of anything.” The words flowed quickly, one after the other without any breaks. Not like him. But then again, he was back in Haley’s Bay. That changed everything. “Okay, that’s not quite true. The threat of an EMP, electronic magnetic pulse, making every electrical device obsolete has given me nightmares.”
“You’re not scared about coming home?”
“Nope.” Damn. He sounded like a kid, a scared little kid trying to put on a good front, and Emma seemed to know that. “I lived here for eighteen years. I might be a little on edge, but that’s because I haven’t been here in a while.”
“Ten years is a long time.”
“I’ve been busy.” A stupid excuse, but she didn’t need to know the real reasons. “But I’m free now. Let’s take in a few sights on our way. This is my first vacation in over a year.”
Emma’s not-going-to-happen-on-my-watch shake of her head stopped him cold. “You’ll have a free block of time after your calls this afternoon,” she said. “Plenty of time to see the sights over the next five days.”
Her friendly tone, as though she was using extra patience for her recalcitrant charge, made him feel like an idiot for bringing this up again. He must be back in his hometown. He’d felt like the village idiot living here.
Emma leaned toward the limousine window. The shift of position brought a whiff of her citrus shampoo—grapefruit or maybe lemon. The fresh scent appealed to him like the nanny.
“Wow.” She pressed closer to the glass. “This place is beautiful.”
He followed her gaze to the sparkling expanse of water and the heart of the town hugging the shoreline. Pride welled. Foolish, irrepressible pride he buried in a no-nonsense response. “The town hugs the waterfront. Most of the shops and restaurants are on Bay Street near the harbor.”
“Is Haley’s Bay named after an original settler?”
“Yes.” AJ didn’t know if she was making conversation or wanted to know the answer. Given her occupation, he’d guess the latter. She seemed the type to pay attention and ask questions of white-haired docents leading museum tours. He wouldn’t mind taking her through a couple of the historic sites around here. “Haley was a trader who anchored in the bay during his voyages. That’s according to the Lewis and Clark expedition. The bay was renamed Baker Bay, after a British merchant, but the original town name stuck.”
“You know your history.”
Her praise made him sit taller. A stupid reaction, but returning to his hometown was a stupid move. He should have thrown a royal extravaganza for his grandmother on his turf, in Seattle. Rented the Space Needle. Staged a massive fireworks display. But she’d wanted the party here in the town where she’d been born and lived her entire life. “I learned Washington state history in school, but the old folks around here bring the past alive, especially the fishermen. They love sharing every legend about Haley’s Bay.”
“I’m usually the one telling stories. I’d love to hear some tales.”
The excitement in her voice made him want to offer to introduce her around. Talk about a stupid move. She would be more welcome here than him. But something about Emma made AJ want to help her. Maybe he was feeling sorry for her after the rough flight, but he didn’t like it. She worked for him, not the other way around.
“Make friends with the locals,” he suggested. “You’ll hear them all.”
“Must have been fun growing up here.”
“When I was a little kid.” He studied the buildings—stores and cafés he didn’t recognize—along the inland side of Bay Road. Maybe that would take his mind off the woman sitting next to him. A wrought iron wind vane of a sailboat faced west. On the sidewalk, two people walked hand in hand. An unleashed golden retriever trotted next to them. “Not so much when I became a teenager.”
“It’s a charming town.”
“If you like small and boring.”
“I do.” She stared across him. Her lips parted, spreading into a wide grin that made him want to smile. “Look at the boats.”
Sailboat masts teetered on the harbor. Flags fluttered in the breeze. Empty moorings meant most boats had headed out to sea for the day. “Fishing used to support this town. Now I hear the biggest catch is tourists. A couple of my brothers take them deep sea fishing.”
That must kill his dad, who believed the only way to make money was building boats and catching fish. He’d called tourists “barnacles” and a few other choice words he wouldn’t say in front of his wife or mother.
With her eager gaze, Emma looked like a tourist herself. All she needed was a camera, sunglasses and a guidebook. “I could see coming here for vacation.”
He’d taken days off work, but he couldn’t relax here. Still, talking about Haley’s Bay with Emma wasn’t so bad. Being so aware of her movements and expressions, however, was making him uncomfortable. He focused on the town’s geography. “Cape Disappointment is next door with campsites, yurts and hiking trails. There’s the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Long Beach is a coastal resort community to the northwest and Astoria, Oregon, is south across the Columbia River. I guess if I hadn’t grown up here...”
“You’d come for fun.”
“I might.” AJ tried hard not to think of this place. “But I always thought of Haley’s Bay as the place I couldn’t wait to leave when I went to college.”
“Back east, right?”
Libby must have prepped Emma with his background info. He assumed only the basics. All he knew about Emma was that she’d been in the foster care system before moving in with Libby and her parents during high school. “MIT.”
“Boston must have been a big change with the crowds and skyscrapers.”
“My first week it took me three days to fall asleep because of the noise, but I loved living there. Compared to a city, this place is dead.”
“You might view your hometown differently now that you’re an adult.” Emma pointed to the Captain’s Café, a multistory restaurant complete with weathered front, crow’s nest, anchor and captain’s wheel. “Do they have good food?”
“I’ve never seen the place.” He searched his memory for what had been there before. The doughnut shop, no...that wasn’t right. “That used to be Stu’s Sandwich Shop, a hole-in-the-wall storefront. But no one could top their pastrami on rye.”
“I love a good Reuben.”
AJ imagined her biting into a big sandwich, a dab of Thousand Island on the corner of her mouth. He wouldn’t mind licking it off and tasting more than the dressing.
Whoa. Where had that come from? He didn’t lick, let alone kiss, employees.
And she was his employee. Smart. Observant with journalist-writing-a-travel-piece insights, opinions and questions. Qualities he searched for when hiring staff. The other things he looked for were initiative and loyalty. Always, after what he’d gone through in Haley’s Bay, loyalty.
She gestured
