Page 9 of Seaside Strangers
KC raised an eyebrow at Dan but kept working. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe shewastrouble and notintrouble?”
“Nope, and neither did you.”
Despite rolling his eyes, he knew his uncle was right. He’d seen genuine fear in Maura’s eyes last night and wondered, if she had to, could she actually have pulled the trigger and shot him?
Handing him two more gallons of semi-gloss paint, Dan continued. “She told me she’d been in an abusive relationship and finally got the courage to leave the guy. She has no family and decided to travel a bit before figuring out where she wants to settle down. She’s afraid the ex-boyfriend will come after her.”
“That would explain the gun.”
Dan froze in surprise. “Gun? What gun?”
He reached over and grabbed the paint cans his uncle held suspended in mid-air. “The one she pulled on me when I let myself into the house at two in the morning.”
“Got the jump on you,eh? I would’ve given good money to see that.”
“You could have warned me, you know.”
“But where would the fun be in that?” Dan laughed loudly as he slapped his oldest nephew on the back. The two gathered the empty boxes and tossed them into the rear stock room before heading back to the front of the store. Jimmy, the teenager who worked there after school, would break the boxes down later for recycling.
By the front door, Jinx lay on his back in a sunbeam, snoring with all four paws in the air. KC crouched to give him a quick belly rub, thenstraightened. “Useless mutt.”
His uncle began to restock a rack of batteries on the counter. “Jinx would resent that if he were awake.”
“When I see him earn his keep, maybe I’ll change my opinion of him. Until then, he’s nothing but a useless mutt.”
Dan looked over his shoulder and eyed his nephew curiously. “So, what did you think?”
He cocked his head to the side. “About what?”
“Not what,who. Maura. She’s a looker, don’t you think?”
Glancing around the store, he avoided making eye contact with his uncle. “I really hadn’t noticed.”
The bald-faced lie received a loud snort. “Sure you didn’t.”
He knew better than to deny it further—of course, he’d noticed. After all, he was a healthy, heterosexual male, and Maura wasn’t just a looker—she was downright gorgeous.
After he’d closed his bedroom door last night, he’d been hard as granite—and it sure as hell hadn’t been from the adrenaline of having a gun pointed at him. It had everything to do with her—the glimpse of long legs beneath that oversized T-shirt she’dapparently worn to bed, and the way the thin cotton had clung to her curves.
He’d tried to shove the image aside, but it stuck, lingering in his mind long after the house had gone quiet.
Too much skin. Too many questions about what the shirt hadn’t revealed.
She had beautiful auburn hair that fell to the middle of her back. He’d been disappointed to see it pulled up into a ponytail when he found her in the kitchen earlier. His hand had itched for him to walk over and release the silky strands from their bondage. The reddish-brown color was a perfect contrast to her pale, porcelain skin and sexy, baby-blue eyes. She was a stunning beauty from head to toe.
Yup, he had definitely noticed.
Shaking the vision from his mind before his body could react to it again, he changed the subject. “I was a little surprised you rented the house. None of us have stayed there for more than a week or two in years. Heck, since you live above this place, I’m amazed you never sold it. It’s got to be worth a small fortune in today’s market.”
“Renting it to someone in need is one thing, butyou know I’d never sell it.” There was a quiet, wistful note in his uncle’s voice. “Annie and I bought the place a few weeks after we were married. Scraped together every penny we could and mortgaged it to the hilt. Even when money was tight, your aunt decorated the place really nice. We painted every room ourselves after she spent hours picking out all the right colors. Annie would scour yard sales and make something useful and beautiful from other people’s junk. Even on her sickest days, she would tell me to move something, or dust something, or fluff something, to be sure everything was perfect.”
KC smiled. He’d heard the story countless times growing up, and it always made him wish he’d known his aunt. She’d died long before the Malone brothers were born, but they’d been raised on stories of Aunt Annie. Over the years, he’d come to understand that a piece of his uncle had been buried with her.
“Even though we only had two wonderful years together there, it will always be our place. I could never give it up. And someday it will belong to you and your brothers...” He pointed to KC with a frown. “And if you ever sell it, I’ll come back from the grave and haunt your sorry asses!”
KC’s smile got even bigger. “I’m sure you will.But now that you’ve rented it temporarily, I need a place to crash, so I guess it’ll be on your couch.”
“Um, that’s impossible.”
