Chapter Eight
Over the next two weeks, Britt thought back to the moments she and Chad had shared in the woods more than once.
She’d felt as if they were connecting on a deeper level than simply friends, and then on the walk back, it was like a veil had fallen over his eyes, blocking her from seeing any kind of emotion, despite his holding her hand on the way home.
It was confusing and disorienting ... but in a way, she was relieved.
She’d been getting too attracted to Chad.
Her time here at Lobster Cove wasn’t permanent.
Once the summer was over and she’d saved up enough money and there was less to do around the property, she’d be moving out and finding her own place.
That didn’t mean she wouldn’t still visit and help Evelyn, but she couldn’t live in the main house forever.
So she and Chad had been keeping their distance from each other since their time in the woods. Which was for the best ... and easy, since they’d both been busy. She was still learning the ins and outs of Lobster Cove, and Chad was working hard to make as many updates to the place as he could.
One of Britt’s favorite things about living and working on the property was getting to know Evelyn’s other sons and watching them interact with their mom.
The brothers were all very different, but at the same time they were so much alike in some ways, it was scary.
For instance, they were all incredibly protective of their mother.
One morning last week, Evelyn fell while she was in the kitchen.
She was all right, just got a little banged up.
Chad heard the commotion and came running downstairs to see what had happened.
Once he was reassured that his mom was fine, just bruised and embarrassed more than anything else, he’d obviously called his brothers to let them know what happened.
It didn’t take more than twenty minutes for the other three Young boys to show up.
They wanted to see for themselves that Evelyn was okay.
It was incredibly sweet and touching ..
. and Britt had to go to her room so she didn’t make a fool out of herself by bursting into tears in front of everyone.
It once more struck her how alpha and protective the Young brothers were.
Again, she had the thought that Alpha Cove would’ve been a better name for the family property instead of Lobster Cove.
The Young brothers might be badass former military men with alpha tendencies, but they were also mommy’s little boys. Family oriented. Committed to making sure Evelyn was happy and safe for however long she had left ... which would hopefully be twenty or thirty more years.
And weirdly, their protectiveness seemed to extend to Britt, which was hard to get used to.
She’d been on her own for so long, it felt odd to be cared for by not only Evelyn but also her sons.
She was constantly being asked if she was okay, if she had everything she needed, if she could use any help, if she wanted a day off.
It wasn’t until she was around the Young family that she’d realized how toxic most of her previous relationships—with men, and with people in general—had been.
In the last two weeks, she’d also met the other part-time employees who worked at Lobster Cove.
There was the teenager and his dad who came over for a couple of hours in the evenings and helped Knox with the boats.
They assisted the owners who came to pick them up from storage, getting them hooked up to their vehicles and trailers.
Or, when preferred, they loaded them into the water at Lobster Cove’s deepwater dock, for owners to take home via the water.
There were also a couple of part-time mechanics who were hired for the busy summer season. Not that the auto shop wasn’t busy in the winter, but it was even busier once people began to emerge from their houses after the long winters.
One of the part-timers at the auto shop was Camden Calvert, Otis’s son. He was in his midforties, and just like his father, he gave Britt bad vibes. It wasn’t anything he said, it was simply a gleam in his eye as he stared at people, as if he was always concocting some scheme.
Britt hated feeling that way, especially when she didn’t even really know the guy ... but she still had to admit that she didn’t feel comfortable being around him or his father.
Thankfully, she hadn’t had any more one-on-one chats with Otis, but he was around the property a lot.
He often came to the main house for lunch with Evelyn, and he frequently used the computer in the shop’s office to manage payroll, pay invoices, and do everything else related to the business.
Britt wished he could do it all at his own office in downtown Rockville, but since he was practically family, she wasn’t about to suggest it to anyone.
As she walked across the yard toward the auto body shop, she hoped Otis wasn’t working in the office today.
It had been a few days since she’d seen him last, and that was more than all right with her.
She couldn’t forget the assumptions he’d made about her and how disrespectful he’d been of all the Young brothers.
Who they wanted to date or eventually marry wasn’t any of his business.
She was carrying a large bag of glassware containers filled with the chili Evelyn had made for lunch.
She’d informed Britt that Walt and Barry loved her chili and she wanted to share it with them.
She’d included bowls in the bag, but since they were swamped with a backlog of cars, she’d packed the chili in jars, just in case the guys needed to shove it in the shop fridge until they had time for a break.
As she approached the bays, she heard a lot of swearing and yelling coming from within. She immediately recognized Chad’s voice. She’d thought he’d gone into town, but clearly he either had gone and already returned or hadn’t left yet.
She cautiously entered the first bay and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the lower light inside. More swearing came from underneath an elevated pickup truck.
Britt cleared her throat. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting, but Evelyn sent down some lunch.”
Almost in unison, three heads peered out from under the truck, making Britt chuckle.
“Lunch?” Walt asked.
“What is it?” Chad added.
“Please tell me that’s her chili,” Barry pleaded.
“It’s chili,” Britt confirmed.
Suddenly, she was surrounded by the three men. Barry took the bag from her hand with an effusive “Thanks!” and headed straight for the office, closely followed by Walt.
She laughed and turned to head over to the smaller guesthouse. The renters had left that morning, and she needed to get it cleaned and ready for tomorrow, when a couple would be arriving.
“You eaten?” Chad asked.
Knowing she couldn’t simply ignore him—that would be rude—Britt paused, offering a small smile.
How a man so dirty could look so good was beyond her.
He had on a gray Lobster Cove Auto shirt that had stains on the front, as if he’d wiped his greasy hand across it at some point.
He also had some of that same grease on his cheek.
His dark hair was mussed, allowing more of the highlights he’d gotten from working outside in the sun to show through.
And his gaze was fixed on her, as if she was the most important thing in his world at the moment, even though they both knew how much work needed to be done in the shop.
That was just one more thing that drew Britt to this man.
When he spoke to her, he didn’t make her feel as if she was keeping him from more important things, even though he was constantly busy.
He focused completely on her , which was a heady feeling.
She’d always been an afterthought. To her mom, to boyfriends.
Even the friends she’d had in the past. But with Chad, he looked her in the eye, didn’t fiddle with his phone, didn’t look around to see if there was anyone more important to talk to or anything more pressing to do.
“Britt? Did you eat with Mom at the house?”
“Yeah. Lincoln was visiting earlier, but he had to leave, and I didn’t want her to eat by herself.”
He stared at her for another long moment—even more intently, if that was possible—and Britt wished she knew what he was thinking.
“You have a minute to sit with us?” he finally asked.
A refusal was on the tip of her tongue, but for some reason she found herself nodding instead.
Chad finally smiled and stepped forward, taking her elbow in his hand and turning her toward the office. He dropped his hand as soon as they began walking, but her skin still tingled from the light touch.
Walt and Barry were already eating right out of the glass containers, ignoring the bowls Evelyn had sent down with the meal. Britt couldn’t help but smile at that. It felt like the ultimate compliment that they didn’t want to wait the few seconds it would take to put some chili into bowls.
“It’s still hot!” Barry told Chad as he reached for one of the two remaining containers.
“First one done gets the extra container,” Walt said with his mouth full.
Britt suppressed a giggle. The guys were funny, especially the way Barry growled at his coworker.
“There’s more where that came from. No need to make yourselves sick by eating too fast,” she told them. “Evelyn made a huge stockpot full of it. I thought it was way too much, but I can see that I was wrong.”
“I’ll go up and grab some more after we figure out what parts we need for the truck,” Barry said.
“It seems to me that we’re constantly out of the parts we need,” Chad muttered as he sat and began to eat a little more sedately than the other two men. Britt had taken the last seat, and she enjoyed the moment of rest before she needed to get to the cabin to start cleaning.
“We are,” Barry said with a shrug.
“Why?” Chad asked.