Page 45 of Knockin' Boats
Mason was about four inches shorter than me with strawberry blond hair and freckles. You wouldn’t even know we were related unless we told you. We used to joke about one of us being an imposter, but truth was, I favored my dad while he favored our mom.
Sometimes, I wished I’d favored Mom instead, given what kind of selfish asshole Dad turned out to be.
I directed Gray to head east, so we could make a circuit of the best tour spots and launched into my spiel.
“Did you know that the Lake of the Ozarks has more shoreline than all of California? Yep! Over 1,000 miles…”
We were two hours into the tour before we came within passing distance of Master Bites. Ash had stationed the boat closer to the marina today, which I hadn’t expected.
There was a line of three cherry-red DreamBoats clustered around him. Clearly he didn’t need help building up his business when his stepdad was propping it up for him.
Maybe we should just keep going. I could tell Hudson he was swamped with customers. It was true, even.
“Ooh, what’s going on over there?” Crystal asked, killing any hopes that my guests might not be interested.
“That is Master Bites, a new food boat the Swallow’s Nest resort is running this season. It’s only been operating for a few days.”
“Oh, wow. We booked in at the B&B. If we’d realized the resort was open…”
I nodded. “It’s just reopening after a full remodel. And even if you don’t stay there, they’ve got an amazing restaurant with the best food you’ll ever eat. It’s open to the public now.”
Paul’s eyes lit up. “How good is it? So many touristy places have mediocre food for fine-dining prices.”
I chuckled. “Well, that’s one great thing about Swallow Cove. We’re small enough that we get some tourism, but not enough to really take over our identity. We’ve got some great food, but the resort is the best you’ll find. Of course, I’m a little biased since the chef is my mom.”
Gray spoke up. “He took me over for lunch. The scallop linguini was so good I almost cried.”
They all laughed at the notion of this tough guy shedding tears in his pasta.
“Is the resort a family operation then?” Mark asked.
“Yes and no,” I said. “It’s not your conventional family, but the owner is a good friend. We’re all as close as family, even if we’re not related.”
“Aw, that’s just so sweet,” Renee said.
Gray brought us around the far side of Master Bites and lowered the throttle so we could ease into line.
We were close enough now that I could see Ash’s face.
“Did you all want to order something?” I asked. “You could always grab lunch at the resort if you don’t want to wait.”
“Is the menu the same?” Paul asked.
“Not really. I believe they coordinate on their ingredients for the specials.”
“Let’s wait,” Crystal said. “We’re not in a hurry, and it’ll be fun to say we ate at a food boat. We’ve never done that.”
I resigned myself to facing Ash. Maybe he’d be too focused on his work to make it awkward.
There was no sign of his usual cocky smile. When I’d run into him on the lake, he’d always delighted in riling me up. As far as I could tell now, he hadn’t even seen me.
His forehead was furrowed, eyes narrowed in concentration.
A voice drifted to me from the boat ahead of us.
“Come on, dude. I’m starving!”
“Yeah,” came another voice. “How long is this going to take?”
