Parker tried to stay busy the rest of the week. Friday night seemed so far off, and he was having a hard time keeping his mind from jumping ahead to what was coming.

He supposed it was a perfectly normal reaction, since it had been over twelve months since he’d gone out on a date. It wasn’t for lack of trying, exactly. More a lack of interest.

After the disaster with Robin, he just hadn’t been interested in dating. Until Sara.

There was plenty to keep him busy, making sure everything was ready to start work on Monday. He had to order and pick up paint, wood, flooring, new booths, tables, chairs, lights, and other supplies.

And that didn’t include the work he still had on his house. He’d gotten most of the big items done and was still working on rebuilding the front porch.

Toby lay at his feet as he painted the new planks he’d installed in the stairs on his front porch. He heard a car pull up and glanced over at the new BMW that bumped up the dirt lane.

When Toby growled, he snapped his fingers and the dog settled back down. He was pleased that the dog obeyed. He’d been working with him and was surprised at how much the dog had learned so far.

“Evening,” he said to the man who climbed out. The fact that the guy was dressed in a suit and dress shoes, which were getting dirty from the dust that settled from his drive, caused him a little concern.

His first thought was lawyer. Great, what’d he do now?

“Parker?” The man approached as he set his paint brush down. Toby watched him cautiously.

“Yes, can I help you?” He wiped his hands on a clean rag.

“I’m Matt Jordan. Sara’s my sister.”

Parker held in a chuckle. “Okay,” he said slowly.

“She told me you’ll be working on the Golden Oar.”

“Yes, work starts Monday.” He motioned to the chairs.

Matt sat down, and Parker sat across from him. Toby took that moment to approach the stranger.

Parker was pleased when Matt started petting the dog, who was obviously enjoying the added attention.

“You aren’t here to warn me off your sister, are you?” he asked, half joking.

“My sister?” Matt frowned over at him. “Why? Should I?”

Parker shook his head quickly. “It’s just a date.”

When Matt’s eyebrows drew up, Parker realized the man didn’t know about him asking his sister out.

“Never mind,” he added quickly. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, Patty gave me your flyer, but now, I’m curious about you and my sister.” He shifted towards him as Toby lay at the man’s feet.

“Like I said, it’s just a date.” He wished he could go back five minutes and keep his mouth shut. He’d dealt with overly protective brothers before and none of them had ever understood that their sister was free to date whomever she pleased.

“Sara’s a big girl,” he said slowly as his green eyes ran over Parker. “I stopped trying to tell her what to do long ago.”

Parker took his time and assessed the man as well. The only resemblance he could see between brother and sister were those eyes.

“If you didn’t come here to give me the brotherly third degree…” He let the question hang.

“I bought a place.” Matt sighed. “An old place. One that needs a lot of work.”

Instantly, Parker cheered up. “Okay.” He held in the excitement.

“I won’t need the work to start for a few months yet. And I don’t expect to move in until the work is done, because the wind could probably blow it over at this point.” He chuckled and ran his hand over the back of his neck, messing up both his hair and tie at the same time.

“If you give me the address, I can swing by it sometime, give you a quote for the work that’ll need to be done.”

Matt nodded, leaning back in the chair, and for the first time since he’d arrived, he looked relaxed. “I don’t know what made me bid on the old place. I was taking my new motorcycle for a ride and stumbled across the auction.”

“You bought a house in an auction?” Parker thought about the bad shape many auctioned houses were in and made a face.

“Exactly,” Matt jumped in.

“How about a beer?” He could use one now that he’d cooled off after working. He probably wouldn’t go back to work after Matt left anyway. He’d put in a full ten hours that day and could already feel his muscles screaming for a break.

“Sure,” Matt said, loosening his tie further. “I should have changed before I stopped by, but… Patty had mentioned you when I stopped off at the store and, well, I’m not one for putting things off.”

Parker chuckled as he stepped inside and pulled two cold beers from the fridge. When he stepped out again, Toby was snoring loudly, and Matt was watching him.

“Does your dog always sleep so heavily?” he asked.

“So far, yes.” He handed over the beer and sat back down.

“I like what you’ve done here.” He nodded to the porch and the new beams of wood. “The place needed someone young who could take care of it. Not that Jerry Fitch couldn’t, it’s just… Well, he didn’t.”

“That’s one of the reasons they sold the place to me.”

“So, you’re sticking around? It seems newcomers either put down roots and stay or run away as fast as they can.”

“Oh?” Parker took a sip of beer. “Is there something worth running from?”

“Not particularly. The dating pool is small. And the people, while very loyal, are some of the biggest gossips along the West Coast.” Matt chuckled. “Which is why I’m a little surprised I hadn’t already heard about your date with my sister.”

“I just asked her a few days ago.” Had it really only been two days since he’d seen her?

“Usually it only takes an hour or two for that sort of thing to spread around town,” Matt said as he sipped the beer. “Of course, I’ve been out of town for a few days. I just got back from India.”

“India?” He looked at the guy again. “I thought you guys owned a B&B and a restaurant?”

Matt chuckled. “I’ve been working at the family business, Jordan Shipping, for almost ten years. I officially started the week after my sixteenth birthday but there isn’t a time I don’t remember being part of the business.”

“Jordan Shipping…” He thought about the name and frowned. “That’s your family?” He swallowed the last of his beer. He wanted another but one was his daily limit. Any more and he’d have a hard time getting to sleep that night.

“Yeah. Sara didn’t mention it?” Matt asked, setting down his empty bottle of beer.

“No. There’s a lot we haven’t talked about yet.”

Matt’s eyebrows rose slightly, but the man was smart enough to change the subject to his plans for his new house.

By the time Matt drove away in his now-dusty car, Parker had already decided he liked the guy. Not just because he’d pretty much promised to hire him to fix his place, but because not once had he meddled in his sister’s business, outside of those few hints.

Parker was beginning to wonder if everyone in the Jordan clan was likable.

* * *

“You what?” Sara glared at her brother and backhanded a slap across his shoulders once more. It probably hurt her more than him, considering how her knuckles screamed at her when she hit solid muscle.

Her brother was built a lot like her uncle, solid and toned. Both he and their dad regularly lifted weights to stay in shape.

“I said, I hired your new boyfriend to fix up my house.”

“I heard you,” she hissed, glaring towards the study where her parents were entertaining other family members. Lacey and Aaron had shown up less than an hour before Matt arrived back home.

“Then why ask me again?” Matt rolled his eyes and toed off his dress shoes. It still seemed weird to her that her brother was almost always in a suit lately.

She was used to him wearing old jeans or sweat pants instead of Dolce and Gabbana. Not that it didn’t look good on him, but the fact that he was spending more on his suits than she had spent on her car unnerved her slightly.

Her eyes narrowed. “You bought a house?”

“Sure.” He leaned his head back in the soft gray wing chair and propped his feet up on the matching ottoman. He looked tired, but that wasn’t going to stop her from giving him the third degree.

“Where?” She pushed his feet aside and sat on the ottoman, searching his face.

“The old Jones place.” He closed his eyes. “When is dinner going to be ready?”

“The…” She held in a gasp. “The haunted house?”

Her brother chuckled. “It’s not haunted.”

“How do you know?” She leaned closer. “Have you spent the night there yet?”

“No.” He rolled his eyes. “The place is about ready to fall in on itself. I won’t stay there until it’s fixed up…”—Matt smiled—“by your new beau.”

“Shut up.”

“What’s so bad about the family knowing about him? He seemed like a nice enough guy.”

She waved her hand as if she was disregarding his comments.

“I’m not worried about the folks overhearing about Parker. It’s about you buying a place,” she whispered.

Matt sat up and narrowed his eyes at her. “Why would that be an issue?”

Her eyes moved to the French doors when she heard laughter coming from the next room. “It just is, okay?” She moved to get up, but he stopped her by putting a hand on her knees.

“Sarie.” Her brother’s use of her nickname caused her to groan slightly. “I’ve lived on my own for a few years now. I can’t be expected to continue paying rent and living in a small apartment a few feet from where I work.”

“Of course not.” She sighed. “Our folks are still under the assumption you’d build your own place here, on family land. After all, the Jordans have lived on these fifty acres for four generations now.”

“So.” He shrugged and relaxed back again. “You’ll still be here. Besides, who do you think the folks will give this place to when they’re gone?”

“Stop it. Our parents are never going to be gone.”

Matt chuckled. “Okay,” he said slowly.

“We both know that the place will go to Susannah or me.”

“What did you think would happen when you or Susie gets married?” He paused, a big smile forming on his lips. “The land moves out of the Jordan name and into the name of whatever depraved man you two can rope into marrying you.”

She thought about it, then smiled. “Then I guess it’s a good thing it’ll go to us, because who in their right mind would ever want to marry you.” She pushed his feet off the ottoman the rest of the way.

“Hey.” He sat up and glared at her as she walked out of the room.

When she walked into the den, she was greeted with laughter.

“I can just see her there now, butt naked, hiding behind a…” Her father stopped talking and laughing when she walked into the room.

“Who was butt naked and hiding behind something?” she asked, sitting on the arm of the sofa, next to her mother.

“Your aunt.” Aaron laughed. The couple had their fingers linked as they sat next to one another—another testament of her family’s strength.

Jordans didn’t do anything lightly. When they fell in love, it was for life. Her father’s family all told the same stories about how their great-grandfather had loved their great-grandmother until their dying days.

The only exception to the story was her father’s parents. Her father’s mother had skipped out on George, her grandfather, making way for him to marry and fall in love with Lacey and Iian’s mother. She had died giving birth to Iian, breaking the man’s heart and spirit. Or so the story went.

George had died on Iian’s eighteenth birthday while taking his youngest son on a sailing trip. They had found her uncle in the water a few days later. He was broken and left deaf for the rest of his life. In one of his last acts of love, her grandfather had saved his son by sacrificing his own life.

“Naked?” She looked over at her aunt. Lacey Steven’s was a spitfire. Had been as long as Sara could remember. Marrying the town doctor had made her seem more so, in many townspeople’s eyes.

There had been an incident, long before Sara was born, that had changed the way her aunt looked at the town of Pride. Everyone who knew them claimed that, after almost being killed in a hit-and-run accident, Lacey had taken it upon herself to see to it that all the townspeople in Pride were safe. She spent so much time after the incident putting in speed humps and new stop signs along the main road that it had opened the door for her to run for mayor many years later.

Now, her aunt was loved by all and there wasn’t a street corner in Pride that didn’t show the results of Lacey’s hard work. Pride was booming, and it was all thanks to her aunt.

“What?” Lacey chuckled. “A girl can’t skinny dip on her own property?”

“Half of the pond was on my property,” Aaron added.

“If my memory serves me right”—Lacey smiled at her husband—“I wasn’t the only one au natural that day.”

Aaron chuckled and quickly changed the subject. “So, is everything set to surprise Allison?”

“Yes,” Sara’s mother jumped in. “Riley is going to sneak in and pack for her so that Saturday morning, when Iian convinces her to spend a nice evening in Portland, her suitcase will be in the trunk of his car.”

“How is Riley going to distract her long enough to pack a suitcase and haul it downstairs?” Lacey asked.

“Well, that’s where you come in.” Megan smiled at her sister-in-law. “You’re so good at distracting.” Lacey rolled her eyes.

“What about you?” She turned to Sara. “Are you available to help out Friday night?”

“No,” Sara answered a little too quickly, causing both her mother and Lacey’s eyebrows to shoot up.

The women looked nothing alike—Lacey was shorter, with the Jordan’s dark complexion—but they had matching expressions on their faces. Sara chuckled.

“Yes, it’s a date, and no, I’m not going into details.”

“Is it that boy Iian hired?” her mother chimed in, earning her a glare.

“Oooh.” Lacey moved forward as she rubbed her hands together. “I smell gossip.” When her husband chuckled, she turned on him. “What kind of mayor would I be if I didn’t know everything that went on in my town?”

Sara laughed and gave up trying to keep her private life… well, private.