Page 69 of Devlin

His father nodded. "Yes. And you better win that damn race after all this."

"I'm going to do my best." As the words came out of his mouth, he felt a twinge of guilt. If Frank agreed to come back on theWind Warrior, then Hannah's dreams of racing with her dad would be shattered.

But wouldn't she be happy that her dad had his job back?

It was a trade-off, but he hoped she'd be willing to make that trade.

"What do you think, Dad?" Hannah asked as they put theDaisy Maeback into her slip.

"It went better than I thought. I need to make some adjustments in the sails. And we could work better together."

"We'll keep practicing. I know I'm not as skilled as Devlin, but I learn fast."

He gave her a small smile. "I know you do. And I have a feelingDevlin will have his hands full with Graham."

She nodded, having given him that piece of information before they'd gone out on the ocean.

They'd only seen theWind Warriorfor a minute. Apparently, Devlin had not wanted to sail anywhere within sight of them, which had been fine with her. She hadn't wanted him or his father to see them stumble in their training run. They already hadenough of an advantage.

But she and her dad were used to being underdogs. They were up to the challenge.

At least, she hoped they were.

Because it had been really fun to sail with her dad again.

"We'll need to go out every day until the race," her father said. "We have to get more in sync as a team."

"We will. We have a shot at winning. It might be a long shot,but it's a shot."

"You were always competitive, even as a child."

"I take after you."

"And your mother. We all like to win."

"Guilty. I do have to say, though, that theWind Warrioris an awesome boat. You did a great job on her, Dad."

"One of the best boats I've ever designed and built."

She inwardly winced at the hint of pain in his voice, and she wonderedif Devlin had finally had a chance to have his conversation with his father. He was determined to get a final answer. She just hoped they were all ready for that answer, because based on what his father had said to her, she thought there was no chance of Graham Blackthorne backing down.

As they got off the boat, she saw Devlin walking in their direction. His expression seemed unusuallyserious, and his father was nowhere in sight, neither of which seemed to be a good thing.

"Frank, Hannah," he said. "How was your sail?"

"Great," she answered. "TheDaisy Maeis a good boat."

"I'm sure she's better now that Frank has worked on her." He turned to her father. "I have good news, Frank. I want to hire you back. I realize that you may need added incentives afterwhat happened, and we can talk about all that. But your job is yours. I hope you still want it."

She was surprised, but perhaps Graham had realized that Devlin was serious about leaving if her dad didn't come back.

"I'll have to think about it," her father said slowly.

"You need to think about it, Dad? Why?"

"Because I do," he said shortly.

"I want to assureyou, Frank, that my dad will never ever have anything to do with personnel decisions again. He's agreed to give me complete autonomy over the Boatworks. I'm sorry it took this long to resolve matters, but it's been a crazy few weeks. I hope you know how much I want you back. And…" He shot her a quick look, then continued. "I'd like to have you race theWind Warriorwith me."

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