by Ciara Knight
“I don’t know, hon, but I guess he never wanted to cage the bird. That’s what he’d said anyway. You know he was so proud of you. I think you lived the life he always wanted.”
Dryness choked Trace into silence. She took a swig of water, but it didn’t cool her throat or her pain.
“I spoke to Rhonda.” Bri returned with a guilty, downcast gaze.
Welcoming the interruption, Trace turned on her heels and shut the grief back into its cage. “What?” she asked.
Bri stood on the other side of the table, as if scared to share the news. “She said that wouldn’t work.”
“What?” Trace ground out like rubble into dust. She took a breath, cooling her temper. “Is that all she said?”
Bri looked to Jewels, obviously for motherly advice.
“Go ahead and say exactly what Rhonda told you.”
“She said, ‘Now that I have her by her high-and-mighty fins, she’s going to make a deal. Not a snowball’s chance in Summer Island would I agree to a compromise when I can watch her childhood home being turned to kindling.’”
Trace lunged for the door. “That vicious…”
“Wait.” Jewels blocked her exit. “We have another move here. Trevor. Don’t give up hope yet.”
“Hope? No. I hope he can’t help so I can put an end to this thirty-year feud the way I wanted to in high school.”
Chapter Four
Dustin wasn’t going to sit around and wait any longer. He washed his lunch dish and stuck it in the rack. The taste of day-old bread and failure stuck around. “Rhonda’s right. Trace only cares about sticking it to people.”
They stood in the main room of Trevor’s too-small-for-them-both home, but until Dustin renovated one of the hotel rooms, he’d have to stay put. “I think you’re mad because you thought you’d waltz into Summer Island and have it easy compared to the bureaucratic mess you had in Seattle. Every city has its procedures.”
“I have work to do,” he grumbled.
“You’re upset because Trace isn’t interested in your game.”
“Game? What game? I’m not playing around here. She’s the one acting all self-important and dictating my life.”
Trevor put on his readers and flopped onto the couch. “You’re going to make things worse. Wait for the town meeting and present your case.” He picked up his phone, probably for some sappy text from Jewels.
Dustin opened the glass sliding door to exit the suffocating house and conversation. “Last time I listened to you, I ended up living in Summer Island. I think I’ll follow my own instincts. I’ll get this hotel up and running, and then I’m going to find my next project far from here.” He didn’t really mean what he said. He liked Summer Island, despite the icy welcome he’d received from locals. The weather was much better than the dreary Pacific Northwest, and despite his puppy-love, stomach-churning ways, Dustin enjoyed hanging out with Trevor. It was like their college days.
At the edge of the back deck, he stopped and eyed the ocean, not sure if he was more averse to sharks or the people in this town. Footsteps followed. Undoubtedly Trevor would try to thwart his plans.
“Offer still stands to get you over your fear of the water.” Trevor waltzed by him with an air that he owned the world. A stark change from a few months ago when he had faced the possibility of being a father with his so-wrong-for-him-ex-wife and losing the woman he obviously loved more than breathing.
“Don’t need to get in the water to work on the hotel.” Dustin kept in step with Trevor down the street. “I can’t believe you like this town so much. All the times you raved about the people and the life here was a lie, wasn’t it?” He wanted to believe the bait Trevor used to reel him into this place, but he hadn’t witnessed this miraculous welcome.
Trevor buckled his tool belt around his waist as if he’d really get the work on the dock done today. Usually Dustin would help with Trevor’s work, but not that close to the water. “No, you just need to stop fighting and start accepting this way of life. Once I did that, I found real happiness—not the kind you buy, the kind you earn.”
“I’ll accept this place when they do things my way.” Dustin eyed the hotel and all the tractors sitting abandoned on his property. “Tell me how it’s fair to fine a business for equipment being left on its own land when they put a stop order on construction for historical violations.”
“Because you didn’t ask the council’s permission to change the hotel, only to fix it.”
“It needs an update if it’s going to attract tourists.” Dustin rubbed his throbbing temples.
“That’s your first mistake. I told you they don’t like tourists around here.”
“Who doesn’t want business? These people are crazy.”
“Maybe, but I’ve already had weekly bookings, and with the tax breaks and low cost of living, I’m doing well. You can have that too—an easier life.”
Dustin huffed. “Easier? Trace thwarts me at every turn. The fine was her doing.”
“No, I doubt that.” Trevor waved him off and stepped onto the dock, halting Dustin’s steps.
“You’re blind by your infatuation with Jewels, and you’re worried about stirring up trouble with her and her friends. I’m not scared of them, though.”
“You should be.”
“I’ll wait until the meeting to do any work on the hotel. Not because I’m scared of Trace and her little friend group but because I need to be smarter about this. I need more people on my side. In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and demolish that monstrosity of a shack in the woods by the hotel. That I have permission to do.”
“Yes, but you don’t own that land, so you can’t turn it into a day spa. The county only agreed to demolish the shack because they believed it was too broken to be fixed and useless to anyone. Some abandoned workshop in the woods. That’s what you told me, right?”
“Rhonda says they’ll sell me the land once I show that I’m willing to work with the townspeople. I can take down those few trees and add on to the hotel.”
“Is it really worth it for a little strip of woods? Seriously? You still don’t get it. Your money isn’t going to make things happen here. Have you not been paying attention? And for a man voted Most Eligible Playboy of the Northwest, you sure don’t have a clue about women. I’m telling you, Rhonda’s using you. I don’t know what she’s planning, but she’s going to get you to do the dirty work.” Trevor gripped his head as if to keep it attached to his shoulders. “If you follow what she’s telling you, this is going to end in disaster. Did you forget how I had to win over the town before I could even move forward with my boat charter business?”
Dustin tsked. “I thought that was just Jewels playing games to get your attention.”
Trevor tossed his hand as if throwing a ball to him. “I give up.”
“You can’t give up. You’re the reason I’m here.”
“No. You didn’t come here for me. You came here to find your own happiness with Trace. And she doesn’t want you and your ego.”
“Harsh.” Dustin kicked the spear-sized splinter sticking up at the edge of the dock. “I’m not like you. Not going to lose myself to win some woman over.” Dustin didn’t like the way his chest fluttered each time Trace came near him. It only ever lasted a few seconds, though, before she said something to make him mad.
Trevor studied the lines on his sailboat bopping back and forth from a powerboat wake. “You really don’t have a clue. I’ll bet you two days of cooking duties that Trace will have you wrapped around her will by the end of the week.”
“I’ll take that bet. But how are you going to prove something like that?”
Trevor’s mouth curled into a joker grin. “Because she’ll get you to do something you don’t want to do.”
“Never.” Dustin was sure of that.
“Ha. I’ll even take it a step further. She’ll get you to do something none of the rest of us can convince you to try.”
“What’s that?”
&nbs
p; “Swim in the ocean.”
Dustin shot his hand out, ready to shake on that sucker bet, but remained firmly planted on the safe cement wall. The gateway between soft grass and spiky dock. “I’ll take that and raise you a week of dishes and laundry.”
Trevor raced to him with outstretched hand. “And mowing the lawn shirtless wearing the pink apron we found when you moved in.”
They shook, and Dustin knew he’d be relaxing for a month watching his friend do the chores, because no one would ever get him to swim in open water, where sharks and gators and all sorts of creatures lived. As far as he was concerned, that was their home and he didn’t have any right to invade it. Never, ever going to happen. That was one thing he could be more certain of than his ability to run a company.
“I bet you’re thinking there’s no way I’ll win, but I assure you that if Trace asks you for anything, you’ll give it to her.”
“That woman is nothing but rude. Not going to happen.”
“It is. You’re only upset because you finally met a woman who doesn’t bow to your every whim.” Trevor adjusted his work belt. “As a matter of fact, you’re the girl this time. You’ll do anything she asks.”
He didn’t bother to say another word at his friend’s preposterous statement. “I’m going to make some calls. There are deals to be made in this town, and I’m going to make them. I’ll beat Trace at her own game.” That woman couldn’t get him to skip rocks across the water, let alone swim. Sure she was pretty, but she was a pain, too. The last thing he needed in his life was a woman like Trace, and he’d make sure that never happened.
Chapter Five
Trace tugged the metal chain out of the old barrel and dropped it into a wheelbarrow at the side of Jewels’s storage shack turned art studio in her backyard.
Clank. Clink. Clunk.
The metal on metal made an awful racket, but she didn’t stop, not until the entire hundred feet or so was loaded into the wheelbarrow.
Jewels poked her head out of the house, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “What’re you doing?”
“Stopping the demolition of my house. It’s happening at nine this morning, so I need to get over there.” She’d spent all night thinking of ways to follow Jewels’s advice and talk her way through it, but people didn’t listen. Dustin didn’t listen.
“I told you I spoke to Trevor. He assured me he’ll speak with Dustin. He had no idea that it was your house they were trying to tear down. He thought it was the old shack in the woods between the hotel and your property. That’s what Rhonda had told them anyway. He’s sure Dustin didn’t know it was your home.”
“Don’t trust Dustin Hawk and his big-headed business.”
Jewels removed her apron and crumbled it into a wad. “Wait for me. You’re going to do something stupid and dangerous.” Jewels disappeared into the house, but Trace eyed her watch and decided she didn’t have time to waste. With all her strength, she lifted the handles and pushed the wheelbarrow down the cobblestone walk. The sand would be too difficult to push through, so she hung a left and headed for Main Street.
By the time she reached the corner, her arms were shaking from the strain and her calves were burning.
Honk. Honk.
Jewels pulled up by her side in her little Toyota. “You can’t get that all the way to your dad’s place.” She flung the driver’s side door open, went to the back, and popped the trunk. “We’ll put it in my car and drive it over.”
“No time.” Trace lifted the wheelbarrow a few inches but didn’t take another step, knowing Jewels was right. Even if she could make it, she wouldn’t arrive in time.
“We’ll leave the wheelbarrow here, and I’ll drive through the pass and straight to the back door of the house.” Jewels nudged Trace out of the way and wheeled the chain to the back of her car.
Trace helped her load the thick, rusty metal into the trunk, and then she parked the wheelbarrow next to the nail salon. With shaking hands and burning quads, she wrenched the passenger side door open and collapsed into the seat. “You realize you’re not going to stop me, right?”
Jewels lifted the armrest and dangled a thick padlock from her pointer finger. “Stop you? I brought help. You didn’t think this through the way you did when we chained ourselves to the Nicolson Estate thirty-four years ago, demanding it be labeled a historical site.”
Trace wiped the sweat from her brow. She’d forgotten how muggy Florida could be this time of year. Of course, it was nothing compared to the rainforest in Brazil. “I’d forgotten about that.”
“You’re with friends now. Time to lean on us and stop being on your own. We all know how tough you are. You’ve got nothing to prove.”
But she did. If not to the world then to herself. She’d failed to stop the oil company, and she’d failed to save her intern from drowning. “Thanks. But this isn’t your fight.”
“If it’s your fight, it’s our fight. If Wind and Kat were here, they would be by your side, too.” Jewels turned onto Main and headed toward Sunset.
“I can’t believe that the town council wants my dad’s place torn down. They didn’t even ask me, and it’s on my property.”
“How can they do this?” Jewels asked.
“Apparently there’s a safety concern with rodents” Trace eyed the clean, proud streets of Summer Island. “Rhonda has to be the ringleader on this. She and Dad used to fight over her right to beach access. She probably thinks if they tear down the house, I’ll give up the land.”
“Could be. Your home does block her view.” Jewels took the next left and barreled down the street, hanging a right into the woods before they reached Trevor’s place.
“Yep, remember she convinced my father the county was going to pay him pennies for his land so they could build a road through to connect the main strip with the ocean. He almost sold the property to Rhonda because she’d convinced him that she didn’t want to see him leave me with no inheritance.”
Jewels gripped the steering wheel like she’d make a ninty degree turn going eighty.
A tractor and bulldozer sat at the edge of the tree line. “Please don’t be mad at me for asking this, but do you think Trevor has anything to do with this? It’s close to the resort property.”
“No. I told you he didn’t know that it was your father’s house. I think you’re being unfair to Dustin. Give him a chance. Once he finds out it’s your home and not the shack in the woods, he won’t help tear it down.
“Then why hasn’t he called back?”
Jewels stopped the vehicle with a jolt.
“Wait! What are you doing? I need to get there before nine.”
The car skidded over the loose rocks and shells, but Jewels managed to navigate it back onto the road. “We have thirty minutes. There’s still time. If we can stop this with a conversation, we have to try.”
Trace reached for the handle, but decided she didn’t need a broken ankle from jumping out of a moving vehicle. “I don’t like this. Conversation doesn’t work.” It hadn’t worked with Robert. He’d only manipulated her into believing the oil rig followed all mandates and guidelines, but Matt had seen through his charms.
“Trust me. If Dustin doesn’t stand down, I’ll chain myself to the house with you.” Jewels pulled the car to a stop outside the old house that Trevor ran his boat charter business out of.
“One conversation. Then action. Deal?”
Jewels nodded. “Deal.”
Fresh air replaced the rust odor, but it didn’t help Trace’s agitation.
“Remember, Trevor has probably already convinced him not to tear down the house, so don’t go in there with all attitude. It’ll only cause damage.”
Trace eyed the nearby hotel that appeared to be crumbling almost as much as her father’s place. “Fine, but if he touches my home, I’ll take that bulldozer to the hotel.”
Jewels led Trace around back to the docks, where Trevor tinkered with the powerboat engine. The man worked hard. Trace respected him for tha
t.
“Hi, hon,” Jewels called out to Trevor, who dropped what he was doing to pull her into his arms.
For the briefest of moments, Trace wished she had that, but the closest thing she’d ever experienced in her life to a long-term relationship was in the 90s, when she was forced to remain in Antarctica for an extra three weeks when their relief crew came down with the flu. That was awkward since she’d broken up with the guy the day before, thinking they would be moving on.
“I didn’t expect to see you here today. I thought the girls were arriving?”
“They are, but you didn’t call me back after talking to Dustin.”
“I haven’t.”
Stinging zaps encircled Trace like a giant man o’ war hugged her tight. “I told you they were in on it together! That overgrown lionfish is eating away at everything around him,” Trace yelled at a shadow that appeared on the other side of the glass sliding door of the house up the hill. “I’m going to stop this, now.”
Dustin sipped on his coffee, eyeing Trace and her BFF warping his friend’s mind. He thought about what Trevor had said. Maybe he should go out there and consider having a civil conversation and working things out between them.
His phone buzzed with Rhonda on the screen again. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Word has it that Trace is there and going to pull a stunt to stop the demolition. She’s yelling about how it was her daddy’s shack. The woman hasn’t lived in that home for thirty years. As far as her love for her father, she wasn’t even here when he died from a long battle with liver cancer. It’s nothing more than a play to beat you, the big-town businessman.”
Dustin’s gut twisted like one of those sailor knots Trevor was always going on about. “Are you sure? That’s cold for anyone to use a family member’s death to gain political ground.”
“This is the woman who organized a protest in high school against the cafeteria for overuse of plastic,” Rhonda said in a holier-than-the-Pope tone.
