Lisa protested.
“I think she should loaf for the summer.” Adam nudged her. “Regroup and just play.”
“She’s earned it.” Shohn added, “Problem is, Lisa doesn’t do well with idle time. Never has.”
“She’d go screaming nuts in under a week.”
Giving them both a quelling frown, Lisa said to Gray, “I’m still considering my job prospects.”
Prospects that could take her right back out of Buckhorn? Not if he could help it. “Could I make a suggestion?”
The guys were interested, but Lisa just looked appalled. Mind made up, he forged on. “I haven’t been here that long and I’m still learning the ropes. If you’re related to those two, then I assume you know everyone in town, and most of what there is to know about catering to vacationers.”
She opened her mouth, but it was Shohn who said, “She does.”
Adam added, “She’s driven her fair share of boats, launched them, too, and even worked on them a few times with our uncle Gabe.”
“Gabe, the handyman.” Gray had met his daughters, all three of them. They were very pretty girls who flirted playfully. And they were all too young for him—not that he’d been interested anyway.
“When my uncle Jordan married Lisa’s mom, she was still a kid,” Shohn explained. “So she grew up around here. She knows everyone.”
“Jordan, the vet?”
“Yup,” Shohn said. “He has a real nice way with animals.”
So one of the icons was her dad? “Got it.”
“And,” Adam continued, “being the overachiever she’s always been, she’s organized plenty of community activities with our uncle Morgan, back when he was sheriff and since he’s been mayor.”
Morgan, the big, badass protector. Who the hell wasn’t her relative? Gray said only, “Met him, liked him.”
Shohn said, “She’s also—”
“Stop selling me!”
Her brother and cousin gaped at her. Grinning, Gray shook his head. “Amazing to me that either of you have hooked up. Not smooth, guys. Not smooth at all.”
Adam scowled. “Now wait a minute. I wasn’t—”
“It’s okay,” Gray assured him. Hell, he was already sold. It didn’t require a pitch. Then to Lisa, he asked, “Why don’t you come by tomorrow morning, say around six before I open, and we can discuss it?”
Her eyes widened. Both men stayed mute.
“The pay won’t be what you’re used to, but the work won’t be, either. You want to enjoy the summer but also stay busy, right? I figure we can probably work out something fair. I’ll be flexible on what hours you need to be here.”
Amazingly, her eyes widened even more.
Cute as well as sexy. He could get lost in those dark eyes. In her slim throat, a pulse thrummed wildly. Her gaze remained fixed on his, and hell if he’d look away first. Didn’t matter to him if they stood there all day.
Shohn nudged her, maybe a little harder than he meant to given that she stumbled.
Startled, she turned and smacked him. “What is wrong with you?”
“Me?” Shohn pointed at her. “You were the one gawking.”
She flared. “I was not!”
Rolling his eyes, Adam said, “Yeah, you were.”
Gray grinned. “You’re all close, huh?”
“Very,” Adam said with what sounded like a belated warning.
Having been a cop in a shit area rife with violent crime, Gray didn’t pay a lot of attention to bluster. “What do you say, Lisa?” As an incentive, he added, “I promise to keep you busy without overworking you, and if you enjoy the lake, well, then, it could feel as much like an extended vacation as not.”
Put on the spot, she finally nodded. “All right. Fine. I’ll be here at six and we can discuss it.”
“Not too early for you?”
Adam snorted. “She’ll just be finishing up her jog.”
Huh. So she liked to run? They had that in common. Gray wanted to know every little thing about her, but he could be patient. Maybe.
“If you’re ready, I can ring you up.”
Everyone followed him to the counter, and a minute after that he watched her go—his gaze glued to her small rounded butt in the short shorts. Damn. He remembered that sweet behind all too well, how it had fit in his hands, the tantalizing contrast of soft and firm.
With any luck at all, he’d be getting familiar again real soon.
LUCKILY NO ONE was around when she untied the small fishing boat and pushed away from the dock. It took three pulls on the cord before she got the motor going, then she settled onto the hard wooden seat and started down the lake.
She could have used any of the boats; the family collectively had three inboard boats, two pontoons and a variety of rowboats and fishing boats. But this particular one was the quietest and she’d as soon not draw attention. She’d done enough of that already.
The sun had just started to rise from behind the hills, sending fingers of crimson and gold to cut through the lavender dawn and play across the calm surface of the lake. Taking it slow, Lisa watched a fish jump, saw a few birds diving, turned her face up to the warm, humid breeze.
She’d always loved the fast pace of her high-pressure job.
But she also loved the peace of the lake, and maybe it was past time to find a better balance between the two.
After showering off the sweat from her jog, she’d put on sunscreen and a touch of makeup. It hadn’t been easy, dodging all the curious questions and over-the-top speculation from Adam and Shohn yesterday. They’d teased, harangued and outrageously guessed without ever once coming close to the truth.
That she’d had a sizzling-hot one-night stand with a total stranger who had now, by the fickle hand of fate, relocated to her hometown.
Shohn and Adam were both utter hedonists, open in their own sexual pursuits. But when it came to her—or any of the women in the family, really—they played deaf, dumb and blind, at least with matters of sexuality. If she told them the truth, they’d be stunned, but she knew with complete confidence that they wouldn’t judge her harshly, would in fact back her up in anything she decided.
She loved them, but that hadn’t made it easy fending off their nonsense, all while lost in the reality of the situation.
It felt good to be home.
It felt...something altogether different knowing she’d shortly see her fantasy man again.
He was here, in Buckhorn, where she considered starting over.
He hadn’t forgotten her.
He wanted her to work with him day in and day out.
Did that mean he hoped to pick up where they’d left off, as if she’d be that easy?
Or did it mean he wasn’t interested and spending that much time with her in close proximity wouldn’t make him as lust-crazed as it would her?
No, she couldn’t believe that. Even Shohn and Adam had noticed his interest. And commented on it. Repeatedly.
“Lisa has an admirer,” Shohn had said