“Why not?”

“Because looking at you is like…” She tossed up her hands. “It’s like walking down the chips and cookie aisle at the grocery store. I can’t resist you, and then I’ll forget why you’re bad for me.”

“How about I promise to be so good to you that you’ll forget the bad?”

Her gaze had started to soften, but then she apparently found her resolve, because she shook herself out of it and said, “Argh!” Then she jabbed a finger at him. “No. No more of your magical kisses that make my clothes fall off. You’ve got to go.” To prove it, she moved to the captain’s chair, started the boat, and revved the engine.

He’d have liked to push the issue and talk her down, coax her into coming back home with him, but he knew pushing her right now wasn’t the smart move.

And he wanted to be smart here. Wanted to be smart with her. Careful. She needed to be in control, and he got that. “Promise me one thing,” he said. “That you’ll moor at my place. No more sneaking around, trying to find a place at the end of a long day when you’re too tired to be behind the wheel. My dock is open to you. No fee, no paybacks, no worries. Period.”

She stilled. “Okay,” she murmured.

Okay. She’d be back when she needed to moor the boat for the night, and they could talk then. On her terms.

He barely got out of the boat before she hit the gas and was gone, leaving nothing but a wake.

Hud came down to the dock to stand next to him, smirking, the ass. “You’ve been back, what, two weeks, and you’ve already pissed off the hottest redhead in town. I think that’s a record, even for you.”

Chapter 15

Jacob shook his head. He hated letting Sophie go, but she needed a moment, and he could give it to her, knowing she’d be back tonight. “Don’t start,” he said to Hud, and turned his head to eye his twin—who up until now had barely given him the time of day, even though they’d spent a lot of time at the resort together.

He’d done his best not to care. He’d spent time with his mom. He’d also been working on the cabin here and there, fixing some things that had been bothering him, like a loose floorboard and some wonky electrical that made it so he couldn’t run his TV and make toast at the same time.

He’d been taking long paddleboard rides, pretending not to search for one crazy hot and adorable redhead’s boat.

But he was restless, spending too much time not doing what he’d come here to do.

Which was not one Sophie Marren. “What are you doing here?” he asked Hud.

“You’ve been visiting Mom.”

Jacob stared at him. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

Hud didn’t answer that. Instead he said, “You went a long time without seeing her.”

This conversation was a one-way-road straight to Troubleville. Because he had seen their mom, as often as he’d been able to manage it. “Was there a question in there?” Jacob asked.

Hud didn’t react to this, but there was something in his eyes, something to suggest temper even though he looked calm and patient and utterly in control.

But Jacob wasn’t nearly as patient, never had been. “Why don’t you just say what you came here to say.”

“All right,” Hud said, “but it’s going to be a repeat of what Sophie Marren just yelled at you.”

“You don’t want any more magical kisses that made your clothes fall off either?” Jacob asked.

Hud gave him a long, level look. “You lied to me.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You let me think that you left here and never looked back. But you paid half of Mom’s bills.”

Jacob let out a breath. Not where he’d thought this was going. “You already knew that,” he said. “Where’s the lie in that?”

“Because I just went to pay her next month’s bill online and discovered someone already paid it. In fact, someone paid it for the rest of the year. In full.”

Jacob lifted a shoulder. “So?”

“I knew it.” He pointed at Jacob. “That’s bullshit—you know that? I pay my half, always have. I don’t need you to cover my part. Just because you heard about the resort and the money troubles doesn’t mean you get to show off by stepping up and playing the hero now to assuage your own guilt.”

Jacob had been about to say that stepping up now was the only way he knew how to make up for things, but Hud’s holier-than-thou attitude was pissing him off. He stepped closer to his brother and Hud did the same, clearly itching for a fight every bit as much as he.