“Oh. Figures. I came from there this morning.” She shook her head at her bad luck. “Are both his brothers with him?”

“Yes. Why?”

Her expression became conflicted. She looked as though she wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it.

Sophie searched her expression, growing ever more prickly, but Quinley came back outside with the coffee carafe to refill the woman’s cup.

“Moody is putting your chowder on the bar,” Quinley told Sophie sullenly.

“Thanks.” She’d have to pad her tip so Quinley didn’t tell the whole island she was on her period.

“Can I get you anything else?” Quinley asked the customer with more warmth, drawing her back to her table.

“No, this is perfect. Thank you.”

Sophie glanced back once as she went around to the pub entrance, not sure why she was disturbed by the unfinished conversation. She had work to get back to, though, so she paid Moody for her chowder and took it to her desk. Kenneth had left a pile of receiving documents that needed checking and entering so she sat down to do that while she ate.

She was finishing up both when she thought she heard Emma’s voice in the main office. She leaned to glance through the window into Logan’s empty office just as a rapid knock sounded on his internal door.

“Come in,” Sophie called.

Emma pushed in, clutching Storm. She was crying. Not Storm. Emma.

“Em. What’s wrong?” Sophie rose and moved into Logan’s office.

“She’s here.” Emma pressed the door closed with her backside, hugging Storm with two arms, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

Storm was cheerfully oblivious, smiling at Sophie and showing off her teething ring.

Sophie spared her a quick smile and caught Storm’s batting hand, but asked Emma with concern, “Who?”

“Tiffany’s sister! Cloe. She came to the house and said, ‘You must be the nanny.’ She wanted to see Storm.”

“Oh my God. Okay. Sit down.” Sophie guided her into Logan’s fancy office chair and fetched the box of tissues from her own desk. “What did you do?” she asked as she brought them back.

“I said she could wait on the deck and that Reid would be home soon. Then I got Storm up from her nap and snuck her out the basement door. Reid’s not back yet. I don’t know what to do, Sophie! What do I do?”

*

Out of respect for their meeting, Logan and his brothers turned off their phones when they sat down with the tribal council.

There was a strong representation of women on the council including the chief councillor, Hazel. She was a cousin by marriage to Trystan’s mother and welcomed him warmly before introducing the rest of the councillors.

Only nine of the twelve had been able to make it on short notice, but Trystan had assured them they only wanted to impart information today.

“You know my brothers,” Trystan said, introducing them.

The conversation was social for a few minutes as everyone used this opportunity to catch up on family news, especially contemporaries from their school days, learning who had settled where as they married and started families.

Logan kept wondering what selling to the Heiltsuk Nation could mean for his own future with Sophie. Would knowing the sale was a sure thing make it easier for her to leave? What about him?

He wasn’t sorry he had told her he would wait for her. It was the raw truth, but he didn’t want to, especially after last night. They’d all ribbed each other over dinner and he had realized he liked being together with everyone, especially with Sophie and Biyen at his side. It made him feel calm and centered in a way he couldn’t recall experiencing, at least not since he was a very young child.

That was the life he wanted to start right now, with both of them, but he couldn’t. Not while he had commitments here. Selling to the Heiltsuk Nation was the right thing to do, but it could drag on for years. That worried him.

Nevertheless, as the chitchat wrapped up, he was in complete agreement when Trystan stated their support for the Hieltsuk Nation to purchase the resort buildings along with taking over the running of the business.

“We’ll need time, though,” Tracy, one of the councillors, said. “Not just for working out the fine points, but for the actual transition.”

“Of course,” Reid agreed.

Raven’s Cove already employed a number of people from the Heiltsuk community, but Umi held the most senior position as their head of accounting. Finding the right people for other skilled positions like marine mechanic and hotel management could require a couple of years of training before they were ready.

“For the moment, we’ll focus on finishing our existing projects, so an appraisal can be done at the end of October,” Reid said.

That was a deadline the three of them had agreed on when they had decided to stay and work out the season, but now there would be added pressure to ensure everything was turning a profit by then. Otherwise, they’d risk being valued too low to recoup what they had invested in the resort to keep it going through this summer.

It meant Logan was definitely not going anywhere until that happened and also made the pending departure of Sophie more impactful.

He put a brave face on it, though, smiling with everyone else as they rose to shake hands.

Moments later, they all turned on their phones. Logan’s heart stopped as he picked up Sophie’s message.

Tiffany’s sister is here. She’s at the house. Emma and Storm are in Reid’s office.

Reid must have had a similar message from Emma because he barely bit back a curse.

“I’m so sorry. We have a family emergency,” Logan explained to the concerned councillors as he showed Sophie’s text to Trystan.

“No one is hurt,” Trystan assured them grimly after reading it. “But we have to hurry back. Please excuse us.”

Reid was already pressing his phone to his ear as he headed for the exit, asking Emma, “Are you okay? What exactly happened?”

They hurried back to their borrowed bowrider, an agile vessel that Logan leapt in to helm, pushing it fast and flawlessly across the passage. None of them spoke. Reid was so far into himself, he looked like one of those black holes that swallowed themselves. Logan felt exactly the same. He knew what they were all thinking: They had royally fucked themselves with the promise they had just made.

All of their capital was now tied up in the resort until such time as the wheels of bureaucracy released it. How the hell would they fight a custody battle if they were drawn into one?

By the same token, they’d had a good case for keeping Storm when Reid and Emma had planned to keep Storm here, in her own home. With this agreement today, Storm’s eventual home was in the air with the rest of them. If they were prepared to move Storm elsewhere, why couldn’t she go with Tiffany’s sister to California or Chicago or wherever the hell she’d come from?

This was an added blow to his already painful sense that his life was fragmenting in all directions. Logan had never suffered mal de mer, but he nearly threw up off the side of the boat during that short journey. His protective instincts were jangling so hard in his ears, he couldn’t hear the high-pitched roar of the boat’s engine.

She can’t have her, was all he could think. She can’t. Storm belonged with Emma and Reid.

She belongs with us.

Chapter Twenty

Sophie asked Umi to open Reid’s office so Emma could wait there. Reid kept it stocked with snacks and diapers along with Storm’s saucer and playpen. Also, it allowed Emma to see the wharf so she could watch for the men to return.