Now, despite all his plans to the contrary, he was back for more. The thought that he could be setting himself up for an even bigger disappointment than he’d suffered before nagged at him. At the end of the month, she would leave the way she always did. She would return to her life on the mainland while he stayed behind to weather another isolated winter on the island. Since Mac had moved back to the island and started a small construction business, Luke stayed busy working with him in the off-season.

But still…the idea of spending time with her this summer and then watching her leave again… Shaking off those unpleasant thoughts, he gathered up the gift he’d brought for her, and calling himself fifty different kinds of fool, he headed up the overgrown path that led to her yard. No matter what he might want to believe, he never had been able to stay away from her. From the moment he first saw her scooping ice cream in town, he’d been drawn to her like a moth to flame. Why should now be any different?

Emerging from the reeds that lined the shoreline, he looked for her on the porch and was filled with relief when he saw her in the rocker, almost as if she’d been waiting for him. “Don’t go there,” he muttered. “She’s sitting where she sits every night. It’s got nothing at all to do with you.”

“Talking to yourself?”

Startled, he looked up to find her standing now and gazing down on him from the porch with mischievous laughter dancing in her eyes that soon slipped from her lips. The melodic sound stopped him dead in his tracks as hundreds of memories of long-ago moments besieged him all at once. No one had ever gotten him to laugh at himself the way she had. She’d poked and prodded and cajoled him right out of his shell.

Luke had always been quiet and reserved, content to sit back and watch life go by rather than actively participate. Until he met Sydney. Until she forced him to participate. With her, he’d been more open, more spontaneous, more talkative than he’d been with anyone else. After she left him, he’d retreated right back into that shell, where he’d remained ever since.

“Luke?” He snapped out of his thoughts to find her laughter had faded to concern. “Are you coming up?”

“If you’re sure you want the company.”

She gestured to the stairs. “I’m sure.”