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presented themselves every time Phil had tried to shoehorn him into learning to keep the books.
    He walked to the front, stood with his hands on his hips studying the weathered sign. BOATS BY QUINN. And noted that another name had been added to the four that had been there since the beginning.
    Aubrey Quinn.
    Even as he grinned, she shoved out of the front door.
    She had a tool belt slung at her hips and an Orioles fielder's cap low over her forehead. Her hair, the color of burnt honey, was pulled through the back loop to swing at her back.
    Her scarred and stained work boots looked like a doll's.
    She had such little feet.
    And a very big voice, he thought when she let out a roaring whoop as she charged him.
    She leaped, boosted herself with a bounce of her hands off his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. The bill of her cap rapped him in the forehead when she pressed her mouth to his in a long, smacking kiss.
    "My Seth." With a loud hooting laugh, she chained her arms around his neck. "Don't go away again. Damn it, don't you dare go away again."
    "I can't. Too much happens around here when I'm gone. Tip back," he ordered, and dipped her away far enough to study her face.
    At two, she'd been a tiny princess to him. At twenty, she was an athletic, appealing handful.
    "Jeez, you got pretty," he said. "Yeah? You too."
    "Why aren't you in college?"
    "Don't start." She rolled her bright green eyes and hopped down. "I did two years, and I'd've been happier on a chain gang. This is what I want to do." She jerked a thumb toward the sign. "My name's up there to prove it."
    "You always could wrap Ethan around your finger."
    "Maybe. But I didn't have to. Dad got it, and after some initial fretting, so did Mom. I was never the student you were, Seth, and you were never the boatbuilder I am."
    "Shit. I leave you alone for a few years, and you get delusions of grandeur. If you're going to insult me, I'm not going to give you your present."
    "Where is it? What is it?" She attacked by poking her fingers in his ribs where she knew him to be the most vulnerable. "Gimme."
    "Cut it out. Okay, okay. Man, you don't change."
    "Why mess with perfection? Hand over the loot and nobody gets hurt."
    "It's in the car." He pointed toward the lot and had the satisfaction of seeing her mouth drop open.
    "A Jag? Oh baby." She darted over the stubble of lawn to the lot to run her fingers reverently over the shining silver hood. "Cam's going to cry when he sees this. He's just going to break down and cry. Let me have the keys so I can test her out."
    "Sure, when we're slurping on Sno Kones in hell."
    "Don't be mean. You can come with me. We'll buzz up to Crawford's and get some…" She trailed off as he got the long white box out of the trunk. She blinked at the box, blinked at him before her eyes went soft and dewy.
    "You bought me flowers. You got me a girl present. Oh, let me see! What kind are they?" She pulled a work knife out of her belt, sliced the ribbon, then yanked up the lid. "Sunflowers. Look how happy they are."
    "Reminded me of you."
    "I really love you." She stared hard at the flowers. "I've been so mad at you for leaving." When her voice broke, he gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder. "I'm not going to cry," she muttered and sucked it in. "What am I, a sissy?"
    "Never."
    "Okay, well, anyway, you're back." She turned to hug him again. "I really love the flowers."
    "Good." He slapped a hand on the one that was trying to sneak into his pocket. "You're not getting the keys. I've got to take off anyway. I've got flowers for Grace. I want to swing by and see her on my way home."
    "She's not there. This is her afternoon for running errands, then she'll pick Deke up from school and drop him off for his piano lesson and so on and so on. I don't know how she does it all. I'll take them to her," Aubrey added. "Flowers will take some of the sting out of missing you today."
    "Tell her I'll try to get by tomorrow, otherwise I'll see her