She took a drink from his bottle of beer. “It’s not exactly rocket science: Friday and Saturday nights from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. Since today is Thursday, it’s a reasonable question.”

“If you must know, busybody, the wife of one of my guys is in labor, so I’m taking the first run in the morning.”

“Ah, I see.” Janey noticed him fixating on her engagement ring. Casually, she shifted on the barstool and dropped her left hand to her lap. He’d never said or done anything inappropriate. He’d never treated her as anything other than his best friend’s little sister. But there was something—something Janey couldn’t allow herself to examine too closely. Truth be told, she was afraid of what she might find just below the surface of her easy friendship with the handsome ferryboat captain.

He signaled the bartender and ordered a beer for her, pushing forward a ten from his stack of money on the bar.

Janey raised her bottle in toast to Joe. “Thanks.”

“My pleasure.”

“It’s good to see you.”

“Janey, it’s always good to see you.”

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Maddie emerged from the bathroom and immediately spotted the bag Mac had left on the bed. After he closed the bathroom door, she approached the pink-striped bag as if it was full of explosives. Inside, she found the gorgeous ivory nightgown she’d admired in the Victoria’s Secret window. Maddie blinked back tears as silk slipped through her fingers. He must’ve seen her looking at it and bought it after she moved on.

Glancing at the closed bathroom door, she realized she had just a few minutes to change. She took the bag into the bedroom where Thomas slept and quickly stripped off her clothes and slipped into the nightgown. With only the light from the hallway, she could see that her breasts filled the top to overflowing, and nothing she did lessened the effect of too much breast and not enough nightgown. Fighting back tears of frustration, she told herself that he’d wanted to do something nice for her, to make their first time together extra special. If she made a fuss about the top being too small, she would ruin it.

Mac came up behind her, kissed her shoulder and slid his arms around her.

Maddie startled. She’d been so consumed with worry that she hadn’t heard the bathroom door open.

“Stop worrying about how they look,” he whispered, his breath warm against her sensitized skin. He had removed his shirt but still wore his shorts. “Every inch of you is perfect to me.”

“Thank you,” she managed to say, amazed once again by how well he read her in such a short amount of time together. “For the nightgown. I’ve never had anything so beautiful.”

“Neither have I.”

Maddie closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace.