He had, Cam mused, cutting the dust in his throat with the sweet tea. Turning it down had stung, but the sting had eased more quickly this time around. ‘‘I made a promise here. I’m not breaking it.’’

Ethan tucked a hand in his back pocket and looked toward the boat. This place, this business, had been his dream, not Cam’s, not Phillip’s. ‘‘I didn’t mean it that way. I guess I know what you put away to pull this off.’’

‘‘We needed it.’’

‘‘Yeah, but you’re the only one who’s given up anything to make it happen. I haven’t bothered to thank you for it, and I’m sorry for that.’’

Every bit as uncomfortable as his brother, Cam stared at the boat. ‘‘I’m not exactly suffering here. The business is going to help us get permanent guardianship of Seth— and it’s satisfying on its own account. Of course, Phil’s bitching about our cash flow every time you turn around.’’

‘‘That’s his strength.’’

‘‘Bitching?’’

Ethan grinned around the cigar clamped in his teeth. ‘‘Yeah, and cash flows. You and me, we could never pull this off without him nagging us about the details.’’

‘‘We may have more for him to nag about. That’s what I started to tell you. Bardette has a friend who’s interested in a custom catboat. He wants fast and he wants pretty, fitted out and sailing by March.’’

Ethan frowned and worked timetables in his head. ‘‘It’s going to take us another seven or eight weeks to finish this one, and that puts us into end of August, beginning of September.’’

Calculating, he leaned back against the workbench, his eyes narrowed against the smoke. ‘‘Then we got the sport’s fisher. I can’t see us finishing her off before January, and that’s pushing. That doesn’t give us enough time to deliver.’’

‘‘No, not the way things are. I can give it full-time and after crab season’s over, I imagine you’ll put in more hours here.’’

‘‘Oystering isn’t what it was, but—’’

‘‘You’ll have to decide if you can juggle more time off the water, Ethan, and in here.’’ He knew what he was asking. Ethan didn’t just live on the water, he lived for it. ‘‘Phil’s going to have to make some hard decisions before much longer, too. We’re not going to have the cash to hire on laborers for a while yet.’’ He blew out a breath. ‘‘ Unless we count a couple of kids. This friend of Bardette’s isn’t ready to commit. He’s going to come down and take a look at the place, and us, and what we’ve got here. I figure we make sure Phillip’s around to sweet-talk him into a contract and a deposit.’’