Burned(2)

“Sean’s a nice guy.” He’d been a couple years ahead of Hauk in school and had taken over the family auto repair garage when his dad had fallen ill. He had stayed on even after his dad recovered and returned to work. He was the kind of guy Byron would normally choose for a woman settled in the town like Vic, though it was a little strange that she hadn’t mentioned him. “Seems like they’d get along.”

“Nice?” Byron set his tumbler down without taking a drink. “Nice isn’t what that girl needs. No. She needs a man who will challenge her and take her on adventures. She needs a man who will dance with her.”

“Dancing and adventures?” Vic had said many times her greatest adventure was listening to the gossip gibbons at her salon. They never bored her and she could hear all the good stuff without going anywhere.

“Do you know that girl has never left this town? Her entire life has been here. She doesn’t even own a passport.”

“The same is true about a large portion of our population.” Aside from a couple of trips to visit family in Norway, the same was true for himself. And he knew Vic didn’t care about travel any more than she wanted to move away from Whispering Cove. Knowing that didn’t mean he wanted to listen to Byron talk about her needs. “We aren’t all like Braydon.”

“Pfft. That boy wasted nearly half his life sailing the seas. He should have been settling down with a good woman. Starting a family.”

Predictable old man. A mention of his grandson and new granddaughter—because he would never consider Dani an in-law—was all it took to sidetrack him from Vic’s marital status. “Seems he’s doing just that.”

“Now that Dani got ’hold of him.”

The doc wasn’t the only one who’d convinced Braydon it was time to settle down. Not that he’d really settled. He’d just established a home to come back to when he was between assignments, though he’d take his new wife with him on more trips if she had a doctor to cover her patients in her absence.

“Braydon isn’t a concern now.”

Hauk waved good night to a few of his customers heading out the door. The others seemed to be finishing up their drinks as the night darkened and the cedar-scented votives Aimee had chosen for the night burned down. She’d claimed it would complement the smells of liquor and beer. He didn’t care about that as long as people were spending money.

“But Vic is?”

Vic.

Petite and larger than life on a high, she drew people to her. Her dating life had never bothered him, but suddenly the thought of her dating a very nice man slipped through his mind with an unsettling discomfort that lodged in his throat. It was a discomfort he somehow knew had little to do with what she meant to Sophie. In fact, it felt much more personal. And frustrating, because risking their friendship, putting her in danger if he fell for her intimately, couldn’t happen.

Vic.

She was upstairs likely tucking Sophie into bed. It was something he’d normally have gone up to do, especially with her having come down with a fever that morning. But with the staff out sick he’d called in reinforcements. Vic was always there when he or Sophie needed her.

“Actually, no.” Byron waved a hand over his tumbler. “The Fall Festival, though, that could be.”

Hauk shook his head clear to focus on the conversation he’d lost momentary track of. Braydon and Vic weren’t concerns. What…?

“How’s the festival a concern?” Everyone in town chipped in to help pull off the festival. Some donated supplies, others labor or skills at planning and promotion.

Hauk had worked on a couple of booths and the stage, and if the timing worked, assuming his employees got over their flu and could return to work, he hoped to turn the pub into a haunted house. It would take time to do it right though, and he hadn’t managed to pull it off yet in the last five years he’d been collecting stuff.

“We’re only a few weeks away and our headlining entertainer just cancelled. We’ve put feelers out, but so far no one has stepped forward with a willingness to take the gig.”

“You know, tomorrow night is karaoke night in here.” He still wasn’t sure how the customers had talked him into setting up that particular torment on a weekly basis. “Assuming everyone hasn’t come down with the flu, you might find some nice talent there.”

“It could be fun to have locals onstage.” Byron rubbed his chin. “I bet Vic would know of some prospects.”

“She does seem to know as much as you about our town and its people.”

“She’s a special woman, that one.”