“You should never be too busy to come,” her grandmother said with a chuckle.
“Grandma!” Jules snapped at the same time as her mother said, “Mom!”
Mrs. Silver smiled warmly, looking around. “Is Bellamy working today, honey? I wonder if she’s heard from Grant. I’ve been having trouble reaching him.”
“She’ll be in later, but I saw Grant this morning and—” Nonono! “I mean the other day. I saw him at the marina. He was fine.” Shootshootshoot! She turned away, but her mother was standing right there, grinning like she was in on Jules’s secret.
“I think the cat is out of the bag, Julesy,” her grandmother said with an expression that said she knew everything.
But how could she?
“There is no cat! There’s no bag!” Jules insisted, wishing she could disappear into thin air.
“If you were with Grant, sweetheart, that would be a good thing. You two would make a striking couple,” Mrs. Remington said. “And he sure could use someone like you in his life.”
“This makes me so happy,” Mrs. Silver said giddily. “You’re good for him, Jules. Maybe you can convince him he wants to stay on the island and get that silly idea of going back to Darkbird out of his head.”
“No. Stop, please,” Jules said firmly. “I won’t try to convince him to do anything he doesn’t want to. He wants to do something meaningful with his life, and he should. I support that, wherever he wants to do it.”
“Is that why you’ve missed breakfast, honey?” her mother asked. “You’ve been with Grant? Oh, this is wonderful news! Wait until your sisters hear.”
“What? No!” Jules felt her cheeks burning and covered her face. “Ohmygod. Please stop talking.”
Lenore put her arm around Jules and said, “My sweet darling, are you finally getting a little action?”
“Grandma!”
The door to the shop flew open again, and Archer’s voice ricocheted off the walls. “Jules, we have to talk about Grant.”
Jules and the others spun around. Archer stood with his hands fisted by his sides, his eyes moving over them as Mrs. Remington and Mrs. Silver stepped beside Jules, looping their arms with hers, and her grandmother and mother moved in front of her. Her cavalry had her back, as always.
But she didn’t need a cavalry against Archer.
“What the hell is this?” Archer pointed to Jules. “You, me, in your office.”
“Archer, honey, maybe you should calm down before you talk with Jules,” their mother suggested.
“If you want to talk to her, you’re going to have to talk to all of us,” their grandmother said.
“Okay, hold on.” Jules wriggled from the other women’s grasps and pushed between her mother and grandmother, huffing with frustration. “I appreciate your support, but I can talk to Archer alone.”
“I don’t advise that when he looks so angry,” Mrs. Remington said in a soft, singsong voice.
Jules marched up to Archer and took his arm, dragging him away from the ladies. “Sorry about that. I have no idea what’s going on with them, but I know Grant talked to you and Jock yesterday.”
“Yeah, and?” Archer’s face was a mask of concern. “Are you with him?”
“Yes. It’s new, but he came to see me this morning and we’re together.”
Archer closed his eyes for a second, the way he always did when he was calming himself down. Jules held her breath, suddenly excruciatingly nervous. When he opened his eyes, his expression softened, as did his tone. “Jules, do you know he’s not sure about his future? He may not stay on the island.”
“I know his life is up in the air, and I support whatever he wants to do. I know you worry about me, Archer, but I’m an adult. I get to make the choices about who I’m with.”
“I know you do. I just…” He shook his head, teeth clenched.
“You want to protect me.” He always had. She and Archer were the only two siblings who had remained on the island, and he’d always been there for her. He’d been twenty-three when he’d bought and moved onto his boat, and Jules had been fifteen. He’d given her a key so she’d always have a safe place to go if she needed to be alone. Archer had found her there after bad dates and when she was overwhelmed with missing Jock. She could always count on him to be her rock, no matter how mad he was at Jock or anyone else. It dawned on her that she felt that same feeling of safety with Grant, despite the fact that he’d tried to send her away.
“Archer, you’ve told me when you thought tourists who asked me out weren’t on the up and up, and I have almost always listened to you. I’m glad I did. But you know Grant, and I know you trust him as much as I do. This time I’m following my heart. It has never led me astray before, and if I get hurt, that’s on me, not you.”
Archer’s brows slanted angrily. “If he makes you shed one tear, I’m going to kill him.”
“Oh yes, he will,” Lenore said.
She and Archer spun around, catching four eavesdroppers scurrying away in a cacophony of giggles and whispers, followed by a series of “Shhs.”
Jules threw up her hands. “Okay, listen up, ladies. Yes, I’m with Grant! Yes, I know he doesn’t know what his future holds and he might even leave the island. No, I won’t try to keep him here. I know how much you worry about him, Mrs. Silver. Nobody wants him to get hurt again, but staying here when he wants to be somewhere else would hurt him.” She returned her attention to Archer. “I love you with everything I have, and I know you think nobody but a knight in shining armor would be good enough for me. I don’t know if Grant is my forever knight or if he’s my knight for now, but I know my heart has been caught up in him for months, and I’ve never wanted anything more than I want to be with him. So I hope you’ll support us, for me.”
Archer hauled her into his arms, giving her a quick, hard hug. “I love you, Jules. I’ll support you, but I wasn’t kidding. One tear, and he’s toast.”
She smiled up at him. “Deal. Unless they’re happy tears.” She drew in a deep breath and exhaled long and loud. Then she went to talk to the whispering ladies, and with a wiggle and a grin, she exclaimed, “I’m with Grant, and I’m so flipping happy!”
They squealed and wrapped her in a group hug, talking over one another.
“This is great!” her mother exclaimed.
“We’re happy for you!” Mrs. Remington chimed in.
Mrs. Silver said, “Maybe she’ll change her mind and convince him to stay!”
“Margot!” all three of the other women said in unison.
“You have good taste, Julesy. That man could earn big bucks at Pythons,” her grandmother said, causing the other ladies to laugh. Pythons was a male strip club on Cape Cod.
“Grandma, don’t talk about his python!” Jules snapped. And now she was thinking about the formidable python she’d felt beneath her that morning.
“I’m outta here,” Archer announced, and headed out the door.
Jules groaned. “Why does he think I’m still a little girl?”
“Oh, no, honey, he doesn’t think that.” Her mother put her arm around her. “You know that Jock sat vigil by your bedside when you went through surgery and the treatments that followed. But Archer couldn’t do it. He was too scared, and now he’s scared again.”