Chapter 11
“You’re lucky to have such a great family,” Ronin said as he pulled onto the main road.
Tempi let out a small laugh. “You think we’re a great family?”
He frowned. “Yes. Don’t you?”
She didn’t answer right away. Finally, she tucked a strand of silver-blonde hair behind her ear and turned to him. “I think we’re a family. Whether we’re great is up for debate.”
He didn’t understand that, but he didn’t push it.
They drove in silence for a few seconds before his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen on the dashboard mount. Dax. It was the third time today his brother had called him. He let it go to voicemail.
“You can answer it,” Tempi said.
“It’s fine.”
The phone stopped ringing. Three seconds later, it buzzed with a voicemail notification. Then a text. Then another text. Ronin’s jaw tightened as he reached over and snatched the phone off the mount and shoved it in his pocket.
“Everything okay?” Tempi asked.
He almost said yes. That was the easy answer...the one he’d been giving everyone for three years. Yeah, it’s fine. Just my brother. No big deal. But Tempi was watching him, and for some reason, the easy lie wouldn’t come.
“It’s my little brother Dax,” he said. “He’s a lot younger at twenty-three, and he can’t seem to go a week without getting himself into some kind of trouble.
” He kept his eyes on the road. “Either he needs money, or he’s gotten himself into a jam and needs someone to bail him out, or he quit his latest job because of some excuse that never quite holds up.
” He exhaled. “It’s been like this for years. ”
Tempi turned in her seat to stare at him, but she didn’t say anything.
“I’ve tried everything,” he continued. “I’ve given him money.
I’ve gotten him jobs. I got him set up with a guy I know in Savannah who does marine construction—good pay, steady work.
Dax lasted two weeks before he walked off the job because his supervisor was ‘disrespectful’ to him.
” Ronin shook his head. “There’s always a reason, but there’s never any accountability. ”
“That’s a lot to carry,” Tempi said quietly.
“It is what it is.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s a lot, and you’re carrying it.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. Most people either told him to cut Dax off or to cut Dax some slack. Tempi had done neither, and he realized he appreciated the fact she didn’t give him platitudes.
“My mom used to say Dax just needed time to find himself.” He paused. “I can’t help but think she’d be so disappointed in how things have turned out.”
Tempi’s brows furrowed. “Where does your mom live?”
“She died two years ago.”
Tempi gasped. “Excuse me? Two years ago? But you were living here. Oh, Ronin. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
“Most people don’t. It’s not something I talk about.”
“But I knew you then. I’ve known you for three years, and I didn’t—” She stopped. “How did I not know this?”
He shrugged. “Because I didn’t tell anyone.
And it’s not like we’re good friends or anything.
Until yesterday, you hardly said two words to me in the three years I’ve lived here.
” He gave her a small smile. “Plus, I’m private, Tempi.
I handled it, I dealt with it, and I moved on.
” He turned the wheel and took the road toward her side of town.
“My family situation is complicated. It always has been. Mom did her best, but things were hard, and when she died, it got harder.” He glanced at her.
“I don’t talk about it because there’s nothing anyone can do about it. ”
“Everybody in this town knows you,” Tempi said. “You walk down Tide Street and every shop owner waves and calls out to you.” She paused. “But nobody really knows you, do they?”
“Jackson knows some of it.”
“Jackson?”
“He’s the old selkie shifter who has the houseboat next to me.”
“Oh.” She paused. “Thank you for telling me.”
He nodded and pulled the golf cart up to her cottage and parked. Her enchanted porch light was on, and a wind chime hung near the door, the wind blowing and making it chime.
“Hey, Ronin?”
He turned and looked at her. “Yeah?”
She leaned over and pressed her lips against his…leaving him shocked but pleasantly surprised. She tasted like sweet tea and shortbread cookies.
When she finally pulled back, they stared at each other.
“Well,” Tempi said, “that’s inconvenient.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Of all the things she could have said, that was the most Tempi response possible. “Inconvenient?”
“Extremely.”
“For whom?”
“For me, obviously.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t read into it.”
“I’m absolutely reading into it.”
Groaning, she climbed out of the golf cart and walked toward her front door.
He was beside her in three strides because there was no way he was letting her walk away after that amazing kiss without at least walking her to the door.
They reached the porch, and he cleared his throat. “Tempi.”
She turned and eyed him warily. “Yeah.”
“I’ve been thinking about something,” he said. “About our businesses.”
“What about them?”
He heard the trepidation in her voice, and he hurried to put her mind at ease.
“We’ve been treating them like they’re in competition, but they’re not.
Mine is water-based. Yours is land-based.
They’re complementary.” He leaned against the porch railing.
“What if we partnered?” He held up a hand when she opened her mouth to say something.
“Not merge...partnered. Package deals for tourists. If your cottages are booked, you refer overflow to my houseboats, and vice versa. We could share a maintenance crew instead of both paying for separate ones. Split the costs. What do you think?”
She glared at him. “You want to partner with me?”
“I think it makes sense. We’ve been doing it all weekend with the treasure hunt, and it works. We work well together, Tempi.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He frowned at her tone. The warmth that had been there thirty seconds ago when she was kissing him in the golf cart was gone. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but she wasn’t happy. “Okay. No pressure.”
“Goodnight, Ronin.” She opened her door and stepped inside. Then promptly shut the door in his face.
Ronin stood on the porch for a few seconds, unsure what to do. Something had just gone horribly wrong, and he had absolutely no idea what it was.
What had he said to make her do a one-eighty from the laughing, kissing girl in the golf cart?
One thing for sure, he wasn’t going to stand there all night and guess at what he’d done wrong. He lifted his hand and knocked on her door. “Tempi, open up.”