Off the Hook (14 page)

He knew he hadn’t said any of that out loud, but it was as if she’d sensed what he was thinking, because she couldn’t seem to look at him for more than a second before her gaze skittered off somewhere else.

“Looks like that’s it for in here.” Tucking her hair behind her ear, she nodded slowly as she tapped her pen methodically against her clipboard. “I guess I’ll call it a night, then.”

After leaving their inventory on Jessie’s desk, Liam followed Kate to the door and waited while she got her coat on.

“Thanks for your help today,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I appreciate it.”

“Sure.” She tugged her hair out from where it was trapped under the collar of her coat. “Just doing my job.”

It was true, yet there was something in her voice that made him wonder—okay, maybe hope—that it might be more.

“ ’Night, Liam.”

“G’night.” He pulled the door open for her and then leaned against the frame, watching as she moved out of the glow of the porch light and on toward her cabin, the bobbing beam of her flashlight leading the way.

He could hear someone coming through the kitchen—Finn, by the sounds of it—but Liam couldn’t bring himself to stop watching her. Not yet.

“We’re not paying to heat the outdoors.” Da’s familiar expression spoken in Finn’s voice, so close to Liam’s ear, finally made him blink.

“Hey, Finn.” Another couple of seconds and Kate was inside her cabin, safe and sound. Closing the door, Liam turned to his brother. “Did you finish up in the pub?”

Finn stared at him for a solid ten seconds or so before shaking his head. “Don’t do it, man.”

“Don’t do what?” Liam pushed by him and lifted his almost empty beer.

“Don’t do
her
.”

“What?”
Thankful he hadn’t taken a swig of his beer yet, he jerked the bottle back down, knocking it against his tooth as he did. “Ow! What the hell are you talking about?”

Disbelief clouded Finn’s face as he kept shaking his head at Liam, and Liam could try to deny it all he wanted, but they both knew exactly what Finn meant.

“Even if she wasn’t working to take this place away from us, you’ve both said you were stupid to get together the first time.”

No, Liam mused. That’s not what they’d said. They’d said it was stupid that they got married the way they did, not that they’d hooked up. Two different things.

Finn pulled a beer out of the fridge and tipped it toward the closed door. “So every time your little soldier starts to stand at attention, you remind him about that. She’s here because her boss wants to take this place—
our place
—away from us.”

“That’s kind of dramatic, don’t you think?”

“Nope. Foster might have been Da’s friend, but he’s not ours. He’s in it to win it, and it doesn’t matter how hard we work or how optimistic Jess is, the chances of us making that tax payment are slim and none.”

He took a long pull on his beer and sighed.

“We’re a Motel 6 in an industry full of Hiltons and Trump Towers. I’ve done some reading up on this Foster guy, and while nothing’s come out and said he’s a snake, I still have a bad feeling about him.”

“You’ve never even met him.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Everything I’ve found on him tells me he’s not the swell guy he sounded like. I’d bet he’ll not only try to undercut us on the price, but he’ll take our place—the one we’ve built—and turn it into another one of those all-inclusive spa-type places where fishing is just one of the packages they offer, right up there with Swedish facials and body wraps.”

“Those places are always full.”

“Sure,” Finn said. “But the Buoys doesn’t cater to that type. We fish, we don’t give manicures, and if we’re forced to let this place go, we can’t let it go to someone who’s going to turn it into one of those places.”

“I don’t know how we’d stop it, Finn. If we end up losing it, then we don’t get to have a say in what happens to it.”

“Then don’t lose it.” Jessie’s voice preceded her into the room. “Work harder and longer so no one has the chance to get their meat hooks into the Buoys to start with.”

“Right,” Liam muttered. “Great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

While Finn had obviously been busy googling Paul Foster, Liam had been going over the numbers ad nauseam, trying to work them into a different outcome. Hands down, one of the best things about the Buoys was its location, but the seclusion also made it damn expensive to get supplies in and out.

Most things were brought in by barge; this was neither cheap nor convenient, because Strip Cove wasn’t on its usual route, which meant added costs to have the barge detour their way. The Helijet was faster and much more convenient, but it couldn’t transport much and was even more costly when it did.

That left their own boats, but the Grady-Whites weren’t built for transporting large amounts of supplies, either, and what money they saved by picking up the supplies themselves, they lost in precious work time.

They were fighting a losing battle, Finn was right about that, and yet Liam knew it didn’t matter how hard the fight was, they weren’t about to roll over for Foster or anyone. Not even Kate.

—

For the next few days, Kate made a point of steering clear of Liam as much as she could, because no matter how cute he’d been demonstrating the uses of his ridiculous wooden fish, she couldn’t afford to be distracted. She’d been taken in by those blue eyes and that smile once before and ended up telling her boss to shove his job up his ass.

That wasn’t a mistake she could afford to make again.

And while it might have just been her imagination, it sure seemed as if Liam was doing his level best to steer clear of her, too, which was probably for the best.

There was no getting away from each other forever, though.

“Hey, Kate.” With a pencil stuck between the edge of her toque and the top of her ear, Jessie stepped inside the Green cabin Kate was busy scouring. “How are you with boats?”

“If by ‘boats’ you mean ferries, I’m good. I do the Tsawwassen–Victoria run three or four times a year.”

“Yeah, not quite what I meant. Ever been on a boat the size of
Fishin’ Impossible
?” Jessie thumbed over her shoulder in the general direction of the three boats tied up to the dock.

“Uh, no.”

“Well, that’s about to change.” When Kate’s only response was a gaping blink, Jessie continued. “Finn was going to go with Liam to get the supplies tomorrow, but they haven’t had a chance to do any maintenance on the other two boats, so Finn’ll do that while you guys run to Hardy, and if he needs parts, you can pick them up while you’re there.”

It took another second for Jessie’s meaning to sink in.

“You want me to go to Port Hardy with Liam?” she asked. “Me? Wouldn’t it be better if you went? You know what’s what, so you’d—”

“No.” Jessie had already started for the door, leaving no time for Kate to argue. “Depending on weather and what all, it’s about an hour from here to there, so he’ll want to get an early start. I’ll make sure there’s coffee ready before you leave, and if motion sickness is going to be a problem, there’s Gravol in the first-aid cupboard.”

“Great.” It didn’t matter what Kate said, because Jessie was already gone, and even if she hadn’t left, any argument would have been useless, because Jessie didn’t really get along with water. Isn’t that what she’d said before?

An hour on a boat, alone with Liam, then God only knew how long it would take to gather up the supplies, and then another hour ride back.

Fan-freakin’-tastic.

So first thing the next morning, when the low-lying mist made the whole cove look like something out of a John Carpenter movie, Kate filled one of the thermoses, dosed herself up with Gravol just in case, and pocketed a few more for the ride home.

“Ready?” Liam’s voice made her jump.

“Uh, yeah. Just need to grab a…” Feeling more than a little ridiculous, she pulled a small bucket out of the broom closet and nodded. “All set.”

“You get seasick?” he asked, frowning slightly.

“We’ll soon find out, won’t we?” She gave up on her forced laugh when Jessie came in, clipboard in hand.

“Okay, here’s your copy. Give us a call before you head back, in case we find something else we need.” She smirked down at Kate’s bucket, then winked. “And I wouldn’t say no to pizza for dinner tonight.”

Liam nodded absently as he waved Kate out ahead of him. “We’ll see what we can do.”

“Extra olives!”

Finn was down at the dock and already had
Fishin’ Impossible
warming up when they arrived.

“You’ve got a full tank,” he said. “But while you’re over there, you need to go set us up on a fuel delivery schedule again.”

Kate waited on the dock, out of the way, while Liam went through what seemed to be a routine check of the boat: engine, propellers, radios, GPS, and something that looked an awful lot like a radar screen.

When he was done, he stepped to the back of the boat and reached out his hand for hers.

“Watch your step.”

Compared to hers, his fingers were warm and a hell of a lot more steady; he helped her over the side of the boat while avoiding the tarped-over pile of shingles that took up most of the space.

“Make yourself comfortable,” he said. “I’ll just be a second. The PFDs are under the seats.”

Built for fishing, not for touring,
Fishin’ Impossible
didn’t leave much room in the cabin for more than the two seats, so Kate tucked her bucket on the floor at her feet and pulled the horseshoe-shaped inflatable PFD on. The boat roof was zipped closed and the heat was on inside the cabin, but Kate was still happy she’d remembered to bring a second pair of socks and one of the thick gray wool sweaters from the lodge.

Finn stood outside, holding on to the boat until Liam got himself set up behind the wheel, and then, with a gentle push, they were off. Slowly at first, Liam pointed them out to open water, then held down one of the switches on the console and watched over his shoulder as the bigger of the two propellers lowered into the water.

“All set?”

Eyes wide, Kate nodded, short and quick, then watched as Liam eased the throttle forward. The boat took off, humming over the mostly calm water in a way Kate could only describe as graceful, and while Liam sat back against his seat, looking relaxed, Kate inched forward, pressing her hands against the narrow dashboard.

They’d only been moving for a couple of minutes, but already she knew this was infinitely better than riding the ferry. Sure, that had its own good points, like the view from the upper deck and being able to get an order of fries and gravy while you sat back and relaxed with a good book.

But
this
…this was peace.

As though someone had pulled a curtain aside, the mist dissolved, giving way to a soft, intimate light that filtered over the eastern rise to her left and seemed to coax the day awake. It was as if Kate and Liam were the only living things left in the whole world, until a couple of gulls swooped down and flew beside the boat before veering off toward land.

The radio squawked, the engine rumbled, and at some point Liam turned on some music, but Kate hardly noticed any of it. There were too many other things to pay attention to, like the way the boat glided so effortlessly through the water, or the way the trees appeared to grow at a forty-five-degree angle out of the rocky islands.

As they made their way out of the strait and into the Queen Charlotte Sound, the water turned a little choppy, but Kate was far too captivated by everything else to even care. Opening her side window just enough to stick her nose out, she closed her eyes and inhaled long and deep. She’d always loved the salty smell of the ocean, but right then it was as if she were smelling it for the very first time.

“Hold on.”

That was all the warning she got before Liam cranked the boat to the right, knocking Kate’s forehead against the window.

“What are you doing?” With her window closed again, she turned just as Liam pointed out the front window toward a vertical burst of water. “Is that…?”

Liam didn’t answer until they were a couple of hundred meters away from where they’d spotted it; he pulled on the throttle, bringing the boat to a quick stop.

And then they waited—neither speaking, Kate hardly breathing until Liam pointed again. This time there was no burst of water, only a rounded black back swelling out of the water.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

She cast a quick glance at Liam, who was nodding slowly, his gaze fixed out the front window.

“You don’t often see them this time of year,” he said. “But every once in a long while…”

He didn’t finish, because just then the whale breached again, blew a little harder, and slipped back into the water.

Kate couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “That’s unbelievable.”

“Wait for it.”

Sure enough, a minute or so later, the orca lifted out of the water, came down hard on its left side, then disappeared, leaving a steady flow of ripples in its wake.

Kate didn’t know how long they sat there watching, but she would have been quite happy to sit there all day, especially once the rest of the small pod showed up.

“I should be taking pictures,” she murmured, making no attempt to reach for her phone, because Liam’s voice, quiet and gentle, expressed exactly what she was thinking.

“No picture anyone could ever take would do that justice.”

When they were sure the pod had moved on, Liam eased the throttle up and turned south again, but a little piece of Kate’s heart stayed back with her whales.

She couldn’t seem to stop shaking her head. “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah.” His smile, so slow, so serene, almost did her in. “It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

“I guess you see things like that a lot, eh?”

“One of the perks of the job,” he said, laughing lightly. “And I’ll take that over any other perk out there.”

“Oh yeah,” she breathed. “Me too. Will we see them on the way back?”

“Doubt it, but you never know.” Settled in his seat again, he tipped his head toward her bucket. “How’re you feeling?”