The Men of Thorne Island Read Online Free Page B

there was something about the man’s round boyish face that made his last name seem appropriate. She stood up, offered her hand and looked into Mr. Sweet’s perplexed brown eyes. “Did you say ‘Captain Winkie’?”
    He nodded.
    She couldn’t stop herself. Exhaustion and shock had taken their toll. Laughter bubbled from her throat and she could barely get her next words out. “I’m standing here with Mr. Sweet and Mr. Bass, and we’re all talking about Captain Winkie. Somehow I feel like I’m in the middle of a Saturday-morning cartoon.”
    The two men exchanged a look that was part male commiseration and part she’s-a-woman-that-explains-it. Sara wouldn’t have been surprised if they both put a finger to the side of their heads and made circles.
    “Tell me something, Mr. Sweet,” she said through a continuing fit of laughter, “do you pay rent on this island?”
    “Yeah.” He dragged the word out with caution. “Been here almost six years now.”
    “And how much do you pay?”
    “A hundred a month.”
    “Terrific. And are your checks stored in a drawer somewhere?”
    “Yeah, Nick’s.”
    Nick Bass opened the desk drawer, withdrew a stack of checks similar to his own and brought them to her. Each one was dated and signed by Dexter Sweet.
    It wasn’t even enough to cover the back taxes, butit was a start. “Thank you, gentlemen,” Sara said. “Now I think I’ll go find a room for myself. Do we have any fresh linens?”
    “I’ll let you use mine,” Nick said. “The cupboard down the hall that they’re sitting in is yours. But the spare sheets belong to me. Share and share alike I always say. Pick any room you like, Miss Crawford. Make yourself at home.”
    “I am at home, Mr. Bass.”
     
    A SHARP PAIN shot up Nick’s leg. He limped back to the desk chair and sat down.
    Dexter frowned at him. “Are you doing your exercises, Nick?”
    “Sure, I’m doing them, just like you told me,” he said without looking Dexter in the eye. “But I figure after six years a guy’s just got to live with a little discomfort.” He gave his friend a crooked smile. “It beats the alternative, anyway.”
    Dexter grunted his agreement and sat in the chair Sara had vacated. “What’s going on here, Nick? Who is this Crawford woman?”
    “I told you, Dex. She’s our new landlady and Millicent Thorne’s great-niece. Millie died last week and left the island to her. She showed me the deed, and it looks like everything’s in order.”
    “What does that mean for all of us?”
    “Actually, Dex, now that I’ve had a few minutes to think about it, Millie did us a favor.”
    “But Miss Thorne was the best landlady we could ever have had.”
    “True, but we knew she wouldn’t live forever, and when you think about all the possible outcomes for Thorne Island, having Millie’s niece as the ownerseems like the best one. Sara Crawford will probably hang around for a couple of days, flex her landlady muscles a bit and then take off. You saw what she was like—nice clothes, educated manners, soft hands.” His mind wandered to Sara’s other obvious attributes, but he refrained from listing them. “She won’t have any interest in staying around here.”
    Dexter nodded. “Yeah, why would a woman like that want to hang around a bunch of independent cusses like us?”
    “Exactly. I give Miss Crawford three days tops, then she’ll be history.” He grinned at his own private thought. “Though I imagine she’ll make us send in our rent checks on time.”
    Dexter’s answering grin curled into his cheeks. “She makes a darned pretty chapter of Thorne Island history, though, doesn’t she, Nick?”
    Nick nodded slowly. “Yep. She’s not hard to look at.”
    Dexter stood and headed for the door, but stopped before leaving the room. “By the way, Nick, did she see what you had on the computer screen?”
    “No. She wasn’t the least interested. I use the name Nicolas Bass in the top margin, so she wouldn’t