Page 10 of Hidden Harbor (Evergreen Rescue #1)

“ I ’ll walk you home.” I said it to Violet, but I meant it for Anya.

She’d looked disturbed by our earlier talk about safety on the cliffs. Granted, the most dangerous thing they might face on their three-block walk was an out-of-control moped driver, and that was unlikely since the rental place had closed for the day, but I wanted to see them safely home.

Zach opened his mouth, no doubt to offer to walk them too, and I glowered.

Maybe I wasn’t fooling him, but if he interfered again, I’d make him regret it.

Gran only thought she cornered the market on family pranks.

Just because I didn’t engage often didn’t mean I didn’t follow through. I just never got caught.

Violet gestured to Lee. “Unless Lee drove, his path takes him right by the house too.”

Lee was smarter than Zach. “I’ll catch up with you later. I’m going to walk along the water for a few minutes before I head home. I have a plot point I’m wrestling with, and that usually helps me think.”

Was it my imagination that Vi looked disappointed?

I peered more closely at my sister. I didn’t think she and Lee were close.

Did she want to change that? They bickered just as much as we did.

We didn’t hang out as much as we did when we were younger, but I still considered him like another brother.

Frowning, I watched my friend take off toward the harbor.

Clay offered Lucy, Rae, and Zach a ride, which they gladly accepted. A weak drizzle had started. Not enough to soak us, but enough to make us uncomfortably damp.

“Here,” I said, shrugging out of my hoodie and offering it to Anya.

“This is becoming a bad habit,” she said, but she accepted my fleece, shrugging into it and popping the hood up over her hair.

“If you offer me your shirt, I’m telling Mom on you,” Vi warned, laughing when I rolled my eyes.

“I’m not planning to walk through town half-naked.”

“And yet, if I were Anya, I still think you’d offer,” she mumbled.

I pretended not to hear her, charging up the hill toward their house. Vi and Anya scrambled to keep up with me, and I cut my pace.

Vi unlocked the back door.

“Lock it behind you.”

Vi rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

“Thanks for the jacket,” Anya said, handing it back. The misty drizzle had coated her lashes in tiny droplets, making me want to touch them. Wipe the moisture away. She swayed closer, and every sense went on alert.

“You’re welcome.” It came out more gruffly than I’d intended. “I meant what I said earlier.”

Her face scrunched in confusion. “About what?”

“If there’s somewhere you want to go. Hiking. Sunset watching. Whatever. I’ll take you.”

Her smile was soft. “That’s sweet, but unnecessary.”

“As friends of course.” I didn’t want her to think I’d ignored her earlier edict about our relationship.

Maybe she wasn’t ready to date. Maybe she wasn’t interested in me.

It didn’t matter. I still cared about her safety.

I couldn’t explain the protective urge that drove me.

Couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong, but something didn’t fit.

She had no relationship with Jordan Dawkins that I knew of.

So why did her finding his body have such an impact on me?

Was it the circumstances or the woman? There was an almost imperceptible undercurrent of fear running behind her blue eyes.

Had it always been there, or had Saturday’s discovery sparked it?

I didn’t know much about Anya’s past. She’d simply showed up on island a year ago, first as the new yoga instructor Vi raved about, then eventually as her roommate and the studio’s new owner.

“Thanks, Drew.”

It was a gentle dismissal, but a dismissal just the same. I ushered her under the shelter of the back porch, sliding open their back door. She stepped over the threshold, closing the door and toeing off her shoes.

“Lock the door, honey, so I don’t have to worry about you both.” I waited a beat, supervising as she flipped the latch. Flimsy, but better than nothing. Tomorrow, I’d get a dowel from the hardware store and drop it off.

I sketched a salute, slipping into my hoodie for the walk back to my truck. The mix of petrichor and Anya’s subtle floral perfume comforted me as I trudged through the mist.

Gran paused her show as I dropped my keys on the entry table.

From experience, I knew better than to look at her screen.

She seemed to delight in watching porn in the living room.

I bought her a TV for her bedroom for Christmas, but it didn’t matter.

I think she liked scandalizing me almost as much as she liked the smut.

She took in my jeans and sweatshirt in one sweeping glance, shaking her head. “I may have to rethink your motto. Have you looked it up yet?”

“Nope.”

She sighed. “And here I thought you were my favorite grandchild.”

“Last week at family dinner you called Zach your favorite,” I pointed out.

“Yes. Last week he was. He hooked me up with a new grow light for … gardening.”

I snorted gently. She’d banned me from her tool shed a decade ago. I left any “gardening” support to Zach.

“This week, it was gonna be all you. I thought you were finally going to embrace your destiny. Live a little. Word is you had coffee just yesterday with that sweet friend of your sister’s, but do I see her here?

” Gran snorted. “I do not.” Her piercing gaze skewered me.

“You live like a hermit. It’s not healthy. ”

“I’m fine, Gran. Just busy.”

“You’ve taken on too much responsibility.”

I raised both brows, surprised she could say that with a straight face. “Like you should talk. Didn’t you start up the salt farm in your twenties?”

Her jaw tightened. “I had to. That was survival.” She gestured to me. “This? This is comfort zone. You need to get out of yours.” She drew herself up to her full height, expression serious. “It’s time for you to move out, Drew.”

My grandmother loved her pranks. They were legendary. This had to be one of them.

“Very funny, Gran. I need to be here for work.”

“No, you don’t. If anything, you work too much.”

“Mom and Dad are retired.”

“Yes, and it’s a blessing to have them travel and get out of my hair. But you’re not taking advantage of their absence to do any of the things young men do.”

“I’m in my thirties, Gran.”

“Exactly. Don’t let more time pass you by. Nudus currere et loqui sordida .”

I threw up my hands. “Fine. If I look up this so-called motto you want me to adopt, will you stop trying to throw me out of my house?”

Frustration filled me. Mostly at the realization that she could do it. Kick me out of my home. She owned the farmhouse. The surrounding land. Most of what we had was in my grandmother’s name. I could be homeless and jobless at her whim.

She’d always been a tough cookie, but not with me. I was one of her treasured grandkids. Sure, she goofed around, but she loved me.

“Looking it up would be a good start. But I think it’s going to take more than that. It’s time for you to pack up your things, Drew. I’m evicting you. It’s for your own good.”

“Tonight?”

“Tomorrow,” she relented. “Don’t make me call the sheriff.”

I couldn’t believe she was serious. It had to be a joke.

“Why?” I asked. Her edict seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Because I love you.”

Arguing with her when she got like this was pointless.

I could only hope a good night’s sleep would change her mind.

Or a call with my folks. They’d chosen a fine time to hare off to Europe for three weeks.

I wasn’t sure what country they were in, let alone which time zone.

Maybe my mom could talk Gran down from whatever plot she was trying to implement, kicking me out.

“Does this impact Island Salts?” I asked, trying to hide my hurt and confusion.

“Drew, honey, I just want more for you than this farm and the business. Keep working. But find a new place to live. You need space of your own. Hanging out with an old lady like me isn’t good for your social life.”

“Pitching a tent outside the evaporation houses isn’t going to do much for it either,” I pointed out.

“No, Drew. I want you off the property, not camping at work. Find a place in town, or out at Roche Harbor.”

“Gran, tourist season is just around the corner. Everything is already booked.”

She shrugged. “Then I guess you’re gonna have to get creative.”

She unpaused her show, and I stomped up the stairs.

It was childish, but I couldn’t believe she was kicking me out.

Maybe I’d been lazy, choosing to live at the farm, but it was conveniently close to work.

And aside from a few years at school, it’d always been my home.

I loved my parents. Loved my job. Never went through a rebellious phase like Zach.

We were all relieved when he bought Nauti by Nature and moved out to the marina.

Real estate on island wasn’t cheap. I’d been saving for a while, probably enough for a down payment, but finding a place to buy didn’t just happen overnight.

Rentals were rarer than hen’s teeth this time of year.

Anything decent was already booked. I couldn’t kick one of our renters out of their home.

That left me freeloading off other family, at least temporarily.

Zach lived on his sailboat. Unless I wanted to cuddle with him in his V-berth, that was a no-go.

Even I wasn’t masochist enough to try to couch surf on his tiny galley bench.

Cole lived too far away. Vi already had a roommate in Anya, but their couch might be my only option.

I briefly considered asking Lee, but he didn’t have a guest room.

Staying with him would be a major imposition.

He guarded his privacy closely and worked wild hours.

Pride made it impossible to beg. Gran had a point. Other than the few years I’d gone away for school, I’d lived at the farmhouse my whole life. It was time to step out on my own.

Crashing at Vi’s place was my best option.

And my worst. It wouldn’t be a big deal, except I’d just agreed to friendship with Anya.

Friends helped friends. Letting me couch surf fit the criteria.

Classic friendship move. Except the part where I had feelings for her.

Which made sharing the same walls, the same air, seeing her every morning and evening, not just friendly, but dangerous.

No matter how much I told myself I could keep my distance and stay detached, being so close to her would test every boundary we put in place. One slip, one moment of weakness, and I’d be over the line, making a fool of myself. Breaking my promises.

Keeping my distance was the only answer. I’d be the ghostly third roommate, up before dawn and out late. She didn’t deserve to feel uncomfortable in her own home, and I couldn’t afford to let her unravel me.