Small-Town Girl

“Don’t look so shocked. I’m not talking about us. Love on a Dime. My business. Remember?” She spent the next ten minutes as the sun sank lower detailing her plan-a-date service. Brice’s resolve against dating grew stronger with each word she spoke. An entire business dedicated to making men spend money to impress their girlfriends? And his shipping business was going to be tangled up in it.

Yup, women worked exactly like he’d figured. Exactly as Audra—his last girlfriend—had. She’d done him a favor when she turned down his proposal. They would never have been happy together. Brice saw that now. But it didn’t remove the sting of rejection, even all these years later.

Kendall’s voice broke through his thoughts. “We should offer this as one of the date packages on top of running the weekly cruises. What do you think?”

“Not sure.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’ll have to think on it a couple days if that’s all right with you.”

“Of course. It’s your boat, so the choice is all yours. I just think that people would really pay well for this experience. And I’m meeting with a chef next week who I’m sure I could convince to cater meals for dates. Wouldn’t it be romantic to eat here at the back of the boat while the sun set? The couples could finish the evening by dancing here under the stars.” She closed her eyes for a second and swayed. “Does the boat have a sound system?”

“It does.” His jaw was aching again. “How’d you come up with the idea to start your business?”

She bit her lip. “Want me to be completely honest?”

He scrubbed his hand over his face. “What else would I want?”

“Right. Silly question.” Kendall broke eye contact. “Before I moved to Goose Harbor, I dated. A lot.”

“Define ‘a lot.’”

“A lot.” She crossed her arms and looked back at him. “Nothing serious. But suffice to say, I’ve been on more dates than I can count.” She uncrossed her arms and trailed her fingers absently on the railing. “Some of them were really creative, and I planned a lot of them, as well. In the midst of it I realized that I’m really great at the dating part of relationships, so why not make money off that? I used to work as an event planner for a small golf course near my hometown, and the idea sort of sprang from that.”

She rubbed her hands back and forth over her bare arms. Although it was summer, the evenings cooled down quickly, especially out on the water. And she was only wearing a tank top of sorts.

Brice shrugged out of his coat. “Put this on. You’ve got to be cold.”

“Thank you.”

She slipped it on without hesitation, then pulled the collar up to her nose and breathed in. Did it smell bad? No—at least, her closing her eyes and breathing deeply again didn’t suggest that.

“What kind of cologne do you wear?”

“I don’t.”

She gave him a look that said she thought he was lying. Brice held up his hands. “Bar soap. I promise that’s the extent of it.”

“Well, that’s some great bar soap. I’m telling you.” She pulled the coat tight around her and crossed her arms to keep it closed. “What now?”

“Now we head back to town and go our separate ways.” If Kendall had dated a lot, then she couldn’t be innocent about how she was making him feel and think right now. She’d chosen that outfit knowing she was attractive in it. Knowing he’d have a hard time not being interested in her after spending time alone together.

“Can I come over by the controls with you?”

“Suit yourself.”

She followed him to the control area and leaned against the booth, watching him steer. If he had been in a better mood, he would have taught her how to handle the controls and let her steer it for a few minutes, but the evening was shaded by his thoughts now.

What type of woman was Kendall? Really? At times she seemed completely genuine and innocent, but then she told him she was a serial dater. What did a man do with that sort of information? He’d jumped at a business proposition without knowing her, and now his word bound him to hosting weekly cruises with her.

He could still say no to her dating service, but even now he knew he wouldn’t. Oh, he’d like to. But he wasn’t a fool. Kendall was right. People would pay good money to take their significant other out on a private cruise and eat dinner under the stars. In the summer, he might be able to make more off that type of a business than he did from his shipments. Which really scraped his nerves.

They docked the boat and tied it up. He meant for them to part ways at that point, but Kendall hung around and waited for him to close everything down.

“Need any help?” she called from the pier.

“I’m good. You can hang on to my coat and give it back some other time if you want to head out.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

Brice stopped stalling and finished by locking the boat. He jumped to the pier and fell into step with Kendall.

Kendall bumped her shoulder into him, playfully. “Thanks for taking me out tonight. That was really beautiful. I feel like—” She froze in place and it took Brice a second to stop walking and turn back toward her to see why she’d stopped. Kendall’s face contorted as if she was in pain.

Brice forgot that he wasn’t going to get close to her and rushed back to her side, grabbing her elbows. “What’s wrong?”

Her nostrils flared as she sucked in two deep breaths. Then she locked eyes with him. “Will you hold my hand and not let go, even if things get weird?”

“Weird?”

“Will you?”

“Yes.” He offered his hand. She slipped hers into his and they laced their fingers together as if they’d been holding hands that way for years. Her hand was shaking. Hard.

He gave her a reassuring squeeze as his mind spun trying to think of a medical condition she could have. “You can trust me. If you want to tell me what’s wrong, I’ll listen.”

Kendall cleared her throat. “I saw you duck behind that boat at the end of the pier. You might as well come out now.”

Whom was she talking to?

Brice pulled Kendall up short. Goose Harbor was normally a very safe place, but crime wasn’t known to spare any town. If someone lurked nearby, why hadn’t she alerted him right away? Brice moved so he was angled a bit in front of Kendall.

A petite woman stepped out of the shadows. “I see you wasted no time finding a new man to cling to. How long will this one stick with you, Kenny? I’m thinking he looks like a runner with maybe a week or two in him max. Mark my words—he won’t stick with you for long.”

Brice volleyed his gaze between the two women. “Who—”

Kendall tightened her hold on his hand. “What do you want, Mom?”

Well, she sure hadn’t lied about things getting weird.

Chapter Three (#ulink_c8e21e42-967a-5ebf-9915-de58d8449eea)

Kendall clenched her teeth and tried to calm down. One. Two. Three. She let air hiss out of her mouth slowly.

Her mother never responded to subtle hints, only clear, to-the-point statements. But Kendall wanted to be careful what she said in front of Brice because he hardly knew her. She didn’t want him to judge her harshly based on this interaction. The adult child and parent relationship was a difficult one to navigate. She knew she needed to respect and honor her mother, but that didn’t mean obeying her any longer. Especially when her mother’s moral code was so different than Kendall’s own. But what did that all look like when acted out in real life? It was hard to know. Especially with an emotionally imbalanced mother thrown into the mix.

Mom staggered forward a few feet. Drunk. “I need some money. As much as you can spare.” Her words slurred a bit. “You’ll help your mom out, won’t you?”

A big part of Kendall’s reason for leaving Kentucky had been to get away from her mother. The woman had been a constant drain on Kendall’s savings, even after Kendall moved out of their trailer as a teenager. Not to mention the number of times her mother had stumbled into the country club, causing trouble for her. How had Mom found her so quickly? Kendall had left Kentucky without a trace. No forwarding address. No friends to leave information with. Had Mom followed her from the get-go and hung back, waiting until just the right moment? Well, what a moment to pick. Embarrassing her in front of her new friend while they were trying to plan a business venture together. He’d probably back out now, and Kendall couldn’t blame him.

Still, she dug her nails into the back of Brice’s hand. Poor man. “You need to go back home. I don’t have any money to spare.” Brice probably thought she was being a mean person, sending her mother away. If only he knew everything that had led up to this moment, maybe he’d understand. Maybe he’d take her side.