gave birth was the baby, she was very wrong.

“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll mention it to Zach. Again, it’s his secret to tell. I’m not getting between a mama and her son’s wedding ceremony.”

“I’m home!”

All three women turned to look back inside the house. They could hear Evelyn through the closed sliding glass door. She had a grin on her face as she held up two bags with an easily recognizable logo . . . Ruckus Donuts.

“She’s determined to make me even bigger than I already am,” Britt mock complained, already struggling to stand with her pregnant belly. “I freaking love those donuts. I don’t know what’s in them, but they’re addictive as hell.”

“Sugar,” Harper said with a laugh. “That’s what’s in them.”

“I love sugar,” Britt sighed.

“You sound like Buddy the Elf, from that movie,” Marit joked.

The three of them moved toward the door, happy to head inside and see how Evelyn’s trip to town had gone.

After visiting with his mom for a bit, Harper wondered where Linc was, how much longer he’d be. Not that she didn’t enjoy spending time at Lobster Cove, but she was ready to go. She and Linc were going to make a cold pasta salad together for dinner. There were tons of veggies and cheese to chop up, and she wanted it to be ready before they had to go pick up Kash from school.

He’d been staying late every day this week with the robotics club, getting ready for the competition this weekend. He was nervous and excited at the same time. Every night, he babbled nonstop about the strengths and weaknesses of their robot and how he thought they’d do in the competition. The boys, and one girl, had been studying the other schools’ past robots and tweaking their design and specifications, trying to figure out what would be most effective.

Hopefully Linc would finish up whatever he was doing so they could head home soon.

Home. She loved the sound of that. But then again, she’d learned the hard way that home wasn’t always four walls and a roof. It was wherever your loved ones were.

When she’d lived in her minivan with Kash, that had been home. Now, home was wherever Linc was, and that thought gave her goose bumps as she thought about spending the rest of her life with the man. He was quickly becoming her everything, and she was very lucky he forgave her for being such a horrible person all those years ago.

Linc wasn’t nervous about what he was going to do. He was more determined.

He needed to talk to Victor Rogers. Explain to him that he was going to marry his daughter—and there was nothing the man could say or do about it.

He expected him to be unhappy. Not that Victor was ever happy about anything . . . but really unhappy about this. About his only daughter marrying one of the Young brothers.

He’d seemed to mellow out over the last few months, but Linc wasn’t going to chance him being a dick to either his daughter or his grandson about this. He could hate Linc all he wanted, but if he dared say one bad thing about him and Harper being together to either Kash or his daughter, he’d regret it.

So Linc figured he’d cut the man off at the pass. Make his point loud and clear. That he needed to be all right with them being together, or risk losing two of the best things that had ever happened to him.

He hadn’t told Harper what he was planning to do, because he didn’t want her to needlessly worry. It would be all right, because he’d make it so. He still didn’t particularly like Victor, but the man was Harper’s father. And she loved him, even when he was being an ass.

He had a secret weapon in his hands as well. Something he’d picked up specifically for this moment. To hopefully win over the grumpy asshole neighbor. Or at least make him less likely to explode and kick Linc out of his house.

The one thing he couldn’t plan was whether or not Victor would actually be home. He didn’t know the man’s schedule. It seemed he spent almost every day hunkered down inside his house, but it was possible he could be out shopping or something.

After leaving Harper with Britt and Marit, Linc took the shortcut through the path in the trees that separated Lobster Cove from Victor’s property. He was relieved to see Victor’s old Subaru Outback parked under the lean-to next to the main house.

He knocked loudly on the front door, stepping back to wait for Victor to appear.

When he did, he was frowning and looking irritated at being disturbed. Not a great start to the visit.

“What do you want?” Victor asked with a scowl.

“Got a moment to talk?” he asked.