CHAPTER FOURTEEN

W hen he got back to the property, Bennett and Wyatt were at Wyatt’s house with all their kids. Ignoring the probing looks from his brothers, Dom walked right up to Aya, who was all smiles as she made beaded necklaces with her cousins at the coffee table in the living room, and he pulled her into his arms.

“Uncle Dom?”

“You’re incredible. You know that?” he said, still not ready to let her go.

“I know. But why?”

That made all the adults snort.

“Probably because you defended Silas against Carnation,” Griffon offered.

“Ooooh.” She hugged Dom back now that she understood. “You can’t let bullies win. They need to learn. And Carnation is such a bully. I wish I’d broken a bone or something and not just scraped her elbow.”

“No, we do not wish that,” Bennett said sternly. “Otherwise, you’d be suspended and not just in recess detention tomorrow.”

Dom set his feisty niece down on her feet, then secretly gave her a fist bump, which made her light up like a Roman candle. She giggled and went back to beading.

“So,” Wyatt asked, tilting his head to the side, “how’d it go with Pickford?”

“I’m banned from the school,” Dom said lightly.

Wyatt and Bennett both snorted.

Dom joined in their amusement and chuckled.

“Good luck with that, Otto,” Wyatt said, shaking his head. “So, I take it he was exactly the way we expected he would be? Refused to acknowledge or accept any responsibility?”

“Said it was the first he was hearing about it,” Dom said. “As if I wouldn’t immediately catch him in that lie. The whole island knows we all live on the same property and raise our kids together. Of course I’d find out Aya got in trouble.”

“Not with me she’s not,” Bennett said.

Aya craned her neck around to grin at her father as he sat on the couch behind her. “I get ice cream tonight. Right, Daddy?”

“Sure do, my little warrior princess.”

Griffon sighed and his shoulders slumped as he slid a bright-green bead onto the string. “I would have helped, but we’re not supposed to hit girls. Or even touch them without asking. I didn’t want to push Carnation, or hit her, to defend Silas.” He glanced at his dad. “I didn’t mean to stand there and do nothing.” Then he appealed to his older brother. “Right, Jake?”

Jake looked sad too and nodded before making eye contact with their father. “You tell us not to hit girls.” Then he quickly flashed his gaze at Vica who was in the kitchen dishing up bowls of pasta. “And after what happened with Vica and that guy … I just—”

“It’s okay,” Wyatt said quickly as the reality of how the boys were feeling sunk into all of them. Here they were praising Aya for standing up for Silas, when it should have been all the children receiving praise. Because it wasn’t like Jake and Griffon abandoned Silas. They chased after Carnation to make sure Silas was okay. “You boys were just as brave and stood up for your cousin too. I understand how blurry the rules are right now. And honestly, I think you did the right thing.”

Dom nodded in agreement. “Me too. This could be so much worse if one of you had hurt Carnation.”

“I’ll take care of things, guys,” Aya said, sitting up on her knees a little taller. “Don’t worry about it.”

Bennett rolled his eyes.

“Besides,” Aya went on, tossing her dark blonde curls over her shoulders, “kids think I’m pretty badass to get detention.”

“Excuse me,” Bennett warned. “Language.”

Aya smirked then whispered a totally pretend apology.

“All right, pasta is ready. Buon appetito ,” Vica announced. “Come and get it.”

Dom wasn’t aware that he was having dinner at Wyatt’s, but he loved Vica’s cooking. So he wasn’t about to argue. He followed the rest of them into the kitchen and accepted the bowl from Vica with thanks. The kids had to eat at the table, but the adults made their way back into the living room and all found a spot on a couch or chair.

“I think we need to go have a chat with Carnation’s parents,” Bennett said, blowing on his spoonful of pasta as he brought it to his mouth. “Things are getting out of control. Last year Aya had so many issues and run-ins with that child, and it’s all happening again this year. She’s a huge problem, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.”

“I’m doing something about it,” Aya yelled from the table.

“Yes, dear. We know,” Bennett said blandly.

“Anyway,” Dom shoveled a big, heaping spoonful of the little, twirled pasta ribbons that Silas made, into his mouth, “Si is playing hooky tomorrow. He’s going to help me at the pub.”

His brothers simply nodded.

“Do you like the pasta, Dad?” Silas called out from the table.

“I do, bud. What’s the sauce?”

With deer-in-the-headlights eyes, Silas glanced at Vica. “Uhhh …”

Vica giggled softly. “On the busiate we have pesto alla Trapanese, which is a Sicilian spin on the traditional pesto. It has fresh tomatoes, almonds, and pecorino. In addition to basil, olive oil, and garlic.” She winked at Silas, then pivoted back to grab Wyatt’s attention. “Wyatt is going to serve it on the menu, right?” Her tone was teasing, but there was a glint of hope in her eyes as well.

“Thinking about it,” Wyatt said casually. “At least make it a special one day. This is the bomb, babe.” He shoved another heaping spoon into his mouth.

“On the trofie we have a creamy fennel sauce with shallots, garlic, nutmeg, and a little bit of whole grain mustard.” Vica shrugged. “Not typically Italian, but I saw the recipe on Instagram and thought it sounded good. And lastly, we have cavatelli alla vodka with tomatoes, onions, garlic, cream, and vodka.”

“But don’t worry,” Griffon said quickly, “the goofy part of the goofy juice cooks off so we won’t be bouncing off the walls or anything.”

Dom’s lip twitched with mirth. His nephew was such a funny little smart-ass.

“And I made sure to take my dairy pills so I don’t stink up Uncle Wyatt’s house,” Silas added, slurping up a coiled noodle.

“Much appreciated, little man,” Wyatt said, giving Silas a salute.

Silas snickered.

“Don’t fill up on the busiate ,” Griffon warned. “Make sure you try them all. I worked real hard on the trofie .”

“On it.” Bennett stood up with an empty bowl and wandered back to the kitchen. “Now which one should I try next?”

“Mine!” Griffon and Jake yelled at the exact same time.

Friday afternoon at the pub was busy. Maybe because the weather had eased off and pockets of blue sky peaked through the mostly-white clouds, and the wind held not nearly as much of a bite as it did earlier in the week.

Everything was still wet, dripping, and lending a freshness to the air. However, they decided to offer up the patio to patrons, since it took a proper near-hurricane style storm to keep islanders indoors.

The lunch rush lagged on until nearly three, but as always, Silas helped when he could, then stayed out of the way when things were busy.

Logan popped down from Jagger’s house for lunch, sitting at the bar and asking Dom questions about things he wasn’t clear on. Then, when the place got so busy Dom was struggling to keep up with orders, Logan abandoned his steak sandwich and jumped behind the bar to help.

He didn’t have to, but Dom sure as hell appreciated the kid’s initiative.

Before Dom knew it, it was three forty-five and the door from the kitchen swung open to reveal Chloe. And fuck, she looked good. Like yesterday, she her hair down today, with a bit pulled back off her face. Shorter pieces of her dark-red locks framed her heart-shaped face and showed off her cute ears.

He’d never thought ears were cute until he saw hers. And she had cute ears. She’d even gone and put dangling sparkly silver earrings in today, which seemed to make the green in her blue-green eyes sparkle with an almost silver hue.

“Hello,” she said, all smiles, but also with wariness in her eyes. She spied Silas coloring quietly at the end of the bar and her eyes widened then darted to Dom. “Everything okay?”

Dom nodded and put a pint glass under the tap to fill for an order that just came in. “Yeah …” His lips twisted. “Well, no. Si was bullied and hurt by another child at school yesterday, and when I went to confront the principal, he basically dismissed the whole thing. So I let Si take a personal day and just hang out with me.”

Her glittery gaze shifted back to Si and an uncomfortable expression creased her pretty features. “I’m sorry he’s being bullied.”

Dom cleared his throat. “Thanks.”

She stowed her purse and sweater under the bar, and tied an apron around her waist. “If you want to check out early, I can take over.”

Was she trying to get rid of him?

He understood why, but that didn’t mean it still didn’t sting.

Logan entered through the swinging door before Dom could answer, a big grin on his face. He greeted Chloe like they’d known each other for years, resting a familiar hand on her shoulder and gently ducking behind her to grab his own apron. “Hello, hello,” he greeted. He held out his closed palm to Si for a fist bump and Silas returned it with enthusiasm. “Oh, cool shark, little dude. You’re a great artist.”

“Thanks.” Silas beamed.

“How’d your day playing hooky go?” Logan asked.

“Great. It was calling for rain all day and fifteen mile an hour gusts, with a low of thirty-six after the windchill. I don’t need to deal with that right now.”

Logan quirked a brow. “Oookay then.”

Silas shrugged, then his gaze shifted to Chloe, then to Dom, then back to Chloe, as if he was waiting for Dom to introduce him to the new woman standing there.

Why did this feel so painfully weird and awkward?

Dom had introduced his kid to all the staff and thought nothing of it.

But this wasn’t just another staff member. This was a woman he was very much interested in, had been intimate with, and shared details about Silas’s mother with. He cleared his throat again. “Si, this is Chloe. She’s the new bartender here. Well … I mean, Logan is the newest, new bartender. But Chloe is new too. She’s working nights so I can be home with you.” Why did it feel like he was stammering and blathering on like an idiot?

Because he was.

Silas gave her a small, shy smile. “Hello.”

Chloe’s smile and nod were equally small and shy. “Hello, Silas. It’s nice to meet you.” She took off down to the far end of the bar, as far away from Dom and Silas as she could get, and began filling an order that just came off the ticket machine.

Dom finished up with the order he was fulfilling, acutely aware of the fact that although Chloe was keeping her distance from him, whenever she could, her gaze shot down his way, more often than not, landing on Silas.

Did she have a problem with Dom’s kid?

It was cramped behind the bar with the three of them, and the audible sighs from Chloe when she had to awkwardly maneuver around Dom were enough to tell him that he was no longer welcome there. That it was her bar now, and he was in the way.

That also stung.

“Well … it looks like the place is in good hands,” he said, ditching his apron and stepping out from behind the bar to help Silas clean up his art stuff.

“Sure is, man,” Logan said, tossing a cherry on a wooden sword into a lowball of golden liquid before placing it up on the bar. “Go enjoy Friday night with your kid. We’ve got it covered here.” Then he flicked his gaze to Chloe, a big, flirtatious smile on his face. “Right, Chlo?”

Chloe nodded. However, her eyes flew up to Dom’s for less than a second, before returning to Logan’s. She beamed. “That’s right. Let us do what you hired us to do. Have a good night, Dom.”

He stared at her, waiting for her to glance back at him. To meet his gaze. But she must have known he was waiting, because she deliberately avoided looking in his direction.

Silas tugged on his shirt. “Can we go, Dad?”

“Huh?” Dom glanced down at his kid.

“Can we go home now, Dad? I’m bored.”

“Oh … yeah. Sure.” But he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay with Chloe. Because even if he couldn’t be with her, being near her was better than nothing.

A slow and painful torture, but one he’d gladly endure over the alternative of not getting to see her.

“Have a good night,” Logan repeated just as a gaggle of twenty-something women came through the front door, all of them eyeing him like a choice piece of meat.

“You guys too.” Dom ushered Silas through the kitchen door where they stopped at the walk-in freezer and grabbed a small tub of the dairy-free mango sorbet they both liked. Then they hiked up the hill, through the gate, and home.

The whole time though, his mind was on Chloe.

Unlike Aya, Talia, and Griffon—who talked non-stop, even if nobody was in the room for them to talk to—Silas was more like Emme and Jake. Quiet and introspective. You could get him chatting, but he didn’t just talk to make noise.

Their climb home was quiet.

“What are you interested in for dinner, bud?” Dom asked, stowing the sorbet in the freezer.

“Can we do pizza?”

Dom nodded, then pulled up his phone and shot off a quick text to Burke in the kitchen. “Pepperoni and mushroom sound good?”

“Can we add bacon?”

“We’d be crazy not to.” He finished placing his order and a stupid little thrill ran through him. He’d have to go back down to the pub and see Chloe to pick up the pizza. “Want to invite Uncle Jagger over for dinner?” he asked.

Si nodded, then booked it out the front door and over to Jagger’s, returning moments later with his big, bearded uncle in tow. “I was told there would be pizza,” Jagger said smoothly. “I see no pizza.”

Dom snickered and went to the fridge to grab them each a beer. “I’ll run down and grab it in a few when its ready.”

They popped their caps and tossed them to the counter, each of them taking long, slow, appreciative pulls from the crisp lagers.

“Can I have a bath in your tub?” Silas asked. “While we wait for the pizza?”

Dom had barely finished one head bob of his nod before Si was fist pumping the air and racing upstairs.

Jagger chuckled and meandered into the living room. Dom followed. “So, I hear you’re on Pickford’s blacklist.”

Dom grunted. “Yeah, well, that mustached motherfucker is on my blacklist.”

Snorting a laugh, Jagger tipped his bottle up and took another sip. “So you and Chloe … Wyatt said he heard you two—”

“It’s done. We’re done. Won’t happen again.”

Jagger rolled his dark-blue eyes behind his round-framed glasses. “Sure it won’t. How many times has it happened so far?”

“Irrelevant. It won’t be happening again.”

Jagger made a cocky face that said he didn’t believe for a second that Dom and Chloe were really, truly over, and that irritated the shit out of Dom.

“Change of topic, please,” Dom muttered, sipping his beer and letting the cool, clean-tasting harvest lager settle on his tongue for a moment so he could appreciate and enjoy the subtle notes of orange, clove, cinnamon, and malty sweetness that balanced out the hops.

Jagger made a noise in his throat, but ultimately acquiesced. “Been invited to the Winter Wine and Beer Fest in Seattle in late December. Like less than a week before Christmas.”

“ You were? Or the business and brewery was?”

“The business and brewery. Obviously, Clint wants to go, but I’m going to push to join him since I’m head of PR. It’s the first time they’re doing this, and I’m still a little perturbed that they’re holding it so close to Christmas. But whatever. Apparently, it’s by invitation only—for vendors anyway.”

“Have you seen a list of the other vendors?”

Jagger’s top lip curled up in disgust at Dom’s question. “Unfortunately.”

That made Dom snicker. “Let me guess, your BFF Raina Aaronson was invited too?”

“Westhaven Winery was invited, yes.” Jagger’s eyes formed thin slits, and his knee began to bounce.

“What is the beef between you two anyway?”

Jagger rolled his eyes. “She’s just a fucking know-it-all. And of course, she also runs the social media and does the PR for the winery. She’s always trying to one-up my posts. Doesn’t have an original idea or thought in her pretty little head.”

“You admit she’s pretty?” Dom teased, glad to be off the topic of his complicated-as-fuck love life and giving the gears to Jagger about his woman problems instead.

Jagger simply rolled his eyes again. “A poison dart frog is cute, but it’ll kill you. Most flashy things are flashy for a reason—so you know to avoid them. Lionfish are another good example.”

“Raina doesn’t seem like a flashy person to me. She’s just nice looking.”

“You’re nitpicking.”

“And you’re evading.”

“Pot-kettle, brother dear.”

They sat there in stubborn silence, staring at each other until Dom’s phone buzzed to let him know his pizza was ready. He leaped out of his seat like his boxers had just caught fire. “Be right back.” Finishing his beer, he brought it with him to toss into the recycling bin at the pub, and was out the door to the sarcastic snickers of his younger brother.

Jagger was the only one of them that didn’t have children and had never been married. But what also set him apart from the rest of the brothers was that he was the only one who didn’t serve in the Marines. Jagger got a football scholarship in high school and went to college on that. But an injury early on put him out of commission. So he got a psychology degree.

But he’d always been a bit of an odd duck. In the best possible ways of course.

Secretive, and quiet. He kept weird hours, and was a massive sci-fi nerd. Books, movies, televisions shows. The guy was a fanatic. He was also very stubborn. Probably the most stubborn of the five of them. Dom couldn’t remember a single time since knowing his youngest brother, that Jagger had ever given in to anything. He stood his ground. Whether it was not eating his peas at dinner, or standing out in the rain without any clothes on because he liked how the rain felt falling on skin (he was four at the time), Jagger had a mind of his own and nobody could change it for him.

Dom reached the restaurant and only hesitated a moment about which door to go in. He should go through the back door into the kitchen. There was no reason for him to go into the pub. And judging by the full parking lot and the racket echoing from inside, the place was bumping.

He should just grab his pizza from Burke and leave.

But he was a glutton for punishment and heaved open the front door before his brain could do the thinking.

She was buzzing behind the bar like a beautiful, redheaded queen bee, smiling and laughing with customers. Logan was just as busy, a giant smile on his youthful face as he poured shots for the same group of girls that had entered just as Dom was leaving. They were flirting heavily with Dom’s cousin, which hopefully meant Logan would walk away with good tips—but also probably some phone numbers.

“You’re back?” Renée asked in surprise as she passed Dom on the way to a table, her arms loaded with plates of food. “What’s up?”

“Just picking up pizza. Silas requested it.”

She nodded in understanding, then disappeared into the thick of the noisy pub.

Noise meant money, so Dom wasn’t complaining.

The Sewing Circle sat in their regular booth, all of them now with a Chloe Caesar Special in front of them as they cross-stitched. That was new to their rotation.

He wanted her to see him just as much as he didn’t want her to see him, and when she finally spotted him, his heart did a stupid little thump-thump in his chest. Her gaze narrowed on his. “Something wrong?” she asked, not missing a beat and grabbing the next ticket off the machine. She reached for a pint glass and put it under the tap for Clint’s winter wheat ale, then pulled the lever.

“No, no.” He shook his head. Now he felt like a total tool. He really should have just gone in and gone out through the back. “Just picking up pizza for Silas for dinner.”

She nodded, but it was easy enough to see in her eyes that she didn’t believe him.

“I’m not checking up on you, I swear,” he said quickly. “I’m just here to get pizza.”

All she did was shrug. “Okay.”

He heaved a big sigh and pushed open the swinging door into the kitchen. Burke gave him a confused look when he emerged through that door. Yeah, Dom was as confused as the rest of them.

His brain was not in the equation here at all.

“Pizza’s just warming over there. Dairy-free one for Si is marked,” Burke said, pointing to where they left to-go food to warm. “Jagger texted and made me make three more. Said you’ll grab them.”

That’s why there were four boxes stacked together that said “Dom.” Another thing about Jagger was that the man had an appetite like a bear after hibernation. The man was never full. And he was also ripped, and strong as fuck. He worked out like crazy, which was probably why he was always hungry.

“Thanks,” Dom said, grabbing the stack of pizzas.

“Hey, man,” Burke said, flipping a steak on the grill, “I heard about Silas at school yesterday and I just want to say I’m sorry. He’s the sweetest kid and doesn’t deserve that shit. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I was bullied when I was his age because I was on the smaller side too. It sucks. But at least he’s got his cousins there to have his back. I had nobody.”

Dom’s smile was crooked. “Thanks, man. Appreciate it.” Then he listened to his brain for a change and exited through the rear of the kitchen, dropping his beer bottle into one of the recycling bins at the back before he left.

Even though he knew she wasn’t there, she was working in the bar, he took a long look down the row of cabins to her little sedan parked there. He’d fucked up so badly with Chloe, it was beyond repair at this point. Could they even salvage things and be friends? Or was he destined to pine after a woman he couldn’t have and make every encounter they had from here on out awkward as fuck?

Maybe this was a sign that he wasn’t ready to date again.

Or, he’d just been out of the game so long, he didn’t know the rules anymore.

Either way, he was forfeiting this round until he grabbed the handbook and studied it from cover to cover. That, or, he’d chat with a dating expert—luckily, he was about to have dinner with one.