Hold Me Now: Hope Harbor Read online

  “I’d prefer to leave things as they are. Works for me now so I don’t see any reason to change.” He walked to the door and turned back to look at her. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t think it’s for me.” With that he walked inside, shut the door, and left her standing alone. Hilary turned and started walking toward her car parked by the rustic barn when a noise startled her.

  A car door slammed behind her and Hilary turned to see Bryce walking toward her, a scowl on his face.

  “I hope this isn’t going to be a habit of yours, coming out here unannounced. This is a working farm and we don’t have time to entertain city folk who can’t take no for an answer.”

  She clenched her fists. “I’m sorry you feel that way but what I have to offer can only be good for this company. Isn’t it worth listening to a proposal and finding out for yourself?”

  “Already told you. Arlo doesn’t like people up here. He’s not the sociable sort if you get my drift.” He looked toward the house where the door still sat shut. Bear had his nose on the glass watching them. “I told him what you had to offer and he didn’t take the bait.”

  “Are you his mother or something? You’re coming across rather bossy for an employee.” The guy had more attitude than a top class chef.

  “Please leave.”

  “But, if you’d just let me show you what I can do…”

  Bryce put his hands on his hips. “Why is it so hard for you to understand? He has a problem with people up here and isn’t interested in dealing with you. If he was, he’d have told me and I could discuss it with you, but as it stands, I’m asking you to leave. Again.”

  Chapter 5

  The kitchen door opened and Arlo looked up from washing his dishes.

  “Sorry. I tried to get rid of her yesterday but she seems to be the persistent type.”

  “No harm done.” He wiped his hands on a dishcloth. “We always sell our shellfish. I don’t think we’ll have a problem sending more to market. Besides, it’s not going to be an issue for at least three years.” He turned on the coffee machine.

  “No, I don’t either but it would be nice to have a set market where you know everything you produce will be sold and at premium prices, according to Hilary.” Bryce pulled down two mugs from the shelf. He spooned sugar into both mugs and slid them across the counter to Arlo. Their early morning coffee had been a habit ever since Arlo took over the farm and offered his best friend a job alongside him. “You and I both know how good the product is, but what about everyone else? People come to it by accident more than by design, just like she did. Personally I think it’s worth considering. But I said that when she first emailed you. If you’d replied, she wouldn’t have shown up trying to do business.”

  “Maybe, but I forgot. And you also know what that means if we go with her. She’ll want to talk to me, get in my space. It said so in the details—‘Get to know you and your product so I can ensure you get the best I can give.’—or some such drivel.”

  “It’s not drivel if she’s good at what she does, and it would seem she is. Although…”

  “What?” Arlo poured the coffee and walked over to the door, checking to see if she’d left before he went outside.

  Bryce followed him. “I saw some comments online about her failing at something spectacularly. Didn’t really read it because it was only gossip, but where there’s smoke…. You know the saying.” He sat at the table. “Thing is, I’d give her a chance if it was me, but I’d be looking into her past exploits too. You can’t afford to get involved with anyone who has a checkered professional past that may have ended badly. It could be the death knell for you, and you’re already up to your neck in bank loans. If anything were to go wrong, you could lose everything.”

  Bryce’s comments made Arlo stop and consider the consequences for his business. He’d worked so hard to get it where it was today, and what they were doing was working. What if they went with Hilary and she failed? How would that impact his business? Would he then get painted with the same brush as her? She already had one strike against her. He’d have to start again to build up a following—or worse still, he could lose everything. What would he do then?

  He wasn’t cut out for life in the real world. Working for someone else didn’t play into his plans. His whole life revolved around this farm and his solitude. He wasn’t about to lose it to someone with a track record like Hilary French.

  * * *

  “I don’t understand him. He didn’t seem scared or anything. Just negative. Except when he asked about how the café prepared the oysters. Then he got a glimmer of interest in his eyes.” Hilary groaned. “I so want to represent Arlo’s oysters. They’re incredible. How am I going to convince him, Matt?”

  “I think you’re asking the wrong person. He’s my brother and a pain in the neck. Always has been with his awkward manner, but being family, I have to protect him. It’s family code.”

  “Any idea why he’s like that or what I can do to change his mind?” Something about Arlo Hope made her want to go back and dig into what made him tick.

  Matt pushed a bowl of nuts across the table to her and refilled her glass of sparkling water. “He’s always been that way. Never been a people person, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” He filled his glass and turned to put the bottle back in the fridge. “If I were you, I’d give it another shot before you leave. What have you got to lose?”

  “My pride.” But she’d been there before, at the bottom of the barrel, having to claw her way back to the top. She could do this. “I don’t know if it’ll make any difference but okay, I’ll try. One more visit and then I head back home. I can’t spend days on this if it’s not going to go anywhere. I have other clients that need to be looked after too.”

  “I’d leave him until tomorrow. The one thing about Arlo I know for sure is, that if you were to go out there again today, it wouldn’t end pretty. Give him a chance to think your offer over. I reckon you’ll have better luck if you leave it twenty-four hours. Don’t overload him because he’ll just shut you out.”

  “If I must, I will.”

  * * *

  The following evening, Hilary packed up a media kit and the honey she’d forgotten the other day. “Wish me luck.”

  Matt laughed. “You’re going to need it, so good luck. I hope it goes better than the last time. Remember, don’t even attempt to go in the gates before six p.m. You might run into Bryce, and that won’t end pretty. His fuse can be pretty short.”

  “Got it.”

  By the time she made it to Arlo’s driveway, it was well past the end of shift. She turned in, trepidation weighing on her shoulders. She had to get it right this visit. There wouldn’t be another chance.

  She drove through the pine trees, parked down by the house and got out, expecting Arlo to send her on her way, but it was quiet.

  Hilary knocked on the door, but there was no reply nor any movement inside. She glanced over at the wharf, expecting to see him there, but it too was deserted. Just her luck. But he rarely left the farm according to Matt, and she hadn’t passed another car on her way in. She wandered down to the beach and looked up and down the shoreline.

  A distant bark caught her attention. It sounded as though it had come from around the point. Hilary looked at her sandals and sighed. She had no choice. She slipped them off and made her way down to the water line. Mud squished between her toes and she shuddered. If only it was sand, she could deal with it, but this wasn’t pleasant. In fact it was downright scary. Who knew what creatures lay buried under the surface.

  Slipping and sliding, Hilary made her way to the point where the barking grew louder. Eventually, she rounded the shoreline into the next bay, climbed up over the small grassy knoll, and saw Bear frolicking in the water with a large stick in his mouth. Arlo stood in the low evening light with a rake in his hand, laughing at his dog’s antics.

  His whole face changed when he smiled, and his laugh went straight to her heart. The sheer
joy of something so simple as his dog playing was enough to fill him with happiness. Hilary paused for a moment, taking it all in, letting the special moment settle in her mind.

  Bear noticed her first just as she started to climb down onto the mud flats. He dropped his stick, barked, and raced out of the water, heading straight for her. Hilary froze, not sure if he was going to attack her or greet her as cheerfully as he had the other day. Arlo called out a warning. Before she knew it, Bear had jumped up and she was falling. Hilary scrambled to right herself, her hands clawing at the rocks and shells, but it was hopeless trying to get a grip as she fell down the small slope to the mud.

  Stars sparkled overhead and then she was on her back in the sludge, the wind knocked out of her. The huge dog stood over her, his paws on her chest, his warm doggy breath rolling over her face.

  No. Pain ricocheted through her body. Every breath burned her back with the smallest movement. This was bad.

  Hilary opened her eyes and quickly shut them again as her world spun and nausea threatened. She lifted her hand to hold her head only to cry out in pain. A thousand knives tore at her palms. This was worse than she’d thought. Every cell in her body protested.

  “Bear, back off.” Arlo pushed the dog out of the way and leaned over her. “Are you okay?”

  Even in the low light she could see the concern in his eyes. Hilary fought to speak without crying. She’d shredded her hands trying to save herself and landed on something hard and sharp. It dug into her back. The pain of it all made her want to vomit.

  She opened her mouth but the words wouldn’t come out.

  Arlo held out his hand, but stopped short of touching her. “Stay there for a moment and get your breath back. He’s such a big oaf; I’m so sorry. Bear wasn’t trying to hurt you. He’s not like that.” The dog whined when it heard its name.

  Hilary let out a shuddering breath and tried to figure out what hurt the most. It wasn’t her pride—she’d given that up by coming here unwanted as she was. No, her back was burning more than she could imagine, but it was her hands that scared her. She held them up, but with the low light and the mud, she couldn’t see what damage she’d done. It felt like a chef’s worst nightmare. A duel with blunt blades that had gone horribly wrong.

  Arlo took hold of her wrist and cursed. “Crap. That’s gotta hurt. Oysters are notorious for shredding skin.” He shrugged and scratched his beard, as though thinking.

  Surely he wasn’t going to leave her here? This was his fault, for goodness sake. He could be a bit more sympathetic, all things considered?

  “Okay, here’s what we’ll do first. Once you get your breath back, I’ll help you stand and see what damage you’ve done.”

  She nodded and braced herself.

  “Okay?” Arlo lifted her up by the elbows. She fell against him as the white-hot needles stole the breath from her lungs. Before she could protest, he scooped her up in his arms and started walking. Doing her best not to vomit with the pain of every step he took, Hilary hid her face in his shirt.

  “Let’s get you to the house and we can have a look at what damage you’ve done to yourself.”

  Her? To herself? What part of his dog rushing her and knocking her down didn’t he get? Hilary held her tongue because there was no way she could open her mouth without crying out in pain.

  The torturous walk to the house did nothing to alleviate her pain and it took all of her focus to hold her tongue. Arlo kicked open the door, flicked on a light, and carried her over to the couch. He carefully put her down in a sitting position.

  “I’m really sorry. Bear got more than a little excited when he saw you.” He held her until her head stopped spinning. “Let me get a cloth to wipe that mud off your hands and then I’ll take a look at the rest of you, okay?”

  Hilary nodded while tears of pain slid down her cheeks. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t hold them in.

  Arlo came back with a cloth and a bowl of water. He pulled a low stool over, put the bowl on it and took her hands. Hilary let him put them in the bowl, wincing when they touched the water. “Let that sit for a bit so we don’t have to wipe so hard. At least it’ll give us an idea of what’s going on. Now, where else does it hurt?” He gazed down her long legs, stopping on the grazes on her knees.

  “My back.” She bit the words out.

  “Um”—his cheeks colored under his beard as he pointed the hem of her shirt—“do you mind?”

  She shook her head, sending her world spinning again and regretted it. “No.”

  Arlo leaned behind her and lifted her top. He sucked in a breath.

  “What?” Visions of blood and bruises raced through her mind.

  “It’s pretty nasty.” He glanced at his dog. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he’d react like that when he saw you.”

  “It burns, Arlo. It really burns.” What she’d give for him to take the pain away. A sob rose in her throat as Hilary looked into his concerned eyes. “Please make it stop.”

  Chapter 6

  “I think you should go back to town.”

  She stared at him, tears on her lashes. “Why?”

  “You need to see a doctor. From what I can figure, it’s pretty bad and I’d hate to see it get infected.” He took a hand from the bowl and saw all the cuts on her palm. “Oyster shells have shredded your hands. If you don’t get them cleaned up properly, infection could set in. Plus you have a terrible bruise on the lower part of your back already as well as the scratches that I can see. It’s only going to get worse if you don’t get it seen to.”

  She withdrew her hand and held it on her lap. “I don’t think I could sit in my car, let alone drive right now.”

  He didn’t think she could either but what was he going to do? He could phone his brother Drew and ask him to come out and see her, but he could hear his brother’s voice already. “Bring her into the clinic.”

  “Can’t you clean it and put something on it for me?”

  Arlo looked into the deep dark pools of her pain-filled eyes and felt something shift inside him. “Ah, I guess but it might not be enough.”

  “It’s the best thing right now. I can’t face a trip to town feeling like this. At least not until I get some painkillers into me.”

  “I don’t have the right stuff to clean this properly. You need more than a bowl of water to get all that dirt out.” He thought fast. “You could take a shower and let it run over your back and hands, if you could stand it. At least that would help cut down the potential for infection, which is a big worry.”

  Her eyes widened, and he could all but read her thoughts. She clearly thought it was a ploy to get her naked.

  “Or not. I’m trying to do my best here and I’m fast running out of ideas.”

  “I don’t have any clean clothes with me.” She looked at her ruined skirt and top. He doubted the mud would ever wash out of the white clothing.

  “I can lend you something. At least to get you back to Matt’s.”

  “Thank you. Can I have something for the pain first though?”

  He jumped up. “Sure.”

  In his pantry, he found a bottle of ibuprofen and poured a glass of water. He took them over to Hilary and held them out. When she stared at them and sighed, he mentally kicked himself. “Sorry. Wasn’t thinking.” He took the top off the bottle, shook two out in his hand and held them to her lips. When she opened her mouth, he dropped them on her tongue and held the glass up. Clumsy at first, he fed her enough water so she could swallow the tablets.

  “Thank you.”

  “Welcome.” The silence around them made Arlo uncomfortable. “Can I get you anything else while they kick in? A cup of coffee, maybe?”

  “Only if you’re prepared to feed it to me or have a straw handy.”

  “Right.” He got up and scurried over to his coffee machine and busied himself while trying to keep his wits about him. Having someone in his house made him uncomfortable under the best circumstances, but this felt strangely different. H
e was anxious but not as freaked out as he usually was when a stranger arrived on his doorstep. What the hell did it mean that Hilary didn’t inspire the all-consuming panic in him that other people did? No-one had pushed their way into his life like this before. He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or annoyed with her determination. For now, he had to do damage control and make sure she was okay.

  Arlo grabbed the cups and shot her a couple of quick glances. How on earth was he going to make her feel better?

  Hilary held her hands up and moaned. He poured the coffee and hurried back to her. “Here, let me help you.”

  * * *

  Hilary swallowed the last of the coffee before Arlo took the cup away, then assessed her pain situation. Her back throbbed and the tablets had only just taken the edge off. How she was going to cope for the next couple of days, she didn’t know. She was supposed to be going back to Seattle tomorrow. Didn’t look like that was going to happen now. There was no way she could drive with her hands like this, let alone sit with her back against the car seat for any length of time. Of all the bad luck.

  “Can I trouble you to help me to the shower please. I really want to get this mud out of my hands before it starts festering and I’m hoping the warm water will ease my back too.”

  Arlo jumped up and put the coffee cups in the sink. He helped her stand and steadied her while she found her feet.

  “Thanks.” Hilary leaned into him until her head stopped spinning.

  “You can use the downstairs one. It’s going to be easier than climbing up the stairs.”

  “Thanks.” No way she could make it up there. Which reminded her, she was staying in an upstairs room at Matt’s. Driving back there was going to be a challenge.

  “I’ll help you in there and go and get you some clothes, okay?”

  “Thank you, Arlo. I’m sorry to be a pain in the butt. If I’d known this was going to happen, I would’ve gone back to Seattle and forgotten about you and your oysters.”