Dad's E-Mail Order Bride (17 page)

Rachel had earned some time off.

She’d surprised him. She’d kept up with all of her chores despite the fact that she’d worked at the store for Courtney every day.

Graham was proud of her.

Maybe that’s why he’d been so knocked over when Courtney told him what Rachel had threatened. Rachel’s emotions had been all over the place for over a year now. Up one day. Down the next.

It made Graham crazy.

Even Rachel didn’t know what she wanted. She’d proved that this morning when she’d refused to go to New York when he’d finally had enough and offered to send her to live with his parents.

He should have called Rachel’s bluff the first time she mentioned going back to New York. If he had, maybe the Courtney situation wouldn’t have happened. And he wouldn’t be standing here now, pretending to follow the conversation and pretending that he didn’t care Courtney was in close proximity only a few buildings away.

“What about you, Graham?”

Graham looked up to find one of his fellow fisherman staring at him. “Sorry, Bill. I missed the question.”

“Are you booked up for the Fourth?”

“Yeah,” Graham said. “My guests are arriving on Wednesday.”

“Same here,” Bill said. “It’s going to be a busy week.”

“I hear there’s going to be a big party at The Wooden Nickel Friday night,” one of the guys said. “Whole town’s invited.”

Graham didn’t comment on that subject. And not because he opposed Courtney’s party. He’d be tied up with his guests all weekend.

“Is anyone going to enter the Woodsman contest this year?” Bill asked, looking over at Graham again.

Graham laughed. “Don’t look at me.”

The contest was a local charity fundraiser with the typical events—wood splitting, ax-throwing and pole climbing. The final event was what people really paid to see. The freestyle wrestling match that decided the winner provided enough blood and guts to give people their money’s worth.

Bill said, “I hope someone takes Gil Hargraves’s title away from him this year. The bastard. I’ve been waiting to see someone kick his ass for four years.”

Graham could sympathize with the way Bill felt about Gil. Gil had once dated Bill’s daughter, and as usual, Gil hadn’t kept many of the details to himself. Someone was going to shut Gil’s mouth for him one day. And like Bill, Graham hoped he was around to see it happen.

He’d already decided he was going to have a talk with Gil on Wednesday when he brought Graham’s guests to the lodge. He intended to tell Gil that Courtney was off-limits before Courtney found herself in a situation she couldn’t handle.

The group started breaking up and Graham headed for the door with everyone else, but Yanoo signaled for him to wait a minute. Yanoo walked to the far side of the meeting room and picked up a paper sack sitting on a table in the corner. When he returned, he handed the sack to Graham.

Graham looked at him, puzzled. “What’s this for?”

“Incentive,” Yanoo said. “That’s an expensive bottle of wine and the moon’s full tonight. Don’t waste it.”

“Don’t
you
push it,” Graham warned, following Yanoo to the door.

“I have to pick up Hanya and Tiki at the store, so I can take Rachel, too,” Yanoo said as they walked through the center of town.

“Thanks,” Graham said. “That means I can get home even sooner than I expected.”

When Yanoo stopped at the store, Graham kept walking. He’d call and say good-night to Rachel later. Two minutes more and he was pulling away from the dock below the store.

To hell with Yanoo and his wine and the damn full moon.

Graham was going home.

She finished putting away the last of the food. She wiped the lunch counter down. And she had just turned out the light above the grill when Broadway whined and trotted to the door.

“You just went out when Rachel left, silly,” Courtney told him, but she headed to the door anyway.

When she opened it, Graham was standing there.

He held up a bottle of wine. “This is a great Merlot. There’s an amazing full moon tonight. And all I need are two wineglasses, a corkscrew and someone willing to sit outside and enjoy it with a guy who’s sorry for being such a jerk this morning.”

“Tonight’s your lucky night,” Courtney told him. “You came to the right place.”

She grabbed the glasses and the corkscrew. The full moon had little to do with Graham’s preference to sit outside. He was offering a truce, but he still intended to keep his distance from her. Courtney would take that.

It was better than not seeing Graham at all.

She found him sitting on the top step of the landing leading down to the dock, Broadway stretched out behind him. Courtney stepped over Broadway and sat beside Graham. When she handed over the corkscrew, he opened the bottle, filled both glasses and placed the bottle on the step between them.

They sat in silence, sipping wine and watching the moonlight dance across the water. Courtney decided to let Graham take the lead when it came to the conversation. He’d shown up on her doorstep to apologize. But Courtney could tell Graham had more than wine and moonlight on his mind tonight.

They sat in silence a little longer.

He finally looked over at her. “What were you like in high school?”

Courtney laughed out of sheer relief. She’d been so sure Graham intended to ask her to go home again.

“What made you think of that?”

“Rachel,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about my high school years. All the memories. They were some of the best times of my life. So thanks for encouraging Rachel to talk to me about a compromise, even if she isn’t thrilled about Anchorage or Ketchikan. Rachel needs the opportunity to have good high school memories of her own. I was being selfish not to realize that.”

“You and Rachel would have eventually reached the same conclusion without my help,” Courtney said.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Our problem has been not talking. Until you came, all we were doing was yelling at each other. So thank you for that, too. You’ve acted as the buffer we needed between us to make us look at the situation from the other person’s point of view.”

“Thanks for saying that, Graham. I’m glad I’ve been able to help.”

He refilled his glass and leaned over to refill hers. Their shoulders only touched for a second. But it was long enough to make Courtney gulp down half her glass. She had to get her mind off how close they were sitting before she took him by the hand and led him straight to bed.

“Let me guess what you were like in high school. Total football jock, of course. Cheerleader girlfriend. Most popular guy. Prom king.” She grinned at him. “Close?”

“Embarrassing, but yes,” he said. “Now it’s my turn. Homecoming queen.
Captain
of the football team for a boyfriend. Most beautiful. Prom
queen.
How am I doing so far?”

“Batting zero,” Courtney said. “I was beanpole thin in high school, two inches taller than any guy in school and I had braces until my second year in college. I was a total geekette. Chess club president. Captain of the debate club. Editor of the school newspaper
and
the yearbook.”

“No wonder you always kick my butt every time we have an argument.”

He was only teasing and Courtney knew it.

But it gave her the opportunity to say, “About that. I like it much better when we don’t argue, Graham. Like now, just sitting here talking. It’s nice. Don’t you think?”

He
wouldn’t
do that to her again.

He shouldn’t even be here now. He’d been almost at the lodge when he’d turned the skiff around, knowing if he didn’t clear the air with Courtney, he wouldn’t sleep at all.

But sitting in the moonlight together had been a bad idea. Looking at her made him want her so bad right now Graham ached all over. But the key words were
right now.

Courtney deserved forever.

Graham wasn’t sure he’d ever have forever to give.

He picked up the wine bottle between them, glad to see there was only enough left to add a splash in each glass.

“This has been nice,” Graham said, finally answering her question. He polished off his wine and stood. “We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

She stood, as well. “I hope you’ll come to the party Friday night.”

“Sorry,” Graham told her, “but I’ll have a lodge full of guests starting on Wednesday. And when men pay to come here, believe me, all they want to do is fish.”

He started down the steps.

“Thanks for the wine,” she called out.

Graham stopped walking and turned around. “I can’t come to your party, but I could make coffee for you again in the morning before I pick Rachel up at Yanoo’s. Are you up for that?”

“At six o’clock?” She shook her head. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

“How about seven?”

“Make it eight and we have a deal.”

“Eight it is.”

“Good night, Graham.”

Graham threw his hand up in a wave as he headed to the skiff.

But he did glance over his shoulder as he pulled away from the dock. He could see her silhouette in the moonlight, still standing on the landing, Broadway beside her.

She waved.

For a second, Graham felt a little less empty inside.

Graham was coming back for coffee in the morning.

That meant, whether he realized it or not, she was slowly breaking through some of that stone wall he’d built around himself for protection. And that told Courtney she’d done the right thing by hanging back and letting Graham come to her.

Is that what Yanoo meant by not giving up too soon?

Courtney could only wonder.

She’d told Yanoo she was crazy about Graham. But her feelings went much deeper than that. She’d been infatuated with Graham—or at least the idea of Graham—before she arrived in Port Protection. But she’d fallen in love with Graham that day at the gazebo.

She loved him.

Graham could learn to love her back.

Or Graham could decide to let her go.

But Courtney would love him still.

“Just to put you on notice,” Gil said, “I’m asking Courtney out at her party Friday night.”

“I don’t think so.”

“What’s the problem?” Gil jeered. “You aren’t interested in her. If you were, she’d be in your bed instead of minding the general store.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Graham said. “Courtney’s off-limits.”

“Well, I guess we’ll leave that up to Courtney to decide, won’t we? And we both know who has the best track record when it comes to being persuasive with women.”

“Do the smart thing and back off, Gil.”

Gil’s smirk vanished. “Is that a threat, Graham?”

“If you have to ask that question,” Graham said, “you haven’t been listening.”

For a second Graham thought Gil was going to hit him.

Instead, Gil walked past him and climbed into the cockpit of the plane. Graham stayed where he was, staring directly at Gil, but Gil refused to make eye contact.

Graham was still standing on the dock when the floatplane disappeared around the cove. He hoped Gil would take him at his word and make the wise decision to leave Courtney alone.

Courtney going out with Gil wasn’t the problem.

The problem was Courtney turning Gil down.

If she did turn Gil down—and Graham had enough faith in Courtney to think that she would—Gil wouldn’t be happy about it and things could turn ugly quick. And that’s when Graham would have to step in and back up his threat.

He hadn’t kept Julia safe when he should have.

He wouldn’t make that same mistake with Courtney.