Page 49 of Hot for the Jerk

“Right, and I’m not a lumber-snack that had all the ladies fanning themselves yesterday,” I said with a scoff, still whispering.

Her glare just turned more lethal.

Julian had his phone out, his reading glasses perched on the edge of his long nose.“Looks like they’re letting water taxis take people off Wayman back to San Camanez.The ferry from Wayman to Seattle is running as normal too.”

Collective sighs and smiles drifted around the dining room as we all tucked into breakfast.

“You two must be looking forward to getting home, huh?”Bernie asked, assembling his English muffin sandwich with a fried egg, cheese, and patty.“Got little ones at home?”

“I have a son,” Raina blurted out.“Marco.He’s nine.”

All eyes turned to me.“Uh, no kids.But I have six nieces and nephews who I live on the same chunk of property with, and I take care of them a lot.I’m eager to get back to them.Especially with Christmas so close.”

Lenora’s eyes bugged out, then turned sad.“Oh my god.”

“What?”we all asked at the same time.

“Christmas.I completely forgot.”Her cutlery landed on her plate with a clatter and her shoulders slumped until I thought they might reach the table.“I normally have the tree and all the decorations up by now.But …” A hard look stole across her face.“It’s a different year this year.I don’t have anybody to help me put them up.Not that Walt was much good at it anyway,” she muttered that last bit and made a snarly face.

I glanced at Raina, and a soft, understanding smile pulled at her mouth.“Do you want to put the decorations up, Lenora?”

“I want to put up some,” our host said with a hollowness to her voice that caused a heavy sensation in my chest.“Not everything.But a few things.I have a smaller tree that might be easier.”

“Where are the decorations?”Raina asked before I could.

“In the crawl space under the stairs.”

“We have time before our water taxi,” Raina said, reaching over and patting Lenora’s hand.“We’ll help you.”

Lenora’s eye teared up enough that she had to remove her glasses and use the sleeve of her pink and purple floral blouse to blot away the moisture.“For two people who showed up stinking like vomit and seawater and ready to kill each other, you sure have helped me remember not to judge a book by its cover.You saved us here.You saved me.”

Raina turned her head and caught my eye.A beautiful twinkle in the light-green of her irises made my heart thud hard against my ribs.

“To Raina and Jagger,” Julian said, lifting his coffee cup in the air.“A couple of …” He wrinkled his nose when he couldn’t come up with anything to say about us.Then he shrugged his boney shoulders.“To Raina and Jagger,” he repeated, “one heck of a couple.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

It was too late though.The rest of the guests raised their cups and toasted us, echoing Julian’s words.Raina’s leg started to bounce under the table again.

“You come back and visit, okay?”Lenora said to me as I hugged her tight, having to bend down a fair bit because she was just an itty-bitty thing.She kissed my cheek, then stepped away and patted my cheek with her cool hand as if to wipe away lipstick.“You’re a good boy.”

That made me smirk.I hadn’t been called a good boy in a very long time.“Thanks, Lenora.You’re sure you have enough wood for the woodstove?I can run back and see if there’s more in the shed.”

She swatted my chest.“There’s enough.You’ve both done more than enough.”She reached for Raina’s hand, then took mine in the other, holding both of us.“Be kind to each other, okay?”

Raina tensed up beside me, but nodded.While she helped Lenora drag out all the Christmas decorations from the crawl space, I made sure there was more firewood split and stored in a dry place so that if another storm hit and the power went out again, Lenora would have enough wood to keep herself warm.When I came back inside, the house had been transformed into a magical Christmas village, complete with a trainchoo-chooingits way around the Christmas tree.The other guests had already left, taking the regular ferry back to Seattle, since they were all from out of town.Only Raina and I needed to hop on the water taxi, which meant we needed to leave her SUV and my cube truck on Wayman Island until we could arrange transport for them.

“Take care of yourself, Lenora,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze before letting it go.“And don’t be afraid to get a little dirty.If you see Walt’s truck parked somewhere, who’s saying a few well-placed nails behind a couple of tires won’t make you feel better about things?”

The little woman with white hair giggled as she wagged a chastising finger at me.“Oh, Jagger McEvoy, you are a devil, aren’t you?”

“You just called me a good boy!”

She swatted my chest again and released Raina’s hand.“Let me know when you get home safe, okay?”

“Yes, Nana,” I said, winking at her as I took both mine and Raina’s bags to her SUV.Lenora said I could leave the cube truck on her property and Raina was going to park her vehicle at the marina.

We piled into Raina’s vehicle, with Lenora standing in the doorway, clutching a tissue in her fist as she watched us drive away.We waved, and she waved until we were out of sight.Then when we reached the end of the long driveway, I did the first five notes of “Shave and a Haircut” on the horn, before pulling out onto the road and heading in the direction of the marina.

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