“I meant the answering service. During the day.” Sylvia cleared away the mug and dish in front of Maddie. “Instead of being in Ben’s small office, right on top of the investigation into who is leaving the notes, she can be here.”

“Is that safe?” Connor sounded skeptical. He opened his mouth as if he was going to speak for her and turn down the offer.

Sylvia stopped him cold. “Do you think I’m going to let anything happen to her on my property?”

Connor whistled. “No, ma’am.”

“Good answer. Then it’s settled.” Sylvia’s don’t-mess-with-me expression morphed into a smile as she looked at Maddie again. “At night you’re all Connor’s.”

She winked at them and headed for a table by the window before they could respond. She had a pad out and was taking the orders of the couple who ran the Yacht Club.

Maddie liked Sylvia’s style. She also knew more about what happened on Whitaker than most people, which made her a valuable ally and credible source of ongoing information. “She said it that way on purpose.”

“Of course.”

He didn’t get it. She spelled it out for him. “She thinks we’re dating.”

“We kind of are . . .” He tried to take another sip of coffee but his mug was empty. “Without the good parts.”

That fast, her focus shifted. She switched from worrying and wanting to smack Dom for lying to her to . . . something else. A warm sensation. A hit of interest she’d repressed for a very long time. “Meaning?”

“The kiss.”

“Ah, finally.” It took the man more than two days to circle around to this topic. “I thought you’d tiptoe around it or ignore it forever.”

He traced his finger around the rim of the empty mug. “You made it clear it wasn’t that great.”

Men. “You can’t be that clueless.”

She thought about the kiss all the time. When she watched him get onto that lumpy sofa bed. When he scowled at her. When she brushed her teeth. It was a nonstop total annoyance, but she couldn’t fight it. Not when they slept twenty feet and one ladder apart.

He shifted on his stool to face her. “Really? You want to do it again?”

“And other stuff.” Before she got the words out, he knocked his mug over. “You okay?”

He cleared his throat. “I’m listening.”

Yeah, she could see that. The spark of light in his dark eyes. The way he leaned forward, inching closer to her, and his voice dipped lower than usual.

She had his full attention now.

She ran a finger over the back of his hand where it lay on the bar. “But first . . .”

“Yeah?”

She lifted her fingers, ending the light touch. “We visit Dom and make him tell me the truth, then I believe you have an appointment with Doc Lela about removing those stitches.”