“Running an after-school program sounds like fun,” Emma was saying with a bright smile to Reid. “Technically, I’m not allowed to work until my residency is sorted, but I’m going to look into what’s involved. What do you think?”
“I think that would be a great program for you to run at the community hall, not in our basement,” Reid drawled.
“There’s a day camp in Bella Bella,” Trystan reminded Sophie. “My cousin runs it. I’ll get a number for you.”
“I forgot about that.” Some of Biyen’s school friends went, but she’d always had Gramps here so she had never looked into it. “Thanks.”
“Okay, if I’m not covering for Sophie, how about you and me go for a walk?” Trystan held out his hands to Storm.
She tipped herself from Emma’s arms toward him.
“I see who the favorite is today. I’ll go to the garden and eat worms, then,” Emma said.
“Or we could talk more about this after-school idea of yours.” Reid snagged Emma’s hand and turned her toward the house. “That sounds like resort business that needs further discussion at home.”
“Everything’s in the pram,” Emma said over her shoulder as she let Reid tug her toward their empty house.
“Spoiler alert,” Logan said dryly. “They are not going to discuss business. You know what else is going to happen?” he added with annoyance as he pointed to the office window into Reid’s office. “Everyone up there is going to use the new door into my new office to ask me where Reid is.”
“You better get to work then,” Trystan said as he strapped Storm into her fancy all-weather, all-terrain three-wheeled buggy.
“Does that thing have a seat warmer?” Sophie asked facetiously.
“And heated handlebars.”
“Are you serious? The company truck doesn’t even have a heated steering wheel!”
“Tiffany ordered it, but I gotta say, I don’t hate it.” He zipped the bug screen around Storm and straightened. “We’re going to see what the trail is like to the upper falls.”
“Home before dark or we’ll send a posse,” Logan said.
“Copy that.” Trystan steered the stroller toward the boatyard where a backroad would take them to the trailhead.
“And then there were two,” Logan said as they fell into step toward the marina office.
An air of expectation seemed to condense between them. When they came in the door at the bottom of the stairs, they could hear Randy machining something in the shop.
They climbed the stairs. At the top, Sophie stepped out of her Skechers and into her coveralls and boots. She tied the sleeves around her waist and walked in to sit at her desk while she tied her boots.
“Oh, look at your desk.” She craned to see through the window. “That looks good.”
“Thanks.” He hovered in the new doorway between her space and his.
She tensed, really not ready for the conversation he seemed to want.
Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a knock on the door into the main office. Umi poked her head in.
“Is Reid coming in? I thought I saw him down at the wharf.”
“He had to run home for something. He’ll be in later.”
“Do you want to sign these?” She held up a folder.
“Sure.” He nodded at his desk and she left it there, then closed the door behind herself.
“We should talk,” Logan said.
“I don’t know what to say, Logan.” She bent to double-knot her second boot. “I know that if you guys need to sell, it would go a lot more smoothly if you had an experienced manager-slash-marine mechanic in place here. I can’t give you that commitment right now.”
“That—I mean, you’re right, yes. But selling is our problem, not yours. We need to talk about us.”
Her heart tipped over in her chest. She scratched her forehead.
“I don’t know what to say about that, either,” she admitted. “Stay with us at the house if you prefer to give the honeymooners their space, but once Biyen’s back, I don’t want him seeing anything that might create expectations in him.”
“Expectations.” His blink was a small flinch. “Biyen’s not the only one who might have some of those. You realize that?” His mouth was tense, his voice tight.
“What do you want me to say? That I think you and I have a future? Do you see one?” she challenged gently. “Are you going to stay here forever? Here.” She pointed at the floor. “Or even in Canada?”
He was leaning on the other side of the doorway, scowling toward the dirty window behind her.
“Even if you said you did want to stay here, I don’t know that I do,” she said, quiet, but fervent.
“I have to stay here right now. You know that, right?” He snapped his gaze down to hers. “But we want to sell. Once that happens, I would go anywhere with you.” His cheek ticked. “If you asked me to. I want to see where this goes.” He motioned between them.
An urge to weep rose in her. Not hard tears, but quiet wistful ones because this was the thing she had longed for back when she’d been mooning after him as a teen. She swallowed past the ache in her throat.
“But you don’t,” he said with understated devastation.
