“Almost? No, I’m past it,” he said, clearly unwilling to divulge just how much. But since he was a witch, it didn’t really matter. “It’s the swimming,” he said softly, then looked at Ivy as if he knew she was going to look up his records. “I majored in business management, and I used my degree to start Marshal’s Mackinaw Wrecks.” Disappointment flickered over him. “But that’s not going to work anymore, so here I am.”

“Too cold?” Jenks said, either ignoring that we were likely the reason it wasn’t working anymore or trying to make light of it. “God, I froze my nuggie plums off in that water.”

I winced, thinking Jenks’s mouth was getting steadily worse. Almost as if he had to prove he was a man in front of Marshal, and the way to do it was to be as raunchy as he could. But I had heard the hint of blame in Marshal’s words.

“The Mackinaw Weres found out you had something to do with me getting onto the island, didn’t they,” I said, knowing I was right when he looked at his water-stained yellow leather boots. Shit. “I’m sorry, Marshal,” I said, wishing now I’d just knocked him on his head and stolen his stuff. At least he’d still have his business. I’d done the right thing, and it had hurt him in the long run. Where was the justice in that?

His smile was tight when he pulled his head up, and even Ivy looked apologetic. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I didn’t lose anything that mattered in the fire.”

“Fire?” I whispered, appalled, and he nodded.

“It was time for me to come back,” he said, one shoulder rising in a shrug. “I only started the diving business so I could build the capital to get my master’s.”

Ivy’s fingers, drumming on the couch, went still. “You’re finishing your degree?”

Saying nothing, Marshal ran his gaze over her as if estimating how great a threat she was and nodded. “Hey, I have to go. I’ve got a couple of apartments I’m looking at tonight, and if I don’t show on time, the Realtor will probably figure it was a Halloween prank and leave.”

He stood, and I found myself rising as well. Jenks darted into the air, grumbling about not having anything comfortable to put his ass on in the entire church before he landed on my shoulder. I wanted to go with Marshal so the Realtor wouldn’t convince him to take a rattrap that would be noisy with humans after sunup, but he probably knew Cincinnati as well as I did. Not much changed fast, despite the size of the city. Besides, I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.