“That’s because she’s too good for you,” Sully said. “If it were up to me, you’d still be begging Mary to make an honest man of you.”

“Spoken like a true older brother,” Ian said. “Tell me, Lindsey, do you have an older brother I should be calling?”

Lindsey laughed as she took her silverware out of her napkin roll. “My brother, Jack, is much too busy gallivanting all over the world. He only comes when I sound a distress call.”

“Which you are too proud to do,” Sully said. He put his napkin on one knee while he tucked into his cheesy potatoes with his fork.

“Not too proud,” Lindsey said. “Just waiting until I really need him.”

She broke off a piece of the flaky fish and popped it into her mouth with a little bit of the crabmeat stuffing. It was warm and moist and seasoned perfectly.

“So, how is it?” Ian asked.

“Excellent,” she said.

“Terrific,” Sully agreed.

Ian beamed at them and then moved down the bar to refill another patron’s drink.

“So, you never told your brother when you and your ex broke up?” Sully asked.

“Oh, I told him,” she said. “But I didn’t make a big deal out of it. Relationships end. It happens.”

“Did you ever tell him about us?” Sully asked. He wasn’t looking at her but instead studying his plate. Lindsey got the feeling this was important to him.

“Yeah, I told him when we started dating,” she said. “He liked that you were a boat captain.”

“I like him already,” Sully said.

“I also told him when we broke up,” she said.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, and I cried,” she said. “Then he wanted to sink your boat.”

“You cried?” Sully’s voice was soft and he looked at her with eyes that were narrowed with guilt and pain.

“Yes, but I think I was just being overly dramatic,” she said. “I had just had a near-death experience, after all.”

“I’ll never forget it,” he said. His blue gaze met hers in a look of such angst that Lindsey felt her breath catch.

It occurred to her that maybe Sully hadn’t dumped her because he felt she needed time to consider whether she wanted to be with her ex or not, but rather because he had come so close to losing her that it scared the snot out of him and he had done what any same person would do: cut and run.

She stared at him and he asked, “What?”

“There you are!” Violet came racing into the restaurant. Her caftan floated around her and she looked harried as if she’d been running all day. Nancy was right behind her, looking equally stressed but wearing her favorite blue track suit.

“What are you people doing here?” Violet continued. “Don’t you know that tonight is dress rehearsal? We have to go!”