those of you I haven’t met, I’m Dr. Audra Reed. Which I guess you already know.”
That was a lot of steely-eyed glaring. These men did not like her, and while she understood that they viewed her as the reason their business was floundering, she was here to help. She had to make them see that.
“They weren’t confused,” Jace interjected with a mulish crossing of his arms. “Rachel said you wanted to talk to us. Here we are.”
One of Charlie’s partners, a drool-worthy dark-haired, solidly built man, shot Jace a withering look and stood, crossing the room in one stride to hold out his hand. “Forgive him, he’s very protective of Charlie. I’m Dex.”
She shook the hand of Emma’s husband. “I understand congratulations are in order.”
Rachel had mentioned that Emma had finally gotten a plus sign on a pregnancy test. Which was great, if that was the result you wanted. Audra had been too scared to pee on a stick of her own and was currently subscribing to the denial pregnancy prevention method.
Dex lit up at the comment and grinned so wide, she could have fit a surfboard in his mouth sideways. “Thanks. I’m pretty freaked out. But it’s going to be great.”
The mention of Dex’s impending fatherhood broke a bit of the tension. The only other man in the room she hadn’t met, a wiry-framed athletic type with light brown hair topping a finely chiseled face, followed Dex’s lead.
“I’m Jack. Or Jaxon if you prefer.” He shrugged his well-built shoulders, easily discernable under his Aqueous Adventures T-shirt. “I’ve been called worse.”
Evan, whom she had met parasailing and again after the marina incident, nodded to Audra as Rachel wedged herself into his lap and murmured something to him which must have been dirty given all the heat that sprang up around them. It was so sweet the way he held her as if she was the most important thing in his world, population two. No one else existed for either of them in that moment, and Audra was not ashamed to say that it put a jealous lump in her throat.
Yeah, she’d stood there and let Charlie walk out the door, but not because she’d stopped wanting exactly what she saw on the faces of Evan and Rachel: love stronger than the struggles of life, bigger than the strain of distance, and more eternal than the sun.
Miles rounded out the cast of ex-SEALs, and he gave her a brief smile that almost reached his stunning green eyes. It was better than the glare of earlier. Audra cleared her throat as Emma perched on the couch between Dex’s legs after passing out everyone’s drink of choice. The room was crowded with people who cared about Charlie, and that alone bolstered her in the face of so much opposition.
She had some damage to undo, no doubt.
“I’m sure you’re all aware of the events of the last few months, but bear with me for a moment,” she began. “I filed a report to recommend Ilhota Rosa as a wildlife sanctuary, which unfortunately only strengthened the injunction against commercial ventures disturbing the habitat of the dolphins. That includes the coral reef off the coast. Rachel’s been working on the legal aspects of including an educational component to the snorkeling excursion, but I’m afraid there’s a new wrinkle.”
“Like what?” Rachel asked.
“Jared threatened to revoke Charlie’s business license,” she said flatly. “So I threatened to make a couple of anonymous calls to the IRS regarding ReefCo’s creative handling of income to keep him busy. But he’s going to come up with something else just as dirty. Until we know what his next move is, I can’t advise you to go anywhere near that reef or we’re going to be in a heap of trouble.”
“We?” Jace stressed. “When did you become part of us?”
“When I told Jared to go to hell,” she said succinctly. “And then quit my job at FARC. I’m also homeless at the moment too, if that solidifies the point for you.”
If nothing else, she’d cut that tie irrevocably, and walking away from Freeport and all the bad memories was a weight off her shoulders that she hadn’t realized would be so freeing until it was gone.
“Oh, honey.” Rachel shook her head. “Why didn’t you mention that? Evan and I have an extra bedroom, and we’d be thrilled for you to stay with us.”
Evan glanced at her askance until she elbowed him in the ribs. “Thrilled,” he repeated drily.
“I would be pathetically grateful to take