Page 42 of Save Me (The Wolf Hotel Mermaid Beach #2)

What is she doing? Why is she flirting with him? This is what he wants.

A smug smile fills Cody’s face. He thinks he’s won her over. “So, first day, huh? I guess you haven’t heard about Sloane yet.”

“What do you mean?” she asks innocently.

“I mean, you wouldn’t have taken this job if you knew what it’s like to work for her. She’s fucking certifiable. I would know, I almost married her.”

My stomach clenches as I struggle to tamp down my temper. All the while, the horde of sorority sisters listens and watches intently. He’s trying to embarrass me in front of my customers.

“If you want, I can put in a good word for you over at Tiki Wiki. I know the owners. That’s them right over there.” He points to a cluster of knockoff tiki floats about fifty feet away. “They pay better, too.”

“No, they don’t,” I snap before I can stop myself .

“Wait a minute. Cody . Right! You’re the guy with the micro penis!” Bailey says it loudly.

Gasps and giggles sound all around us.

Cody’s smile falls off.

“Hey, come on, ladies,” Jeremy scolds, getting in on the childish game. “It’s not his fault he has a nubbin. He was born that way.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my dick!” Cody yells, his cheeks turning red at the unwanted attention, as gazes inadvertently drift downward over his shorts.

There isn’t, I can attest to that, and I told him regularly, when he fished for validation. I also caught him holding a tape measure to it once, so I know it’s a sensitive subject for him.

“Of course not.” Bailey adjusts her tone to sound like a mother placating an upset toddler. “It’s just as good as all the other dicks.”

The tiki cruise sorority sisters must have clued in to the bad blood between us by now because they suddenly break out in a chorus of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” a few at first until the others join in. Their voices carry over the sandbar, attracting spectators.

“Fuck you all.” Cody steers his boat away from us.

“Where are you going?” Bailey hollers after him, a devilish gleam in her eye. “Thanks for the ice cream!”

He revs his engine in response and cuts out, heading back toward shore.

My hands are pressed against my mouth. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

“You kidding? I’ve spent a lot of time around men. I know his type, and he deserved it. ”

“He did.” Normally I would never condone mocking a guy like that, but it’s Cody. There is no level low enough to sink to with him.

More loudly, she calls out, “We ladies stick together against cheating ball sacs, am I right?”

The sorority girls let out a cheer before returning to their conversations.

I throw an arm around Bailey’s shoulder. “How would you like a promotion?”

“Hey! What the hell! All I had to do was make fun of Cody’s dick?” Jeremy exclaims, feigning offense.

“You’re both getting a promotion. You’re now officially tiki boat admirals.” I mock salute.

“Finally!” Jeremy holds his hand up for a high five, which Bailey meets with a slap. “What’s our bonus?”

“Free scones?”

“Yes!” he hollers in triumph, earning my laugh.

But his amusement fades in the next beat as he spots something behind us. “Hey, did you book Tiki Three for today?”

“What? No . What are you talking about?” I spin around to see what he’s talking about.

That’s definitely Tiki Three approaching us. The Sea Witch logo is front and center. Frank’s behind the wheel. What’s he doing? Why is he coming all the way out here? He could have just texted me.

And is that …

My pulse speeds up, as it does every time I spot Ronan. I didn’t think I’d see him again until tonight.

But why is Frank bringing Ronan here ?

Unless … there’s only one reason I can think of that they wouldn’t text me, and that’s to deliver bad news.

“What’s that about?” Jeremy’s worried frown says he’s thinking the same thing.

I edge toward the other side, watching them approach, my heartbeat now a slow, repetitive thump in my ear.

They’re twenty feet away when Ronan leaves his seat and comes around to stand on the edge, his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses.

“Grab the line!” Frank calls out.

Jeremy makes to move for it, but Bailey’s faster, swinging around to the far end to catch the rope Ronan tosses her.

In seconds, Frank has the engine cut and is hopping out to link the tiki to ours, Tiki One rocking under his weight.

“What’s going on?” My gaze flips from Ronan to Frank and back to Ronan.

“I’m taking over. You’re going back with him.” Frank jerks his head toward Ronan.

“Is it Gigi?” My voice cracks on her name.

“ What ? No. Gigi’s fine. Just got a text from her.”

A wave of relief bowls over me. I smack him in the arm. “Don’t do that to me!” Today is already soul-crushing. But losing Gigi too? That, I couldn’t bear.

Realization dances across his gruff expression. “Oh, yeah, sorry, didn’t think. But you two need to talk.”

“About?”

“ You two need to talk ,” Frank repeats, giving me a high-browed look .

“Oh.”

Oh .

Ronan leans against the tiki bar, waiting. His golf attire is gone, swapped out for board shorts and a worn gray T-shirt clinging to his chest.

“Who told him?” Was it Frank? No, he’d never do that. It had to be Abbi. Why, though? Is she angry for me trying to sabotage her husband’s plans?

“No idea.”

I guess the why doesn’t matter, though.

“And? What’d he say?”

“Oh no, I’m not doin’ this with you too.” Frank’s resolute head shake brooks no argument. “You go figure it out with him .”

I swallow. Moment of truth. Is this the end of things with Ronan? Is this the part where he says this isn’t what he signed up for? That he’s out? Will this be a repeat of my mother’s short-lived romance, when my father told her to “get rid of it” so they could continue with their sordid affair?

What if he wants me to have it?

I swallow against the ball of anxiety that’s erupted in my throat. “You remember Frank, right, Bailey?”

“Oh yeah, we go way back.”

“Another smart-ass in my life. Just what I needed,” Frank grumbles, earning her grin.

I drop my voice. “Listen, I’ve got something I need to do, so he’s going to take over training you for the day.”

“Yeah, no problem. Do what you’ve gotta do.”

Louder, I announce, “Okay, ladies! I have to head out, but the very capable Captain Frank is going to get you back to shore safely.”

Half of them wave to me; the other half are too focused on ogling Ronan.

For his part, he’s not paying them any heed, his focus glued on me.

“Good luck,” Jeremy whispers as I pass him to grab my bag from behind the bar.

With a forced smile, I skip over to Tiki Three , dreading this conversation. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

I wish he would take off those sunglasses. Maybe I’d have a clue as to what he’s thinking.

“I got this.” Bailey reaches down to unfasten our link.

Brushing past Ronan’s body, I scoot to the helm and start the engine. “’Kay!”

Bailey undoes the ropes, tucking ours into the compartment before hopping back to the other side. “Rainbow Alley tonight?”

“Sounds good.” I ease us away from the cluster of boats and people. Daring to steal a peek over my shoulder at him, I warn, “You should take a seat. We’re about to start moving.”

Ronan doesn’t take a seat, though. He comes around the bar and steps in behind me, his hands settling over mine, his fingers filling the space between each of mine.

Okay, at least he doesn’t seem angry. “Abbi told you?”

“Yup.”

Awkward silence hangs as we motor toward land. I know I have to address the elephant on the tiki boat. He’s waiting for me to do it .

I watch the channel ahead as I admit, “It’s the last thing I expected to happen. I wasn’t trying. And I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.” I bite my bottom lip with hesitation. “But I was thinking that I want to keep it.”

I feel his chest lift against my back with his own inhale. “Okay.”

Is that a good okay or an oh shit okay? I can’t tell.

“I’m thirty-one years old. My mom died around this age from ovarian cancer, and that can be hereditary. That’s something I think about. You know, what if I don’t have as much time as I think I do to start a family. What if this ends up being my only shot.”

“Okay.”

“Stop saying okay. What does that mean?”

His hard swallow fills my ear. “It means I’m good with whatever decision you make.”

I abandon my line of sight ahead to peer over my shoulder at him. “ But what does that mean ?”

He reaches up to slip his sunglasses off his face, revealing his beautiful eyes. “It means, whatever decision you make, I’m here for it, and I’m all in.”

“But this is a baby, Ronan. A whole human.”

His handsome face splits with laughter. “And here I thought it was going to be a sea witch.”

“Shut up.” I chuckle as I check the water ahead.

Another beat passes, and then he leans in to whisper in my ear, “I’m telling you that I’m all in with this. With you .”

My heartbeat pounds in my chest. Am I hearing this correctly? “So, if I have this baby … ”

“It’s gonna have an incredibly annoying uncle named Connor in its life.”

I laugh, but it morphs into a groan. “We barely know each other.”

“I know enough .” He dips his head down to feather-soft kisses over my neck. “I know I wouldn’t want this to be happening with anyone else but you.”

I hesitate. “Not even Abbi?”

A finger slips under my chin, turning my face to meet his hard gaze. “No. Not even Abbi.”

I can’t say why, but I believe him. Stretching up, I graze my lips against his before returning my focus to the waters ahead, where a slower boat moves. I adjust our speed. “Frank told me about the harborfront and the access road.”

He sighs. “I didn’t want to tell you until I had no other choice. Until I’d tried everything I could to get Wolf to change his mind.”

“And what are the chances of it happening?

“You saw him this morning. He’s serious. Which means we need to fight him every step of the way.”

“That’s just it. I’ve been fighting for the last five years, and what did that get me?

Nothing. He took my peace, and now he’s coming after my home.

” The high of hearing Ronan’s words, his unwavering commitment to me, gets a cold splash of reality as I admit that. “I don’t know. This changes things.”

“What do you mean?” he asks warily.

“What kind of mother will I be if all my energy is tied up fighting Henry Wolf, who has endless resources? Who always gets what he wants? And if I don’t fight, my house is gone, my business is dismantled.

Sure, I can try to restart, but it won’t be the same.

I won’t be the same. How do I manage all that and a baby?

” Not to mention the fact that Ronan just lost his high-paying job.

Good luck finding anything similar here.

“I don’t want to leave Mermaid Beach. It’s my home. ”

“You don’t have to. And this bullshit with Henry shouldn’t be part of this decision.”

“It shouldn’t be, but it is.”

His body tenses against my back. “Just … give it a few more days before you decide one way or another.”

“That’s about all the time I have left.”

Ronan’s strong arms wrap around my body as I steer us into the harbor, the silence heavy but not uncomfortable, as we each digest the situation. At least everything’s out in the open now, and no one is running anywhere.

What are the odds that the fuck boy who strolled into my shop one afternoon has turned out to be everything I needed in my life?

When we reach Sea Witch’s slip, Ronan hops onto the dock and grabs a line. He begins tying us up.

I rest my elbows on the bar and watch with amusement. “Have you never tied up a boat?”

“Huh? Yeah, once or twice.”

Coming around the bar, I leap off to join him there. “If you want to be a captain, you’re going to have to learn how to do proper marine knots.”

“Yeah?” His lips curve with a smirk. “Are you gonna teach me? ”

“Someone has to. Gigi would be appalled by this mess.”

Soft laughter carries as he steps aside, hands out. “Go ahead, then, Sea Witch. Give me that lesson.” His molten eyes drag over my bikini. “And then I’ll give you one of my own.”