Mac put his hands over his ears. “Lalalala. How’s Dr. David?”

“Starting his internship at Beth Israel,” she said with a sigh. “One more year.” She punched Mac’s shoulder this time. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”

“I didn’t want Mom going crazy cooking and cleaning.”

“She does go nuts when one of the prodigal sons comes home.”

“That’s because we’re special.”

“Speaking of special, what’s this I hear about you carrying Maddie Chester all over town?”

Mac wasn’t surprised that Janey already knew about it. “I knocked her off her bike and hurt her pretty badly. I was helping her home.”

“Aww, you’re so good. She must’ve thought she’d died and gone to heaven with hunky Mac McCarthy coming to her rescue.”

“Actually, she couldn’t wait to be rid of me.”

Janey laughed—hard. “Bet that doesn’t happen very often.” She wiped the laughter tears from her eyes. “You and Maddie Mattress—Mom would blow a gasket.”

Shocked, Mac took a step back, as if she’d punched him for real. “What did you call her?”

“You’ve never heard that?” Janey seemed pained.

“I don’t remember her at all. She was younger than me.”

“Five years. She was in Evan’s class.” Janey winced. “Sorry to just toss that out there. I figured you’d heard it before.”

“Why do they call her that?”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mac, use your imagination. Rumor has it she kept quite ‘busy’ during high school. The football team was supposedly very fond of her.”

Shock bolted through Mac, pinging around inside him and settling into an ache in his chest. “I don’t believe that,” he said softly. Nothing in his brief association with her had given him the impression she was loose or easy. In fact, she’d been the exact opposite with him, and he didn’t think that was only because of his name. No, there’d been more to it than that.

“Now that I think of it, I haven’t known her to be with any guy since school. But when Evan and I were in high school, all the boys were wild about Maddie Mattress and her spectacular boobs.”

Mac turned to study the harbor and process the information.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice ‘the girls,’” she joked. “They’re quite something.”

He turned back to her, working to keep his anger in check. Why he was so determined to defend Maddie wasn’t something he cared to think about just then. “There’s more to her than that.”

“You’re probably the only guy alive who’d say that after meeting her. I see your honorable tendencies haven’t been diminished by your years in Miami.”

“What’s wrong with being honorable?”