Dad's E-Mail Order Bride (10 page)

Rachel yanked the covers over her head.

“You need to get moving,” he said, “if we’re taking Courtney on a tour of the island today.”

Rachel pulled the covers down and glared at him.

“
We
aren’t taking Courtney on a tour of the island today,” she said. “I promised Peg I’d take down the party decorations this morning. Did you forget about that, too?” She elbowed the sleeping form beside her. “And Tiki’s going to help me. Right, Tiki?”

Tiki only grunted at the sound of her name.

“I did forget about that,” he said.

“Obviously,” Rachel said, sitting up. “You have that scared-to-death look on your face again.”

“I do not.”

“Yes, you do, Dad. Like last night when you thought I was sleeping over at Tiki’s. Why are you so afraid to be alone with Courtney?”

“I thought we cleared that up,” he said. “I’m not afraid to be alone with Courtney.”

“Then stop acting like you’re four instead of forty. Courtney isn’t going to try to make out with you, Dad. She doesn’t even feel that way about you. She asked me after we got home last night to stop trying to force you guys together. I thought you would have figured out you were safe when she didn’t want to be alone with you last night.”

The tips of his ears were bright red.

That only happened when he was upset about something.

“I suggest you drop the attitude,” he warned. “And whether you’re going with us or not, I still expect you to be ready for breakfast in thirty minutes.”

He walked out of her bedroom and closed the door.

Rachel crossed her arms in an angry sulk. At least her dad had given up on his stupid idea to make her cook. She just couldn’t understand why he had to make such a big deal out of everything.

No wonder Courtney wasn’t interested in him.

Courtney liked to have a good time.
Not
a good match for her dad’s drill-sergeant mentality. And that thought made Rachel incredibly sad.

If someone like Courtney couldn’t snap her dad back to his senses and make him see life was passing him by every day he remained secluded in Port Protection, no one could. And that meant she was right back in the same hopeless situation she’d been in before Courtney arrived.

Three more dreadful years,
Rachel thought with a sigh before she nudged Tiki with her elbow again. “Wake up. We have to make an appearance at breakfast before we go take down the decorations.”

Tiki sat up, rubbing her eyes. When she did, Broadway wagged his tail from the bottom of the bed.

“Did Plan B work?” Tiki asked with a yawn. “Are your dad and Courtney going alone?”

“Yeah,” Rachel said, “but Plan B doesn’t matter now. You heard Courtney tell me to stop trying to force them together. It means she’s not interested in Dad.”

Tiki yawned again and said, “Do you want me to ask the spirit guides for help?”

“You know I don’t believe in all that spirit stuff, Tiki. But sure. Go for it.”

Tiki assumed a cross-legged sitting position, held both arms out, leaned her head back and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, her eyes popped back open.

Rachel frowned. “That’s it?”

Tiki nodded and uncrossed her legs.

“Well? What did you say?”

“I’m not allowed to tell a nonbeliever what I told the spirit guides,” Tiki said with a smug smirk.

Broadway barked in agreement with Tiki’s statement.

He had just finished placing the griddle on the stove and was busy stirring the pancake batter when Courtney appeared in the kitchen.

She was gorgeous.

Even with her hair still damp from her shower, wearing a simple sweater, jeans and very little makeup, she was beautiful. The best part was she didn’t seem to realize it.

“That was quick,” Graham told her.

“I hurried so I could help,” she said. “While you fix breakfast, I thought I could pack a few things for lunch.” She walked to the pantry. “Is Tiki going with us, too? Or is it just you, me and Rachel?”

Graham quickly averted his gaze back to the pancake batter. “I’m afraid it’s just you and me. Rachel and Tiki have to take down the party decorations.” He finally looked up for her reaction. “That isn’t a problem, is it?”

“No,” she said. “Why would it be a problem?”

Right,
Graham thought.
Why would it be a problem?

Courtney didn’t feel
that way
about him.

“I’m sorry, too,” Courtney said. “We’ll miss you.”

But Courtney knew the meaning behind Rachel’s apology. She suspected the talk they’d had last night was a big part of Rachel’s attitude this morning. Her big plan hadn’t worked. And when Courtney left in the morning, Rachel knew any hope she had of returning to New York went along, too.

Courtney intended to have another long talk with Rachel later tonight. She wanted to assure Rachel she was not going to abandon her. She would still be only a phone call away. Their friendship was a bond Courtney wouldn’t break.

Graham, however, was a different story.

Courtney glanced in his direction. He was loading the girls’ plates with pancakes. After Rachel and Tiki headed through the swinging doors to the dining room, he looked at her and said, “Pray my pancakes do the trick. I’m still shivering from the chill in the room.”

“I need to ask your permission about something, Graham.”

He looked surprised. “My permission?”

“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to stay in touch with Rachel after I leave. In case you haven’t noticed, I adore your daughter.”

He smiled. “I’d like that. In case you haven’t noticed, Rachel feels the same way about you. She needs a woman who can be a good role model in her life.”

Now Courtney was surprised.

That Graham considered her a good role model for Rachel was something Courtney hadn’t expected. But she was flattered. Completely.

Graham smiled again when he handed Courtney a plate stacked with pancakes. Funny how neither of them mentioned keeping in touch with each other.

And why would they?

She would go back to her life. And Graham would breathe a sigh of relief that she was gone. Occasionally he might ask Rachel about her. She’d occasionally ask Rachel how Graham was doing. And all the rhetoric about being good friends would fall to the wayside the way most good intentions always do.

But today Courtney was going to enjoy herself. It was her last day before returning to reality. And she intended to make the most of it.

It wasn’t just the magnificent scenery she was enjoying. It wasn’t seeing all of the wildlife. It wasn’t even the company of the man sitting behind her, skillfully steering the skiff over the dark blue water, that had her heart soaring.

It was the freedom.

The freedom to do nothing except fully enjoy her day.

Leaning over the side, Courtney stuck her hand in the water, letting the waves run through her fingers the way a little kid would do. What had ever happened to that little girl she used to be—the one who had her own dreams and ideas about what she wanted out of life?

It certainly hadn’t been her ambition to become an advertising executive. She’d been perfectly content growing up on the dairy farm with her father’s parents, and she’d thought her mother was content living there, too. But when she was eight years old, her life changed in the blink of an eye when the grandfather she’d never met left her mother the agency. The next thing Courtney knew, she was living in the lap of luxury in New York.

Courtney also hadn’t expected that at age thirty-five she would still be single, still living alone and still have nothing to keep her warm at night except whatever new prospectus she was preparing for a client.

But what
had
her childhood dreams been?

Courtney couldn’t remember. Childhood was simply too long ago.

Courtney screamed like a little girl, however, and jerked her hand in the skiff when a head suddenly popped up out of the water to look at her. Her reaction caused a loud laugh from Graham.

“It’s only a nosy sea otter,” he said when Courtney looked over her shoulder at him.

He turned the outboard motor off, letting the skiff slowly glide to a stop on the water. “We’ll sit here for a few minutes until he loses interest,” Graham said. “Sometimes curiosity draws them too close to the propeller.”

The otter’s head popped out of the water again. Now that she anticipated him, she was as excited as any little girl. “Oh, look at him, Graham,” she said when the otter began an under-the-water, out-of-the-water dance all around the skiff. “Isn’t he adorable?”

“I’ll try and remember how adorable they are the next time one of the little rascals raids my shrimp trap,” Graham said.

She was impressed with Graham’s knowledge of the wildlife on the island. He’d given her the history of the sea lions they saw sunning themselves on the craggy rocks along the shoreline. He’d pointed out a Sitka blacktail deer and her triplets peering out at them from the dense forest, explaining how rare triplet fawns really were. He’d told her the names of more birds and waterfowl than Courtney could remember. And he’d taken her into a private cove where she’d been fortunate enough to witness a bald eagle make a swoop into the water, come up with a fish and fly off to its lofty nest at the top of a cliff.

Courtney was still watching the frolicking sea otter when Graham touched her shoulder to get her attention. He pointed out to sea. And that’s when Courtney saw the large tail fin slap against the water.

“Amazing.”

“That was my reaction when I saw my first whale,” Graham told her.

The sheer enormity of the creature startled Courtney when the whale rose to the surface again. Images of Rachel’s depictions of turned-over skiffs and spending eternity in a watery grave quickly flashed through Courtney’s mind.

“There isn’t any danger of that whale overturning us, is there?”

“No,” Graham said. “We’re too close to shore. The water’s too shallow for the whale here.”

Courtney relaxed with that news.

They sat in silence whale-watching for another fifteen minutes. And every time the V-shaped tail slipped beneath the water, all Courtney could think was how privileged she was to witness such a beautiful, untamed creature in its own environment.

“Hungry?” Graham asked.

“Starving,” Courtney told him.

She leaned forward, reaching for the cooler at her feet. And that’s when she felt Graham’s hand on her shoulder a second time.

Courtney turned her head.

“Let’s go ashore for lunch,” he said. “I know a special place.”

Courtney gave him a salute. “Aye, aye, Captain Ahab. Take me to your special place.”

He didn’t have a long wait.

“A gazebo,” Courtney exclaimed, clapping her hands.

Graham smiled to himself and aimed the skiff for the shore. He’d gotten permission from the Forest Service to build the gazebo for public use. It provided a place for the local fishermen to stop for lunch, and also served as a good shelter from unexpected storms.

He was pleased to see no one else was here making use of his special place. Graham told himself, of course, he was only trying to prove Rachel wrong—that he wasn’t afraid to be alone with Courtney.

But Graham’s ego knew the real reason.

He wanted to show off a little. And he wanted to see if Courtney was as impressed with his handiwork as she had been with the rest of the island.

The front of the skiff slid easily onto the sandy shore and Graham hopped out of the boat in his waders. Taking Courtney by the hand, he helped her onto the dry beach. After handing over the cooler, he waded back through the water to open the long storage box built into the side of the boat.

“Excuse me?” Courtney said when he pulled out the shotgun.

“Just a precaution,” Graham told her as he broke down the gun for safety and propped the barrel casually across his left arm. “Most animals run the second they pick up a human scent. But we do have wolves and bears on the island. It never hurts to be on the safe side.”

Courtney immediately looked to her left and to her right at the mention of bears and wolves. She waited for Graham to take the lead. As they walked up the long path leading to the gazebo, the only way Courtney could have gotten any closer to him was to climb into the back pocket of his jeans.

That made Graham smile, too.

And yes, dammit, his
male protector
gene did puff his chest out—just a little.