Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHASE
Striding into Levi’s workshop, the scent of wood and the sawdust swirling through the air, brought back memories from high school. When he and I would spend our weekends earning extra cash by rehabbing some of the locals’ more worn-down boats.
Now, though, he did this for a living, while also leading any boat tours for guests at the resort. His family gave him a lot of shit for being a slacker, but Levi was one of the hardest working people I knew. Not only that, but he was selfless with his earnings.
When the resort had been down on its luck, the six of them struggling to make ends meet—especially while also trying to take care of their deadbeat dad, who contributed absolutely nothing—and I’d wanted to help dig them out of the hole, he hadn’t let me.
He’d said he had it handled and that I had other shit to worry about. Namely, my own family.
So, while I’d been sending money home, Levi had been doing the same, funneling it back into the resort whenever he could and being sneaky as hell about it so his siblings were none the wiser. As long as it didn’t go to his dad, he was happy to do it.
And I didn’t blame him for that.
Sometimes my family drove me up a fucking wall.
My mom overstepped, poking her nose where it didn’t belong.
My dad had placed the protection of all my sisters on my shoulders since I’d been old enough to understand the words.
And my sisters? Well, let’s just say I was no stranger to wearing lipstick or dressing up in a tutu to put on a show for our parents.
Thank God that footage had never been leaked to the public, because fuck knew my teammates would never let me live it down. Levi was proof enough of that.
But even through the hassles and headaches, I’d never questioned their love or complete support of me. I’d never had to deal with the dysfunction the entire McKenzie family had faced every day for years.
The rhythmic sound of sandpaper against wood reached me as soon as I stepped through the door, and I headed toward it.
This was the same workshop we’d used back in high school, an old warehouse Mabel’s uncle had owned.
Since it had been sitting empty for years, he’d let us use it, free of charge, in exchange for us slipping him burgers from the diner because he wasn’t allowed them on his restrictive diet.
When he’d passed away several years ago, Levi had quietly taken ownership of the warehouse and had expanded his business, allowing him to take on more than sporadic projects.
A boat sat in the middle of the space, hanging by a solid system of pulleys and chains. The skeleton of it was complete but raw. And now the real work began.
I walked up behind Levi and clapped him on the shoulder. “I can’t believe you still hand-sand this shit.”
Without breaking the smooth, consistent strokes of the sandpaper against the wood, he said, “Believe it, because you’re helping today. Your fucked-up knee won’t save you from this.”
I snorted and pulled over a chair, grateful I’d preemptively iced my knee and taken some painkillers before I headed over. “But seriously, why do you still do this? And on a boat this size? What is it, fifty feet?”
“Fifty-seven.” He stopped sanding and looked at me with a raised brow. “And you know exactly why I do it this way. Because we fucked up Harvey’s boat by screwing around with a power sander. The projects I work on now are a hell of a lot more expensive than his tiny fishing boat.”
“Fair point.” I leaned back in the chair, stretching out my legs and getting comfortable.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
I glanced around, then pointedly looked from myself to him. “Bullshitting with my best friend.”
He shook his head and grabbed a fresh sanding block before tossing it my way. “Not without putting some work in, you’re not.”
With a snort, I caught what he threw and then got busy. The rhythm of this work, the repetitiveness paired with the soft scraping sound and the smell of sawdust, had always soothed me, and that hadn’t changed in the twelve-plus years since we’d done this as a team.
Levi was always the calmest when he was working on this part of the job, so I figured if I was going to broach a touchy subject, now would be the time.
Especially considering how he’d reacted when I’d last attempted this years ago.
And since there was no delicate way to bring this up, I just went balls to the wall.
“So…how are things going between you and Harper now that she’s been back in the Cove more often?”
His sandpaper stuttered against the wood before he refocused. “How do you know she’s been back more often? Because I sure as hell haven’t said anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t say shit about shit. Just because I don’t tell you I’ve seen her doesn’t mean I haven’t. You made it perfectly fucking clear years ago that you didn’t want to know.”
His jaw ticked, a sure sign of his irritation. Whether over the fact that Harper and I had kept in touch or that I was bringing it up again, I wasn’t sure. “I avoid her when she’s around. Just like I always have.”
“And why is that again?”
“You know damn well why. It’s better for everyone if I stay out of her life.”
“That’s bullshit, and you—”
“Drop it, Chase.” His voice was low and firm, and I knew that was all I was getting out of him. For now anyway.
“Fine. Then you fill in the silence, you broody asshole, because I didn’t come over here to stare into your eyes.”
“Whatever. You love my eyes.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Mom told me you helped out over there, moving around their furniture before the reno started. Thanks for doing that.”
He shrugged like it was no big deal. “She feeds me well. And I think finally being empty-nesters after thirty years is fucking with them a bit.” He shot me a raised brow. “Hope you’ve stopped by to see your babies while you’re home.”
I laughed outright at that, recalling the sea of green my mom had filled my old room with—plants in all different shapes and sizes—because she was tired of waiting for me to give her actual grandbabies to fill it with. “Oh, believe me, I heard all about it.”
“How’re the twins doing at college? And how about Morgan? She still doing all right?”
“Yeah, Morgan’s good. All clear.” I sent up a silent thank-you to the universe for that. “And the twins are doing great. They never miss our weekly call—you believe that?”
“With those two? Definitely. They know what to do to keep you wrapped around their fingers.”
“I’m not—”
He snorted before I could get another word out, and I blew out a sigh. My youngest sisters had me whipped, and they knew it.
“Fine, I totally am. But at least they make up for the shit Morgan gives me. You’re lucky you only have one sister. Because dealing with three is a mindfuck.”
“Speaking of my one sister…word around town is that you crashed Addison’s date last night. That true?”
I forgot how quickly news spread in Starlight Cove. But thankfully, I hadn’t done anything stupid in public…like dry hump her against the restaurant windows instead of her bedroom wall. “Yep.”
“Well, thank fuck you’re back, because my brothers have been so focused on their own shit, they’ve forgotten we have a baby sister to look out for.”
“Happy to help,” I said, the guilt gnawing at my stomach.
If he knew the ways I’d looked after her over the years, he’d cut off my balls and shove them down my throat.
“The guy she went out with last night was an absolute dick. He couldn’t get his lips on my ass fast enough.
I could’ve put up with that, but the way he disregarded and straight up talked over Addison anytime she said something wasn’t going to fly. ”
“The good news is that even if you hadn’t shown up, it never would have lasted because she wouldn’t put up with that shit.”
This time, it was my sandpaper that stuttered, and I could only hope he didn’t notice. I cleared my throat. “She have any relationships that have lasted?”
“Nah. You know she’d never bring anyone around here.
I think she was hiding something from us for a while, though—a secret relationship she didn’t want us to know about, maybe.
I’m pretty sure whatever it was is over now.
She’s been a fucking bear this past year.
More so than usual, except for that one summer back in college. ”
Fuck me. Levi was looking directly at the other half of her secret relationship, not to mention the cause of her mood the past year. And probably that one time in college, too.
“I wonder what that was all about,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster.
“Don’t know and don’t care as long as it’s done.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on. You, of all people, should know nobody’s gonna be good enough for her.”
I did know that. Intimately. I’d walked those halls with Levi in high school, scaring off any guy who’d dared to look in Addison’s direction.
Had done so thorough of a job, in fact, that no one would ask her out, even after Levi and I had graduated.
Which was the entire reason this secret relationship had started in the first place.
If it hadn’t been for Levi’s and my scare tactics, Addison would have probably lost her virginity just like any other sixteen-year-old.
Instead, she’d been eighteen, leaving for college the next day, and telling my sister Morgan in great detail her plans to, “just get it over with” that night at the send-off party.
And fuck no, I wasn’t going to let her first time be with a fumbling idiot who didn’t know his thumb from his dick and couldn’t find a clit to save his life.
That night had sealed our fate. If I hadn’t been with her…hadn’t tasted her, hadn’t been inside her, I might have been able to go my entire life without this ever-present hum under my skin that called out her name.
But that hadn’t happened, I had taken her virginity, and for the past ten years, she’d been my everything outside of hockey.
I cleared my throat, scattering the memories from my mind. “Not even someone like me?”
Levi barked out a laugh he didn’t even attempt to temper. “Are you kidding? There’s no way I’d ever let you date my sister, considering all the puck pussy you get.”
I clenched my teeth, my jaw ticking in an effort to hold myself back from snapping at him. It didn’t work. “Not everything they put in those shitty-ass tabloids is true. I wouldn’t even fuck those women with your dick.”
“Well, thanks for that,” he said dryly. “But leave my dick out of it. And I don’t care what you do with yours, as long as it stays away from my sister.”
Too late for that. Way too fucking late for that.