Chapter Eight #4
When they reached the house, Chad and Britt were back from the store.
They were unloading groceries, and while Zach normally would’ve happily stayed to chat, he really did want to get Marit back to his place so he could feed her.
He didn’t like knowing she was hungry. The donut from Ruckus Donuts was quite a while ago, and she’d burned a lot of calories trying to cross the crates in the water.
“It’s so good to see you again,” Britt told her. “I’m sorry we didn’t have more time to chat the other night.”
“Congrats again on your engagement and pregnancy,” Marit said.
“Thanks! I’d love to get together sometime. I want to talk about lobstering. I know so little about it, since I’m from the South. Are you going to the Lobster Festival?”
“We went today,” Marit said.
“Oh, but you have to go on Saturday. Or maybe Sunday. Chad says those are the best days.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ll have to work. At least on Saturday. Someone has to catch all those lobsters everyone is eating,” Marit said with a grin.
Of course, Marit and the Wave Rider weren’t catching all the lobsters served throughout the event.
It was impossible for any one boat to provide the number of lobsters consumed at the festival.
But they all knew what she meant. Lobstering was a year-round job, but even more important in the summer months, when the weather was better and there was a greater demand from tourists.
“Kash would love for you to be there when he runs the crate race,” his mom added. Her head was inside a cabinet as she worked to put away the groceries Chad and Britt had brought home.
Zach opened his mouth to scold everyone for pressuring Marit. If she had to work, she had to work. Coming from military backgrounds, everyone knew how that went.
But Marit spoke for herself first.
“I’ll talk to Eliot. I might not be able to get the whole day off, but maybe we can work our schedule around the crate race. I’d love to see what it’s all about, and of course, support Kash.”
“Awesome. I have your number—I hope you don’t mind, I got it from Chad, who got it from Zach. I’ll text you, and maybe we can meet up before or after.”
“I’d like that,” she told Britt with a smile.
“Me too. There’s a lot of testosterone around here. I kidded with Chad once that this place should be called Alpha Cove instead of Lobster Cove.”
Marit chuckled. “I can see why.”
“What am I, chopped liver?” Zach’s mom asked with a small pout. But she ruined it by laughing right after. “I begged their dad to give me a girl, but his sperm insisted on producing boys.”
“Mom!” Chad complained, at the same time Zach stuck his fingers in his ears and hummed.
Both Britt and Marit laughed along with Evelyn.
“Alphas indeed. They can’t even talk about babies,” his mom said, smirking.
“It’s not babies we have an issue with,” Chad protested. “It’s you talking about sex with Dad. Yuck!”
The mood in the house was jovial. Zach looked over at Marit, and saw she was smiling and relaxed. He loved that for her. Especially compared to their first visit to the house, when she’d been so stressed after meeting his brothers.
“We need to get going. I need to work on what I want to serve on Saturday at The Lobster Buoy, and Marit said she’d be my taste tester,” Zach announced.
“Why can’t we be your taste testers?” Chad complained.
“You can. Saturday. Lobster pot pie. Ten ninety-nine for a cupcake-size serving,” Zach returned.
“Wow, that’s steep. Good for you!” Chad said, giving Zach a high five.
Getting praise from his family never got old. “Thanks. And now we’re really heading out. Say bye to Linc for us.”
“Where is he?” Evelyn asked.
“He walked Kash back to his place. Not sure what kind of mood he’ll be in when he gets back though. Harper was calling for her son, so I’m sure they probably had words. We all know they’ve never gotten along.”
“People change,” his mom said easily. “I’ll tell him you were sorry you didn’t get to see him before you left, though.”
“Thanks.”
Zach led Marit outside and back to his Explorer. Once they were inside and on their way, she asked, “Do Linc and this Harper woman really hate each other?”
“No clue. They haven’t seen each other since they were in high school. But I know she wasn’t nice to him back then. At all. Not sure why. I don’t think Linc even knows why she was so hateful toward him all those years ago.”
“It’ll be interesting to see how things go between them, in that case. Because it’s obvious Kash likes him a lot, and he clearly enjoys spending time on Lobster Cove.”
“Yeah. Hopefully neither Harper nor her dad will be assholes about Kash spending time with us.”
“Hopefully.”
“Are you really going to ask Eliot if you can get some time on Saturday to go to the crate race?”
“Yeah. That is . . . if you think Kash would really want me there?”
“I’m sure he would. But more importantly, I’d love to spend more time with you. Saturday at Lobster Fest is fun, like Britt said. There’s the five- and ten-K races in the morning, the Codfish Carry right before lunch, the lobster-eating contest at lunchtime, then the crate race starts at two-ish.”
“I think if Eliot and Jonah are okay with it, if we go out early, we could be back by one. In time for me to run home, change, and meet you somewhere for the race.”
“Sounds perfect. I’ll bring you something to eat so you aren’t hungry while we’re watching. How about that?”
“Oh, I can just grab something when I run home.”
“Nonsense. You’d probably nuke something not very nutritious. And if you’ve been out working for hours, you’ll need something more filling.”
“How do you know me so well after such a short time?” she asked with a tilt of her head.
Zach simply smiled over at her.
The rest of the drive back to Rockville was spent talking about their favorite foods—other than lobster—and Zach telling Marit stories about growing up on Lobster Cove. She didn’t share a lot about her childhood, but Zach understood that her memories weren’t the best.
They’d spent the entire day together, but it felt like he’d gotten to know her so much better in just the last couple of hours. And the more he was around Marit, the more he wanted to be around her. He could only hope he didn’t screw things up between them.
He could envision a future with this woman, he just prayed she felt the same.