Page 35 of Bargain With the Boss

“You look amazing.”

“Thanks.” I tugged at the hem of my shorts.

“Stop that. You look stunning and hot as hell. My brother is going to swallow his tongue.”

“Is he coming with us?”

“No, but he’s outside working on his car under the tree. He’s determined to get this ridiculous muscle car running. I don’t know what it is. A snake of some sort.”

I laughed. “Shelby Cobra?”

“How do you know that?”

“My brother is the same person evidently. Well, he was. Now he’s more excited about his SUV since he has two children.”

Claire snickered. “Curse of the Cove strikes again.”

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard a comment like that. “What is that about?”

Claire tossed the lotion into the straw bag with a few towels and handed it to me. “It’s not real of course, but sure feels like it to all the people who get knocked up in this town.”

My eyebrows shot up.

She laughed. “Oh, your face. I forget that outsiders don’t understand the lore.” She quickly rushed to me and squeezed my arm. “I don’t mean it as a bad thing.”

“It’s fine.” I was used to feeling like an outsider.

“No, I’m so stupid sometimes. My mouth starts running before I can catch up.” She rushed to the door and opened it. There were three boats tucked into the structure along with a few kayaks on the wall. “There’re all sorts of stories out there about this town. Some think there’s a fertility statue in the lake.”

“What?” I couldn’t hide the laughter in my voice.

Claire laughed, flipping her long dark braid over her shoulder. “I know, that’s my favorite story. I went to this Halloween party at The Haunt and this pair of tarot readers were doing a live podcast. I think Luna was her name.”

Small town, small world. “That’s Xavier’s sister.”

“Oh, right! I keep forgetting about that. The Hastings had a falling out for a while. I don’t really know them. I was a bit too young to know Luna in school and Heath was a year behind Xavier.”

Claire went over to the sailboat and started pulling off the top. I dropped the bag and rushed to help.

“Anyway. During this podcast Luna talked about how she thought it might be a statue to the goddess Brigid hiding in the lake. She’s a really good storyteller. I can’t do it justice, but I definitely looked it up when I got home. I’m kind of a geek.” She laughed and rolled up the covering in a way that told me she did it all the time.

She jumped up onto the deck. “Hand me the basket?”

“Right.” I looked around for stairs and she just did some gimme hands. I handed it up to her. “Um, how do I get up there?”

She set it down, laughed, and held out her hand again.

“You don’t have stairs?”

“Just into the water. Not that I ever use them.” She grinned at me. “C’mon it won’t bite you. Just step on the front and into the deck.”

“Easy for you to say.”

I kicked off my flips and stepped onto the glossy wood. The boat rocked lightly.

“There you go.”

“I probably should have gotten those boat shoes or whatever.” I grabbed onto Claire’s outstretched arm then hopped onto the deck.