AllFreeNovel
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“I’m going to do that while the ladies are still at the beach. Where are you headed?”
“Out for a bit.”
“Will you be back for dinner?”
“Nah, probably not. I’m gonna hang out down by the pier.”
Emmett chuckled. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
That list was small. Emmett and Leona had been together since high school, and as far as Kiel knew, his father never ever looked at another woman besides his mother.
Once he was away from the house, Kiel ordered a ride share. Thankfully, traffic was light and the car picked him up and dropped him off in under twenty minutes.
Kiel showed the car rental clerk his driver’s license and credit card. In exchange, the clerk gave Kiel the keys to a Jeep Wrangler, with all the beach stickers for parking. He walked outside with the fob in his hand and smiled at the metallic blue Wrangler without doors or windows. This would be perfect for whatever Eloise wanted to show him.
nine
“Yo! Harris, come hang with us.”
Eloise looked up from the pamphlet her aunt had given her to find Crew Carter striding toward her. Behind him, his posse lingered near the entryway of the gallery, looking unsure. She removed the one earbud she kept in while working and smiled at her friend.
“What are you doing here?”
“We’ve come to rescue you.”
“From what?”
“This.” Crew spread his arms out, spun, and then placed his hands on the counter again. “Come hang. We’re going to Landsy.”
Landsy was a place where locals went, and tourists didn’t. They weren’t welcome and very few even knew how to access the beach, which wasn’t really a beach but more like a hang out with some rocks to sit on, not visible from the road and at low tide. It was one of the best places to chill in Seaport. For at least five generations deep, the same family had owned the piece of land that the locals used to gain access to the private beach and if you couldn’t prove you were a resident, the landowner would boot you off.
“I’m working. I can’t just leave.” Work wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t hang out with Crew and his friends. The previous night’s events played through her mind. She wanted to be with Kiel and wasn’t ready to share him or their time together with her friends.
“Where’s Margeaux? I’ll ask her. She loves me.”
Eloise sighed. Crew was right, Margaux did love him. She loved the entire Carter family, as did most people in town. They were like Seaport royalty.
“She’s with a customer in the back.” Eloise held her hand up. “I can’t leave, and you can’t bother her, Crew. I’ll come hang out this weekend.”
Crew let out an exaggerated sigh and let his head fall back with a groan. “You’re killing me, Harris. We haven’t hung out since you came back.”
“It’s been barely a week.” She pointed out. “Don’t you have a job?”
He shrugged. “Here and there.”
Eloise knew that wasn’t true. The Carter boys worked. If it wasn’t for one of their family businesses, it was someplace else. They were the hardest working family in Seaport. “This weekend,” she reiterated. “Do you care if I bring someone?”
“To Landsy?”
Eloise shrugged. “Or just to hang with my friends.”
Crew eyed her warily. “Do you have a fella?”
She smacked his arm. “What are you, eighty?”
Crew laughed. “If he’s cool, bring him. But if he’s a tool . . .”
“He’s not.”
