Fuck. Morgan smiled as best she could, remembering Emilia on the boat. At least, she thought, unable to look away, she wasn’t a man. Hiding her desire was just a matter of keeping her hands to herself. Much harder to suppress was the surge of protectiveness that rose in her at the thought of Emilia crying.

Lillian stood and prodded Morgan’s thigh. “Move it, lover boi.”

“Look who I found,” Stormy said with her irrepressible smile.

“Hi,” said Emilia. She sent Morgan a look through her lashes that drowned the protectiveness in a much more basic emotion. “This is my sister, Anna Maria, and this is Morgan, Lillian, Stevie, and Stormy.”

“So nice to meet you,” Anna Maria said. Her gaze lingered on Morgan a moment longer than it did the others. “You should join us.”

“Done,” said Stevie.

“Only if we’re not intruding,” said Lillian.

Morgan raised her eyebrows at Emilia in a question. Emilia shrugged, as if to say “too late now.”

Anna Maria placed her order and led her way to an open table. Her thick black hair swayed like Emilia’s as she walked, but something about the assertive way in which she commandeered an extra chair from a nearby table reminded Morgan of a Jack Russell. She saw enough of the tiny terrors on her rounds to recognize the indomitable and slightly crazed air of a creature determined to bend the world to its will.

Stevie, Lillian, and Anna Maria sat, leaving two chairs side by side for Emilia and Morgan. She didn’t think this was an accident.

“What do you think of Seal Cove? Is this your first time here?” Lillian asked Anna Maria.

Morgan tried to listen to her answer, but her body focused exclusively on Emilia’s proximity. Their legs brushed beneath the small table, and she wanted to run her hands along Emilia’s thighs again or, better yet, have them wrapped around her waist while she . . . stop, she scolded herself.

“. . . change of pace,” Anna Maria was saying.

“She’s hiding from her children,” Emilia explained.

“You have kids?” If Lillian were a dog, her ears would have perked toward heaven.

“Twins,” said Anna Maria with grim satisfaction.

“How old?”

“Three. They say twos are terrible, but it’s the threes you have to watch out for.”

“I need to see pictures,” said Lillian.

“And we’ve lost her,” Emilia said to Morgan.

“Lil, too.”

“What did you think of Sally’s?” Stevie asked Emilia. Her face radiated innocence, and even Morgan doubted for a second that she had any ulterior motives.

“The food was amazing. Beautiful view, too.”

Stevie’s eyes flickered over at Morgan while her lips twitched in a suppressed smile.

“You went to Sally’s?” Lillian looked up from Anna Maria’s phone.

“What’s Sally’s?” asked Anna Maria.

Emilia placed her hand on Morgan’s leg beneath the table and dug her nails in.

“Local restaurant,” said Morgan. “Really good seafood.”