Up to the Challenge (An Anchor Island Novel) (29 page)

Lucas fought the blush and lost. He was not going to talk about the activities of the previous night with his mother. “Is Dad around? I need to talk to you guys about something.”

With a tilt of her head, his mother studied him. He could practically hear the gears working in that sharp mind of hers. But he doubted she knew why he was there.

“Is this about your intentions toward a certain sharp-tongued boat mechanic?” she asked, a smile crossing her face.

The question hit like a bucket of cold water to the face. What were his intentions toward Sid? The truth—he was going to love her and leave her—made him feel like the jackass that he was. Definitely not something he wanted to discuss with his mother.

“This isn’t about Sid,” he managed, staring through the window to watch the birds fighting over the offerings of his mother’s bird feeders. “If Dad’s in bed, I can come back.”

“He’s up.” Her voice turned stern. “You’re not toying with that girl, are you? She’s been in—”

“Thought I heard your voice,” Tom said, entering the kitchen looking healthier than he had since Lucas arrived. “Where’s your little partner in crime? I was starting to think you two were attached at the hip.”

What was this constant talk about Sid? So he’d lived at her house for a week. They were consenting adults. That was their business. Except he’d forgotten that on Anchor Island, everything was everyone’s business.

“Sid is sleeping. She had a long night.” Well shit. That wasn’t the answer he wanted to give. Maybe he could leave the house and come back in again.

“I’m sure she did.” His parents exchanged a knowing smile that made him feel like a schoolboy caught necking in the backseat of their car.

“I’m here to talk about something else,” he blurted, desperate to change the subject. “I have an idea for the restaurant I’d like to run by you.” Odd to feel nervous, but then he’d never tried to tell his parents how to run their business.

They exchanged another look, but this one he had no idea how to interpret. They didn’t look angry, and neither told him to keep his nose out of things, so he took that as a good sign.

“Bring us over some coffee, Pat.” Tom pulled out a chair from the kitchen table. “What do you have in mind?” he asked Lucas.

“Well,” Lucas hedged, pulling a chair for his mother, then taking the next one over. “I have no doubt you’ll be back on your feet soon, but this heart attack is a pretty obvious sign you can’t keep up the pace you had going before.”

“My pace?” Tom asked.

Lucas looked to his mother for backup, but she remained silent.

“Running the place alone, working six or seven days a week, just isn’t good for you. Hell, it’s about to do me in and I’ve only been at it for a couple weeks.”

His dad leaned back in his chair. “If you’re looking for time off, then just say so.”

“I’m not talking about me.” He was making a mess of this. “I simply think you need help. You deserve help.”

Patty finally spoke up. “Are you volunteering?”

“What?” he asked, stunned by another question he didn’t expect. “No, not me. Will.”

“Will?” the pair asked in unison. “What does Will have to do with this?” Tom asked.

He was losing them. “Just hear me out. Will has worked for several businesses on the island and been behind the bar at O’Hagan’s for nearly a year. She’s also worked other bars and restaurants up and down the coast.”

“What does that have to do with Dempsey’s?” Tom asked, but Patty shushed him and motioned for Lucas to continue.

“You need some kind of assistant manager. Someone to take the everyday weight off your shoulders. She could work the bar. Create the schedules. Anything you need her to do.”

The elder Dempseys sat silently as if absorbing the suggestion. “Have you talked to Will about this?” Patty asked.

“Yes.”

“Without coming to us first?” Tom nearly leapt from his chair but Patty’s grip held him in place. “You can’t go around offering people jobs whenever you feel like it.”

“I didn’t offer her a job,” Lucas defended, ignoring the knot forming in his gut. He never meant to offend his parents. Especially not the man who’d raised him like his own. “I wanted to make sure she was interested before I came to you. She understands this isn’t a done deal. You have the final say, of course.”

“How gracious of you to let me decide what happens in my own damn restaurant.”

“Tom,” Patty scolded. “He has a point. You can’t go back to working so many hours. His intentions are in the right place and the idea is worth discussing.”

Finally. Someone on his side.

“You’d be doing Will a favor, too. She could stop flitting from business to business, picking up hours wherever she can get them.” Lucas clasped his hands on the Formica tabletop. “No one is suggesting you can’t run the business, but this is an opportunity for you to relax a bit. Let someone else do the heavy lifting for a while.”

“Heavy lifting takes money,” Tom grumbled.

“What does that mean?” Lucas asked, confused where this reaction was coming from.

“Tom,” Patty nearly whispered. “We have to tell him. We should have told the boys long before now.”

“Tell the boys what?” The knot tightened and spread to his chest. “What am I missing here?”

“The restaurant is losing money,” Patty said, when his dad held silent. “It’s been slowing down for several seasons, but this year has been the worst.”

“Are you saying we’re going out of business?”

“Absolutely not.” Tom smacked the table. “We’ll cut
back. Wait for things to get better. Hiring an assistant manager just isn’t in the cards right now. Maybe next year.”

Lucas couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nearly twenty years of his life had been spent in Dempsey’s Bar & Grill. He couldn’t imagine Anchor without it. His family without it.

“Do you need cash?”

“We need customers, but with tourism down, the numbers aren’t there.” Patty rubbed a hand absently across her chest. This must have been hard on them, watching their life’s work fade. Carrying the burden by themselves, pretending everything was fine.

They didn’t need to carry it alone anymore.

“Let me help. I can invest in the business.”

“The business is yours without your money,” Tom said, dismissing the offer. “I’ll mortgage this house before I’ll take your hard-earned money.”

“Don’t be stubborn,” Lucas said. “You need money and I have it.”

“Are you sure about this, Lucas?” Patty asked.

“No.” Tom shoved his chair back and threw his hands wide. “I won’t allow it. I will not take charity from my children.”

“It’s not charity,” Lucas argued, coming to his feet. “Dempsey’s is the family business and I’m part of this family. It’s time I made an official investment in my future, and I’ll expect a return on that investment.”

“Your future? Since when do you plan to run this business in the future?”

Tom had him there. Lucas always knew he and Joe would inherit the place someday, but never intended to
come back and run it. Had his feelings changed? He considered what he’d have to leave behind and knew the answer immediately.

“I didn’t say I’d be the one running it, but I will be an owner someday. That can’t happen if there’s nothing left to own.”

Tom ran a hand through his cropped hair. “It’s not right.” The vehemence in his voice had softened. “I don’t like it.”

“Tom.” Patty stood and took her husband’s hands. “Lucas is right. We need a shot of capital and he’s willing to give it. Better from him than someone else. Better than losing it all together.”

“Listen to her,” Lucas said, stepping up behind his mother and resting his hands on her shoulders. “Let me do this. No matter the amount, it won’t come close to paying you back for everything you’ve done for me. You’re always taking care of everyone else. Let someone else do the taking care of for a change.”

Tom’s gaze darted from his wife, to the floor, to the son he’d given his name and his love. “An investment. For a full stake in the company.”

Lucas extended his hand. “Deal.”

By Tuesday, Sid was ready to leap out of her skin. Neither she nor Lucas had talked about how things had changed after Friday night. And things had definitely changed. Any illusion of acting casual went out the window, along with Sid’s final grasp on denial. She was full on in love with
Lucas Dempsey and if his actions were any indication, he’d fallen off the casual cliff right along with her.

You’d think they’d talk about it. They both knew Lucas was leaving at the end of the summer. Sid didn’t harbor any great hope he’d change his mind. Lucas didn’t belong on Anchor any more than Sid belonged in a beauty pageant. For all of five minutes she imagined he might ask her to go with him. Then she remembered Curly’s stories about dinner parties, political events, and mindless small talk.

Sid would rather face a squall on open waters than be forced into that world.

No, she couldn’t go with him. And he wouldn’t stay. So they’d both avoided the subject and pretended Labor Day would never come. Or so she thought.

Until her bed partner started acting more and more odd. Happy one minute, staring off into space the next. Always with that disgruntled look as if he were passing a kidney stone while working a word problem in his head. When she’d ask him where he drifted off to during those moments, he’d just flash her a smile and drop a quick kiss on her lips before changing the subject.

They worked seamlessly during the days, then cuddled on her couch at night. The challenge of showing Lucas all there was to do on the island fell away at some point, though she couldn’t remember when or why. They’d taken in another movie. One of the
Die Hard
flicks, though she wasn’t sure now which installment. They also attended a Merchants Society meeting, during which Sid had whispered stories in Lucas’s ear about nearly everyone in attendance.

How Floyd, who ran the Trade Store, had been courting the day-care owner, Helga, for months and finally got her to
have dinner with him. To which he wore his best overalls, of course. How Sam Edwards had nearly caused a society meltdown by advertising his motels as “the finest Anchor has to offer” on his new flyers.

To be fair, Sam did have the best rooms in the village, but he’d broken the unwritten rule by actually pointing the fact out to tourists in such a highfalutin way. If there was one thing Anchor merchants strove to avoid, it was ever sounding highfalutin. Or one-upping each other. At least not on paper.

That sort of thing was reserved for the Hatteras high and mighties who liked to think they were the upper crust of the barrier islands.

By the time the meeting had ended, Lucas was caught up on all the people he once knew as well as she did, and the few newbies who’d moved in during his absence.

Speaking of Lucas being absent, he and Joe had switched shifts today for the first time in more than a week. Working without him left her torn between missing him and believing some time apart might be a good thing. He’d be gone soon and if she couldn’t handle a few hours, life was going to be pretty shitty after a few days.

Everything told her to get out now. Save herself. Get the man out of her bed, even if she would never get him out of her head. Or her heart, though the thought was so sappy it nearly made her gag.

“You up for a break soon?” Will asked, surprising Sid as she loaded four beers onto her tray.

“I need to deliver these drinks, then I can spare a minute or so.” Sid glanced to the clock behind the bar. “You’re
early, aren’t you? I thought you were training with Lucas tonight.”

“I’m on a break from … well, I’m just on a break.” Will tossed dark waves over her shoulder as she backed away. “I’ll wait in the office.”

The office? Will needed to talk to her in the office? This could not be good. After delivering the beers, she checked on her other two tables, then dropped the tray under the bar before heading to the back.

“Since I’m assuming we’re past you thinking Lucas is hitting on you,” Sid said, strolling into the office, “this time it must be the garage.”

The corner of Will’s lips edged down and she shook her head yes.

“There’s been an offer?”

Another nod.

“And Fisher accepted it?”

Will looked like she might cave in on herself. “I’m so sorry, Sid. I really didn’t think things would move this fast.”

Sid focused on breathing as she stared at the desk, seeing nothing as her vision was suddenly blurred. Several seconds passed before she realized the blur was caused by tears. Swiping at her eyes, she asked, “Who’s the buyer?”

“I don’t know. Everything has been hush-hush around the office.” Will handed Sid a tissue. “Pretty sure it’s the mystery buyer from Richmond. All I know is he, or she I guess, is putting up half the asking price as a down payment.”

The air suddenly felt heavy, too thick to take in, and there didn’t seem to be anything coming out. The room spun around her. She reached out to steady herself with the
desk. A roar filled her ears before she realized the sound was coming from her throat.

“Why?” she yelled, to no one in particular. “What the fuck could a total stranger want with my garage? Tell me!” she ordered Will, who’d backed herself into the corner of the room.