Mac winced, and not from the pain of having his hair pulled. His eyes flooded, and he was grateful for the rain on his face. “You have a good day with Aunt Tiffany, pal.” Mac kissed the baby’s pudgy cheek and handed him back to his mother.

Thomas wailed in protest as Maddie walked him across the yard to her sister’s house.

Mac put the bike in the back of the truck and got in to wait for her. With the window down, he could hear her arguing with Tiffany, who probably didn’t approve of her sister taking a ride from him.

A few minutes later, Maddie slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door. Her face was flushed and her breathing choppy.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yes.” She didn’t say another word on the short ride to North Harbor.

At the hotel, Mac got out to retrieve the bike. When she joined him, he kept a firm grip on the handlebars. “You know where I am if you change your mind.”

“Yes,” she said without looking at him.

“I love you. Only you. I always will.”

Her brief nod was the only indication she gave that she heard him.

Mac held on to the bike, knowing the moment he let go she’d walk away and never look back.

“I need to go to work.”

He reluctantly released his hold on the bike and watched her wheel it up the hill, his heart breaking. “Maddie!” The single word burst from his chest in a desperate cry.

Her shoulders stiffened, but she put her head down and kept going.

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Maddie had considered leaving the island—taking Thomas and the things they couldn’t live without and just going. Unfortunately, she didn’t have quite enough money saved to make it happen. So she’d had no choice but to face whatever might be waiting for her outside the safe confines of her apartment.

Rattled by the encounter with Mac, Maddie somehow managed to get through the long day at the hotel. Her coworkers were clearly curious about the letters in the paper, but no one asked. At the end of the day, when they were gathered in the supply room folding clean towels and sheets, she decided she had to say something.

“So, um, I know you all saw the paper yesterday.”

The other women stopped what they were doing and turned to her.

Maddie’s face heated with embarrassment, but she forced herself to say the words. “I had a bit of trouble with some of the local boys in high school. One of them was mad I wouldn’t sleep with him, so he made up a story and got his friends to go along with it. I was given a horrible nickname that has stuck to me ever since.”

Daisy gasped. “I’m so sorry, Maddie.”