Page 18 of Knockin' Boats
“Me too, hon.” She pulled back. “Maybe this new arrangement will be good for you and Sawyer, hm?”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty set on hating me.”
She squeezed my cheeks. “Hate this cute face? Impossible. I know my son. He couldn’t hate a fly. Not really. He’ll come around.”
“I hope so,” I said with a smile.
I was pretty sure she didn’t know the depths to which our friendship had sunk, and if that were the case, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.
Not after she’d hugged me like a long-lost son.
“Now,” she said, all business again. “Let’s go over these recipes.”
CHAPTER 5
Sawyer
Cash leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window in the resort restaurant, impeding my view of the docks below.
“Who are we spying on?” he asked casually.
I glared at him. “No one.”
Cash pressed his forehead to the glass, peering out toward the dock, where Skylar was talking to Ash in front of a brightly colored food boat that had arrived.
“Then you’re creeping on Skylar, in which case, Brooks will kick your ass.”
I scoffed. “You know I’m straight.”
“Eh, I’m not convinced anyone is ever totally straight.”
I cut my eyes toward him. “You would love that. More people to hook up with.”
My attempt to divert him failed. Cash kept talking, but then, no one had ever figured out how to shut his big mouth.
“So if you’re not into Sky, I have to assume that intense look you’ve got going on is for Ash.”
“He shouldn’t be here.”
Brooks’s voice came from behind us. “Who shouldn’t be here?”
“No one,” I muttered.
“Sawyer is spying on Ash,” Cash said.
“For fuck’s sake,” Brooks and I growled at the same time.
I turned away from the window. “I was just admiring the view.”
“Aha!” Cash pointed at me. “So youwereperving on Ash!”
“What?No. I was looking at the landscape. Fucking hell. You think everything is a joke, but it’s not. Ash is the last thing I want to see.”
Brooks pinched his nose and sighed. “Saw, you’re going to have to deal with it.”
“I know that.” I turned away from the window. I hadn’t beenspyingon Ash. I’d simply been waiting for him to clear out before I headed to the Swallow Adventures office to check in with Hudson. “What do you think I’m doing in here? I’m trying to prepare.”
“Can you ever prepare for giving up a ten-year grudge?” Cash mused unhelpfully.
