Saving Simon (Tarnished Saints Series Book 5) by Elizabeth Rose Page A

doubted that he could either. “I can’t really see the amount with these glasses. I’ll have to go get my other ones in the house. I don’t usually wear them in the afternoon because I have Daniel pump the gas, but I couldn’t ask him to work with his uncle coming back to town and all.”
    “Here’s fifty dollars,” she said. “I’m sure that’s enough.”
    “Well, I’ll say,” he said with another whistle, holding the bill up to the sun to inspect it. “How bout a cola for the road, ma’am? I’ve got a cooler full up by the station.”
    She glanced over to see an old cooler with the lift-type lid and felt like she was back in time or in Mayberry RFD or something. She needed to get out of here fast. And she wished the man would stop calling her ma’am. Why was it that everyone wanted to call her that lately?
    “So whatcha goin’ to the marina for anyway?” he asked.
    “It’s just business.”
    “Are you the buyer that Bea said was coming to look at the place?”
    “Oh, she told you?”
    She told the whole town that she met someone on a cruise that was interested in buying the marina. Of course, I don’t want her to sell it, but she thinks she can’t handle running it now that old Eugene died. That’s why I told her to give Simon a call. He likes boats and that kind of stuff and he’s a sailor, so he could run that place with his eyes closed and still make money I’m sure.”
    Her ears perked up all of a sudden when she heard this. “Simon? You’re talking about Simon Taylor?”
    “Oh, you know him?”
    “I . . . met him. On the cruise. I sincerely doubt he can do anything for Mrs. Glover. After all, he’s working on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean.”
    “Well, he was, but he came home three days ago.”
    “What?” Her mouth dropped open and her heart started beating rapidly. “So you’re saying he’s right here in Sweet Water?”
    “He sure is. Actually, he’s staying right there on Thunder Lake. For a whole month that is, before he has to go back to the cruise ship. Wait here, I’ll go inside and give him a call and tell him you’re here. I’m sure if he knows ya he’ll want to meet up with you. What is your name, honey?”
    “Pip . . .” She started to tell him, but thought she’d better give him a fake name or he’d be on the phone to Simon before she had a chance to even think about this whole situation. “Pippi Longstockings,” she said, starting up the engine and peeling out of there, wondering why she hadn’t fought her father on this one and just stayed in Chicago like she’d intended. It was probably because she didn’t think Simon would be here. He was the last person she wanted to see right now. He was a man who not only loved anything to do with sailing, but also the man she snuck away from without even saying goodbye when she’d left the Seduction of the Seas.

     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
     
    Simon jumped out of the back of Thomas’s pickup truck, eyeing up the marina which he hadn’t seen in years. Instead of being freshly painted and the icon of the lake, it looked dingy with peeling paint and broken shutters on the windows. The piers in front looked old and wobbly and there were only a half dozen boats in the slips that usually held two dozen. This was not at all the way he remembered it.
    “Thanks for the ride, Thomas,” he said with a wave of his hand.
    “Just give me a ring when you want a ride home,” Thomas called out the window and took off down the road in a puff of dust with his middle sons, Zeke, Josh and Jake in the back holding on to two large dogs that were wagging their tails and barking at him at the same time.
    Simon walked up to the building, eying up the old gas pump on the dock that was used to fill up the tanks of the rental boats. Boaters on the lake could buy gas here as well. The stainless steel counter and sink with a disposal system leading to a large portable tank underneath sat on the dock close to the