And, even though I didn’t know James as well, I sensed that anything was possible with him, including the stuff of dreams.

And so my thoughts went round and round.

‘You off with the fairies, or something Sez?’ It was Duncan, and he was talking to me.

‘What? Sorry, I was in another world.’

‘I could see that.’ His reply was gentle like he was talking to his little sister. ‘I asked if you could help with the buoys – tie them off like I showed you before?’

‘Of course,’ I said, jumping up from my position. Right as I was finishing up, I heard the voices of the others approaching.

‘Perfect timing!’ called Duncan as he leapt from the boat to the dock. ‘We’re just finishing up.’

‘Sorry, baby,’ purred Gerry. ‘We didn’t know you’d be moving the boat this early.’

He gave her a loud smack of a kiss. ‘Don’t worry ’bout it, love. The others were here to help.’

As I made my way to the stern of the boat to greet the others, I looked at Hannah and wondered if she was going to come clean that she hadn’t helped at all. She flicked to another page of her magazine. I guess not.

Gary was carrying a few shopping bags, which he handed over to Marie and Gerry after they boarded the boat; he was such a gentleman.

‘What did you get?’ I asked, gathering close to the gals.

‘These!’ Marie excitedly held up a cute pair of leather sandals. She dug into another bag, ‘And this!’ She held up a flowing white kaftan.

‘How pretty – almost like a toga.’

‘Yeah, I thought that too.’

‘Ger – what about you?’ Gerry held up a gorgeous bright pink leather bag.

‘Nice huh?’

I took it from her and admired the leather work. ‘Oh, that’s a good find!’

‘Oh Gary, what about you? What did you buy?’ Duncan was teasing us for being so girly, and Gary didn’t miss a beat.

‘Well, you know I’ve been looking everywhere for the right T-shirt to go with these shorts, and you know – I think I may have finally found it.’ He pulled his T-shirt away from his body to show it off and batted his eyelashes.

‘That is adorable,’ Josh chimed in. ‘I am so jealous. Now I want one too.’

Gerry pushed Duncan in the chest and pretended to tell him off for teasing us, but Marie looked adoringly at her husband – maybe because he’d just carried her shopping bags. Josh, however, got a whack in the arm.

‘Oww,’ he whined.

‘Oh, stop being such a wuss. That didn’t hurt.’

He winked at me in reply. I looked around at the whole gang – all of us together for the first time in several days – even though Hannah was on the fringes, her nose buried in a gossip magazine.