“Élise is preparing the food and she wants to be sure her menu will work with the equipment out in the wild. She’s arranged cover in the restaurant next weekend.”
“You want me to camp overnight with Élise? That sounds cozy.” Tyler glanced at Sean and his scowl turned to a smile.
Sean ground his teeth. “Is that supposed to bother me?”
“I don’t know. Does it?”
It did, but there was no way he was going to admit it. “Poor Élise,” he said smoothly. “Someone had better warn her you snore.”
“We probably won’t sleep much. We’ll be too busy keeping each other warm and staring into each other’s eyes.”
Jackson glanced between them in exasperation. “Are you two ever going to grow out of this?”
“Grow out of what?” Sean resisted the temptation to grab his younger brother by the throat. “If he wants to jump on Élise he can go right ahead. I hope he has fun. While he’s eating boil-in-the-bag food and being bitten by bugs, I just might take Brenna to dinner. She’s been working her butt off and deserves a little relaxation.”
Seeing Tyler’s expression blacken, Jackson swore under his breath. “I’ve got enough to do without pulling you two apart every two minutes.”
Tyler had his eyes fixed on Sean. “Brenna has more sense than to say yes to dinner with you.”
“Why? She went out to dinner with Jackson a few times last winter.”
“That’s different. Jackson doesn’t try and sleep with every woman he takes to dinner.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “Are you about done?”
“I’m done.” Tyler flashed a furious look at Sean and strode into the Outdoor Center, hauling the bike with him.
Jackson watched him go. “What the hell are you playing at?”
“Just conducting an experiment. Seeing how things are.”
“We both know how things are and I’m happy for them to stay that way.” Jackson glanced at the group of children cycling behind Brenna toward the Outdoor Center. “Tyler and Brenna are both essential to the running of this place. I don’t want anything messing with that. Running this place is still a balance between swimming and drowning. It won’t take much to push us under.”
Sean glanced down at his shirt. “He wrecked a perfectly good shirt.”
“Makes a change that it wasn’t one of mine.”
“He’s crazy about her.”
“Maybe.” Jackson lifted a hand and acknowledged Brenna. “But he’s also very protective of her. You should probably keep that in mind next time you’re trying to goad him. And for God’s sake don’t take her to dinner. We had fireworks on the Fourth of July. We don’t need any more right now.”
“You took her to dinner.”
“It was just dinner.”
“I’m sure he loves Brenna.”
“Yeah, well maybe he does, but we all know that business with Janet Carpenter messed with his head.”
Sean hesitated, wondering whether to say something or not. “I pulled into the Carpenters’ place a little while ago.”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Why would you do that?”
“I was considering killing Gramps and I needed both hands. The thing is—” he paused “—I thought I saw Janet.”
“You’re kidding me. That isn’t possible. She’s in Chicago.”
“It was from a distance. I could have been wrong.”