His Horizon - Con Riley Page 0,3

what you’d be missing.”

Jude moistened suddenly dry lips to find Tom studying his mouth, intent, his lips parting as he leaned in. Jude almost met his mouth—wanted to for a split second—until something inside pulled him away from Tom instead of towards him. The new hire seemed to agree with that decision, hefting Jude’s duffle up from the deck to dump it between them.

“So you’re staying?”

“I have to, at least for the summer.”

“Okay.” Tom nodded, firm, as if he’d come to a decision. “Do what you have to do here. Get it out of your system, Jude, and then call me on the satellite phone. Call me,” he repeated as if he was issuing his usual orders—scrub the deck, hoist the sail, start a new life with me. “You call me, and I’ll change course; sail wherever you want, if you ask me.”

Sea legs struck Jude as Tom untethered lines and jumped down onto the deck of the Aphrodite, issuing instructions to Jude’s replacement. He braced himself on the sea wall to keep from following as the yacht that had become home headed into open water, leaving him stranded where he’d finally have to face the music.

His keys were in the bottom of his duffle, snug between rolls of colourful fabric that spilt onto the cobbles as he fumbled beneath them, so bright compared to the grey reality of home. Jude stalled before drawing a deep breath. Then he crossed to the pub’s front door to slot his key into the lock.

It wouldn’t turn.

In fact, the whole lock looked new.

Had Louise mentioned changing it in any of her messages lately? If she had, he’d skimmed it. Jude almost knocked on the door until a seagull cried behind him, a reminder that only fishermen and gulls were awake at this hour. His watch showed confirmation; it was too early to wake her.

That left one more option: he’d bed down in the boatshed before facing his sister. Maybe he’d sleep instead of lying awake like usual, thinking about what-ifs with someone spoiled to the core, like Rob. There was no point thinking about him now, Jude knew, despite the sparks Tom had mentioned. And there was definitely no reason to replay their one kiss, not when Rob would have forgotten that he even existed.

Jude shouldered his bag and walked to the far end of the harbour. The boatshed looked unchanged from the outside, the upturned hull of its roof was the same as ever, just like the weathered lock on its door, thank goodness. This time, his key slid in. It was dark inside, inky, but Jude knew the layout like the back of his hand. There were two bunks at the far end. No doubt the bedcovers would be dusty, but he’d slept in much worse places before Tom had hired him. He made his way towards them.

Jude’s shin struck something solid. He bit back a curse and tugged aside a curtain covering a porthole window. The dawn light was weak, but Jude caught his breath at what it revealed.

Far from living it up in London, or fighting with his famous father, Rob Martin slept in Jude’s bunk, sprawled across the mattress as if he owned it.

2

At the sight of Rob asleep in his bunk, Jude stepped back as if shoved, hitting something else in the shadows that shouldn’t have been there. It wobbled, sounding very much like the teetering of the barstool his mum kept in the pub kitchen.

Before he’d learned that cooking could be his ticket out of Porthperrin, Jude used to jump off that stool more often than he’d sit willingly on it, avoiding cracking eggs by their dozen to help feed summer tourists. One sound was all it took to remind him of the loss he’d tried so hard to stave off. Now he was home, there was no way to avoid it.

He’d do whatever she asked now, Jude knew; crack a thousand eggs for his mum if that meant he got to see her again. His heart ached as he stopped the barstool from falling, while behind him, Rob grumbled in his sleep, as if annoyed by the sound.

He should have let the stool fall, Jude decided, fury swamping his initial surge of regret.

He should have let it fall with one hell of a clatter; give Rob as big a shock as he’d had.

Jude had so wanted to come home to find two other people safe and sound here, not him.

Only that wasn’t the entire truth,