Mac stared at him. “You drive a cab and dress like a hobo, and you own half this island?”

Big Mac and the others howled with laughter.

“What the hell’s wrong with the way I dress?” Ned huffed. “And I’ll have ya know that I drive a cab because I like to. Owning property doesn’t keep me all that busy, and sitting around the house watching soaps ain’t exactly my style.”

“I’ll be damned,” Mac said. “You think you know a guy. . .”

As the construction workers Mac had hired arrived, they were welcomed into the circle. Mac hoped this would become his new routine as he settled into working at McCarthy’s: waking up with Maddie, taking a walk with Thomas and then coffee with his dad and the boys before beginning work for the day. That he could find such contentment and sense of purpose on an island that once made him feel so confined still amazed him. Now he just had to find a way to tell his partners in Miami that he wasn’t coming back.

Maddie was greeted with hugs from coworkers full of questions about Mac. She filled them in as quickly as she could before Ethel started spewing orders at them.

“Mac is sooooo cute,” Daisy whispered to Maddie.

“I never get tired of looking at him.”

“And that he filled in here for you like that. . .” Daisy rested a hand on her chest and seemed to swoon a bit.

“He wants to marry me and adopt Thomas,” Maddie whispered, dying to tell someone who’d be happy for her. Tiffany didn’t qualify.

“Oh my God,” Daisy squealed.

“Ladies, are you listening to me?” Ethel barked.

“Yes, ma’am,” they said together, choking back giggles.

When Ethel went back to giving orders, Maddie told Daisy about the job offer at the Beachcomber. “I’d want to take you with me.”

“You mean it?”

“Of course, I do.”

“Oh, Maddie, I’m so happy for you. No one deserves all this more than you do.”

Maddie squeezed her friend’s arm. “Thanks.”

Later that morning as his workers began removing the existing roof on the main building, Mac crawled around in the eaves and made an interesting discovery. Much of the building’s frame had been recently replaced. “What the heck?” he muttered. “Why wouldn’t Dad have mentioned that?” It definitely made his job easier but presented a baffling mystery. Who would take the time and considerable effort—not to mention the expense—to prop up the sagging building? Certainly not Big Mac, who seemed to do nothing more than land boats, play with kids, and pass the bull with his buddies these days. Mac took a closer look at the quality craftsmanship, which had probably kept the building from falling down around them. “Very interesting.”