All To Myself by Annemarie Hartnett Page A

young.”
    “I told you, I’m going to school soon.”
    “Can’t you get a student loan?”
    She snorted. “I’d rather work at a cannery than owe any money. When I finish school, I want every penny I make to be for me. It’s not so bad. My grandpa is helping me out.”
    “Moncton’s not so far,” he said quietly, and she got the sense that he wasn’t talking about her commute over the bridge to the mainland.
    They’d talked about their plans for the fall last night, and he’d seemed excited to learn that she would be only a two and a half hour drive away from his schooling in Halifax.
    She’d changed the subject. She didn’t want to have any “we” discussions with him beyond the summer. She didn’t want to build up her hopes only to watch them get crushed.
    He wrapped his arm across her back and rubbed her shoulder. “There’s still coffee, and some breakfast, and there’s time for a quick swim.”
    “I don’t have my suit, remember?”
    “That wasn’t a problem last night.”
    “It was dark last night. I don’t want to moon some old lady hanging her wash on the other side of the cove.”
    She ultimately agreed to accompany him to the beach in a towel so she could have some privacy tidying herself up. It seemed like a good idea as she crouched at the shoreline, until he grasped the edge of the towel and threatened to yank it off if she didn’t get into the water. Unable to stop laughing, she let him pull it off and she dove in, but refused to come back out until he met her on the sand with the towel stretched out for her to step back into.
    It had been a perfect little excursion, and so had been the rest of the afternoon. Noah refused to let her ride to work when he had the truck, and so they’d showered off at her place and grilled burgers on the deck. Unlike the last time, she hadn’t been the least bit ashamed of her rustic accommodations. He wasn’t going to judge her. He was simply Noah, who wolfed down cheap hamburgers and instant rice, who dozed on her ratty sofa while she got ready, who insisted they leave a little earlier than necessary so he could buy her an ice cream at the canteen at the entrance to the park.
    “I won’t be by the bar tonight,” he told her as they headed to The White Tip. “I called Dad while you were in the shower, and he wants to see this plot of land I bought, so I told him I’d take him up after supper.”
    “Don’t tell him we ‘christened’ it, okay?”
    “He probably already has that figured out,” Noah said with a laugh, and laughed harder as she gaped at him. “You think he doesn’t know I took a woman up there last night?”
    “He doesn’t know it’s me, does he?”
    “He knows you work for the hotel, but I’ve been shady about who it is.”
    This did nothing to assuage Rory’s nerves. If anything, it made it worse. In Vincent Hyland’s mind, she was probably just one of scores of women who flitted in and out of his son’s sphere. She couldn’t even be sure she wasn’t .
    He put up a fight when she insisted he drop her off at the service entrance, but she won by citing company policy about employees entering through the front entrance. She didn’t care if anyone saw when he leaned in to kiss her, or when he insisted on keeping her overnight bag and taking it back to his chalet.
    She crossed paths with her sister as she made her way to the lounge. Francie was coming out of her office, where she no doubt had seen the whole thing.
    “Remember what I said, Rory.”
    “Fuck off, Francie.”
    “ Excuse me?”
    Rory spun around. “As you have repeatedly reminded me, I am not your sister when I walk through that door. I am your employee, and as your employee I find your comments highly inappropriate. I’d hate to have to file a grievance about your comments.”
    That shut her up. The slam of Francie’s door was the perfect start to her shift.
    *****
    “I thought Noah was supposed to be here tonight.”
    If one more person, just one