Page 62 of Leave It to Us
“I’ll have you know, I’m waiting to hear from an interview I went on before I left the city,” Tami countered.
Lana threw up her hands. “Do you hear yourself? That was over a month ago. You think there’s still a chance you’re going to get that job? Grow up, Tami.”
Tami stood then. “Oh yeah, let me grow up so I can be just like you, Lana. I can have the husband and the fancy condo, the nice cars and the big bucks in the bank accounts. You and Isaac have so much—why don’t you just fork up the extra money we need to fix the house? Then we can get it sold faster, and you can be on your merry way.”
Lana was speechless. And apparently motionless at her sister’s words. Was that really what Tami thought of her? Was that how she saw Lana’s life? Full of fancy cars and money? If so, she was sadly mistaken.
“I can’t do that,” Lana said slowly.
“And why the hell not? It would be an investment, Lana. You could get your money back when we sell the house.” Tami stood with one hand on her hip now, her lips turned up as she waited for Lana’s response.
Lana looked away from Tami, who was bubbling with attitude and indignation, and she stared at Yvonne. Her older sister was just sitting there, her gaze locked on Lana as if she were waiting for the answer too. But Lana could see the fatigue in Yvonne’s eyes now and the slight slump of her shoulders. Hadn’t she just been the one telling Tami to stop stressing their sister? The sister who’d taken the weight off them where their mother was concerned all their lives? Even when they were younger because, since Yvonne was the good one, Lana and Tami could be the not-so-good ones. As long as Freda had her favorite by her side.
“We don’t have the money,” Lana said finally. “Because Isaac keeps gambling it all away.”
Chapter 22
YVONNE
Late Friday afternoon, Yvonne sat on the dock, her bare feet dangling over the edge. She wore jean capris and a sky-blue T-shirt; her natural-colored sandals sat on the planks beside her. Across the water, she could see boats in the distance—private vessels, charters, and supply boats either coming back to the island for drop-offs or going over to Bluffton for pickups. The sun was just settling over the horizon, casting the lower half of the sky in layers of hot orange and poppin’ golds. A slight turn of her head, and she could see a bit more of the coastal area, silhouettes of old oaks and palms, and wisps of sweetgrass blowing in the cool breeze now coming off the water to usher in the night.
With her hands in her lap, she tilted her head back and inhaled a deep breath. A smile lifted her lips as she released the breath and welcomed the peace that Lana had spoken of days ago. Her sister had been right: There was a sort of peace in the air here. A stillness that Yvonne had never experienced anywhere else, and surprisingly, she was drawn to it. Somewhere deep inside her craved it and wondered if it was something she could have forever.
“Need some company?”
She startled at Deacon’s voice as it broke through the contemplation that had been skirting around her mind all day. Opening her eyes, she kept her head angled back and glanced to the right, where he was standing. “Sure,” she said, and watched as he lowered his tall body down to settle beside her.
Still in his work clothes, he smelled like sawdust and sweat. Not in a funky kind of way, but definitely in that I’ve-been-working-hard-labor-for-hours-thank-the-heavens-for-good-deodorant type of way. There were smudges of whatever white substance he’d worked with today across his forehead, and his hands, although she could tell he’d washed them, still had some grit around the nail beds and definitely a bit of ash on the knuckles—all things that might’ve been a put-off if she were back in the city, but here on this island, after watching him and his crew work all day, she could admit still made him damn sexy.
“It’s beautiful out here,” she said after a few moments of silence.
“A unique and undisturbed beauty is a hard find,” he replied.
“That’s the truth. Especially when you find yourself locked into one place where the view is always the same and never as rewarding.” Those words just tumbled free, and she didn’t really regret them. She’d given up wondering why she felt so at ease with Deacon that she could talk about things that she’d never spoken to anyone before. She knew the reason. It wouldn’t make a difference in the long run, but she knew, and for now she decided just to go with the flow.
“Nobody ever said you have to stay in one place,” he said. “That’s why they invented planes, boats, trains. You know, all those forms of traveling.”
She tossed him a wry grin. “I swear, I don’t know who told you you were funny.”
He grinned, just as she’d expected he would, just as she enjoyed seeing. “I don’t know why you keep tryin’ to deny my skills.”
“What skills?” She chuckled. “As a contractor? Because that’s something I can vouch for.”
“Nah, my skills for being able to make you smile.” He reached over and took her hand then.
She let her fingers slide easily into his grasp, noting the calluses on the inside of his palms and pressing her palm to them. It was a symbol that he was real—his work hands, the bulging biceps she’d seen flexing as he lifted something or cut something. This man who was sitting beside her was the realest man she’d ever met. He wasn’t the figment of her imagination that she often conjured when enjoying her toys, and he wasn’t like the few she’d allowed into her personal space temporarily.
“Well,” she said, “I guess I can give you that one.”
“Thank you very much,” he said, and then surprised her by leaning in to give her a gentle kiss on her forehead.
He hadn’t kissed her since almost a week ago, when they’d returned from the dinner at his mother’s house. Probably because he and his crew had been so busy with trying to keep things going at the house. Or, as she’d thought a few days ago, maybe he wasn’t going to kiss her again, since she’d basically shut down the possibility of anything romantic happening between them. But hell, this moment right here seemed as romantic as any scene Yvonne had watched in a movie, and she wasn’t complaining.
“How’re you holding up?” he asked after they’d fallen into another comfortable silence. “I mean, I know it’s been a little tense between you and your sisters since we found out about those extra expenses.”
She shook her head. “I told you the other day to go ahead and get it done.”
“You did,” he replied. “But you’ve also been busying yourself around the house every day this week until I’ve only seen you in flashes. So I haven’t really had a moment to talk to you. That’s why I stuck around after the crew went home tonight.”
