"Eric, does she even know we're still here?" Ben asked in a reasonable tone of voice. He watched as Eric's face got even redder and he realized that logic was just making the man madder, so he decided to try a different approach. "Dammit, Eric, you and Dane were all for us coming down here in the first place, remember? Well, we're here to stay. We love Kara. We're not giving up without a goddamn fight. If you'd fucked up with your woman, you wouldn't roll over and stop trying, you'd just come up with another plan. You can't expect Quinn and me to be any different." Ben was relieved to see that Eric was listening instead of yelling.
"We aren't harassing her, we know she needs time. We bought Kuba Charters, we need some time to get this operation up and running. We intend to stay. We're going to make a life here in Fate Harbor, and Kara needs to see that."
"I don't know, man," Eric rubbed his hand through his short white-blond hair, clearly agitated. "I didn't even realize that she had gone up to see you that second time. She was pretty torn up by that. I just want to protect her, you know?"
"That's exactly what got us into this predicament. We wanted to protect her, too. We thought we were." Ben paused, trying to get his thoughts in order so he could explain things exactly right to this man he considered a friend. "If we honestly thought that Kara was living a happy and fulfilled life without us, we would walk away. We love her and want what's best for her. But you have to see she's hurting. Kara deserves and wants so much more than we've been able to give her in the past. I believe we can give it to her now, and I think deep down she knows it, too. We all need to give her a chance to come to that realization on her own."
"I think you're making a hell of a lot of assumptions."
"It's possible. If we are, we'll back off, because our number-one priority is her happiness. Above all, she deserves to be happy."
"Goddammit, Shotbrook!" Both men turned to see Dane stomping down the walkway where they were standing. He pushed past his brother and grabbed Ben by his shirt, and snarled into his face, "Leave town, before I make you leave." Instinct took over and he shoved him back, pushing him into Eric, whose upper back slammed into the side of the boat, leaving him hovering over the water.
"Dammit, Dane, if I fall in, I'm taking you with me!"
"It's his fault!" he shouted as he hauled his brother up from his precarious position.
"If you would just talk before immediately starting a fight, you might learn something," Eric told his brother disgustedly as he slapped him on the back of his head.
"I hate it when you do that."
"Well, I'm not real fond of almost being shoved into the Puget Sound, asshole."
It was nice to see some things hadn't changed. Ben grinned. He had missed the camaraderie of the Johansen brothers. They were so much more outgoing than the Shotbrooks.
"So, why is he in one piece?" Dane asked his brother as he jerked his thumb in Ben's direction.
"Because, unlike you, he was making sense. Bottom line, Kara's unhappy, and it's likely that he and Quinn still have a shot of making her happy. They know they fucked up, and they want to fix it. Also, he promises to back off if that's truly what she wants."
* * * *
Dammit, one of these days she was going to arrive earlier. However, this time she had a whole seven minutes to spare, but there was no parking to be had in the Hart's diner parking lot. She had to find parking in the street and hoof it down the block. Her work boots weren't great for running. She felt a definite feeling of déjà vu when she saw the clock was just turning to 11:28 a.m., and Jace Hart stood behind the open window of the kitchen.
"We're now serving lunch, Kara," he hollered across the restaurant.
"I have two more minutes according to the clock above your head," Kara said, pointing.
"Fine," he grumbled. "I suppose you want the lumberjack and a cinnamon roll?"
"Jace … "
"Two cinnamon rolls," the big man said, and Kara smiled. It was turning out to be a great day after all. She turned around to locate Karen. She figured she could get her milk, coffee, and OJ, and maybe shoot the breeze before breakfast and make it back to her studio by one o'clock.
"Hey, Karen, do you mind if I grab the table near the window? I-" She looked past Karen at the two men seated at the booth, who were staring at her. Karen continued to rush toward her, but Kara couldn't focus on anything but Quinn and Ben. What the hell were they doing here? Quinn stood up, but before he could make a move toward her, Ben grabbed his arm and forced him back down into his seat.
Karen reached her and tugged her toward a table near the back of the restaurant. She pushed Kara down into the chair and poured her a cup of coffee.
"Drink," she said, indicating the mug in front of her. Kara stared at it blankly, and Karen repeated herself. Then Kara grabbed it and started to drink, realizing that caffeine would definitely help the situation. When she was finished, she looked up.
"More." Karen refilled the mug, and then sat down opposite her friend.
"I take it you didn't know?" Karen said, a question in her voice.
"No, I didn't know. Why didn't anyone tell me?" Kara wailed.
"This is the first time you've been out of your house since the show. Josie's been dropping cinnamon rolls a dozen at a time at your house on her way home so you could hide and heal. I honestly thought you knew, and that was part of the reason for the hiding."
"Order up," Jace yelled. "It's Kara's, in case you feel like working."
"I don't want it."
"Make it to go," Karen yelled back.
"What are they doing here? I thought they had gone home!" Kara felt like she'd fallen down the rabbit hole. Nothing was making any sense. She appreciated that Karen had seated her so that her back was to the restaurant, but now she felt like everyone was staring at her. She watched Karen carefully, noting how her gaze flitted around the big room.
"What? Is everyone staring at us?"
Karen refocused on Kara. "Honey, I was just making sure that the tables were being handled. I really don't want Jace and Dale cranky. Kev was up half the night, and we're all running on empty." Usually, Kara would have told her friend to go back to waiting on customers, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She needed her here.
"Karen, why are they still here?" Kara demanded to know.
"I don't know. The first time they showed up was three days ago. I haven't had time to find out the scoopage." Kara dropped her head down onto the table, uncaring that it landed with a thud.
"Uh-oh." Kara didn't like the way her friend said that.
"Let me guess, they're headed this way," Kara guessed.
"Yep. Do you want me to get Jace and Dale to throw them out?"
"No. If they've moved here, I might as well get this over with." Kara lifted her head off the table and turned around.
* * * *
"Please, just listen to Quinn, Kara," Ben said as Kara rubbed her temples. She didn't know how she had ended up in their apartment in the first place. She just didn't want to have her personal business served up as fodder for the whole town, so she'd agreed to leave Hart's. "Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Do you need an aspirin?"
"What I need are answers!" Damn, she shouldn't yell, it made her head hurt. "What I need are answers," she said in a quiet voice. "I thought you left three weeks ago, and instead I find you eating breakfast at Hart's. What the hell is going on?" She shifted her gaze to Quinn, knowing he was the ringleader.
"We bought the charter business." She must have fallen down and hit her head. That's why it hurt. She was having some kind of hallucination. She shook her head, trying to clear it. She continued to stare at Quinn.
When he didn't say anything more, she finally asked him, "Did you just say you bought a charter business? Where? Up in Alaska?"
"Nope, we bought Kuba Charters. We're in the process of getting the boats refurbished, then we're going to start taking customers. We already have reservations booked for the first month of business." She would have expected Quinn to grin, like he had pulled one over on her, but instead he said it in a very steady and matter-of-fact manner.
"Kuba, wasn't that Mr. Burke's business?"
"Yeah, we've been talking to him for the last five months. He wanted to retire, but it was important to him that he could trust the people who took over his business. He wanted the name to continue, and we wanted to buy a business that already had a solid reputation. So it was a good deal for both of us."
Kara just sat in the chair feeling like she had been hit with a two-by-four. She didn't know what was more amazing, the fact that they had been considering this for five months, or that they went through with it even after she had rejected them. She just sat there, looking at him. Finally, she looked over at Ben, and he just gave her a solemn nod. She continued to sit until she realized she had probably been in the chair for over five minutes without saying a word. She stood up, and they both did, as well.