by Marci Bolden
“Hello?” Jade called. When she didn’t receive an answer, she turned to Darby, who simply shrugged. Jade hobbled through the store and out a back door to where rows of canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards were neatly stacked on wooden racks. “Anyone here?”
“Aye,” a deep voice answered. A man poked his head around the stack of orange-and-yellow ombre canoes and blatantly looked them both over before meeting Jade’s gaze. He stared at her through bright gray eyes shaded by long, thick lashes that almost made him look innocent. Almost. The lashes were offset by a mischievous twinkle that likely wasn’t noticed by many until it was too late to escape his allure.
“Hi, Liam,” Darby practically cooed.
“You know him?” Jade asked under her breath.
Darby grinned and batted her eyes. “Everybody knows Liam.”
“I bet,” Jade said flatly.
“Nice crutches,” he said with a tempting smile.
“Thanks,” Darby and Jade said at the same time. Darby, however, sounded flattered, whereas Jade sounded unamused.
“Do you girls need something?” Liam asked.
Girls? Jade had managed to push her irritation away, but this man relit her fuse. Just seeing his handsome face made her want to beat him over the head. For no reason other than that he was handsome and seemed to know it. Nick had always known he was handsome, too. The bastard. “No,” she deadpanned. “We just like to wander around rental places in hopes of finding unwitting men to enchant with our siren songs.”
He stood up and widened his grin. “Must be your lucky day.”
“I doubt it,” she answered. “I was hoping you could tell me the least painful activity to try with a sprained ankle.”
The man’s smile spread, and Jade silently swore if he said one untoward thing to her, she’d shove one of her jewel-encrusted crutches right up his ass.
“I think he’s flirting with you,” Darby whispered.
“I think he flirts with everyone to increase his odds.” Jade dismissed him with a wave. “Never mind. There has to be a dozen other rental places I can try.”
“Two,” he said. “There are two other rental places. Unless you want to go out of town.”
“Maybe we will,” Jade said.
A cocky grin formed deep parentheses around his mouth and crinkled the lines around his eyes. Jade didn’t think that was age as much as time spent in the sun wincing and smiling at foolish females. She doubted he was much older than her thirty-seven years, and she had recently started to take notice of the way the lines on her face never fully faded.
Yeah. She definitely didn’t like the way he raked her nerves.
“Running off more business, Liam?” a young woman asked as she came out of nowhere carrying an armful of bright orange life vests.
“Just being hospitable,” he countered.
Jade tilted her head as she looked at Darby. “I think he was bordering on sexual harassment. What do you think?”
“Oh, come on, Jade.” Darby smiled and batted her fake lashes in his direction. “He’s cute.”
The younger woman shifted the life vests to reveal a very pregnant stomach. “I’m sorry about him. He thinks women find him charming.”
Liam smiled and winked. “Some women do.”
“I do,” Darby offered as she raised her hand.
Though he was adorable with his shaggy brown hair and suntanned skin, Jade wasn’t exactly won over by his approach. Lowering Darby’s arm, Jade said, “We need to work on your standards.”
“But—” Darby started.
Jade shook her head. “Being cute and flirty doesn’t make a man worthy.”
“I’ll second that.” The younger woman hefted the life vests again and held her hand out. “I’m Parker.”
“Jade,” she said, shaking her hand.
Liam, the insufferable, approached with his arms out, causing Jade’s defenses to spike. However, he didn’t pay her and Darby any attention. His focus was on the armload Parker was carrying. He took the life vests from her as he frowned. “I told you I would take care of those.”
“I’m pregnant, not broken,” Parker said.
“And I’m the boss,” he stated before walking away with the vests.
“How can I help you, ladies?” Parker asked.
“I’m only in town for another few days. I’d like to do something besides sit around, but…” Jade gestured toward the foot she’d been holding off the ground.
“How bad?”
“The doctor said I’ll be fine in a few days. I just can’t put too much weight on it.”
“It’s worse than she wants to admit,” Darby offered.
Jade frowned at Darby’s assessment, mostly because she wasn’t lying. “I really don’t want to sit around doing nothing. What do you suggest?”
Parker pointed toward the stack of sit-on-top kayaks. “That’s probably your best bet. You can sit on this in shallow water without much trouble. That would make it easier to get in and out of.”
Jade had really been looking forward to learning how to paddleboard, but as she’d feared, her flying leap off the balcony had put that goal on hold.
“Have you used a kayak before?” Liam asked, approaching them again.
“It’s been a while.” A while had actually been close to a decade, and even then, she had fallen out of rather than gracefully exited the craft.
His sly smile returned. “I’m happy to give you a refresher course.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re not as cute as you think?” Jade asked.
“No,” Liam said at the exact moment that Parker said, “Yes.”
Liam’s sarcastic come-ons eased, and he sounded sincere when he looked down toward her ankle and said, “You really think it’s a good idea to get out on the water with a bad foot? What if you tip over?”
“I’ll wear a life vest.”
“Damn straight you will,” he stated, as if he had any control over her actions.
Jade turned her eyes away when she noticed the way his muscles rippled as he lifted a canoe off the rack. She feigned disgust and looked at Darby. But Darby had slid her bright cat-eye sunglasses down to get a better view.
Jade gently bumped into her and whispered, “Don’t encourage him.”
“I know you’re bitter right now, but even you have to admit he’s adorable.”
“So are stray dogs,” Jade said, “until you find out they have a bad case of worms.”
After setting the kayak on the ground, Liam rested his hands on his hips. “Get in. Not you,” he stated when Darby headed for the kayak. “Limps-a-lot.”
Jade lifted her chin a notch and stared him down.
He shrugged as if her resistance meant nothing to him. “I’m not renting to you unless I see you get in and out of this without breaking your other ankle.”
“It’s not broken,” Jade informed him. “It’s a mild sprain.”
“Get in,” Liam ordered.
Jade was torn between marching off as indignantly as her crutches would allow and proving to the egomaniac that she could, in fact, get in and out of the kayak. Holding his gaze, she smirked as she put both crutches in one hand and lifted her injured foot over the kayak to straddle it.
“Wrong,” Liam said.
She started to step in, but Liam released a sound that was an obnoxious imitation of a buzzer.
“Do you want to flip over?” he asked.
She turned her back to him and started to sit, but her ankle screamed out in protest. Damn it. She was going to suck up the pain and prove she could do this. She tried again, but the pain won out.
“Oh, now she’s in trouble,” Darby muttered.
Jade shot her a silent warning to be quiet. “I would do this in the water, like Parker said, which would make it easier.”
“Then let’s try it in the water.”
Jade widened her eyes. “What?”
Without another word and with little effort, Liam lifted the kayak onto his knee and
then rolled it onto his shoulder. With his free hand, he gestured toward the lake. “Show me how much easier it is in the water.”
She looked to Parker, who simply stared, and then to Darby, who seemed to be solely focused on Liam’s muscles.
When Jade didn’t move, Liam asked, “You want to do this? Because if you do, come with me so I can show you how to get in and out of this thing without finishing off that ankle.”
Jade and Darby followed Liam across the street and down two steps to a sandy beach.
“Hold these.” Jade held out her crutches to Darby.
“Jade,” Darby practically begged.
Unfazed, Jade pushed the crutches at her again. “Take them, Darby.”
With a frown, Darby accepted the crutches. “I’m going on record as saying this is a bad idea, and I’m terrible at recognizing bad ideas.”
Ignoring her, Jade put her injured foot into the sand. Not only did the hot granules instantly squish between her toes, but the soft ground did little to support her. She ignored the pain as she limped her way behind Liam to the water.
Though he was wearing canvas sandals, Liam walked right into the water and put the kayak down with ease. Jade stopped beside him and planted her hands on her hips, waiting for him to impart his wisdom.
“How’d you manage that?” he asked, clearly meaning her injury though he was looking her in the eye.
“Fell through a banister.”
“Wow. Vodka?”
“Gravity. I don’t drink.”
The perplexed look on his face made her laugh.
“Is everyone in this town a lush?” she asked. “How can one person’s aversion to alcohol cause so much controversy?”
He shrugged. “Small town. Not much to do.”
Jade opened her arms wide as she looked around the lake. “There are a million things to do here. Like”—she returned her attention to the kayak—“renting me one of these.”
“Right,” he said. “We’ll see about that.”
The light reflecting off Darby’s bright red hair was like a flare signaling for rescue as Jade paddled into the cove. Since Darby’s car didn’t have a rack to take a kayak back to the cabin, Liam had offered to take Jade and the rental. Jade, however, had tapped into her defiant side and insisted that she could paddle back.
Despite his and Darby’s protests, Jade said all Liam had to do was carry the kayak back across the road to the water and she’d be off. They’d both argued with her, but Jade’s determination had won out. Darby had taken her crutches home, Liam had seen Jade off, and she’d silently cursed herself for the twenty minutes it had taken her to make her way to the cove.
What. The. Hell. Had. She. Been. Thinking?
Her arms felt like gelatin. Five minutes into her excursion and she’d been on the verge of giving up and letting the lake take her wherever the waves wanted. After ten minutes, she’d considered tossing away the paddle so she could wither away to nothing in peace. But after fifteen minutes, she’d recognized the cove in the distance.
She was even more relieved when she saw Taylor walking toward Darby, who had started waving her arms and calling out to Jade.
“Help,” Jade answered as she neared the shore. She put the paddle on her thighs and reached out as if Taylor and Darby could magically pull her from the water. Neither even moved. They watched from where they stood, several yards from the beach. In that moment, Jade hated them both for no reason other than that they weren’t being more sympathetic to her self-induced agony. She’d made a lot of bad decisions in her life—like that time she started with an advanced spin class because it was just riding a stationary bike, or when she spontaneously took up rock climbing because she was certain it couldn’t be that difficult—but this was definitely in the top ten of her bad choices.
“My arms,” she called out. “They won’t work. Help me.”
Darby and Taylor headed toward the beach, but both stopped short of entering the water.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Taylor asked. “Darby said you were paddling all the way here by yourself. Are you a masochist or something?”
“That creepy guy said he’d bring the kayak over since Darby doesn’t have a rack on her car. I didn’t want him here.”
“Liam Cunningham isn’t nearly as bad as he seems,” Taylor informed her. “He’s like a puppy. He begs for attention but doesn’t actually want it. It’s just a game to him.”
Jade was probably as close to shore as she could get without having to crawl out of the kayak. She’d learned, thanks to said creepy guy, that she needed a bit of depth to get out without hurting her ankle. The water helped ease the jarring of landing on her foot.
At least he’d been good for something other than smirking like a freaking know-it-all as she struggled to prove that she was ready to tackle the kayak. Though she staggered and nearly fell on her face, Jade managed to get out of the kayak and stay on her feet. Now she just had to get to shore, where Darby was waiting with her crutches.
As she neared the beach, Jade frowned at the disapproving looks on Taylor’s and Darby’s faces. She could understand that look coming from Taylor since she seemed to be much more logical than anyone else at the moment, but Darby had no right to look so malcontent. Especially since she’d confessed to doing drunken cartwheels on a stage while wearing platform boots.
Darby was the winner, hands down, when it came to bad ideas.
As tempted as Jade was to ask for help again, she refused to when they were acting like that. However, as soon as she got to the beach and no longer had the water to ease some of the burden on her ankle, Jade gave in. “Guys,” she whined. “Are you going to make me crawl?”
Taylor headed toward her with a scowl on her face. “You should know better.”
Darby handed Jade the crutches while Taylor pulled the kayak onto shore so it didn’t float away.
“You’re not ready for this,” Taylor said as she followed Jade toward the chairs. “Until you can actually walk, you should be sitting on your ass right here and enjoying the view.”
“I’m on vacation.” Jade tugged her life vest off and sagged into the chair. “I don’t want to sit here doing nothing my entire vacation.”
Taylor put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “You’re going to make that ankle worse and have to use crutches for weeks instead of days.”
Jade crinkled her nose and looked at Darby. “She’s bossy, isn’t she?”
“Apparently you need that,” Darby said. “Even I’m not this reckless.”
Jade cocked a brow and smirked. “I’m not sure I believe that.”
Darby lifted her brow in return. “Would you like ibuprofen with a juice chaser?”
“Yes, please.” Jade forced a sweet smile to her face. “Thank you, Darby.”
Taylor sat next to Jade. “If you’re going to be using that thing, you better be able to get in and out of it without falling.”
“Did you start on the banister?” Jade asked to change the subject from her stubborn stupidity.
Taylor stretched her legs out in what seemed to be her uniform of gray cargo pants, a tank top, and work boots and said, “I ordered supplies. I just dropped by to check with Darby on when I should get started when she told me about your little expedition. We agreed I should wait for your return before leaving in case Darby couldn’t get you out of the water.”
Jade grinned, genuinely touched by Taylor’s thoughtfulness even though Taylor seemed more annoyed than concerned. “Aw, that was nice. Thank you.”
“Don’t do that again, Jade. You seriously could get hurt.”
Rather than admit that Taylor, Darby, and even Liam had been right, Jade once again changed the subject. “Are you going to have to replace the strippers and flashers?”
Chuckling, Taylor shook her head as she rolled her eyes. “Just the flashers. The strippers are going to be fine. However, this place is a mess. She needs more than just a banister.”
Jade peered back at t
he cabin. From where she sat, she noticed several spots where the shingles had started cracking and other areas that were dark from years of protecting the cabin from the elements.
“It’s not an investment property if you can’t make money off it,” Taylor observed. “She should sell it while she can.”
“Well, maybe you can talk to her about that. If it really needs a lot of work, she might not want to hang on to it anyway.”
“Look what I made,” Darby sang carrying three wine glasses and the brownie container on a tray. “Nonalcoholic for you, darling.”
Jade accepted the glass. “Thank you.”
“How does your digestive system handle that much juice?” Taylor asked.
Jade laughed lightly. “I, um, I had colorectal cancer, so… There’s not much of my digestive system left, really.”
Darby creased her brow and slid her sunglasses down her nose. “You had what?”
“Colorectal cancer.”
“Butt cancer,” Taylor offered. “She had butt cancer, Darby.”
“Well, it was more like…” Jade gave up the idea of explaining the ins and outs of where her tumors had grown and spread and the various parts she’d had removed. She simply nodded. “I had cancer in my butt.”
Darby swayed on her feet and dropped into a chair as if she didn’t have the strength to stand any longer. “I didn’t know that was a thing.”
“Well, it is,” Jade confirmed. “They removed a foot of my colon, and then I had to have chemotherapy. The cancer had spread before we caught it, so there were other things. But we don’t need to get into them because you look like you might faint.”
Darby put the back of her hand to her forehead and gasped. “Please. I don’t want to know.”
“Are you okay now?” Taylor asked, ignoring Darby’s dramatics.
Jade nodded. “Yeah, or so I’m told. But that’s why I don’t eat junk food or drink alcohol.”
Darby jerked her glasses off, sat up, and gawked, her dark eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. “Junk food and alcohol?”
