Chapter Twelve
How wrong he’d been.
Victor Rogers could ruin his good mood.
Their neighbor had been a thorn in the Young family’s side for as long as Chad could remember.
When the boys were growing up, he’d been a jerk about Chad and his brothers being on his property.
He’d call and yell at their parents when he found them playing on his shoreline.
When they’d created a dirt path through the trees for their bikes and accidentally made part of it on his land, he’d come over ranting and raving and insisting they “fix” the rut in the ground they’d made on his property.
Which seemed just as ridiculous now as it had then.
It wasn’t as if Victor had ever used the heavily forested area between his house and Lobster Cove.
And when Evelyn and Austin had built the boat storage facility, he’d protested the use of the land for commercial business with the county.
Chad’s dad had solved that issue by putting in a request to change the designation of Lobster Cove from residential to commercial and then commenced to create not only the auto body business but the rental cabins as well.
Victor had retaliated by building his own rental cabins on his property, obviously hoping to steal business from Lobster Cove.
But he’d built his rentals closer to the road than the shoreline, not giving his guests the beautiful views he could have.
Every now and then, Chad looked up the neighbor’s rentals online, and he wasn’t surprised to see that they were cheaper and didn’t have near the number of positive reviews that Lobster Cove Rentals did.
But Chad wasn’t the kind of man to gloat about that sort of thing.
There had been a sort of unspoken agreement that they’d each mind their own business, and as far as Chad knew, that had been working for the last decade or so.
It wasn’t as if his mom and Victor would ever be best friends, but at least they were civil.
Still, he’d never given up trying to convince his parents to sell some of their land. That’s why it wasn’t too surprising to see Victor’s old Subaru Outback pull down the driveway into Lobster Cove.
Their neighbor parked near the house, then strode toward where Chad and Lincoln were prepping to repair the damage the tree had done to the smaller guesthouse.
He and his brothers had already used a chain saw to cut up the tree and stack the wood near the firepit, so it could be used for future bonfires for either their guests or the family, if they got the urge to chill outside one evening.
Knox and Zach had gone into town to get what they needed to replace the gutter and see if they could get metal roofing materials as well.
They’d discussed it and decided they might as well replace the roof now, rather than put in a temporary patch over the damage done by the tree and replace the roof later.
Chad had already gone to the house to talk to his mom about the rental, letting her know it would be out of commission for a few days. It should only disrupt one booking—possibly two—but he hated to inconvenience anyone. It wasn’t fair to the renters, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Just came over to see what kind of damage you all had from the storm,” Victor drawled. He apparently wasn’t offering to help, he just wanted to be nosy, which raised Chad’s ire.
“We were lucky, just this one cabin,” Lincoln said, sounding more diplomatic than Chad would’ve if he’d responded.
“Your mom home?”
Chad’s hackles rose. “Why?”
The fake offended look on Victor’s face wasn’t doing anything to help Chad calm down in the least.
“I just want to check on her. It’s what good neighbors do,” Victor said.
“Good neighbors don’t call the city to try to get businesses shut down. Good neighbors don’t complain about kids playing and accidentally stepping onto their property. Good neighbors don’t come over to gloat when something goes wrong,” he retorted between clenched teeth.
Victor glared at him. Chad had never been his favorite person.
Especially since he’d never been one to back down, even as a kid.
When Victor yelled at them to get off his property, Chad was always the one to plant his butt on the imaginary line that Victor had drawn between Lobster Cove and his land—then proceed to sing at the top of his lungs, just to be a jerk.
Without another word, Victor turned and headed for the main house.
Chad wanted to follow, wanted to tell him that he was trespassing and order him to go the hell home.
But he bit his tongue. His mother was the one who’d been dealing with this man for years, and she was much better at it than he was.
She’d told him more than once that you caught more flies with honey than vinegar.
But Chad had always wondered why the hell anyone would want to catch flies in the first place.
Then he remembered what the boy, Kash, had said when he and Britt had met him.
That he thought Evelyn was mean ... and that she’d met his grandfather at the door with a shotgun.
Hell, so much had happened since then that he’d forgotten all about that.
And he hadn’t even told his brothers about Kash using their old fort.
He needed to get his head out of his ass.
He almost ran to the house to make sure his mom was all right, but he had no doubt if something happened, Britt would scream her head off and alert them that there was a situation.
And the more he thought about it, the more he doubted Kash’s story. His mom didn’t like guns. Never had. Didn’t get on Dad about having them, but he couldn’t see her picking up the shotgun and actually threatening someone with it. He doubted it was even loaded.
No ... probably a story Victor had made up to scare Kash away from their property. It would really get under his skin if his grandson made friends with the neighbors.
Still, Chad was glad that Britt was inside the house to run interference if needed. She was as protective of his mom as he was. She’d also be able to report back as to what Victor actually wanted. Chad didn’t believe for a second that he was just checking on them after the storm.
“Something’s up,” Lincoln mused after a moment.
“No shit,” Chad responded. “I don’t trust him.”
“Me either. We’ll ask Mom what he wanted when we’re done out here.”
Chad nodded, his thoughts returning to their neighbor’s grandson and the old fort in the woods.
He recalled the books, telescope, and bedding Kash had in there and knew if the plastic bins leaked, or if the boy had forgotten to put everything away, it was all a pile of mush after that severe wind and rain.
Now was the perfect opportunity to tell Lincoln about the boy. “While we’re waiting for Knox and Zach to get back, I’m gonna run into the woods and check something real fast.”
“Check on what?” Linc asked.
“Our old fort,” he told his older brother.
“That thing? It’s got to be a pile of debris by now.”
“It was, but Kash claimed it as his own,” Chad said.
“Who’s Kash?”
“Victor’s grandson.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Harper had a son ?”
Chad wasn’t surprised Lincoln connected the dots so quickly. He and Harper were in the same grade growing up, and she’d been pretty mean to him. He was bound to remember her. “Apparently.”
“Is she living over there too? Or just her son?”
“No clue. Didn’t get into it with Kash. I just brought Britt out there to see where our old fort was, and we found Kash had rebuilt it and was using it.
He was afraid I’d kick him out, since he was on our property, but since I’m not a dick like his grandfather, I reassured him I wouldn’t.
Besides, it’s not like he was making bombs or playing with fire in there or something.
He had a ton of books. He also likes astronomy, and he has a pretty nice kids’ telescope out there too.
I lied and told him we’d named the place Fort Bad Assery when we were young, so if you ever see him and he says something about it . .. go with it.”
“Hold on. I thought Victor put up a fence between our properties?”
“He did. Kash climbed over it. Britt was talking to him about how she had to live in her car for a while ... and apparently Kash could really relate to that.”
Lincoln frowned. “Harper and her son were homeless?”
Chad nodded. “Sounded like it, but the boy was uncomfortable with the topic, so neither of us pressed. There’s more.”
“ More? Fuck,” Lincoln swore.
“When Britt invited him to come to the house sometime, he was petrified. He immediately said no, that Mom was mean. Said that she held a shotgun on his granddad once.”
“That’s bullshit!” Lincoln exclaimed.
“I agree. But why would Victor tell his grandson that?”
“Because he’s a dick. And probably because he doesn’t want him getting close to any of us. How old is this kid?”
Chad shrugged. “Ten? Eleven? Twelve? It’s hard to tell. He’s a scrawny little thing. But not any older than that, I don’t think.”
“Right. Come on then. Let’s go visit old Fort Bad Assery and check on his stuff. Then we’ll head to the house and see what Victor wanted.”
“I told Kash I wouldn’t let his granddad know he was on our property,” Chad warned.
“I have no problem with the kid using the fort. I’m more concerned about what the hell is happening with his mom and why they were homeless, and what she’s doing now that she’s back in Rockville.
She swore never to come back here once she graduated, so life really had to have gone to shit for her if she’s home again. ”
“I thought you hated her. That she went out of her way to make your life miserable in high school. Why do you care?” Chad asked. He didn’t know the details about his older brother’s relationship with their neighbor, but he knew there was a lot of strain there.
“I don’t hate her. She’s not my favorite person in the world, but if she has a son who’s hiding out in our fort ... something’s going on, and I want to make sure he’s safe.”