Page 83 of Midnight Mooring

“Whatever.” He shrugged and turned to Brenna. “Bre—Mom, have you seen my skateboard?”

“I have. But right now, I’m welcoming our first guests to the hotel.” She gave her son a pointed look.

“But I need my skateboard,” he responded sullenly. “If I have to live on an island in the middle of nowhere, I’m going to need my skateboard.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” Brenna said with more patience than I would have.

“Don’t be such a bi⁠—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Cameron cut the teen off, crossing her arms over her chest. I tried to hide my smirk because Cameron had never been able to keep her thoughts to herself when she thought someone was being rude.

Surprisingly, Dillon flushed at her interruption. “Whatever,” he muttered and strode off.

Brenna watched him leave, appearing as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

“You okay?” Cameron pressed a tentative hand to her arm. “Sorry if I spoke out of turn.”

Brenna blinked rapidly out of wherever her thoughts had taken her. “No, don’t apologize. I’m sorry. He’s, um … not adjusting well to the move. That’s why he keeps calling me Brenna instead of Mom and he knows I hate it. Anyway”—she lowered her gaze in embarrassment—“forgive me. Let me grab the key card to your suite.”

One of the massive glass entrance doors opened, letting in the cool breeze, and we turned to see Torin striding toward us. He was dressed in his usual gear of jeans, T-shirt, tartan shirt, and hiking boots. He also had a skateboard in his hand. His gaze washed over us before settling on Brenna. His severe expression turned even harder. “Do I want to know why I found this stashed behind one of the septic tanks?”

Brenna flushed, reaching out to take the skateboard from him. “I was hiding it from Dillon.”

“Why?”

She shot us an uncomfortable look. “For reasons.”

Torin sighed heavily but didn’t push. Instead, he turned his attention on Cameron, his expression softening just enough to make me want to punch him. “Made it here, then, gorgeous?”

“Nah, we’re not really here. This is just a hologram,” I couldn’t help but offer sarcastically since he had a bad habit of flirting with my woman.

Torin let out a long-suffering sigh. “You should do standup, mate.”

“I know.” I grinned unrepentantly.

He rolled his eyes and then tipped his head toward his manager. “The Montrose Suite ready for them?”

Brenna nodded, holding up the keys. “I was just about to take them to it.”

“Good.” Torin abruptly turned away from her. “My chef is going to make you dinner tonight. Just let Birdie know what time you want to have it.”

“Birdie?” I teased since he was being kind of a cold bastard to his stunning hotel manager and that piqued my curiosity. Plus, I was in the mood to be a needling wee shite to him. Payback and all that.

He ignored me. “If you want any spa treatments, let Brenna know about that too. I’ll be around if you need me.”

“I wanted to show Forde the lodges I designed.”

“Aye, we’ll arrange that tomorrow too. Have a good night.” Torin strode back out the entrance.

“He’s a man of few words, isn’t he?”

Cameron chuckled. “I don’t think you need words when you look like that.”

“Oi.” I reached to tickle her in retaliation and she giggled, squirming in my arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You’re the sexiest man in the world!”

Laughing, I pressed a quick, hard kiss to her lips, feeling them tremble with amusement. “And don’t you forget it.”