Kara Lennox - Reluctant Partners

“Only if he’s as suspicious as you are.”

“He is.” It was something else they had in common. Maybe not their nicest shared trait.

“Maybe when it’s all said and done, then,” Sara said. “You won’t have anything to lose by trying.”

But Allie was afraid Cooper wouldn’t be a good sport about losing. He was clearly used to being on the winning side. Even if he tried not to be a sore loser, how could he avoid resenting her for stealing his inheritance?

Resentment would poison their future dealings so that any relationship, even friendship, would be out of the question.

“Allie, come look at Saturn,” Cooper said suddenly, startling her.

“O-okay.” She stood, set down her glass, and walked across the patio to the telescope. She bent down to peer through the eyepiece.

“It’s beautiful,” she barely breathed. The planet’s rings were clearly visible. She’d never seen anything like this outside of a book.

“Yeah, it sure is.”

She straightened to find Cooper staring at her, not the sky.

“I made a reservation to fly home tomorrow,” Reece announced casually as he drove Cooper and Allie to Sinclair Marine. Otis had called to let them know that work on the Dragonfly was complete.

Cooper was more distressed than he cared to admit that Reece was going home. Then again, his cousin had been acting a bit cool since learning that Cooper intended to go forward with his legal case.

In the back of his mind, Cooper had been convinced that Reece would find it so pleasant to be away from the pressures of his corporate accounting job that he would change his mind and elect to resign and move to Port Clara permanently.

But his cousin had been on the phone almost constantly, putting out fires back home or going over spreadsheets e-mailed to him. Some vacation.

“You’re not even staying for the hearing?”

Reece glanced into the backseat at Allie, who was plugged into her iPod, tuning them out. “Only if you want me to testify on Allie’s behalf. You have my written statement indicating the results of the audit.”

Cooper hadn’t realized how strongly Reece felt about this. He would have to talk to him, make sure his cousin understood he wouldn’t leave Allie high and dry. He wanted to do what was fair. Really, he did.

But he would have to save his arguments for when Allie wasn’t around.

Reece pulled Cooper’s BMW into the Sinclair Marine parking lot, where Cooper and Allie got out. Allie pulled out her earphones and stuffed her iPod into her jeans pocket without a word. She’d been quiet last night, too. He knew the possibility of losing the Dragonfly must weigh heavily on her. It did on him, too.

Otis greeted them with a big smile. “Nice to see you folks again. I got her all spiffed up and ready to go. Want to inspect her before we settle the bill?”

Cooper started to say yes, but-Allie spoke first. “I’m sure your work is perfect, Otis. Let’s get the bad news over with.”

They all crowded into Otis’s tiny office, where he rummaged around on his messy desk until he found the itemized bill. Cooper got his hands on it first, but Allie was right there peering around his shoulder.

“Oh,” she said. “Um, Otis, isn’t this a bit more than we agreed on?”

“No, ma’am,” he said confidently. “The cost for repairing the hull damage is exactly what I quoted you. The rest is for the painting Mr. Remington here ordered.”

“The what?” Allie grabbed the bill from Cooper and inspected it more closely, then she looked up at him with a thunderous expression. “You had painting done on the boat without talking to me first?”

“You’ll like it, I promise.”

Her expression said she doubted that.

He’d really wanted her to see the results before the bill. “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it.” He was already handing Otis his credit card.

“That’s not the point,” she said, folding her arms. “We’re partners, at least until Friday. We’re supposed to make decisions together. And how am I going to pay you back for all the money you’ve invested in Remington Charters? I assume you’ll want some return on your investment if the judge’s decision doesn’t go your way.”

“Allie, I told you before that I don’t expect you to pay me back anything. Putting money into the business was my decision, my risk. We never put anything on paper, therefore I have no legitimate claim.”

“That’s how you would see it, I suppose,” she said stiffly, though some of the starch had gone out of her. “Others of us do business on the honor system.”

“I thought I was making an investment in myself. But maybe it wasn’t the smartest risk I ever took.” He never thought he’d be admitting that to Allie, but it was the truth.

“You think you’re going to lose?” she asked, sounding confused.

“Don’t you?” he countered, rather than answering her.

Impatience replaced her confusion. Did she think he was trying to trip her up?

With the repairs paid for-and another hit to his Visa, which could take a lot of abuse but not indefinitely-Cooper and Allie headed out to the dock to have their first look at the revamped Dragonfly .

Cooper, however, had his eyes firmly glued to Allie. Her reaction would say a lot about her.

When she gasped, he knew she’d seen it and understood the scope of the work he’d had done.

“Oh my God, Cooper, what did you do?”

“If we’re going to bill ourselves as offering luxury cruises, our boat has to look the part. The Dragonfly is a great old tub, and she deserves to look her best.”

The Dragonfly did, in fact, look the best she’d looked since she was new almost thirty years ago. She’d been painted stem to stern. Anything that hadn’t been painted had been scrubbed clean as a whistle. The canopies had been replaced with bright-blue striped canvas.

Allie climbed on board and walked around, reverently touching various parts of the boat, her face reflecting nothing short of wonder. “I wouldn’t even recognize her if I didn’t know…Lord, Cooper, you didn’t buy a new boat, did you?”

Cooper joined her on deck, laughing. “No, it’s the same old Dragonfly .”

Allie opened the hatch and went inside, where the changes were less obvious. But Cooper had replaced the carpet and the refrigerator, which had been on its last legs.

“There’s something else I want you to see,” Cooper said as he opened the hatch that led to the boat’s underbelly and gave access to the engines.

Allie stared down into the hole, where her spaghetti bowl of wires was conspicuously absent. “How did you do this?”

“Jim Jameson recommended his mechanic to me. He charges more than Mickey, I imagine, but he overhauled all the wiring-in fact the whole electrical system. We can’t have the engines refusing to start at some inconvenient time.”

Allie turned to Cooper, her eyes shiny with tears. “Oh, Cooper, thank you, thank you!” She threw her arms around him and hugged him like she never wanted to let him go.

Well, that was an abrupt U-turn.

Cooper’s arms slid around her and held her close. God, she felt so good, so right against him. Her hair smelled like something tropical and exotic, rubbing soft as a dream against his cheek.

He had to make things right between them. Somehow, he had to get her to trust him. Maybe he hadn’t yet earned that trust, but he would work to earn it, and he wouldn’t give up.

Allie pulled back just enough that she could look at him. “Thank you for doing this,” she said again. “Johnny hated to see the Dragonfly looking shabby, and he would be so pleased, so proud to see her so beautiful. Even if I have to walk away on Friday, I’ll feel better knowing you’re taking care of her the way Johnny would have wanted.”