have to do this.’
‘I know,’ she shrugged as she flipped the burgers, ‘but I wanted to. It gets tedious just cooking for myself. Besides its going to get pretty boring around here, if all I’m doing is watching you guys play with power tools.’
He laughed and shook his head, ‘well at least tell me these bums are paying you.’
‘What? No way,’ she replied, ‘it’s on me. It’s the least I can do.’
‘Are you crazy Ava?’ Killian answered incredulously. ‘It’s not like we’re doing you a favor, you’re paying us a lot of money to fix the place up.’
‘I know,’ she smiled.
‘Don’t worry boss we got it covered,’ a gruff voice cut through the crowd.
Killian turned to look and saw his foreman Bo holding a large can stuffed with bills and loose change.
‘Here you go Ma’am,’ he set the can down on the edge of the table.
‘You didn’t have to do that.’
‘Fair’s fair, Miss Cortez. You feed us, you get paid, although you may come to regret it. They’re like a pack of stray dogs. Feed ‘em once and they’ll keep coming back for more.’
Ava laughed delightedly.
‘I think I can handle that, and its Ava,’ she handed him a plate loaded with food.’
‘Thank you, Ma’am,’ he smiled, ‘Ava,’ he corrected at her raised brow.
‘Looks like you’re gonna be a hit around here,’ Killian looked over at the grill with interest. Shoving his hand in his pocket he came up with a handful of bills and dumped them in the pot.
‘What do you want to drink?’ she asked.
‘I’ll take a soda,’ he replied as she loaded up a plate for him.
‘You want potato salad with that?’
‘Sure,’ he watched as she scooped it out of a large mixing bowl and dolloped a generous amount on the side of his paper plate.
‘You make that from scratch?’ he wondered out loud.
‘Only way to make potato salad,’ she handed him the plate and a napkin.
He took a mouthful and sighed in pleasure. The meat was perfectly cooked with just a slight smoky taste, the rolls were fresh, the salad crisp and the potato salad was just pure creamy deliciousness. He chewed slowly as he glanced around thoughtfully, taking in the whole set up she had going on. It was industrious; there wasn’t any power anywhere. She’d made use of the fire pit and the grill, cooking confidently on an open flame like she’d done it a thousand times before. She easily chatted with his men as she kept up a steady pace, never burning anything. She had a talent for feeding people, he could almost see the little love hearts in his guys’ eyes as they thanked her and ate her food.
‘You fixing to do this on a regular occasion?’ Killian asked.
‘That’s the plan,’ she nodded as she handed out the last plate and began to clean up the mess.
‘We’ve got some portable generators coming up this afternoon. We can’t get the house wired into the main grid until the whole property’s weatherproof, so we’re having to bring the power with us. We’ll rig you up some over this side of the clearing.’
‘That would be great,’ Ava replied enthusiastically.
‘You need some kind of cover too,’ he mused. ‘You can’t prepare food out in the full sun, so maybe a canopy of some sort. I’ll have something fixed up for you by tomorrow.’
‘You don’t have to do that,’ she replied as she began to stuff used plates into a large trash bag, ‘you’ve got enough to do.’
‘It’s the least we can do,’ Killian shook his head. ‘You look after us, we look after you. That’s how it goes.’
Her heart gave another helpless tug and she blew out a breath. She was in very real danger of falling in love with the whole damn island at this rate.
Saved from having to form a response, Ava looked over at the sound of another vehicle driving onto the site. This time it was a sleek silver sports car.
‘Flashy bastard,’ Killian grinned as the car pulled in and parked. A tall guy of medium build with sandy blonde hair climbed out, wearing a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and tailored slacks. He peered at them from behind a pair of Ray Bans and waved.
‘Drew!’ Killian placed his empty plate down and wiped his hands.
‘Did I just miss lunch?’ he grinned as he confidently sauntered over.
‘I can fix you a plate if you’re hungry?’ Ava offered. ‘There’s still some left.’
‘No thank you sweetheart,’ he removed his glasses and