Page 6 of Hooked on a Feeling

She swung open the door. “You brought me food?” She smiled and ushered him inside.

“I did. Figured you’d get here and see everything that needed fixed up, and you wouldn’t want to leave.”

“I could have easily walked over to one of the restaurants, but you’re probably right. This place is nothing like I remembered.” She was glad Lyle had come back because they could have a serious conversation about the marina. She could get honest answers that her parents didn’t give her. “Did you bring yourself some food?”

Lyle shook his head. “Nah. Miss Darcy fixed me a big breakfast, and I don’t eat that much anymore anyhow. What’s on your mind? I figured I’d given you enough time to see everything with your own eyes first.”

“You sure did.” She opened the container and grinned at the sight of the club sandwich, pickle spear, and French fries. “Heaven. Come and sit. Let me grab a pen and paper.”

Once she found what she needed, she joined Lyle at the old oak table in the dining room. From there, she could see the towering office building of Blue Horizon and only a partial view of the shipyard. She shook her head and put the tip of her pen to the paper. “There’s no money, is there?”

Lyle let out a small sigh. “There’s some. With the trust there was only so much in it, and since your parents want the money every month, there hasn’t been enough to keep up. I spend it frugally. The few hundred dollars a month that we get from renting the slips just barely covers taxes and whatnot.”

“Which means you work around here for free.” She met his gaze for confirmation, not liking the defeated look in his eyes.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Starr sucked in a breath. “I figured as much.” She’d imagined coming down here and getting it into a state for potential buyers to be confident of what they were buying—that the marina, closed restaurant, and store looked appealing enough to have potential. But there weren’t funds to improve it. She’d even imagined if she got it looking appealing enough, it could stay in the family and it could be reopened, having her parents reap the monthly profits. But she knew that it would be hard to change her parents’ minds because they were in love with the idea of the money they would get from the sale.

Even if she could do any of the above, what was stopping her parents from draining the marina for money over and over like they had been doing? Hopes of reopening the marina or even the store would just be prolonging the inevitable. She dropped the pen on the table, watching it roll to the side. She didn’t bother to stop it when it got close to the edge and fell off, clattering when it hit the floor. “Guess I need to spruce this place up and find a Realtor.”

* * *

“Come again? She is who?” John’s younger brother Judge stretched back in his office chair, kicking his feet up onto the edge of his desk. He threw a foam basketball into the hoop he’d hung on his office wall. This was always his lunchtime hobby. “She’s gorgeous as hell.”

When the ball rolled to a stop, John picked it up and threw it at his brother so he could shoot again. After running into the beautiful, fit woman who looked like a freaking dream yesterday, John needed to be the one throwing a basketball into some net to let off the steam. The way the sun had sparkled off the blond-brown strands of her hair and her skin shimmered with her fresh application of sunscreen, John had fallen in love at first sight. He cleared his throat. “She’s old man Harold’s granddaughter. She’s staying at the cottage on the property.”

Judge threw the ball again, and this time he missed. “How have we never known he had a smokin’-hot granddaughter?”

“I’m assuming she isn’t the only grandkid. Christ, the bay is going to get invaded by a bunch of Youngs while they come and renovate the marina.” John kicked the foam ball up into the air, where it hit the window. Judge caught it on the rebound.

He tossed it in his hands, back and forth. “Is that what they are actually doing? That’s what she told you?”

John plunked down into one of Judge’s chairs. “Not in so many words. She mentioned it needed work. But she wasn’t as forthcoming as I would have liked.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “Plus, I felt like a kid around his crush. I was off my game.”

This made Judge laugh, and not only did he laugh, but he dragged it out longer than necessary. “I can’t believe you fell in the water.”

“I lost my earbuds.”

“At least your phone didn’t get ruined.”

John nodded. “The shareholder meeting is next Friday. Once I’m named prez, I can officially walk over there and see what she has planned for the place. Offer to purchase the property.”

“Maybe you should concentrate on the shipyard, and I can go over and meet our new neighbor.” Judge gave John a devilish grin.

“I saw her first. And no. Just no. I’m not even going there with her.” His heart took a weird nosedive into his stomach that he didn’t understand. It wasn’t like he’d never been with a woman before. Or had a girlfriend. Out of all the women in the harbor, why was it this one who was making his brain get muddled with crazy sexual temptations? Why did the idea of Judge going to meet her make him jealous?

“Exactly. If you won’t, I have no qualms about sleeping with the enemy.”

John knew what Judge was doing—provoking him so that John would do something about his crazy attraction to the woman. “Let it go. Keep your dirty hands away from the marina. If anyone is going to see Starr again, it’s going to be me.”

Judge did his devil laugh again. “Right. Just like I knew it would be. You really need to lighten up, bro. President or not, you gotta chill. Life’s too short.” He threw the ball into the hoop, where it swooshed through and landed on the floor with a soft thud. “If it were me, I’d keep an open mind about her. You never know what life has in store for you, and if she has you this tied up, she must be something.” Judge raised his eyebrows, and the two brothers had a stare-down contest for a minute before John broke it.

His brother was right. Not about sleeping with the enemy but about lightening up. It was just too hard for John to do. Not when he had the future of Blue in the palms of his hands and it would be up to him to keep it afloat. “Keeping an open mind about the marina—and her—is easier said than done. Come on, man, you know how pissed Mom and Dad would be if they heard I was fucking a Young?”

Judge smirked. “Since when have we ever told them who we fuck?”

“Never. But for as big as Emerald Port is, word gets around. I can’t create unnecessary gossip over something as trivial as a romp in the hay.”

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