Free Up to the Challenge (An Anchor Island Novel) by Terri Osburn Page A

Joe said, his shoulders dropping.
    “No, I don’t mean it that way.” Lucas paced the room twice more, then sat down. “I’m not really mad at you. Hell, I’m not even sure if I’m mad.” He left the chair again. “Change that. I’m mad. But some days it’s with you and Beth, and some days it’s with this damn island, but most days I’m pissed at myself.”
    Joe rose from his chair and grabbed a couple bar rags off the shelf by the door. “I can’t change what went down. I wouldn’t if I could, though I do wish it had happened differently.”
    Off course he wouldn’t. He’d come out the winner once again.
    Instead of voicing the callous thought, Lucas nodded and remained silent. Joe was trying to be considerate. Maybe if he’d done that two months ago …
    “I’d better get out there. You want to take my Jeep?” Joe asked, holding out his keys. “I can ride home with Beth. I meant to offer last night.”
    That’s when Lucas remembered Sid was waiting for him. “No, Sid’s taking me home.”
    Joe put the keys back in his pocket. “Right.” He started to leave the office, then turned back. “About Sid.”
    Lucas tensed. “What about her?”
    “Just … be careful.”
    “Why? Are you claiming her too?”
    Joe leaned against the door frame. “I’ll give you a pass on that one. For now.”
    He’d been out of line and he knew it. Damn temper. “Then why do I need to be careful around Sid?” Lucas asked, trying to change the tone between them. “Is she as violent as she seems?”
    “No,” Joe said, without hesitation. “She’s not nearly as tough as she acts, but if you tell her I said that, I’ll kick your ass.”
    Lucas couldn’t help but smile as Joe walked away, marveling at the power Sid Navarro seemed to wield over everyone on the island.

    Why’d you take me up on the ride this time?” Sid asked. They’d driven less than half a mile in silence. After his talk with Joe, Lucas was hoping the silence would hold.
    “Honestly?”
    Sid looked over. “Why would I ask a question and then want you to lie?”
    “Right.” This woman was entirely too literal. “I’m tired.”
    Her eyes returned to the road and she nodded. “I can relate. I’ve helped out on weekends but that was nothing compared to the last two days. How the fuck do your parents do this?”
    Lucas didn’t consider himself a prude, but the vulgar language from the delicate looking, if not sounding, package to his left took him off balance.
    “Do you always talk like that?”
    “Like what?”
    “Dropping the F-bomb like that?”
    The truck sped up and then zipped around a tourist on a bicycle. “Why? Do I offend your delicate sensibilities?”
    Was she ever not defensive? “I’m not offended. Just curious.” Soaring oaks flowed past his window, their heavy limbs trailing the roof of the truck cab. He’d missed those old trees, though he hadn’t realized it until just now.
    Sid was quiet for nearly a minute, then she said, “I grew up with men. I work with men. I guess I talk like a man.” The statements were made with no apology or regret, but he noticed her white-knuckled grip on the wheel. She wasn’t comfortable with this line of questioning, but she wasn’t fighting him either.
    “Do you
want
to talk like a man? And for the record, not every man talks like that.”
    “You saying you don’t curse?”
    “I curse. But you can’t throw profanity around a courtroom so you learn to keep it in check.” His first year out of law school, Lucas had made the mistake of dropping a four-letter word in court and nearly found himself in judges’ chambers. He never did it again.
    Sid’s grip on the wheel loosened. “That makes sense.” She fell silent again and Lucas returned to watching the old oaks mingle with a cedar here and there.
    “No,” she said, sometime later.
    “No, what?”
    Caramel eyes darted his way, then back to the road. “I don’t want to talk like a man.”
    He didn’t know what to