Chapter Four #2
She giggled. “Of course we’re having waffles. They’re your favorite.”
Zach put his arm around his mom’s shoulders and gave her another hug. “ You’re my favorite,” he told her.
“And you’re my favorite,” Evelyn returned.
“Hey!” Chad protested.
Britt looked on with a grin. It was obvious the conversation was a running joke in the family.
“Actually, I think Britt is now my favorite,” Evelyn said.
“She’s been a godsend. Works her butt off too.
Did you know she spent the other day scrubbing the floors in the small guesthouse kitchen and actually got those pesky water stains out that have been there since the place flooded a few winters ago? ”
“Yeah?” Zach asked as he steered his mom toward the door.
Britt could feel herself blushing. It wasn’t as big a deal as Evelyn was making it out to be. Although it had been a lot of hard work, scrubbing the floor was cathartic. She’d taken out all her harsh feelings about her ex on the poor tiles.
“Yes. And she doesn’t complain about having to fold laundry, like some people I know.” Evelyn elbowed her youngest son as she hurried into the house ahead of all of them, toward the kitchen.
Britt thought Zach would crack a joke or say something lighthearted, but instead he turned to Chad and said softly so their mom wouldn’t overhear, “How’s she doin’?”
“Good. Well, as good as can be expected. Britt being here has made a huge difference. I think she was lonely and overwhelmed. Having Linc and Knox home will make her feel even better, I’m sure.”
“They’re still getting here later today, right?” Zach asked.
“As long as nothing happens, yes. Lincoln said he’d pick up Knox at the airport in Portland on his way through. He’s shipping his car and the rest of his stuff from Florida. You know Lincoln, he won’t get in a plane if he’s not behind the controls, so he’s driving all the way from Montana.”
“Stubborn ass,” Zach muttered. Then he turned to Britt again. And the happy-go-lucky guy she’d interacted with a couple of minutes ago on the porch had morphed into a serious, skeptical, protective son. “So ... I’m going to want to hear the story about how you finagled your way to Lobster Cove.”
Britt’s stomach dropped, but she lifted her chin. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Hadn’t begged Chad to give her a job. But she understood Zach’s concern. She was a stranger who was living in the same house with his vulnerable widowed mother.
“Zach,” Chad warned.
“No, it’s okay,” Britt interrupted. She met Zach’s gaze without flinching.
“My car wouldn’t start, and I was stuck in the parking lot where I’d been sleeping.
One of the employees was yelling at me to get off the property when Chad intervened.
He helped me get my car started and invited me here to have lunch.
Your mom offered me a job, and since I had exactly a dollar and forty-three cents to my name, I agreed. ”
“I told you what happened already,” Chad said.
Britt didn’t take her eyes from Zach’s. He might be the youngest brother, but he was obviously no pushover.
“I love my mother. She’s the most important woman in my life and always will be. I’ll move heaven and earth to make sure she’s happy. And I won’t hesitate to do whatever’s necessary to keep drama out of her life.”
“She’s lucky to have you. All of you,” Britt told him honestly.
“I’m not going to hurt her. In just the week I’ve been here, she’s treated me more like family than my own mother ever has.
I’ll prove to you, and the rest of your brothers, that I have nothing but the best intentions in being here.
I’m not going to steal from her, or from anyone.
I don’t have a hidden agenda. I just want to work hard and earn my keep. ”
Zach stared at her for a long, uncomfortable moment, then he nodded.
That nod wasn’t exactly approval, but it still made Britt’s muscles relax a fraction.
“Are you done interrogating her?” Chad asked in a tone she hadn’t heard from him before. Glancing at him, Britt saw a muscle ticking in his jaw and one of his hands clenched in a tight fist.
“I wasn’t interrogating her. Just getting to know her,” Zach protested.
“Give me a break. If that’s your idea of ‘getting to know her,’ I feel sorry for any woman you might date in the future. What you were doing was questioning my instincts in encouraging Mom to hire her, and you were trying to make Britt feel uncomfortable,” Chad countered.
Zach frowned. “I trust you. I just worry, and I had to make sure she knows that we aren’t going to tolerate any funny business.”
Britt couldn’t help it. Her lips curled up at hearing this preppy-looking, obviously physically intimidating man say “funny business.”
“What? Want to share the joke?” Zach asked. Thankfully, he didn’t sound mad.
Britt shared a look with Chad and saw him grinning as well. He stepped in, saving her from having to explain. She had no idea how he knew what she was thinking, but as she’d found often during the last week, they seemed to be on the same page.
“ Funny business ? Who says that?” he asked his brother.
To Britt’s relief, Zach chuckled. “Right, it sounded better in my head than it did in real life.”
“Enough of giving Britt the third degree!” Evelyn shouted from the kitchen. “Get in here and eat or I really will feed you yogurt!”
Britt frowned, not liking the idea that Evelyn knew they were talking about her in a roundabout way behind her back.
“Mom has a way of knowing everything that goes on in this house,” Zach told her when they all turned toward the kitchen. “I used to swear she and Dad had hidden cameras around here.”
“But they didn’t. And don’t,” Chad was quick to say.
“Must be a mom’s instinct,” Britt said, letting them both know she wasn’t worried about cameras.
“I guess. But it was a pain in the ass growing up. Remember that time when I was making out with my girlfriend on the couch, and Mom yelled—all the way from her bedroom—for me to keep my hands to myself?” Zach asked. “It was embarrassing as hell.”
“I wasn’t here. I was already in boot camp, so I don’t remember, but I can commiserate.
It’s like the time I was smoking weed out in my car with a friend, because I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, and Dad came out of nowhere and threw a Twinkie into the open window, telling me it was for when I got the munchies later,” Chad said with a laugh.
“He did? He wasn’t mad?” Britt asked.
“He wasn’t thrilled,” Chad admitted. “But we had a long talk the next day, and he said he was relieved that if I needed to try something like that, I was doing it in a safe place and that I wasn’t driving.
” He sighed. “I miss him. He had a great way of making me think twice about stupid shit I was doing without sounding preachy.”
“Yeah,” Zach agreed.
Not for the first time, Britt regretted that she hadn’t had a chance to meet the man. He sounded awesome.
Breakfast was delicious, as usual. Evelyn had gone all out since Zach was home. Just as Britt finished eating, a text came through on her phone. It was one of the guests in the two-bedroom house, wanting to know if she had any suggestions for a good seafood place.
Evelyn had given her a list of the best restaurants in Rockville and even farther out, just in case anyone wanted to explore the area a little.
She kept it on her phone—updated to include phone numbers and websites—so she texted it to their guest. But she decided it couldn’t hurt to take a walk over to make sure the guests in both cabins had everything they needed.
“It was nice meeting you,” she told Zach as she stood from the table, then turned to Evelyn. “I’ll do the dishes when I get back.”
But the older woman waved her off. “There are two perfectly capable men here who can wash a dish or two. I know Otis wants to see you, so he can get your insurance paperwork filled out this morning. After you visit the guests, you can go see him at the auto shop.”
Britt reluctantly agreed. She took her dishes to the sink, still feeling guilty for leaving them there, and headed for the front door.
Chad followed her out.
“You good?” he asked.
Britt frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because I know you were nervous to meet Zach, and he was kind of harsh.”
Britt shrugged. “Harsh? No, he’s a concerned son worried about his mom, and whether a stranger who’d moved into her house might be taking advantage of her. I’d actually be more worried if he didn’t question my being here.”
Chad stared at her for a long moment.
“What?” she asked, feeling uncomfortable with his scrutiny.
“Nothing. I just ... thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being here. For not being offended with the questions. For helping. All of it.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” she told him.
“How about we call it even?” he suggested.
“Deal.”
Neither moved. Britt felt drawn to this man, and she didn’t understand why. But it eased her mind that he seemed to feel the same way, if his reluctance to part was any indication.
“I guess you need to go,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Wanna meet up later for lunch? I thought I could show you the secret trail my brothers and I made when we were growing up.”
“Does it lead to a secret fort in the trees?”
“Of course.”
Britt had no idea if he was kidding or not, but she wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see a real live fort in the woods ... or be alone with Chad. Any thoughts she had about him or his family inviting her to their lair to do her harm had long since disappeared.
They stood there staring at each other for another beat. It was a loaded silence filled with ... anticipation? Nervous energy? Uncertainty?
All of the above.
Finally, Britt backed up a step. Then another, without losing eye contact.
“Don’t let them give you any shit,” Chad told her.
“The guests? They’re nice.”
He simply shrugged. “Give an inch, they’ll take a mile.”
He wasn’t exactly wrong, so Britt nodded anyway.
“See you later.”
“Bye,” Britt told him. Then she forced herself to turn and walk down the front steps. She couldn’t help but look back when she was halfway to the guest cabins. Chad was still standing on the porch, watching her.
Butterflies swam in her belly and her lips curled up as she continued on her way.