Bidding on Brooks: The Winslow Brothers #1 Read Online Free Page A

cheated on Skye’s father before leaving, Skye would have probably forgiven her mother for leaving, but she still remembered her father’s pain at learning of her mother’s betrayal. Though her mother had tried to explain the very tawdry adult situation to eight-year-old Skye before her flight to L.A., Skye had already sided with her father. Her relationship with her mother had suffered irreparable damage. Not to mention, her mother’s lifestyle once in L.A. was R-rated, at best, which meant that aside from a couple of visits to Maryland over the past twenty years, Skye had barely grown up with a mother at all.
    “D’ja fix that pump, Skye?” asked her father, ambling down the dock where she sat, making it bob up and down. The pleasing sound of water lapping against the sides soothed her like a beloved lullaby.
    “Sure did. Nothing wrong with the pump, Pop. Just a wiring problem.”
    “Figures.” He grinned, taking a seat beside her and looking out at the dramatic sky. “Nice one tonight.”
    “A beauty,” she agreed, pulling off her cap and taking the rubber bands out of her tight braids. She ran her fingers through her soft, blonde hair until it flowed past her shoulders in waves. “Hey, Pop. I took on a crewing job. Week after next. Sunday to Sunday.”
    “With Brooks Winslow?” asked Jack Sorenson, giving his daughter a side glance.
    “Yeah. How’d you know?”
    “He asked me if I could spare you for a week before coming to find you.”
    She nodded, appreciating the fact that Brooks respected her work enough to check with her boss before offering a job.
    “You haven’t been out on the water much lately,” her father noted.
    She shrugged. She didn’t feel like discussing the reason or the someone who’d stolen a little bit of her love for sailing. She was just relieved that Brooks Winslow was giving her an irresistible opportunity to get back out there.
    “Just you or a full crew?” he asked.
    “Just me. And what’s that tone for?”
    Her father took a deep breath. “You know I have the utmost respect for Brooks as a sailor, right? Man knows his way around a boat better’n most.” Skye nodded, unsure of where this was going. “But you sure you want to crew for him solo?”
    “Promised I would,” she said and couldn’t resist adding, “And he’s letting me skip.”
    “Is that right?” asked Jack, eyebrows lifting as he nodded in approval. “Well, that’s a lot of responsibility.”
    She still sensed reticence in her father’s tone. “What’s up, Pop? What’s your objection?”
    “Let’s just say I don’t like the sort of women Brooks occasionally brings down here.”
    Intrigued, Skye grinned at her father. “And what kind of woman would that be?”
    “The kind that arrives in a taxi and leaves in a taxi.”
    “What do you have against taxis?”
    “Always a blonde. Always in a skimpy dress and heels. Always meets him here. But never for a sail,” he said, raising an eyebrow and looking at her meaningfully.
    “Oh,” said Skye, understanding perfectly. Her father was most comfortable with boating types, and Skye knew that the type of girl Brooks preferred was sophisticated, working in the city, taking taxis everywhere, dressing fancy and not showing an interest in getting out on the water.
    “To each their own. We can’t all have the same interests.”
    “Just so long as his interest isn’t you ,” her father said, giving her a pointed look.
    Skye looked away from her father, anxious not to miss the last of the sunset and feeling a little protective of Brooks and his right to privacy where his personal life was concerned. He wasn’t hurting anyone was he? If he liked more cosmopolitan girls, it wasn’t up to her or her father to pass judgment.
    “I can’t see how it’s any of our business, Pop.”
    “But it doesn’t make me want to dance a jig that my blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter is crewing with him for a solo weeklong.”
    Skye faced her father and rolled