The way Bo touched her and kissed her and encouraged Ismay to relax and trust him was both tender and reassuring—and kept any second thoughts from creeping in. Being with him was more fulfilling than being with Remy had been, at least in a long time. That she’d even have such a thought shocked her. There was just something about him. It’d been there almost from the beginning, when he’d knocked on her door during that terrible storm. He was just so calm and seemed immanently reliable. She knew he was a good person, knew he’d take her feelings into consideration every step of the way. That was what Remy often neglected to do. He didn’t pay enough attention to what she was experiencing, because he was too focused on what he was experiencing—something that extended beyond their sexual relationship.
“I haven’t been with many women,” Bo admitted, when he climaxed almost as soon as he pressed inside her. “Even then, it’s been quite some time.”
She could tell he was embarrassed that he hadn’t been able to last as long as he wanted. But she didn’t mind. There was a level of intimacy in what they were sharing that had nothing to do with whether she came, too. She felt safe in his arms, enjoyed the solid weight of his body while he was resting on her and the comfort and security she felt while resting on him.
So falling asleep with him afterward was probably the best part—until he woke up a few hours later and started touching her again. Then he seemed determined to take her all the way, and since they were past any initial uncertainty regarding whether they should allow themselves to have sex, she was able to cast aside any remaining inhibitions and thoroughly enjoy herself.
As the pleasure built, she loved that the moon was bright enough outside the window that she could see Bo’s face. There was so much intensity there—not because he was trying to hold back; she got the impression he was in control this time—but because he was obviously enjoying what he was doing for her.
Still, when she felt that incredible release and groaned, he let go and came only seconds behind her.
“You’re incredibly good in bed,” she said as he slumped over her while trying to catch his breath.
“Are you kidding?” he said, a smile in his voice. “You can say that after I botched the first time?”
“It wasn’t botched. It was...real. Honest. Raw. I loved it.”
“It was certainly better than anything I’ve ever had,” he said.
That statement was something she’d never expected him to say. “I don’t know much about your life before you came here.”
He didn’t respond. His eyes were closed. She didn’t know if he was thinking or falling asleep, but one of them had to move out to the couch. She was afraid if they dropped off again, it would be morning by the time they woke up, and then there’d be no way to avoid her brother realizing they’d been together.
She preferred not to have that happen. “You said you haven’t been with many women, but have you had any long-term relationships?”
He roused himself enough to say no.
He didn’t elaborate, so she said, “Why not?”
“I just haven’t been in the right situation.”
“I’d love to hear more about your life—what it was like living in lowland swamps, what you did after you left that area.”
Opening his eyes, he lifted his wrist and checked his watch. “Wow, it’s late. Or, rather, it’s early. I’d better get out of here. Jack will be up before we know it.”
“He is an early riser,” she pointed out.
“And we’re supposed to finish the fence.”
“You won’t have the strength for that kind of physical labor after being up with me most of the night, will you?”
“I’ll do what I can. We could always put it off a day and finish tomorrow. Or not at all. Who knows what the Windsors have in store for me.”
She caught his arm before he could leave the bed and pulled him in for a final kiss. “I’ll feel terrible if they fire you. I’m really hoping that won’t happen.”
He studied her for several seconds as he smoothed the hair out of her eyes. “Whatever they do, it was worth it.”
“Why are you on the couch?”
Bo squinted as he looked up at Ismay’s brother. It felt like he’d barely fallen asleep after leaving Ismay in his bed, but it’d probably been an hour—long enough to fall into a deep sleep. “Your sister’s in my room.”
“She is?” he exclaimed. “Why’s that?”
Bo didn’t know how much Ismay wanted her brother to know, so he deferred to her. “You’ll have to ask her. I’m a bit groggy right now.”
“Don’t tell me she and Bastian got into an argument,” Jack said. “Dude’s insufferable! I’d love to punch him in the face.”
This was the most emotion Bo had ever seen from Jack and he took it as a good sign. Hopefully, he was beginning to bounce back. “I think a lot of people would like that opportunity, including me.”
“So you were up late helping her? Why didn’t she call me?”
Bo’s eyes felt like sandpaper. He blinked as he tried to get more moisture in them. “Maybe she did. I don’t know.”
“I don’t have any missed calls.”
“She probably didn’t want to bother you.”
“She called you instead?”
Again, he didn’t know how much she wanted to tell her brother about their relationship. “Bastian’s been so unpredictable that I reached out to see if she was okay.”
Jack opened his mouth to say something else, but Ismay came into the room, her eyes filled with sleep, her long hair tousled and knotted, drawing their attention. “You two are up already?”
There was a certain electricity in the air when she was around. Bo wanted to touch her, say good morning, and ask how she was. He hoped she didn’t regret last night. She pulled on a NASA T-shirt and some cutoffs, but he couldn’t help wondering if she was wearing the white tank top and panties underneath, and just the memory of seeing her in her underwear sent a jolt of testosterone through him. He already knew he’d never forget last night.
“We need to finish the fence today,” Jack said. “Then we can get moved.”
Bo waved him off. “Don’t worry about the fence. I think we should focus on getting you and Ismay into Honey’s house first. The fence can wait.”
“I just need to pack up my bag and haul it over there,” Jack said. “Shouldn’t take long.”
“We also need to get Ismay’s stuff from the cottage,” Bo said.
“Does Bastian know you’re gone?” Jack asked his sister.
Ismay used her fingers to get some of the tangles out of her hair. “He does, and he’s not happy about it.”
Jack frowned. “You don’t think Bastian will give us any trouble when we go back, do you?”
“I hope not,” Ismay said. “But if he does, I’ll just have to get by without the rest of my clothes. Buy new ones or something.”
She looked up at Bo and blushed slightly, and he couldn’t help lowering his gaze to her mouth. God, he wanted to kiss her.
He shook off the temptation. “Bastian will give you your things,” he said. He planned to make sure of it.
“Now might actually be the best time to get it,” Ismay said. “It’s eight. I bet he’s finally asleep. He’s a night owl, so he doesn’t get up until at least noon.”
Bo kicked off his blanket. “Good point. Just in case, I’ll go with you.”
“We’ll all go,” Jack said. “I doubt he’ll pick a fight if there are three of us.”
If it came to a fight, Bo certainly wouldn’t need the two of them, but he didn’t say so. He nodded and went to put on a fresh T-shirt and jeans.
“You’re not worried about going over to the cottage, are you?” Jack asked Ismay when they stepped out into the morning air.
“Maybe a little,” she admitted.
“Why?” he asked. “You’ll have both of us with you.”
Bo could hear the scowl in her voice when she said, “I don’t trust Bastian. There’s something seriously wrong with him.”
Shockingly, Ismay was able to gather her things and get out of the cottage without incident. The TV was still on in the master bedroom, which came in handy because it covered the noise of their movements. Ismay guessed Bastian needed it to make him feel less alone. She never wanted to see him again.
Bo stood in the hall, watching her pack. Jack came in and grabbed some of the clothes she’d stuck in the drawers to make it quicker. While they were there, she motioned them to the closet and showed them the hole behind the board where the duffel bag had been. Jack gave her a perplexed look. He didn’t understand why it was there, but she indicated she’d tell him later.
Then she went into the bathroom and gathered her toiletries while Jack carried her suitcase out of the house.
Bo stayed, though, waiting for her.
When she had everything else, she whispered, “Let’s get out of here.”
But he didn’t move. He leaned in and lifted her chin with one finger before he kissed her, and when he broke off the kiss, she grabbed him by the shirt so she could pull him back for another.
He grinned when she finally let him go—seemed tempted to laugh—but sobered as he cast a glance at Bastian’s door and motioned her ahead of him.
They didn’t talk until they were outside with Jack, well away from the cottage.
“Will Bastian be mad when he sees that all your stuff is gone?” Jack asked. There were wheels on her suitcase, but the ground was so uneven he had to carry it.
Ismay looked back at what she could see of the cottage through the trees. “Who knows? He’s been all up in my business from the beginning.”
Jack switched her suitcase to his other hand. “Have you heard from Remy?”
Ismay hadn’t had anything to put the last of her toiletries in, since she’d already taken her smaller bag to Bo’s. She hugged her deodorant, face cleanser, and razor to her body while getting her phone from her back pocket. “Nothing yet this morning. But he sends random little messages.”
“Like...” Jack prodded.
“I love you... I could never live without you... I could never replace you...”
He gave her a funny look. “I could never replace you? That’s kind of a weird thing to say, isn’t it? What happened to, ‘I miss you’?”
Remy had good reason to be so conciliatory, but Jack didn’t know she’d caught him cheating. She’d only told him that she and Remy were taking a break, that she was starting to have second thoughts about marrying him because he was so aloof and hard to reach on a deep level. “He’s...different.”
“It’s a good thing he’s got a big exam,” Jack said, letting Bo take a turn with her suitcase. “That’ll keep him busy until you’re back on your feet emotionally.”
She wanted to ask him if he’d heard from Ashleigh, but was afraid that would only reopen the wound. “That’d be nice.”
They reached Bo’s bungalow and piled what they’d brought from the cottage in the back of Bo’s truck. “I don’t think Mom and Dad’ll be too upset when you tell them that you broke it off with Remy,” Jack said.
It certainly wouldn’t hit them the way the split between Jack and Ashleigh had. “Probably not. They’ve never even met him,” she said dryly, and Jack went inside to get his suitcase so they could haul everything over to Honey’s.
Jack took a seat by the large window in the living room and pulled Clementine into his lap. The cat started to purr the moment he began stroking her soft fur as if she was more than content to settle in with him, even though he was mostly a stranger to her. As vulnerable as he was feeling, that quick acceptance meant far more than it should have.
He’d enjoyed his stay with Bo. Bo was easy to get along with and the work had kept him busy during his toughest days. But even though Ismay was here with him, having Honey’s house gave him his own space again, and that put him at ease, made it seem as though he could slow down, take a deep breath, and simply recuperate.
With the sun streaming in—and not a cloud in the sky—he felt warmer, even on the inside, than he had since Ashleigh left, almost human again.
Although he’d doubted it at first, coming to Mariners was going to be a good thing. He was already changing, didn’t have to stay quite so busy all the time. It was as if Ashleigh had made him short circuit, but he was slowly rebooting and his systems were coming back up, one after another. Not being back home amid the gossip came as a relief. Ismay had yanked him out of that situation and given him a retreat.
Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back on the chair so the sun could hit his face more directly. In a little while, Bo was coming to get them for lunch. He was taking them to a little dive off the beaten path, which he said was the best-kept secret in town.
Hanging out with him and Ismay, having some good food, and decompressing even more sounded cathartic. And after lunch, Bo said he’d show them the library, since Ismay still had to return a book Bo had loaned her. Then they were going back to the beach. Jack hadn’t felt like swimming when he’d been there before, but today he was looking forward to barreling into the waves and being completely engulfed by all that churning energy. He knew he’d feel one with the anger of it as he swam—as hard as he could—against the current.
The bedroom door opened, and Ismay came into the living room. “What’re you doing?” she asked. “You didn’t take a nap?”
He lifted his head as he continued to stroke Clementine. “Didn’t need a nap. Unlike you, I wasn’t trying to escape Bastian in the middle of the night.”
She rubbed her face. “Lucky you.”
“That stuff you found in Remy’s closet is weird,” he said. He’d been thinking a lot about that too since Ismay and Bo had filled him in as they’d carried their stuff into Honey’s house. “Bo made it clear he’s concerned.”
“Having that hidden the way it was doesn’t look good, especially when the woman in the picture died such a tragic death.”
“Are you going to talk to the police about it?”
She sighed. “Do you think I should?”
“Someone should see if there’s any reason to be alarmed.”
Although she didn’t seem happy about it, she nodded. “I know. I just... It feels terrible to tell on somebody, especially when you’re not sure—”
“If there’s nothing to it, you can apologize after,” he broke in.
“I doubt the Windsors will ever accept an apology. I know Remy won’t tolerate that kind of betrayal.”
“So you have to decide if you’re completely finished with Remy first.”
“I don’t know about that,” she admitted.
“Having second thoughts?”
“Just need time to work through all my feelings—and what I want for the future. Everything turned around on me so fast.”
“Got it. We’ll leave it there, then.” In his mind, they were taking a day off from regular life and all the worries that went with it. “Did you get enough rest?”
“I think so. I don’t want the day to slip away. Things have been so crazy—I’m looking forward to feeling like I’m on vacation.”
“Thanks for inviting me out here,” he said.
She curled her legs underneath her as she took a seat on the sofa. “Do you mean that? For a while there, I was afraid you regretted it.”
“For a while there, I did. I wanted to be back home—but only if I could be with Ashleigh. Now I feel a sense of freedom I’ve never experienced before.”
She looked surprised by this revelation. “That’s probably both welcome...and terrifying. I was hoping you might be able to imagine a different life eventually.”
Clementine saw a butterfly outside the window and jumped down to bat a paw at it. “I’m getting there,” he said. “Now when I imagine the duplex where we lived, it doesn’t look nearly as nice as it did in my mind even a few days ago. When I imagine going to work on the farm, I suddenly remember the drudgery that made me feel trapped. When everything was taken away from me, panic welled up, and I desperately wanted it all back. Now the loss still hurts, but—” he stretched “—I actually want to go to the beach today.”
“That’s a start,” she said with a chuckle. “Recovery is often two steps forward, one step back. But we’ll get there. We’re going to have a great summer.”
He would never have believed that before. He still couldn’t see how he could actually be happy in the near future. But it felt as though a small candle of hope had been lit inside him and was burning way down deep. “What about you?” he asked. “How are you doing? You’re going through a breakup, too.”
“Mine’s very different from yours.”
“Don’t minimize it. You’ve been with Remy for three years. You thought you’d spend the rest of your life with him.”
“But I’ve had doubts about our relationship for a while. I just didn’t want to examine it too closely. We were doing everything we could just to finish our last year of school.”
“And now?” He grimaced. “You don’t think you’ll go back to him...”
“I’d be lying if I said it was easy to let go,” she admitted.
He sat forward. “That’s it! That’s how I feel. What you have may not even be what you really want, but it’s so damn frightening to let go.”
“Change can be daunting,” she agreed.
He watched Clementine sitting close to the window, studying the world beyond it, probably hoping the butterfly would come back. “I see the way Bo looks at you,” he said.
Ismay’s face flushed, but she gave him a shy smile.
“And I see the way you look at him.”
“Maybe that’s why my breakup isn’t as painful as it should be,” she said. “I’m infatuated with someone else.”
“Infatuated is an interesting word choice.”
“It happened so fast. What else could it be?”
“Maybe it’s chemistry,” he said. “Fate. Destiny. Kismet. Whatever you want to call it.”
“Whoa!” She put up a hand in the classic stop position. “Let’s not get carried away.”
“He’s single. You’re single.”
She raised her eyebrows. “He lives on the east coast. I live on the west coast.”
“Is that a deal killer?” he asked.
She didn’t get a chance to respond before her phone went off. She looked down at it. “Damn.”
“That’s Remy?” he guessed.
She nodded.
“Are you going to take his call?” When she’d told him about the duffel bag, she’d finally told him that she’d caught Remy with another woman. “After what he did, you don’t owe him anything.”
“He’ll be coming here soon. I won’t be able to avoid him indefinitely.”
“You can avoid him until then. Even after he arrives, it doesn’t have to be terrible. A lot of people come to the island. We’ll be fine here, minding our own business, until Honey gets back. Then, if there’s much summer left, we can see if there’s somewhere else to stay for a while or you could go back to California, and I could go back to Utah.”
“Sounds good. Regardless, I’m not going to let him ruin this day.” She silenced her phone before giving Jack a grateful smile. “When I invited you out here, I didn’t realize how important it would be to have you around.”
He smiled. “Somehow, we’ll both be okay—eventually,” he added with a laugh.