Chapter 17

17

HAWK

I walked into our house with a stupid grin on my face, but it dropped away when I saw Emery in the kitchen, making breakfast. Her eyebrows arched as she spotted me. “Where have you been all night, you little slut?”

“Out,” I said curtly, not quite ready to tell her who I had been out with.

She held my gaze, realized I wasn’t going to elaborate, and then shook her head. “I already have a hard enough time making friends these days, Hawk. I don’t need my playboy brother making it worse.”

“Playboy?” I scoffed. “I assume you’re referring to another brother I didn’t know you had.”

She rolled her eyes at me, but I finally saw a glimmer of humor light up behind them. “I wish. Unfortunately, I set up Google alerts for you back in the day when I cared about what was happening in your life. I know all about your dating habits.”

“Those stories were always grossly exaggerated.” I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast. Tearing a bite out of it, I headed for the stairs.

She barked a dry laugh. “They were gross alright.”

I was about to ascend to go grab a shower when I saw my dad walking out to his truck. Emery noticed him at the same time, and she let out a soft grunt as she started turning off the heat on the stove. “Dammit, Dad. Let me grab him.”

“No,” I said immediately, turning around and deciding to go down to the docks to work with my dad for a bit. “I’ll do it.”

“He’s still not very happy with you,” she pointed out, but stayed where she had been instead of walking around the kitchen counter to follow him. “He won’t thank you for going after him.”

“I know, but he won’t thank you either. It’s my turn.” I followed him outside, knowing he didn’t want me there, but it was about time he let me help my sister with this.

He saw me as he turned over his truck, and scowled. Those bushy, graying eyebrows drew together and then rose when I hopped in with him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Coming with you,” I said easily after swallowing the toast. “Emery is busy with breakfast and I haven’t been at the port since I’ve been here. I figured now was as good a time as any to get my hands dirty.”

He grunted but threw the truck into reverse and backed out of the driveway without ordering me to get out. It wasn’t exactly a warm welcome, but it felt like progress.

Who would have thought I was a silver-lining kind of person?

Then again, I doubted anything was going to get me down today. Last night with Sutton had been beyond hot—and definitely worth waiting ten-plus years for. I felt like a new person after finally getting to spend a night inside her. I could handle anything today.

Dad was silent as he drove directly to the port. He headed over to his boat to talk to the crew about something without inviting me to come along. I drifted to the docks with him anyway but stopped when I ran into another boat owner I’d worked with back in the day.

“Tim Porter.” I grinned when I saw the guy walking in my direction. “It’s been a while, man. How’s it going?”

“Not so well actually, Hawk.” He looked about half a century older than he had when I’d last seen him, but he flashed me a tired smile as he gave my hand a shake. “I have to go, but we’ll catch up soon, alright?”

I frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Meecham Maritime,” he gritted out, casting a deliberate glance over my shoulder.

I twisted to see another man striding toward us wearing a shirt that was mustard yellow, the color of the Meecham brand. Sure enough, as he got closer, I saw the logo of the company that had been terrorizing our port for a number of years.

“Tim,” the guy said snidely as he approached, his chin lifted in that way that told me he had a definite chip on his shoulder. “We need to talk.”

“We don’t,” Tim said, his voice low and his eyes narrowed on the other guy’s.

I frowned. When I’d known him, Tim had been the salt-of-the-earth kind, a fisherman who also ran a tourist charter. He worked hard, was always willing to lend a hand, and would’ve given his neighbors the shirt off his back.

Either this guy wasn’t his neighbor, or Meecham had been treating people around here just as badly as I’d heard. I stepped between the two men, giving the stranger a cool, aloof onceover. “Who are you?”

“Who are you ?” he shot back at me with a distinct sneer, his glare now moving to my face. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“I haven’t seen you either,” I said evenly. “Hawk Brunson. Gold Star Shipping.”

The guy’s head jerked a little and I saw the flash of recognition in his eyes. “What’s Gold Star doing sniffing around here?”

“You still haven’t told me your name, which seems unnecessarily rude,” I commented as I looked him over. “Maybe I’ll just call you Sunshine.”

The slicked-back hair and the polished look of his shoes told me he’d likely never worked on a deck a day in his life and yet he’d obviously come here to give Tim some kind of shit. Finally, as he kept staring at me, he relented.

“Mason Bradbury. Meecham Maritime, and you’re in my way.” When I didn’t move, he scoffed and peered past me at Tim. “You have a charter on the books for three p.m. That won’t work. I’m moving it to tomorrow.”

“You can’t do that.” Tim scowled. “My clients have already paid. I have just as much a right to?—”

“No,” Mason interrupted him with a slight scoff. “You don’t. Move it, or I will.”

“You do realize this is his livelihood, right?” I asked, not impressed by what I was seeing from Meecham so far. “Move whatever it is you’ve got going on. You can’t expect this man to postpone a charter he’s already been paid for. That would open you up to a lawsuit, Sunshine.”

Mason all but spat at me. “I can and I have. I’ll let it slide this time because you obviously don’t know how things work around here, Gold Star. Stay out of my way next time.”

With that, he turned on his heels and stomped off, and I glanced back at Tim. “What a fucking prick.”

“They’ve totally taken over the port,” Tim said and I heard the undercurrent of defeat in his tone. “They’re bullying all the other companies out of business. I won’t last much longer like this and Martin is on his last legs.”

“Martin?” I let out a low whistle between my teeth. “Really? He’s been around forever.”

“Sixty-one years working this port.” Tim glanced out at the water, the expression in his eyes forlorn. “He was only six years old the first time he came down to help his daddy. They’re forcing us all out, Hawk. One of these days, every boat out there will be that god-awful yellow and the rest of us will be working for them. If we’re lucky.”

My jaw hardened as the reality of the situation washed over me. When David had brought it up before, I definitely hadn’t realized how dire it really was, but experiencing Meecham’s treatment of people who had been on these docks before I had been born had made it hit home for me.

Tim, Martin, my dad.

They were legends around here, yet they were being treated like disobedient children who were annoying a teacher by doing things they knew they weren’t supposed to be doing. It just wasn’t right.

Deciding on the spot that I was going to put an end to it, I chatted to Tim for a few minutes longer before I headed to Dad’s tug.

Refusing to take no for an answer, I pitched in for the day, helping him at the port while keeping my eyes and ears open. Sutton and Meecham Maritime were heavy on my mind as I worked, torn between thinking about the girl and the bullies at the port.

Late in the afternoon, I ran home to grab a shower and got a text from Luke as I was walking into my bedroom.

Luke: Want to meet up later? Aggie has some errands to run in town. You can keep me company while I carry the shopping bags.

Me: As long as we get a drink after.

Luke: You’re on.

Following his wife around downtown Portsmouth wasn’t exactly the catch-up session I’d been expecting, but when I finally met up with them, I found myself enjoying walking around with my old friend. Aggie was on some kind of Thanksgiving mission, which gave him and me plenty of time to talk, and since we’d spent our fair share of hours just drifting around town back in the day, it felt a lot like old times.

“I went out with Sutton last night,” I found myself telling him while we waited outside a store for Aggie to emerge.

“Sutton?” He frowned for just a second before he lit up. “Oh, right. Sutton! God, I remember how close you guys used to be. When did she get back in town?”

“A few weeks ago,” I said. “She’s got a kid now.”

“Yours?” he asked.

I snorted. “No. Why?”

He chortled and arched a disbelieving eyebrow at me. “Come on, man. You were so gone for that girl. Everyone knew it. We just kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for you to make your damn move already. I thought maybe you finally made it after high school.”

“I didn’t,” I said thoughtfully.

I was really starting to wish I had, though. The idea that Winnie could’ve been my daughter with Sutton was not altogether as off-putting as I might’ve thought it would be.

I glanced at Luke again. “Everyone knew? Really?”

“Of course.” He laughed, his head shaking when he realized I was genuinely perplexed by this. “It was so obvious, Hawk. I mean, the way you looked at her? Shit, even I believed in soulmates after that.”

“Get the hell out of here with that.” I scoffed. “Soulmates.”

He shrugged, but his eyes were still gleaming with laughter. “Yeah, okay. But I was afraid my girlfriend back then would get pregnant in the crossfire of the eye-fucking you guys always had going on. You’re seriously telling me nothing ever came of it?”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I admitted, seriously stunned that they’d all known I’d had a thing for her. “How come you never said anything before?”

“We just figured it was hard enough for you to come to terms with the fact that you were in love with your best friend. Then you showed up at prom with Hailey instead of Sutton. Stunned doesn’t even begin to cover it, man.”

My head spun as I realized I truly had been living in a bubble during those years of social climbing. I squinted at him. “You were all stunned ?”

“Gobsmacked. Dumbfounded. Call it whatever you want, but I still think you should’ve gone with Sutton. How is she, anyway? I’m surprised she’s even talking to you after you ditched her for Hailey.”

“She’s fine,” I said just as I spotted a mop of dark red curls from the corner of my eye. When I looked, I realized it was Winnie, skipping back and forth in front of the store across the street. “Excuse me a minute. I need to talk to that kid.”

He shot me a confused look and shrugged. “Sure, man. Handle your business.”

I jogged over to her, looking around for Sutton but not seeing her anywhere. I frowned, deciding to ask Winnie what she was doing out there all by herself. She was just a kid and I felt an alien but intense protective instinct roaring within me to make sure she was safe.

It nagged at me until I reached her, insisting that I made sure nothing and no one ever even came close to hurting this little girl.