Max glanced at Rae and Luna, romping along beside them, apparently oblivious. “Coming to the island was Jamie’s idea, I’m sure of it, and Dylan hasn’t managed the isolation nearly as well as she has.”

Kellen did not like the sound of that. “What do you mean? About him?”

“He drinks too much—makes his own moonshine. He grows his own weed—Jamie won’t do it for him—and he spends entire weeks bombed out of his mind.”

“Marijuana is a drug. So is alcohol,” Rae said indignantly. “He shouldn’t do that to himself and his family!”

So much for her not paying attention to their conversation.

“You’re right,” Max told her. “But he does, and he barely manages to do what little we ask of him—watch over the house, mow and water—and if it weren’t for Jamie, we’d get rid of him. But she wants to stay and when she needs to, she drives him to do the work.”

“He’s a nice-enough-looking guy,” Kellen said.

“She’s a beautiful woman. Tall, slender, short dark hair, dark eyes with sweeping lashes, long legs and a walk that from the back looks like dancing.”

Kellen was amused. “Are you in love, Max?”

“No, dear, I only love you. But when I look at her, I remember why I love all women so very, very much.”

Kellen laughed, low and warm. “That’s one of the reasons you are so personable, Max Di Luca. You love women. You even like them.”

“What’s not to like?”

“Trust me. I was in the military. There are a lot of men who don’t like women, who consider them no more than cattle. Who make a woman want to come out punching.”

“How many of those guys did you take down?”

“Never enough. One falls, three more take his place.” Kellen wasn’t bitter, but man, it did grow old.

“Dylan and Jamie—don’t they love each other?” Rae’s voice quavered. Her pal, Maverick, had this year lived through the horrors of her parents’ acrimonious divorce, and Rae had been scarred by the duties she had assumed as best friend.

“I don’t know. Maybe they did once, but it’s a love that’s dissipated in the sunshine and solitude of Isla Paraíso. With only each other to talk to, their differences have rubbed each other raw. I don’t know how much longer that troubled marriage can go on.” Max shrugged, a man amazed at the vagaries of human nature. “But then, I was saying that three years ago.”

Rae stood stock still in the lawn. “I want married people to love each other!”

Kellen took advantage of the moment to put her arm around Max’s waist. “We love each other, Rae. Does that help?”