Off Kilter. Donna Kauffman

      “It stretches the imagination to consider that he’d be capable of being anything other than the … vibrant personality he is.”

      Katie laughed. “I know you won’t believe this, but he was the most straight-laced executive at Sheffield-McAuley.”

      “I’m not even touching that one,” Roan said, finally relenting and laughing. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Blaine, it was that he didn’t really understand him, or his motivations for being there. He trusted Katie that the guy was harmless, and from what he’d seen, Blaine was definitely not there to get in the way of his childhood friend’s future happiness … but it was still odd, no matter how you looked at it. So Roan tried not to. “What you’re telling me is that, if this little conversation they had happened a good, what, hour ago, then probably the whole damn island knows by now?”

      Katie nodded and grinned, then leaned forward before he knew what she was about and snatched the finalists’ envelope away from him. “Ha!”

      He didn’t even bother telling her to give them back, or not to look. He merely sighed, swore under his breath, and swung his attention back to his laptop screen and the Malaysian business meeting notes. “No mocking. No taunting.”

      “In your dreams, pretty boy.”

      He did smile at that, a little.

      “Why is it you’re so annoyed by this anyway? I dinnae ken, mon,” she added with a bit of sass. “You know you’re a hot commodity on the island, that all the women want you, even the ones old enough to be your grandmother—”

      “Don’t.”

      “I’m just saying, you’re a flirt and a charmer of the first degree. I’d think you’d be making T-shirts and posters of the damn photos and seeing what side business you could strike up. In fact, I’m surprised you’re not soaking up every bit of this added attention.”

      “Well, that’s where the brief tenure of our friendship might be showing,” he said, keeping his gaze on the screen, even though he saw nothing but a blur of text. “My behavior with the people on this island is just me being me. I enjoy them, they enjoy me, we enjoy each other. It’s … natural, for want of a better word. But there’s nothing natural about me posing in the all together to be flaunted about for the world to see in some damn calendar.”

      Katie sauntered closer, wiggling the stack of photos in her hands.

      “I’m tellin’ ye,” he warned, “I dinnae want to see them. I’ll be haunted for life. I’m no’ jokin with ye on this, darlin’ Kate.”

      She lowered her hand with the photos, and her expression, or what he could see of it from the corner of his eye, sobered a little. “You’re really serious, aren’t you?”

      “I really am, aye. My thought has been that we’ve grown close as friends so quickly because we have an understanding of each other. ‘Tis true we both embrace laughter and fun, and think most folks would be far better if they just lightened up a wee bit and didnae view all things with such dour seriousness. But because you are betrothed to my closest friend and our island leader, and clearly besotted with the lucky sod, your open and fun nature is seen as friendly and puir of heart, which I know it to be. Just because I am an unattached male, it doesnae mean I should be viewed any differently. I am a happy, hearty soul who enjoys the excitement life brings and embraces it fully, but I dinnae conduct my life in a way that would be considered immodest or amoral.”

      She stared at him for a beat, then another, making him feel more than a wee bit ridiculous for his outburst. But he’d been taking the ribbing of everyone on the island for the past week and he was tired of it. Most especially when it came from those he expected to support him.

      “Well,” she said at length, “these aren’t amoral or immodest.” Then she fanned the photos out a bit. “Okay, maybe a wee bit on the immodest side,” she added with an inviting grin. Upon seeing his scowl, she grew a little impatient. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Roan, you could use some lightening up yourself right about now. It’s not like it’s pornography. They’re good natured and sexy, which, to my mind, is natural and perfectly healthy. They’re a bit of fun and if they bring business to Kinloch, then what’s the harm?”

      He didn’t respond right away, and hoped the subject would naturally come to a close. He should have known better.

      “Wait.” She walked around the desk until he finally looked up at her. She held his gaze for a long moment. “I think I see what this is really about. It bothers you a lot that Kira saw these, doesn’t it? Is that it? You don’t care what the world thinks of you or your behavior, but you do care what she thinks.”

      He refused to answer—on the grounds that she was one hundred percent correct. He knew he was being a sheep’s arse about it, but the fact was, he didn’t need whatever respect he might have fostered in Kira over the past year and a half to be blown to middling hell because she saw him as some halfwit more interested in exposing his manly bits than he was serious about growing the island economy.

      He reached over on the desk and picked up the reject packet. “Here,” he said, in lieu of a direct response. Katie knew she was right. He didn’t need to confirm it. “Look through these, and find something else we can submit. I know Tessa is a hotshot in her field, and I’ll be the first to applaud the successes she’s had, but that doesn’t necessarily qualify her to judge this.”

      “But you’ll trust my judgment?”

      Roan looked at her. “Let’s just say I think you have a better understanding of the attraction between women and men than she does.”

      “Well, I’d like to argue that, strictly on feminist grounds.”

      “But you’ve met her.”

      “I have.”

      “So, do me a favor, okay?”

      Katie held his gaze, and he was thankful for the sincere affection he saw there.

      “When is the deadline?”

      “Has to be on the ferry tomorrow.”

      “Okay, I’ll look them over tonight. But you get to call Graham and explain why I’m ogling half-naked photos of his childhood buddies.”

      “He’s no’ to be part of this selection process,” Roan warned.

      “Oh, not to worry,” she replied. “I don’t know that this would be his preferred way to spend an evening together.”

      Roan grinned. “Point taken.”

      Katie juggled the packets and slid the finalist photos back in their envelope. “You’ll be here in the morning?”

      “I have a seven o’clock phone conference, then computer lab at the school at eleven.”

      “Hey, I heard the soccer team did well with their game against Castlebay. Good job, Coach.”

      “Football, ye Yank,” he said, even as his face split in a wide grin. He was proud of his kids. “Kicked Castlebay’s arse, they did.”

      “Graham told me those kids have played together since being old enough to go to school and hadn’t won a single game in two seasons. I think what you’ve done to help out is great.”

      “All they needed was some steady direction. It gives me a chance to kick the ball about again, prolong that whole growing up thing a wee bit longer.”

      “I hear you, Peter Pan. But they’re lucky to have you.” Katie walked to the door, and glanced back. “Roan, if Kira knows you,” she said, making a circle in the air with her hand to indicate the whole of him, “the real you, then your posing for this picture will make her laugh, and be proud that you’re willing to step outside your comfort zone for the sake of the island. If she doesn’t, then maybe you need to set your sights on someone else.”

      Caught off guard