Claiming Kara:Fate Harbor 3(38)

"I know you appreciate her. Deep down, she knows it, too. Otherwise, she  would never have fallen in love with you. But you need to remind her of  it. So I think you need to commission her to do some painting on the  boats. We need some Pacific Northwest Native American tribal art painted  along the perimeter of the captain's bridge, on both boats."

"Were you always this sneaky?"

"Mom and Dad just automatically assumed that Randy acted alone on some  of those stunts, and he never told, God bless him." Ben was gratified to  see that Quinn was beginning to look hopeful.





Chapter 12




Kara still didn't know what surprised her more, the fact that Quinn had  called to ask her to design and paint something on his boats, or that  she had agreed to do it. Then, after she had come up with the two  designs and e-mailed them to him, he wanted to meet with her to discuss  some slight changes. She had been amazed. It had seemed like something  Ben would do, not Quinn. But when they had sat down, she realized that  he was very aware of the symbolism and how it related to his ancestry.  He also knew exactly what type of symbolic message he wanted to convey  on his boats. They sat for a couple of hours while she sketched.

She had always felt that Ben had understood her artistic nature and  appreciated her work, but after the hours with Quinn, she walked away  floating on air. He loved everything she created. Even if he just wanted  to see a different totem, like a salmon or an eagle, he loved them, and  he noticed all the intricate curves that went into forming them. They  might look simple to create, but to do them correctly took care and  time. Ultimately, he chose whale and eagle totems. One boat was going to  be named Whale, the other was going to be named Eagle.

Currently, Kara was just finishing up the first layer of the design on  the captain's bridge. Ben and Quinn had been off working on the smaller  boat all day, so she hadn't seen them. She'd been surprised. Her guess  had been that they would use this as another chance to push their case  to get back together. When she arrived and they got her settled and then  left, she told herself she felt relieved. But if she was honest with  herself, she had to admit that she felt a little disappointed. How  messed up was that?         

     



 

She was just folding up the tarp and closing the paint cans when the men climbed aboard.

"Let us give you a hand with that, Kara," Ben said as he reached for the  box of supplies she had been about to pick up. "I'll take this out to  your car."

"Sweetheart, I hope you were going to wait for us before hauling this  out to your Bronco," Quinn gently admonished as he worked with her to  finish folding the tarp.

"Quinn, you know how heavy the glass is that I work with." She grinned  at his foolishness. "I bet I could surprise you and be pretty handy  hauling up a net." She watched as his smile died.

"I would hate to have to see you hauling nets, Kara."

"It's not my dream either, Quinn. I was just teasing. You had women on your crew before. Why does it bother you so much?"

"It doesn't have anything with you being a woman. It's just a matter of  having people I love out there. Ever since Dad died, I worry. It eats at  me … a lot." He took the tarp from her, and put it in the smaller box. "I  worry about everyone, about everything. Sometimes it drives me in  circles," he admitted, so quietly she had to strain to hear him.

"That must be a really hard way to live." Kara tried to catch his eye,  but Quinn was busy looking at the design on the wall. She knew he was  just avoiding looking at her. She shouldn't be surprised. Even when they  had been in a relationship, he avoided talking about things that were  emotional.

"Kara, this looks so much better than I imagined." She could hear the  sincerity in his voice and she blushed. "I mean the sketches were  wonderful, but seeing it so large just makes it that much more  beautiful. I always knew you had a gift when you worked in glass, but  you are really gifted in this medium, as well." He reached out and  pulled her close, and she could do nothing other than melt against his  side. She loved the feel of this connection with him regarding her art,  and the raw physical connection that always happened when they touched.  It was getting harder and harder to stay away from him, to hold onto her  anger.

Kara jumped when Ben's arm came around her, as well. She hadn't heard  him, she was so wrapped up in her own thoughts and Quinn. "Kara, this  looks amazing. I vote for taking you out to dinner to celebrate."

"I shouldn't." But even as she said that, Kara made no move to pull away  from either one of them. They all stood staring at the painting. She  really loved it. All the while she had been painting it, she had been  thinking of them. In her mind, she had always affiliated Quinn with the  whale totem, and Ben with the eagle totem, so she had infused a bit of  their characters into the art.

"Kara, can we talk you into a celebratory drink?" Quinn asked her in  that raspy voice that she loved. She twisted her head so that she could  look up at him.

"I really don't have time to go out tonight."

"Not out, just downstairs. Just one drink," he coaxed, smiling down at her.

"Okay, just one drink," she agreed.



* * * *



"I really wanted to want to sleep with him, you know?" She looked Quinn  dead in the eye, willing him to understand, but he just looked confused.  "How about you? Do you understand, Ben?" she asked, shifting her gaze  to Ben.

"Can you try explaining that to us one more time, Kachaw-" He stopped  when she held up a finger. "Kara," he finished. "Neither of us  understands."

"He was perfect. He had a great job, he really liked me, hell, and he  was in love with me. He was really nice, he was good looking, and he  even kissed nicely." She looked around the interior of the boat again,  admiring how well they had upgraded the cabin. They were really going to  do well with their overnight guests. "What?" Kara realized she had  missed a question Quinn had asked.

"Your brothers said that you had gone out on a lot of dates since you came back from Alaska. Was Jim the best kisser?"

"Oh, no, Adam was the best kisser, he was great. He caught me totally  off guard and kissed the hell out of me at the end of the date. I was  just planning on giving him a hug good night."

"How long did you go out with him?" Ben asked.

"I didn't go out with anyone but Jim past the first date."

"Why not Adam, if he was such a good kisser?"

"Oh, well, he wasn't very bright. I was kind of enjoying his southern  accent. He was asking me questions, and I was telling him about my  business, at which point he asked me if I was one of them there  feminists. Then I didn't like his accent anymore."         

     



 

"But you continued on with the date?" Ben asked, grinning.

"I thought it was my job to educate him for the next poor woman he asked  out, but it was an uphill battle. He was wearing a cowboy hat, so I  asked him if I should assume he was one of them there rednecks because  he was wearing a cowboy hat. He asked why I would assume that." Kara was  gratified when both men laughed. "Seriously, he didn't understand the  correlation at all. The whole night, the conversation kept getting more  painful. Luckily, we both liked country music, so we could talk about  that, until I brought up female country artists. He didn't like any of  them." She watched as the brothers grinned at one another.

"So he was stupid and a chauvinist," Quinn said.

Kara nodded her head. "It was the longest date of my life. It really  pissed me off that I found myself responding to his kiss. I thought my  body would know better."

Quinn smiled broadly and put his hand over hers on the small dinette  table in the galley. "Now, you know what it's like being a male from the  age of twelve to twenty-five. It's not until you are about twenty-six,  that the big brain starts having any kind of say over the little brain."

"Speak for yourself, big brother. My big brain was in charge by the time I was twenty-two."

"Only because that's how old you were when you met Kara."

"You still haven't explained what you meant about wanting to want Jim," Ben reminded Kara.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. So, Jim wasn't the best kisser out of all the guys I  went out with, but he was the only one who made it to a second date. Mom  called me a serial dater. Maybe I was, but I knew I was looking for  something permanent, and I knew my criteria, so why waste my time going  out on more dates with guys who weren't meeting the criteria, ya know?"  Ben and Quinn both winced when she mentioned looking for something  permanent. "But Jim was different. He hit all of the points on the list.  Nice was definitely number one, and he had that in spades."