Page 72 of Devlin

Her father met her gaze. "What about the race?"

She drew in a breath at their moment of truth. "I think you should do it with Devlin. TheWind Warrioris your boat. And you two racing it together would be unbeatable."

"But you wanted to race with me."

"I did, but it's not like we can't sail again sometime. This is your life, Dad. It's the life you've built. The Boatworks, the race—they're part of it. I don't want to hold you back in any way. I want you to be happy."

"I want you to be happy, too. Okay. I know what I want to do." He picked up his phone.

"Do you want some privacy?"

"Not necessary. I'm going to tell Devlin that I'll take my job back with a significant pay increase and an extra two weeks of vacation time, so I can get out to Austin more often."

She was amazed by that statement. Her dad had only visited her a handful of times since she'd left. "That would be wonderful."

"I haven't always been the greatest father, Hannah. I'd like to sayI did my best, but I don't think that's true, and I'm sure you don't think it's true, either."

"I wish we'd spent more time together after the divorce, but I know that our distance over the last five years has been as much my fault as yours. We can do better."

"Starting this weekend. I want to race with you, Hannah. Let's take on Devlin and Graham."

"Seriously? We're probablygoing to lose to them, maybe to a bunch of other boats as well."

"I have confidence we can hold our own."

She smiled at the sparkle in his eyes. "I'm game, but I don't want you to feel like you'd be letting me down if you chose to race with Devlin. I completely understand the situation, and I'm good with it."

"Well, I'm not. The only thing I'm good with is you and me racingto the finish line together, with Devlin and Graham in our wake. But we'll need to practice every day until then."

"I'm ready. I wish we could go now."

He laughed. "Tomorrow will do."

"I'll make dinner, while you talk to Devlin," she said, getting to her feet. She felt ridiculously happy that her father had finally chosen her over everything else. She was also glad she wouldn'thave to leave King Harbor just yet.

Devlin walked into his father's study Tuesday night. His dad was studying some reports, a whisky by his hand.

"I have somenews." He took a seat in the chair in front of his father's massive mahogany desk.

"Good news, I hope."

"Frank has agreed to come back to the Boatworks at a 20 percent increase in salary."

Graham rolled his eyes. "Frank always acts like he's so much better than me, but he's not. He saw an advantage, and he went for it."

"As you would," he pointed out. "Since I thinkhe deserves compensation for the past two weeks of stress, I agreed."

"It's your company."

"Yes, it is. Frank also told me that he's not going to race with me."

Surprise flashed across his father's face. "Are you serious? Why the hell not? He built that boat. He has told me a number of times that it's his baby."

"His real baby is Hannah, and he's going to race withher on theDaisy Mae. He said he'd made her a promise, and he was not going to let her down again." He actually felt good about Frank's decision. Hannah deserved her day on the ocean with her father. Plus, that meant she couldn't leave King Harbor until at least Monday, which was also excellent news.

"Well, Frank can't beat you with that boat or his daughter."

"He's worked on theboat and Hannah is a great sailor."

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