Chapter Seventeen
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Charlotte asked, coming to stand beside him.
“She steals my breath,” William managed to get out, still staring at the road even though Maddy had long since disappeared.
“She did it for you, you know, though I’m not sure she knows it,” Charlotte said. “I believe our Maddy girl has taken a real shine to you.”
Finally able to pull his gaze away from the road, William looked down at the aging sprite smiling up at him. “I believe I’ve taken a shine to her, as well.”
Charlotte’s worn face took on a few more wrinkles as she frowned. “Only she’s terribly gun-shy, so you’re going to have to be patient with her.” She shook her head. “Lord knows we’ve all spent the last four years trying to crack that armor she’s wrapped around herself, but Maddy’s got a defense system the Pentagon would envy.” She smiled again. “But then, that’s a large part of her appeal. You let anyone try to mess with any of us here, and she’ll break every rule on the books making sure the doctors and our families don’t bully us into doing anything we don’t want. And if you really want to piss her off, just try messing with her family. Sarah is Maddy’s whole world, and so are her mother and her brother, Rick.”
She chuckled gaily. “Why, I remember last fall when Rick got into some trouble at school; you’d have thought a three-day suspension was a death sentence for the boy. But Maddy was afraid Rick might lose his chance at a college scholarship.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what dirt she had on Principal Adams, but she ambushed him outside the supermarket one day, and the suspension mysteriously disappeared.”
William suddenly stiffened, his gut twisting in a knot as he remembered seeing Maddy’s braid of hair in her pocket as well as Trace’s threat to cut it off if she attempted to mother Rick anymore.
Holy hell, she wasn’t running an errand; she was going to war with her cousin!
He turned to Charlotte and took hold of her shoulders. “Did Katy just tell Maddy that Trace’s boat is at the dock?”
“Yes, she did,” Charlotte said, her eyes widening at his tone. “Maddy apparently called the harbormaster and asked him to let her know when her cousin was coming in to off-load his catch. I believe that’s where she’s going on her errand. That’s why I asked her to bring me back some seaweed.”
William gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. “Thank ye, sweet Charlotte, but I have to run now. We’ll continue our conversation later, okay?”
“Okay,” she said in surprise when he released her and ran to his motorcycle.
He slipped into his leather jacket but tossed the helmet on the grass instead of putting the damn thing on. He started the engine and shot out of the parking lot, only briefly glancing for traffic before speeding off toward the harbor.
Dammit to hell, something had gotten Madeline’s underpants in a twist all of a sudden, and he would bet his new motorcycle it concerned Rick.
But she had to go through Trace to get to the boy.
William wasn’t worried Trace would harm her; it was Huntsman he was concerned about!
He downshifted and turned onto the narrow lane leading down to the docks, just missing a truck loaded with shellfish as he skidded to a stop when he saw Maddy walking—no, marching down the ramp to the fishing boats off-loading their catches.
He flipped down the kickstand and started running. He reached the top of the ramp and came to a stop just in time to see Trace leap off his boat to intercept Maddy. William slowly walked down the ramp but stopped at the bottom, deciding to see how this played out before he chose sides.
“What are you doing here?” Trace asked, folding his arms over his chest.
“I need to talk to my brother.”
Trace shook his head. “That’s not going to happen, Peeps.” He started to say more, but his eyes suddenly widened and he dropped his arms in surprise, taking a step back. “What in hell did you do to your hair!”
Maddy reached in her pocket and pulled out her braid. “I cut it before you could!” she snarled, slapping it against his chest, putting her whole body behind the blow and shoving him off the dock.
Huntsman grabbed the braid as he fell back with a grunt of surprise that turned to a shout of outrage when he hit the water. Maddy immediately scrambled onto the boat and grabbed Rick’s arm as he ran toward the stern in disbelief.
“You dropped out of college!” Maddy cried as she spun him around to face her. She waved an envelope in his face. “Per our phone conversation on August 19, the letter says, you are no longer enrolled in this semester’s classes. You dropped out of school!” she shouted, waving the letter at him again. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to go!” Rick shouted back. “I never wanted to go!”
“But without an education, you’ll be stuck here the rest of your life.” She grabbed his shirtsleeve and started dragging him toward the dock. “You are calling the university right now and telling them you’ve changed your mind.”
He jerked out of her grasp. “No. This is my life we’re talking about, not yours. I’m old enough to make my own decisions, and I’ve decided I’m not going. I don’t want to work a nine-to-five job in some stupid office. I want to fish, just like Dad did,” he said a little more softly, though still roughly.
Trace heaved himself out of the water and climbed over the stern, still clutching Maddy’s braid in his hand. “Get off my boat, Maddy,” he ground out. “Now!”
She swung toward him and started waving the envelope at Trace. “You put him up to this! Goddammit, Trace, he needs to go to college!”
“You walking off this boat or swimming?” he asked, advancing on her.
She actually took a step back, and William started forward. But he just as suddenly stopped when Rick shot around Maddy and placed himself between his sister and his cousin.
“Don’t touch her,” the boy said through clenched teeth, his hands balling into fists as he took up a defensive stance. “Or I swear I’ll knock you flat on your ass.”
Trace moved to go around him.
Rick took a wild, poorly aimed swing, the blow catching Trace on the side of the head and causing him to stagger backward.
Maddy screamed and grabbed Rick, trying to pull him away. “Are you nuts? Come on, let’s get out of here!”
Rick shrugged her off and lifted his fists when Trace straightened.
Maddy tried to move around Rick to get between them, but the boy swept her back with his arm. “Stay back,” he ground out, his attention on Trace. “Jesus, Maddy, why’d you piss him off like that?”
“Oh, I’m pissed, all right,” Trace growled, shaking the braid at her. “You think this bought you the right to shove me in the water and then board my boat? I am shaving you bald.”
Two other fishermen started toward Trace’s boat, but William stepped into their path. “I believe this is a family matter, gentlemen,” he said softly, making sure his tone spoke for him. “What say we let them work this out between themselves?”
While Trace was busy glaring at Maddy, Rick took another swing at him, this time catching the man square in the jaw. “Run, Maddy!” Rick screamed, reaching down and shoving a large coil of rope toward Trace’s feet as he staggered backward again.
“Rick, come on!”
“I’m right behind you, sis!” he cried, grabbing another coil of rope and throwing it at Trace as he tried to catch his balance.
Maddy scrambled onto the dock and started running toward the ramp, but spotted William and ran to him instead. “Omigod! Do something!” she cried when she looked back and saw Trace had her brother cornered against the wheelhouse. She tugged on William’s sleeve, pulling and then pushing him toward the boat. “You have to save Rick!”
William spun her around so her back was to him and wrapped his arms around her to stop her from going to save her brother herself.
“William!” she cried, stamping a foot. “You promised to be my strong arm!”
“I only promised to save you, not your brother,” he said. He gave her a squeeze when she started struggling, and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Take a moment to see what’s happening, Madeline. Ye already have a strong arm coming to your rescue. Did ye not notice how your brother put himself between you and Trace? Let him be your hero, Maddy, instead of you always being his.”
She stopped struggling. “But Trace could really hurt him,” she whispered, watching the two men face off against each other.
“Do ye honestly believe your brother’s punch could have connected if your cousin hadn’t allowed it?”
She sucked in a surprised breath. “He let Rick hit him?”
“And do ye not think that with his training, Huntsman didn’t see your intention to push him in the water before you even decided to do it?”
“But why?” she asked, turning to look up at him.
“Because he loves you and your brother, lass. You’re looking at the problem between you and Rick from your perspective, Maddy, where Trace sees both sides. Rick isn’t a little boy anymore, and your cousin is trying to point that out to you.”
She went limp in his arms, and William saw her shoulders slump.
“Decide, Madeline,” he whispered against her hair, “if ye want to be Rick’s mother or a sister he can look to for support.”
She took a shuddering breath, and William opened his arms when he felt her spine stiffen. He watched her walk back down the dock to the boat.
“Leave him alone, Trace.”
Huntsman turned to her and folded his arms over his chest. “Give me one good reason why I should let him get away with punching me.”
“Because if you beat him up, you’ll be fishing all by yourself.”
Trace shrugged. “I’m going to be fishing alone in another week, anyway, when he heads off to college.”
William watched Maddy glance toward Rick, then hold out the envelope to Trace. “He changed his mind and isn’t going, because he wants to fish like our dad did.”
Trace took the envelope from her and spread open the top, but instead of pulling the letter out, he glared up at her. “Isn’t it against the law to open other people’s mail?”
Maddy clasped her hands behind her back. “I guess I forgot. But I’m pretty sure I’ll remember to never open his mail again.”
Trace rubbed his jaw, squinting up at her. “I don’t know. He did sucker-punch me—twice. And if I let him get away with it, my reputation will be shot.”
She snorted at that. And then she sighed and looked over at Rick. “I’m sorry for not listening to you and for pushing you to go to college. It was my dream, not yours.” She looked back at Trace. “You’re allowed one free punch if you feel you need to save face, but you can’t punch Rick.”
Trace’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. “You expect me to punch you?”
“William, will you let Trace punch me?” she called back over her shoulder, not even bothering to look at him.
“No, Madeline.”
Still looking at Trace, she shrugged. “William keeps insisting on protecting me, so I guess you’ll have to punch him instead.”
William choked back a bark of laughter, wanting both to kiss Madeline and to throw her into the harbor. But he sobered right fast when Trace leaped onto the dock and headed toward him.
Huntsman stopped in front of him, his eyes shining with amusement, and held out his hand. “Here, I believe every strong arm needs a token from his lady,” he said, handing him Maddy’s braid of hair. Trace turned to his cousin. “If you don’t mind, Peeps, I’m going to take a rain check on the free punch and save it for when you really piss me off. Come on, Killkenny,” he said, heading up the ramp. “I need to get some dry clothes out of my truck. And rumor has it there’s a madman racing through the streets of Midnight Bay on a motorcycle all hours of the day and night, and I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but I have a thing for fast bikes myself.”
William looked back to see that Maddy was already standing in the boat, wrapped up in Rick’s arms, softly weeping. He smiled at the realization she would be seeing her brother quite differently from now on, and followed Trace up the ramp.
“When did ye learn the boy didn’t want to go to college?” he asked, moving up beside Trace.
“That night we had dinner at Maddy’s, when I hunted him down and we had a little talk. He told me he’d saved up enough money working for an old fisherman all through high school to put a down payment on his own boat. His dad, actually, is the one who started the savings account with him about a year before he died.”
Trace opened the door to his pickup and started stripping right there in the parking lot, using the door to block anyone’s view. “Neither of them told Maddy or Patricia, because both women were determined the boy would go to college. And then, after their father died, Rick said he never told Maddy about the money because he was afraid she’d make him use it for tuition.”
“Rick truly prefers fishing?” William asked.
“He’s a completely different person when he’s on the water. Hell, you’d think he’d hatched out of a lobster trap. He’s sharp and confident and so damned focused it’s scary. And he knows the industry better than most thirty-year veterans. I’ve actually been making a profit since he came onboard.”
William glanced back toward the dock and saw Maddy and Rick sitting on the stern, simply talking.
“I’ve been waiting for Peeps to explode for days now,” Trace continued, pulling a dry shirt down over his chest. “But her cutting her hair and effectively neutralizing my threat,” he said with a chuckle, “well, I sure as hell didn’t see that coming.” He shot William a grin. “Any more than I anticipated she’d let you take the fall for her.”
William returned his grin. “That one blindsided me as well.” He looked down at her wet braid in his hand. “Though not nearly as much as her cutting her hair.”
Trace sat inside the open door to pull off his boots. “I’m guessing the new hairdo had more to do with you than with me. So, what are you two lovebirds up to this weekend?” he asked, tossing his wet boots into the back bed of the truck. “Sarah’s with Billy, so that leaves Maddy free for the next two days.”
William gazed toward the dock again. “I’m not sure, actually. After what happened the other night, I have a feeling even suggesting we go parking in my truck is out of the question, much less up on the bluff at my house site.”
Trace straightened from slipping into a dry pair of jeans and started threading his wet belt through the loops. “Well Christ, Killkenny, that’s why they invented motels.”