Page 11 of Bait and Switch
My face scrunched automatically. I tapped the side of my beer can, pretending to calculate, even though the answer came easy. “I don’t see myself as crazy. Maybe a two?”
“Would your parents agree?”
The question slipped under my skin in an unexpected way. My smile faltered. “If they knew I’d been tied up and detained by drug smugglers tonight, definitely not.” The laugh I forced out was hollow. “They probably think I’m crazy for moving here at all. Or thinking that I can make a living off my art.”
His expression sobered, his eyes narrowing in concentration, like he was weighing my words. “Are either of them passionate about their work?”
I felt my shoulders sag. Images of my parents surfaced without my permission. “Doubtful. Dad’s in marketing, been with the same company for twenty years. He likes it okay, I suppose, but I’ve never seen him excited about his work. And Mom hasn’t really worked much since she had me. She’s been helping out a friend in her flower shop a couple of days a week the last few years. She doesn’t make much money, but she likes the work.”
He nodded slowly, his jaw flexing. “Passion is more important than money.”
“Are you passionate about fishing?”
His eyes softened, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. “I wake up excited to do it most days, so I guess I am.” His voice dropped on that last part, like it was almost a confession.
“So you work with your family in the fishing business?”
“Yeah,” he said, and there was a weight behind the word. He set his can down on the counter and ran a hand through his hair. “Me and my brothers, and our dad. Mom basically ran it until she passed last year. We’ve been making do since.”
The grief threaded into his tone made my chest ache. I leaned toward him instinctively. “Oh wow. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, it sucked. She was only sixty.”
I flinched, my stomach clenching. Sixty wasn’t old. Not old enough. “What happened?”
“She had a heart attack and drowned, while we were all out fishing.”
The air punched out of me. My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh goodness, who found her? Please tell me it wasn’t you.”
“No,” he said quickly, shaking his head. “Fortunately, or unfortunately for them I suppose, it was a tourist who happened into the empty shop and later discovered her floating by the dock. My oldest brother, Spence, was the first one back from charter that day, so he was the first to field the circus.”
The image seared itself into my mind, unwanted but vivid—a tourist stumbling upon the unthinkable, his brother carrying the weight first. “That sounds awful.”My voice was small.
“Gets easier with time, I suppose.”
I wanted to believe that. But as the memory of zip ties and cold steel pressed into my temple returned, my stomach twisted. Would this ever get easier with time? Or was I going to wake up with this fear in my veins forever?
“Shall we continue the tour?” I asked, desperate to chase the shadows away.
CHAPTER 7
KAI
Iled Jasmine down the short hallway, stopping in front of a closed door. “This is the spare room. It’s a work in progress since my brother just moved out last month.” I pushed the door open to reveal a mess of plastic totes and clothes that looked like they’d been dropped mid-move. The faint smell of dirty clothes and cologne lingered, the air carrying a ghost of Reef’s presence, like he'd never left. "I’m going to make it an office eventually, if he ever gets all his stuff out of here.”
“Did he move out to live with the detective?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, that’s Coulter. His girlfriend, Faith, is the detective. Reef is the one who moved onto my brother Trevor’s houseboat when Trevor upgraded to a bigger place with his new wife, before their baby comes. The houseboat’s at the marina, close to my dad’s house. Reef moved over there to keep him company after Trevor left.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of brothers.” She blinked, like she was already trying to memorize the names. Her tone carried both admirationand disbelief, as though she couldn’t quite picture growing up in such a crowded household.
“Yeah, five boys total,” I said with a grin. “Plus Ava.”
Her eyes widened. “Holy shit, your mom had six kids? After two girls, my mom wasn’t willing to test the odds for another shot at a boy.”
“Yeah. My mom used to joke with Trevor that none of us was really planned, but he was the only shock. After they finally got the girl, they thought they were done. But the next year, there he was.”
“Sounds like a close-knit family. It’s great that your brother can be there for your dad. The short commute to work must be a big bonus.”A smile tugged at her pretty little lips, which did wonders for my anxiety. The dopamine dose made me want to do anything and everything to keep her smiling.
