CHAPTER FOUR | Penn
CHAPTER FOUR
Penn
“Hey, you got a second?” Alec jogs to catch up with me as I make my way toward the office, which is really just a small little building about thirty steps from the dock. One room. One bathroom. It’s really all we need, given that the majority of our business happens on the water.
“Make it quick. The temp bookkeeper is coming in this morning, and I need to get her situated before Cherry Twist and The Raven get in.” I refer to two of our ships that are due in after three days at sea.
“Patty found you someone?”
“She did. Said she’s pretty green but seems competent enough. That’s about the gist of what I got out of her.”
“You didn’t want to meet her first?”
“She’ll be here for ten weeks max. If Patty says she’s adequate, that’s good enough for me.”
“I think sometimes you forget whose mother that is.”
“Well aware.”
“And is Patty well aware that you’re using her daughter and you’ll drop her the second you get bored?”
“Did you actually need something, or did you just follow me up here to annoy me?”
“Both.” He laughs. “Actually, I wanted to remind you about Thursday dinner this week. Walker is coming, which means you’re coming. If he can pull himself away from his studies and all his extracurriculars...” He gives me a knowing look. “Then surely you can manage to show up as well.”
“Alec.” The name rumbles deep in my chest.
“Penn, it’s Mom. I know you don’t like being in that house after... Well, after what happened.” How casually he refers to me finding my father dead in the foyer. “She just wants us all to have dinner together. Surely, you can manage that.”
I blow out a hard breath, not having the time or patience to deal with this at the moment.
“I’ll think about it,” I promise, rounding the corner to where our office sits, my focus on the cell phone in my hand.
“Heard that bef—” His words die on his tongue, and it takes me longer than it should to realize he’s no longer next to me. I slow to a stop, turning back to see a shocked and yet equally amused look on his face.
“What?” I look at him like he’s grown a second head.
“Is that your new bookkeeper by chance?”
I glance over my shoulder and in an instant, the world seems to tilt, almost as if the ground is eager to come up and meet me. I have to resist the urge to reach for my brother in order to steady myself as I take in the sight of the one person I’d recognize even from a million miles away.
She’s still as beautiful as she ever was.
Even from a distance, that much is apparent.
Her brown waves fall across her shoulders, longer than they were the last time I saw her.
Her petite frame tucked into the corner of the bench she’s sitting on just outside of our building, hands clasped in her lap, looking in the direction of me and my brother, though she’s too far away to know for sure if she’s actually looking at us, or just staring off into the distance.
“Is that...” He doesn’t finish the question.
“London Voss,” I confirm, putting my back to her as I fully face my brother.
“No way Patty hired her, right? She must be here for another reason.”
I can tell he’s as shocked as I am to see her here, though where I feel panic, he seems to find only humor.
“Sadly, I don’t think so. Explains why she was so cryptic on the phone,” I finally say.
“Well, hell.” He shakes his head with a grin.
“What do I do?” I ask, at a complete loss.
“Nothing to do. If Patty hired her, then I guess she works here. And if she didn’t, perhaps we should find out why she’s here.” He steps past me, heading in her direction, giving me no choice but to follow after him or risk giving away how desperately I want to turn and walk the other way.
“London Voss, as I live and breathe.” Alec holds out his arms as he reaches her. I watch as she stands, squares her shoulders in that way she does when she’s trying to fake a confidence she doesn’t possess, and plasters on a smile that anyone but me might mistake as genuine.
I have just enough time to take in her slender frame dressed in black slacks and a button-down cream-colored blouse before my brother has her in his arms, hugging her like a long-lost friend that he’s been waiting for years to return.
And while yes, they were friends once upon a time, I wasn’t the only one she abandoned.
Then again, Alec doesn’t know how to hold a grudge, especially against a beautiful woman.
And make no mistake, she is beautiful. The kind of beauty that steals your breath.
The kind you want to capture in a painting or portrait so that you can keep it forever.
Time hasn’t lessened that but rather enhanced it.
“Hi, Alec.” She laughs lightly when he lifts her off her feet, and damn if that sound doesn’t do something to me.
How many times did I replay that sound in my head, trying to convince myself that she was still here, still right in front of me, still mine.
“Damn, woman, it’s been too long.” He sets her to her feet just as I reach the entrance to the office.
Tugging the door open, I purposely don’t look at her as I stomp my way inside, leaving my brother and the woman who shattered my teenage heart into a trillion pieces standing just a few feet from the front of the building.
“Ignore him.” I hear Alec say through the open window. “He’s happy to see you.”
“Sure he is.”
I close my eyes, drinking in the sound of her voice. A voice I haven’t heard in seven years and yet still remember in perfect detail.
“As much as I would love to assume that you’re here simply because you missed me, I’m going to go out on a limb and say Patty sent you?” Alec asks.
“She didn’t tell you guys I was coming?”
“Oh, she told us you were coming; she just didn’t tell us who you were.” I can hear the smile that’s no doubt plastered on his face.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“Nonsense. Though I do have to ask, why are you here? Back in Wren Cove, I mean.”
“Surely my father has told you by now.”
“Not sure if you know this, but I don’t think Randy is my biggest fan. Penn, on the other hand, treats him like a son.”
“Then Penn must have told you.” Hearing my name on her lips is like taking a poison dagger to the chest. I feel my insides begin to boil.
I see the slight shake of my brother’s head from my vantage point.
“You are not a topic they discuss often. But now that we’re on the subject...”
“Perhaps we should save the catching up for another time. I’d hate to be late to work on my first day.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but do you really think working here is the best idea?” I can hear the apology in Alec’s voice, which stirs something unsettling in my stomach.
“Do you truly believe I’d be here if I had any other option?” That dagger in my chest—yeah, she just twisted it.
I wish I could say I didn’t care. That what she says or does no longer holds any power over me, but if that were true, I wouldn’t have run in here like a cowardly child afraid to face her.
“Fair enough.” Alec rocks back on his heels. “You look good, LV. Real good.”
“You don’t look too shabby yourself. Last time I saw you, you were still in that awkward teenage phase. Look at you now.”
I move slightly to the left just in time to see her reach up and touch his face.
“I see you still can’t grow proper facial hair, though.” She drops her hand with a smile.
“London Voss, you wound me!” Alec flattens his palm to his chest.
“Somehow, I doubt that.” She snorts, looking toward the building. I take a step back, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing me lurking in the window. “Should we maybe go inside?”
“Your funeral,” my brother grumbles humorously.
I turn my back, sorting through some papers so that I look busy when they enter.
“Well, this is it,” Alec says, presumably holding the door for her. “Hasn’t changed much since the last time you were here.”
“I don’t know. It definitely looks tidier.”
“That’s Penn. You know how OCD he can be.”
“I recall,” she says softly, almost as if she’s afraid to offend me, which I find laughable given our current situation.
“Your desk will be over here.”
“Temporary desk,” I rumble, back still to the pair.
“This will be your desk for the next ten weeks.” Alec tries to smooth over my brashness, leading her to the corner of the room, which sits next to a window that looks out over the docks.
“Penn will have to walk you through your duties. I’m almost never in here and certainly have no idea how to handle any of this.
” I turn just in time to see him gesture to the open ledgers sitting on top of the desk.
“But I’ll be around if you need to vent.
Rumor has it, your new boss is a bit of an a-hole.
” He raps his knuckles against the top of the desk.
“If you’re about finished,” I tell my brother, clenching a laptop to my chest.
“Told you.” He winks.
“Appreciate the heads-up.” London smiles, and this time, there’s nothing forced about it.
For a brief moment, I want to take my brother’s head off, but even I can see he’s done me a favor by lessening the awkwardness. Though it doesn’t stop it from rushing back in the second he leaves the office.
“You’re expected to be here every day at seven a.m. sharp.
” I dive right in, not wanting to linger a single second longer than I have to.
“That’s when our overnight ships come in and you’ll need to be at the docks to take inventory.
Don’t be late.” I set the laptop on the desk and then gesture to the chair. “Sit.”
She does so without hesitation.
Leaning forward, I flip open the computer and type in the passcode, then pull up our list of spreadsheets, trying to ignore the sweet scent that fills my nose. I pull in a deep breath in spite of myself. Vanilla and lavender... It’s good to see some things haven’t changed.
I force myself to snap out of it and focus. She’s just a temp. No one special. Just a woman here to do a job for a limited time.
If only that were true...
“Every day, you’ll log the ship, the amount of the catch, and the crew on board.
” I click on another sheet. “This is the payroll log where you’ll enter the time the crew boarded and un-boarded the ship and their haul.
On Thursday of each week, you’ll tally the hours, multiply it by the pay rate listed here.
” I point to a specific column. “Deduct taxes using the bracket here.” I point to another section.
“And then write each of them a check for whatever they earned that week, minus the deductions. You’ll also need to log that information here.
” I switch to another spreadsheet. “They usually pick up their paychecks pretty early, so you may want to think about coming in early on Thursdays to ensure the checks are ready. Otherwise, you’re going to have not so happy fishermen banging on the door and trust me, no one wants that. ” I straighten.
“You still use paper checks?” She flips through the book in front of her absentmindedly.
“Cheaper than paying for payroll software; easier too, since a lot of the guys don’t have bank accounts.”
“Who doesn’t have a bank account this day and age?” She seems genuinely confused by this.
“Seven years erase your memory of how Wren Cove operates?” My voice has an edge to it, though it’s not entirely intentional. “We do things old school here. Always have.”
“So is that it?” She gestures to the material in front of her, not bothering to answer or comment on my last statement.
“There’s more, but for now, those are the most important things.
Study the spreadsheets. Go over what I told you.
Familiarize yourself with the ledgers so tomorrow when you’re at the docks, you know what to do.
If you have any questions, I’ll be back later.
” I immediately head toward the door, not able to take another second of being in the same room as her, of smelling her sweet scent, of being so close I could physically touch her and yet, knowing that I never will again.
It’s the worst form of torture I can imagine, and you best believe Patty will be hearing from me the second I leave.
“Penn.”
I stop just shy of the door. “Yeah?”
“How do I... How do I get paid? Do I clock in somewhere or just report my hours to the agency?”
“You log your hours with everyone else’s, but I will be the one to issue your paycheck,” I say with my back still to her.
“And you’ll want to dress a little more casually going forward.
I’d hate to see those fancy New York clothes get ruined.
You’re working on a fishing dock now, not a fashion runway.
Now, if you don’t mind, I have actual work to do.
” With that, I tear open the door and step outside, having managed not to meet her eyes a single time in our entire interaction.
I’m too desperate for someone to help with the books to turn her away, but that doesn’t mean I plan to spend any kind of real time with her.
She’ll figure it out or she won’t. And if that means I have to take the books home with me every night to double-check her work, so be it.
Anything is better than being in that room with her. And I do mean anything...