RaeAnne Thayne - Redemption Bay

“He mentioned it was a Delphine.”

“Oh, that is a fine boat,” Archie said, almost reverently.

“One of our best,” Ed agreed, in the same devout tones.

“I can’t see that the kind of boat the man owns matters a good gosh darn,” Barbara said. “I just want to know what he’s doing here with it.”

“I don’t know,” McKenzie admitted. “I can only promise you this. If he plans to cause more damage to this town than he already has, the jackass will have to get through me first.”

“Is that right?”

An instant too late, she realized all conversation in their vicinity had ground to a halt again. She turned at the familiar low drawl and of course, there he was standing just a few feet away. He looked gorgeous, wearing those jeans—buttoned up now—and a tailored polo shirt and fancy high-tech watch that could probably cover her entire mortgage.

The air inside the diner seemed to suddenly plummet thirty degrees, as if a January cold front had just blown across the lake.

No one seemed to know what to say—which she found as shocking as Ben’s presence here, since regulars usually had the opposite problem and never seemed to know when to shut up.

“Hello,” Ben said.

She cleared her throat, grateful the dusky skin she inherited from her mother didn’t show the heat she could feel soaking her cheeks. At least she hoped not.

“Um. Hi.” He knew she didn’t want him there, so she couldn’t see the point in showing outright hostility to the man. Okay, any more than she already had. “Everyone. You remember Ben Kilpatrick, I’m sure.”

Edwin opened his mouth to say something but Archie elbowed him in the ribs. While she would have liked to see them rip into Ben, this didn’t seem the time or the place—and she had a feeling that as resentful as everyone in town might be toward him for his negligence, most people were too well-mannered to throw it in his lap the first time they met.

“Hear you’ve got yourself a Delphine,” Archie said.

“I do. A 1965 model. She’s a beauty.”

“You restore her yourself?” Edwin asked.

“The easy parts. Mostly, I worked with a couple guys in the Bay area, who did the heavy lifting. I’m planning to put her in the water later today.”

“You want to keep an eye out for crevice corrosion. As I recall, the Delphine was prone to that.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

“If you need a hand off-loading from your trailer, my grandson Jake works at the marina,” Paul said. “Don’t let the earring fool you. He’ll treat your Delphine like a newborn babe.”

Just once, she wished the residents of Haven Point weren’t so darn nice. This man had single-handedly turned a thriving community into a shadow of itself—but here was Ed, who had been directly impacted by Ben’s overnight decision to close the boatworks, giving him tips on the Delphine, for crying out loud, and Paul offering up his grandson’s help.

Was she the only one willing to fight the good fight?

“As I recall,” Ben said, “Serrano’s was always the best place in town for breakfast. Is that still the case?”

“Sure enough,” Archie answered.

“Try the Western omelet,” Paul said. “You can’t go wrong.”

“I never met a Serrano’s pancake I didn’t like,” Archie said.

Ben smiled. “Both sound good.”

“Why don’t you take a seat at the bar and you can see for yourself?” Barbara said.

“I prefer a table if you’ve got one free.”

“Sure. I can swing that. Looks like a nice one just opened up by the front window. Just over there.”

“I see it.”

McKenzie glared at her friend. She would have thought Barbara, at least, would be on her side. Why give the man the best table in the house?

“Menus are at the table and I’ll bring coffee in a minute.”

“Thank you. Mayor Shaw. Can you join me for a moment? I need a quick word.”

She could think of several words she would be happy to give him, free of charge, but she forced herself to remain calm.

Out the window, she could see Rika, who looked perfectly content, flopped onto her belly in a small patch of sunlight, watching the cars go past on Lake Street. “I’m in a rush, but I can spare a moment.”

She followed him to the booth, trying not to notice the broad shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist. It seemed wrong, somehow. He was a tech geek businessman, right? He ought to be pale, hunched over and asthmatic, not brimming with tanned athletic grace.

An image popped into her mind of him that morning on his terrace wearing only those jeans, masculine and relaxed. She swallowed hard. She really needed to get out more. Her friends were always trying to set her up with a grandson here, a cousin there. Maybe she needed to stop fighting the would-be matchmakers and give in, once in a while.

She slid into the booth across from him, noting the lovely view of the lake and the mountains from here. She never got tired of looking at those calming blue waters.

“You’re an early riser,” he said.

She felt that heat rising on her features again and was grateful again he couldn’t see her discomfort. “Wasting a beautiful June morning here is nothing short of criminal, as far as I’m concerned.”

His mouth twitched a little. When he didn’t quite make it into a full-fledged smile, she told herself the little clutch in her stomach couldn’t possibly be disappointment. “Have you made a law against that, Mayor?”

“Not yet. I’ll add it to the next town council agenda.” She refused to be drawn to him. Everyone else might roll over like Rika for a good long belly scratch, but not her.

“I have to go open my store,” she said shortly. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“You want to know why I’m back in Haven Point. I thought about it overnight and decided it’s only fair to tell you.”

Ah. Finally. “I agree. We have the right to know, especially if you’ve come to town to figure out some other way to drive our economy into the ground.”

He frowned. “I’m beginning to find that accusation and your hostile attitude more than a little tiresome.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said with a forced sweetness that made her teeth ache as if she’d just eaten an entire bag of that taffy she was thinking about earlier. “I guess something about you brings out the worst in me.” Could be the lasting damage you’ve done to my town, but that might be just a guess. “Go on. Tell me why you’re here.”

He sighed. “I didn’t expect to ever return but apparently I have a tough time saying no to some people.”

“Aidan Caine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Did he contact you to let you know I was coming?”

“A lucky guess. You’re the chief operations officer of Caine Tech and Aidan’s right-hand man. Aidan just bought half the town. Aidan and his wife-to-be, Eliza, have wonderful taste and both love Haven Point—unlike some people I won’t mention—and they’ve been working to revitalize it. Suddenly, you show up, obviously not happy about being here. I connected the dots. What did Aidan ask you to do?”

A muscle worked in his jaw. He glanced around Serrano’s. If not for her own tension, she might have found it amusing how heads swiveled back to their meals as if everybody in the place wasn’t watching him covertly—and some not even bothering with that.

He angled slightly toward the window, away from the other diners, and leaned forward, speaking in a low voice that forced her to incline forward as well, until their heads were just inches apart, far more intimate than she was completely comfortable with.

Up close, he smelled of toothpaste and some kind of expensive soap, woodsy and masculine and delicious.