Thankfully, he ignored her question and turned to Law. “We can’t go too far out with both Olivia and me on board. Joel’s on duty, but Dom’s out of town, so we need to have someone within arm’s reach if Joel needs backup.”

“Joel will be fine,” Olivia said.

“In fact, pull up to the pier, and I’ll get off. That way I won’t be cramping your style, and you all can go out as far as you like.”

“We won’t go out so far that we won’t get a cell signal,” Law said.

“Thanks, but I think I’m just going to bail. Clara will be home from work in an hour, and I should really have dinner with her. She’s been busy between school and work.”

“Damn, Sawyer. If it’s not the town, it’s Clara,” Maya said. “What would we all do without you?”

Law navigated the boat to the pier that jutted from the little beach. Even though it was daytime, and a weekday close to the end of September, there were two women Eve didn’t recognize standing on the pier holding flowers. And they weren’t the amaryllis impostors Maya’s dad sold.

“Uh-oh,” she said, getting her not-not-friends mojo back. “Good call on getting out here, Sawyer. Looks like you might have some tickets to write.”

It struck her that her ability to distinguish, at a glance, between the real and fake wishing flowers could be interpreted as a sign that she was getting pretty comfy in Moonflower Bay. That was an unsettling thought.

Sawyer paused, one foot on the boat and one on the pier, and shot her what she could only call a smoldering glance—it was that eye-sparkling thing again. What was up with that?

Before she could figure it out, he was on the pier smiling at the criminal tourists. He did not write them tickets. He mimed tipping a hat at them and said, “Hope you ladies are enjoying your time in Moonflower Bay.”

And then he was gone.

He should have just stayed on the boat.

Sawyer didn’t actually need to worry about Joel. And he didn’t have dinner plans with Clara. She had a calculus study group meeting at their place. But he had needed off that boat.

Because, for one insane second, when Evie had asked him about the bachelor auction, he had imagined that he’d detected a note of jealousy in her voice.

But that was crazy. That was his deepest teenage yearning talking.