Harry’s eyes were drawn to Jack then, who’d swum in and was pulling himself up onto the ladder at the end of the dock, streaming water from every square inch, brushing his wet hair back off his face, grinning. Harry hadn’t seen Jack grin since he’d returned from the war. “Did you see that?” Jack said. “This arm’s never been so good!”

“That’s swell, Jack,” Harry said.

“Wonderful,” said Mary, smiling at him; Stacy’s eyes were glued to him, too.

But Jack’s eyes had shifted to Mary and he was looking at her like he’d never seen her before in his life. The grin stayed on his face, but got a little softer, and his eyes bore into her.

Mary said, “Oh,” and a tiny smile spread across her face, as Jack watched her. Summers before the war, Jack had never had a minute for any of the Howard girls—or his own younger siblings, for that matter—but it seemed that was about to change.

“Come on, Mary,” Stacy snapped. “You have to come up with me. Mother wanted us to help her with the vegetables for supper.”

Mary looked up, surprised.

“She told me earlier and wanted me to tell you. Come on!” Stacy stomped up, and shoved her feet into her shoes.

With a quick slide of her eyes over Jack, who still hung there on the ladder with his grin, Mary got up, picked up her towel, and followed Stacy.

Jack shook his head after them. He climbed the rest of the way out of the water and went to pick up his towel where he’d dropped it at the middle of the long dock. He rubbed his face dry. Harry saw him sneak a look up toward where the Howard sisters had disappeared into the trees. Then he laid his towel out on the dock and stretched out, toes toward the water. He took one last look over his shoulder.

“So,” Harry said finally. “Your arm’s feeling all right, then?”

“Harry,” Jack said, turning his head to look back at the shore again. “Why didn’t you ever tell me that girl was so beautiful?”

“I think your head’s just addled from that time you spent at the war,” Harry said, but Jack kept looking back over his shoulder. It gave Harry a funny feeling in his stomach to see Jack get it in his head to steal Chase’s girl—even if Chase was dead, it just didn’t seem like something a brother should do.

But no matter how Harry felt about it, that June and July, Jack and Mary seemed to be falling hard for each other.