Chapter 3
“Next time. Call someone else.” ~ Paisley
Paisley
I finish mixing the ingredients together and swirl them around in the beaker. This is my favorite part about being a brewer – coming up with new flavors. As a microbrewery, Five Fathoms has the freedom to create fun and unique beers national brewers can’t take a chance on.
My phone rings and I check the time. It’s ten a.m. This is my favorite time to concentrate on work. Which is why my phone is on Do Not Disturb. Even my girlfriends don’t bother me at this time. There must be some kind of emergency.
“Paisley!” Parker shouts when I answer the phone.
I frown. Why is the owner of Pirate’s Pastries contacting me? Don’t get me wrong. Parker and I are friends. She was a class behind me in school but on an island the size of Smuggler’s Hideaway one year doesn’t make a difference.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a problem.”
“What kind of problem? ”
“I need you. Can you come to the bakery?”
I stand with a sigh. “Of course. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“Come quick,” she insists and hangs up. She still hasn’t explained what the problem is.
I hang my lab coat on the hook behind the door in my lab. “I’m heading out,” I tell my assistant, Blossom.
“Where are you going? When will you return?”
“I have no idea, but I will inform you when I know more.”
“Is this an owners of the brewery get together?”
I shrug since I don’t know the answer to her question. Granted, Parker rang me and not one of my friends, but my friends are troublemakers who know I won’t answer the phone in the morning when I’m in the lab.
I don’t bother driving or biking to the bakery. It’s a three-minute walk from Five Fathoms to Pirates Pastries. The brewery is located on the outskirts of Smuggler’s Rest, which is the largest town on the island of Smuggler’s Hideaway.
The other two towns, Pirate’s Perch and Rogue’s Landing, are more hamlets than actual towns. All of the necessary amenities are in Smuggler’s Rest.
I arrive at the bakery but when I try the door, it’s locked. I knock. “Hello! Parker?”
She rushes to the door. “Back door!”
This better not be some kind of prank. I try to recall if I’ve in some way incurred Parker’s wrath but besides buying out all of her Shipwreck cookies for Maya and Caleb’s housewarming celebration, I haven’t seen her much .
The back door flies open as I round the corner. “Get in here. Quick!”
“What is happening? If this is some prank, can we postpone until after working hours?”
“No prank. I have a situation.” She snatches my hand and drags me through the kitchen to the bakery.
“What is—” The question dies in my mouth when I notice the man inside the bakery. Eli Raider. My archnemesis.
Archnemesis you want to ride like a cowboy, a voice in the back of my mind says but I ignore it. As I usually do. It’s the voice responsible for getting me into trouble more than once in the past.
I yank my hand away from Parker. “This isn’t funny.”
“I know.” She wrings her hands. “He’s scaring off customers.”
I frown. “Eli’s scaring off customers?”
“What?” Her brow wrinkles. “Eli? No.” She points to the ground. “Him.”
I search the floor but all I see are tiles and some cookie crumbs. There’s nothing untoward.
Eli clears his throat. “I think he’s hiding underneath the display case.”
“Who is hiding beneath the display case?”
I don’t wait for them to answer before kneeling next to the case and peaking underneath. I notice motion out of the corner of my eye but whatever it is, is too fast for me to make out.
“He’s out!” Eli screams and climbs onto a table.
I stand and brush my hands off of my jeans. “Who’s out? ”
He gestures to the corner. “That thing!”
I scan the corner, but I don’t see anything. “Have you been putting hallucinogens in your muffins again?” I ask Parker.
“One time. One time I put some mushrooms in a batch of Pirate’s Plunder Muffins. And you totally deserved it.”
I hold up my hands. “I wasn’t the one who stole your clothes.”
“Chloe and Sophia might have been the ones to steal my clothes but you didn’t help when I came out of the ocean completely naked.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s not my fault you enjoy skinny dipping.”
“But you—"
“Ladies!” Eli shouts. “Can you two reminisce about the past at another time? Maybe when there isn’t a rodent running around the bakery trying to kill me.”
“Rodent? What rodent?” I ask.
“Viking may have accidentally found his way into the bakery,” Parker answers.
“Viking’s in the bakery?” I ask.
Viking is the otter mascot for Smuggler’s Rest. Each town on the island has a live mascot. Rogue’s Landing has a raccoon and Pirate’s Perch has a parrot. During the summer, townspeople try to steal the mascots from the other towns. Which is why the locations of the mascots are closely guarded secrets.
Parker bites her lip. “Y-y-es.”
“And he’s trying to kill me!” Eli shouts .
He’s standing on the table now. In a three-piece suit and tie. I glance down at my outfit. I’m wearing faded jeans and a worn t-shirt with the words I stop for seals on it.
“Otters aren’t rodents. They’re part of the Mustelidae family, which is a family ofcarnivorous mammals. The family includes skunks, weasels, wolverines, and badgers.”
“Can you sprout random, useless facts at another time? Maybe when I’m not being attacked by an animal?”
I snort to hide how much his words hurt. He didn’t call me Paisley the Perpetual Know It All but he might as well have. “Viking is nowhere near you. Besides, otters rarely attack humans. And Viking is domesticated.”
“Domesticated my ass! He bit my foot.” He lifts up his leather shoe which probably cost more than the entire bakery.
“Are you seriously complaining about a scuff on your shoe? Did you forget you’re a smuggler?”
His eyes narrow on me. Try as I might, I can’t help but notice how piercing those blue eyes are. I want to drown in them while he caresses my body. I imagine his hands are smooth and callus free.
No. No. No. I don’t want any of those things. Eli Raider is a Class A jerk. And I’ve had my fill of jerks. You can say what you want about me but I do learn from my mistakes.
“I’m not an idiot. I know otters can carry rabies.”
I place my hands on my hips and glare at Eli. “Did Viking actually puncture your skin or did he bump your leg because he wanted you to give him a treat? ”
Eli scowls. “A treat? I’m in a bakery. There shouldn’t be an otter running around.”
My mood skyrockets from mildly irritated to red hot anger in a millisecond. Parker is having a hard enough time keeping her bakery afloat. If this jerk goes around claiming he got bit by an otter in Pirates Pastries, she’ll be out of business in no time. Not on my watch.
I stomp toward him. “This isn’t some California hippie bakery. This is Smuggler’s Hideaway. Don’t you dare spread rumors about the hygiene in Pirates Pastries. My access to chemistry supplies has multiplied since you last lived on the island.”
His nostrils flare but when he opens his mouth to speak, I wag my finger at him.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
In other words, do I need to remind him about the time his locker exploded? He knows it was me who pranked him in high school since I took full credit. I wanted him to know it was me. Trust me. He deserved it after what he did.
He grits his teeth. “Can you please catch the animal? I would like to leave.”
I debate my answer. Watching Eli panic is fun, but, on the other hand, I don’t want to be in the same room as him.
“I can.”
I snatch a couple of Blackbeard’s revenge cookies from the display case and settle in the corner on the floor of the bakery. “Viking, I have your favorite,” I sing .
I continue to sing his name until the otter peaks out from underneath the display case. I coo at him. “Hey, sweetie. How have you been?”
I’ll never admit it out loud, but I was Viking’s secret keeper for a year. Since he mostly preferred to be left alone and I’m a bit of a workaholic, the relationship worked.
Except for when I brought home cookies from the bakery. The little sneak would steal every single one of them if I didn’t lock them away.
It isn’t long before Viking sprints across the floor to steal the cookie from me. He sits in front of me and devours it while watching me. I swear he’s smirking at me.
“You need to return to your cage before Parker gets into trouble.”
He chirps to indicate his disapproval.
“Sorry, sweetie. Rules are rules.”
Parker tiptoes toward me with his cage. She sets it down behind him as quietly as she can but of course, Viking hears. He hisses at her.
“Stop it, Viking,” I order and hand him another cookie.
While he’s eating, I pick him up and place him in the cage. If he could roll his eyes at me, he would.
“Thank you,” Parker whispers as she tiptoes away with him.
I stand and nearly rear back when I come face to face with Eli. I didn’t realize he’d left the safety of his table.
“Wow. You’re good with him.”
I frown at him. “You don’t have to sound surprised.”
He holds up his hands. “It was merely a comment. ”
“Whatever.” I wipe the dirt from my jeans. “I need to return to the brewery.”
I walk away without a backward glance. I refuse to obsess about Eli since he’s returned to the island. He’s not worth any mental energy I expend on him.
I will never experience those piercing blue eyes spark with passion. It’s better this way.