Page 91 of Booked for Summer

‘When I started that campaign, I didn’t realise what a hornet’s nest I was stirring up. Oh, sure, I knew at the first meeting that the group were there for more than the bookstore, but it was only later that some of them made it clear they didn’t just want to stop you closing it, they wanted to stop you.’

‘Shhh, it’s okay.’ He drew a hand down her cheek, feeling his body settle as she leaned into his touch. ‘I deserve some of the hatred. Stopping people using the wharf to moor their boats was petty. You were right. I’ve been so focused on making Haven Resort the biggest and best resort on the island, I’ve been blind to who or what I’m trampling on in the process.’

‘Are you saying you’re going to keep Little Bay Book Shack?’

He gazed at her gorgeous face and felt his heart swell. Blonde and impossibly cute, but able to cut a rich bully down to size with an ease that left him humbled. ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen between us, but I do know you fit here. If you choose to stay, the island would be lucky to have you. And if you can do for others what you did for Grandma, then the bookstore should stay.’

‘And if I choose to go home, what happens to it then?’

It felt like a vice was crushing his chest. ‘I don’t know. I can’t imagine anyone else running it.’

But he didn’t want her to stay for the shop, he wanted her to stay for him.

‘It would be good to keep it on, if you can,’ she told him quietly. ‘For the island, for the resort but also for you. Might make people like Stuart stay in their corner and not come out swinging.’

‘I don’t give a fuck about people like Stuart.’ He swallowed. ‘But I give a whole lot of fucks about you.’ More than he’d planned, far more than was healthy for him. ‘If you want the bookstore to stay, it stays, whatever you decide to do.’

Her smile melted his already embarrassingly mushed-up heart. ‘Thank you.’

‘Well, look who we found at the bar,’ Jeremy interrupted, giving him a considering look before settling the drinks on the table– one beer, two pink coloured cocktails, one whisky.

He stepped aside to reveal Mary and Philip… and behind them, Adam.Thiswas why he didn’t go out in Nantucket. Too many reminders of his past. Too many people he didn’t want to talk to.

‘I’ve invited them to our wedding,’ Jeremy continued, either oblivious to the tension currently zipping through the air, or uncaring. ‘I told them to tell Emma and Claire to come, too. Thought we could have a little unofficial SOB gathering.’

Liam didn’t need Jade’s whispered,can I?She was almost bouncing with the need to announce it. He nodded and was rewarded with a radiant smile.

‘Maybe we could turn the gathering into a celebration. Not to take away from your wedding, obviously,’ she added, glancing at Jeremy and Leroy.

‘Are you’re going to say what I think you’re going to say?’ Jeremy cut in.

‘You won’t know if you keep interrupting her,’ Leroy said dryly.

‘Little Bay Book Shack is going to stay.’ She squealed then, leaping to her feet and doing a silly dance, delight written across her face.

Jeremy let out a whoop and threw his arms around her. Mary, who Liam would never have had down as a hugger, followed suit. Philip gave Jade a handshake, though even his smile was warm.

Adam bent to kiss Jade’s cheek, and Liam felt the tension roll through him, every muscle tight and poised to fight. For her.

He expected them to ignore him but Mary caught his eye and inclined her head, raising her glass in salute.

Shocked, he acknowledged her gesture with a nod of his own.

‘Jade got you to change your mind, did she?’ Adam smirked over at him.

‘Yes,’ he retorted bluntly, earning him a rueful smile.

‘Can’t say I blame you for wanting to keep her sweet.’ Adam took a sip of his wine and then, like Mary, raised his glass. ‘Credit where credit’s due. You made the right decision in the end.’ He shrugged. ‘Dad’s still got beef with you, but from my side, we’re quits. I was a shit to you when we were kids, you were a shit to me when you stopped me mooring my boat.’ He glanced down at the glass of whisky. ‘Why don’t I buy you a drink and we’ll bury the hatchet?’

‘Fine. And you should know I’m shifting the private mooring sign on the wharf to the first two moorings on the left. Rest of it can be used by anyone. Johnsons included.’

Adam laughed and saluted him, too.

As the man walked to the bar to buy him a drink, Liam’s gaze fell on Jade. She’d stuck up for him even when she’d not liked him, even when he’d been a prick to her. She’d also stood up to him, made him see the man he was turning into. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered.

The smile she shot him slipped right under his defences and wrapped tightly round his heart.

Fuck, he was sunk. How had he let her in so readily, in such a short space of time? He was either in massive denial, or the dumbest guy on the planet if he thought things would end any differently than they had with the other women he’d let into his heart.

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