Stay With Me, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 5) (8 page)

Jessa chewed on her lip. “I know. I might be a little into him,” she finally said, blushing even harder. “How in the world do you notice so much?”

Delia chuckled. “I pay attention. You’re also one of the most straightforward people I know. I might not have gotten to spend that much time with you, but you just are who you are. It’s one of the things I love about you, but it also makes it easy to notice things. You might want me to shut the hell up about now, but should I do some reconnaissance and see what I can find out about Eli?”

“Oh my… why would you think I’d want that?” Jessa finally asked, dying to ask Delia to do just that.

Delia shrugged, a gleam in her eyes. “Because when most people are interested in someone, they’re, well, interested.”

Jessa threw her hands up. “I can’t hide anything around here, can I?”

“It’s not too easy. I’m just teasing, you know. I’ll steer clear if it makes you feel better.”

“Oh no! If I’m going to have to deal with my nosy family, I might as well get something out of it.”

Delia threw her head back with a laugh. “It’s good to have you here,” she finally said when her laugh quieted. “Speaking of you being here, I thought maybe you might want to go with me to Midnight Sun Gallery today.”

“I’d love to. If it’s an art gallery, I’m there. Any reason you want me to go with you?”

“A friend of mine owns it, Risa Thomas. I thought you might want to talk with her about your furniture. Diamond Creek may be small, but the art galleries here do a brisk business. You might find some opportunities to make a little extra cash here. The tourists spend crazy money.”

A sprout of hope unfurled inside of Jessa.

E
li stood staring
at the phone in his office. It was mid-morning and he’d mentally promised himself he’d call his father this morning. In between ruminations over what to do about Ryan’s unexpected presence in his life, Jessa danced through his thoughts. Those few minutes on the boat with her had basically blown his mind. He’d gone home and needed an ice cold shower to get a handle on the raging lust coursing through his body. He’d fallen asleep replaying those heated moments on the boat again and again in his mind. He was rattled at how quickly she’d snuck through what he’d considered his impervious defenses. He didn’t do relationships.
Ever.
But Jessa…she made him want more. Beyond the pounding need she elicited, he wanted to just spend time with her. She was light-hearted, funny, curious and damn good at fishing for someone who claimed to have little experience. She had a positive attitude and a spirit to try. The lightness she carried was so intoxicating, all he wanted was to see her again to soak up the way he felt when he was with her.

His office phone rang, snapping him out of his Jessa-reverie. He stepped to his desk to answer when it stopped ringing. He heard Ryan’s voice answering from out front in the retail store. In a few short days, he’d gone from living a private, quiet life to stumbling into the cauldron of his attraction to Jessa and having a tag-along everywhere he went in Ryan. Even with Jessa’s forceful burst into his world, his worries about Ryan and how to handle the situation were simmering in the background. Eli had decided this morning that he would find a way to make sure Ryan stayed with him. The problem was how to make that happen without it becoming ugly with their parents.

Eli didn’t want Ryan living a life on tenterhooks, wondering when their parents might show up and try to force him home. Eli also wouldn’t allow Ryan to return to their mother, knowing that meant a replay of Eli’s adolescence. Norm Brooks, their jerk of a father, had reached his worst once Eli was old enough to stand up to him. When Eli was younger, Norm was frightening enough for Eli to steer clear, although he had to stand by and watch the relentless verbal, emotional, and occasional physical abuse of his mother. Once Eli got to be about Ryan’s age, he became more of his father’s target with his father lashing out verbally, deliberately picking fights over nothing and occasionally swinging his fists. To this day, he wasn’t sure he should be proud he’d never responded physically to his father. He’d been determined he wouldn’t become the man Norm was. He supposed he should consider it good that Norm hadn’t come knocking sooner on his mother’s door. Ryan was old enough now to find his own way out.

Eli shook his head sharply and grabbed the phone. He needed to get this over with. He dialed the number for his childhood home, knowing his mother would be at work and his father home.

“Yup.” Norm couldn’t even be bothered to say hello when he answered the phone.

“Hey Norm, it’s Eli.” Eli had stopped calling his father anything other than his name years and years ago.

There was a long pause before Norm spoke again. “Eli, huh? Figured you’d be calling sometime soon. Your mother’s heartbroken over Ryan. You’d best send him back this way soon.”

While Eli should have been startled at his father’s matter-of-fact expectation, he wasn’t. He knew well that Norm expected others to do whatever he wanted them to do. Why Norm wanted Ryan around was beyond Eli though.

“Right. That’s why I’m calling. Ryan’s staying with me. You can either make it ugly, or you can let it go. I’ve already talked to an attorney, and I’m filing for guardianship tomorrow.”

“Oh, and you think you’ll win?” Norm’s question dripped with belligerence.

Eli took a slow breath. He would not be baited into an argument with Norm over this. “I will. Between the police reports over the years, the reports to child welfare when I was little and the fact I’m willing to testify, I’ve got a solid case. Mom can try to oppose it, but it won’t do a bit of good for her relationship with Ryan. If she wants a chance to actually have a relationship with him, she might want to let this go.”

Norm was quiet for several beats. Eli could hear the rattle of his breath through the phone line. Norm was probably on his way to emphysema based on his two-pack a day smoking habit. Every memory Eli had of his father involved the labored sound of his breathing, which had only worsened over the years.

“Well, aren’t you just the tough guy now?”

Weariness washed over Eli. “Norm, I’m just trying to do right by Ryan. Life with you is hell, so I’m not putting him through that. I don’t like knowing you’re back with Mom, but she’s an adult and she can make her own decisions. Ryan has to wait four more years. All he’s had to deal with is six months with you and he ran away. Just let him be.”

The line went dead in Eli’s ear. He tossed the phone on his desk and sat down in his chair with a thump. Not that he’d expected any talk with his father to go well, but he’d hoped for a little more clarity than that. Norm would either let it go because he genuinely didn’t care, but he couldn’t admit it; or he’d put up a fight for the sake of it.

“Eli?”

Eli glanced up to find Ryan standing in the doorway. The worry swirling in his eyes told Eli that Ryan had likely heard part of his conversation with their father. Eli cursed himself for forgetting to close the door. He ran a hand through his hair and rolled his shoulders in an attempt to loosen the tension there. “What’s up?”

“Was that Dad?”

Eli nodded. “Yup. Didn’t mean for you to hear that.”

Ryan stepped into Eli’s office and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and staring out the window across from him. It looked out into a cluster of spruce trees behind the building, right about where Ryan had started to set up his tent to camp when Eli found him. “It’s okay. It’s not like I don’t know the deal with Dad. Did you mean what you said?” he asked, his eyes darting from the window to Eli and back again.

Eli cocked his head to the side and arched a brow in question, uncertain what Ryan was asking about.

Ryan’s eyes flicked to him and back to the window. “Did you really talk to an attorney?”

Understanding dawned and Eli’s heart clenched. He knew Ryan was worried, but he hadn’t considered how much it would mean for him to know Eli was going to do his damnedest to make sure Ryan could stay here free and clear. “Sure did. One of Jessa’s brothers happens to be an attorney. She gave me his number yesterday, so I called him already. He said I should have a good case if I’m willing to dredge up the past. It’s not my preference, but I don’t want you going through what I did, so it’s no problem. I’m heading over to meet with him at his office in a little bit. Wanna go with me?”

Ryan was quiet for so long, Eli became concerned he’d moved too quickly on this. Ryan’s eyes finally bounced to him again, and Eli saw the sheen there. Ryan nodded, his hair falling over his forehead. Without a word, his pushed away from the wall and started to walk through the office door. He paused and glanced over his shoulder, his eyes trained on the corner of Eli’s desk. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Eli replied, his words mostly for himself because Ryan practically ran into the store after that. He leaned back in his chair and looked out into the cluster of spruce trees, his eyes following a branch that dipped when a gray jay landed. He took a slow breath, trying to ease the tightness in his chest and throat. Ryan brought back so many feelings from his past, it was discombobulating. For a man who’d spent most of his life trying to keep emotional entanglements at a distance, he’d committed himself to doing the right thing for Ryan, and he’d be damned if he let his father get in the way.

Later that afternoon, Ryan walked beside Eli into Garrett Hamilton’s office. Eli had driven by Garrett’s office almost every day since Garrett had opened it, yet he’d never had a reason to stop. In the short time Garrett had been in Diamond Creek, he’d quickly established himself as
the
go-to attorney in Diamond Creek. Diamond Creek was small enough there weren’t too many attorneys to go around. Prior to Garrett’s relocation to town, most people headed north to Kenai if they needed legal advice. The only other attorney Eli knew of was mostly retired. Garrett’s reputation from Seattle had followed him here.

Garrett’s office was on Harborside Road, which ran perpendicular to Main Street and, not surprisingly, was toward the harbor side of town. Harborside Road held a mix of homes and small office businesses. Garrett’s office occupied one half of a single-story duplex. When they stepped through the doorway, Garrett waved at them from his desk. He was on the phone and gestured for them to sit at a round table situated by a bay window that offered a view of the boat harbor. He said his goodbyes and strode to the table, reaching over to shake Eli’s hand.

“Garrett Hamilton. I think we’ve met before, but maybe just for a minute,” Garrett offered with an easy grin. Garrett was tall and dark with blue eyes. He carried a resemblance to Jessa, but it was subtle. More than anything, he shared her warmth.

Eli nodded. “I believe we met once when I was up skiing. I haven’t been up there as much as I’d like. Gage has done an amazing job with the lodge.”

Garrett’s grin widened. “That he has!” He turned to Ryan. “You must be Ryan,” he offered, reaching across the table for another handshake.

Ryan stood quickly, almost knocking his chair over in the process, and shook Garrett’s hand vigorously. Once they were all seated, Garrett caught Eli’s eyes. “So, I’m guessing you want to review what we discussed yesterday?”

“I’d like to get things rolling. I didn’t plan ahead about bringing Ryan with me, but he wanted to come, so here we are. No secrets here. He knows I’d like to file for guardianship and that’s what he wants. I guess if I have anything to add other than what we discussed last night, I’m hoping to be able to get this through with Ryan having to be dragged into court…”

Ryan cut in. “It’s okay. If I have to be there, I can handle it.”

Eli glanced to Ryan whose gaze was resolute. Eli knew Ryan probably could handle it, but he didn’t want to put him in that position with their mother. Eli had already cut his ties. If their mother blamed him for cutting Ryan out of her life, it would be better than her blaming Ryan.

“I’m sure you can, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary,” Garrett said.

Garrett’s confidence eased the tension running through Eli. “Alright. Tell me what we need to do.”

Garrett leaned back and reached for a folder on the corner of his desk. Once he had it in hand, he opened it on the table, fanning the papers out for them to see. “I’ve already drawn up the basic guardianship petition. I’d like you to read through this while you’re here, so if you have any questions, I can address them right now. Then, I say take it home and sleep on it. It’s past four, so we can’t file until tomorrow anyway. If you’re ready to file tomorrow, drop these off and I’ll take care of the rest.” He paused and glanced to Ryan, as if considering his next words. “Have you discussed everything with him?” Garrett asked, turning back to Eli.

“Including the no child support part, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Eli replied.

Garrett nodded. “Right then. Anyway, like I said last night, that should make it much easier. From my experience, these cases get messy when people are asking for guardianship and child support. By the way, that would be a reasonable request and I still think you could win if it was contested.”

Eli shook his head. “Not worth the mess.” He didn’t need the child support and couldn’t countenance demanding it, knowing it would be coming straight from his mother. It was enough to live with the knowledge she couldn’t seem to accept his offer for help and sever her ties with his father. He didn’t want to add another burden to her.

“Okay then, let’s go over this.”

Not much later, Eli stood from the table, Garrett and Ryan standing along with him. “If it’s okay with you, I’ll sign now and leave these here. No need to wait on it.”

Garrett nodded firmly. “Got it. I’ll call in the morning to double check before I file them.”

Eli snagged the pen on the table and quickly signed the petition. Ryan had gone to stand by a sliding glass door at the back. Garrett caught Eli’s eyes and spoke quietly. “You think he’s doing okay with all this?”

Eli shrugged. “Think so. Like I told you, last time I saw him was when he was four years old.”

Garrett nodded slowly. “A hell of a change for your life. Seems like you’re not having any second thoughts.”

Eli shook his head sharply. “I might not have expected this, but I don’t have a single doubt about it.”

Garrett’s eyes were sharp and assessing. He angled his head to the side. “You’re a damn good brother. I’m glad you called me about this. We’ll get it taken care of.”

“Do I need to pay you now, or…?”

“No worry. I won’t bill until the case is resolved, not in simple cases like this. Plus, you took Jessa out fishing, so you get a discount,” Garrett said with a grin.

Eli chuckled, uncertain how Garrett felt that he’d invited his little sister out for a fishing trip. He aimed for nonchalant in his response. “She said she’d never been out on the bay. Seeing as I’m out there almost every day, I told her to call if she wanted to join one of our charters.” Eli tried to ignore the vision that flickered in the back of his mind—Jessa’s kiss swollen lips, her eyes hazy with passion when she opened them after climaxing all over his fingers.
Not the time, man. Get a grip. Her brother is standing right here!
He took a slow breath, wrangling his body in check. Man, he had it bad. All Garrett had to do was mention Jessa, and Eli’s brain jumped tracks, forgetting anything else.

“I’m headed up to the lodge for some of the halibut she caught. You and Ryan oughta come up. Think you could swing it?”

Garrett was being nothing but friendly. Eli had grown accustomed to the stream of social invitations in Diamond Creek. Locals were friendly and gregarious. Alaska contained a hodgepodge of residents—some born and raised here and many transplants. One commonality among residents was a mutual respect for the love of all things Alaskan. While Eli was a born and raised Alaska, Juneau was large enough that he’d managed to mostly keep to himself. With the family he had, that worked just fine for him. When he moved to Diamond Creek, he’d initially been taken aback at how many locals invited him to various town events. Once his business was up and running, he’d fielded invitations to various town committees and the like. He’d yet to learn how to ease into the social world. He considered himself friendly, but he didn’t have the easiness and gregariousness of people like Garrett and Jessa.