Aiden smiled. “I knew it. You’re a bewitching seal woman who’s tricked me into taking her back to the sea.”

She returned his smile with a sneaky grin of her own. “It looks too cold for you to leave me here.”

“I’m going to start the engine so we can get to that tree clearing out there.” He pointed behind her. Antonia turned in her seat to follow his gaze. Near the harbor’s opening lay the ocean, but just before that, she spotted a rocky slope with tall trees.

“Is that a place...uh, where we drop our anchor?” she asked, glancing back him.

His mouth twitched with laughter. “I’m sorry?”

Antonia frowned. “I don’t know what it’s called.”

“She doesn’t have an anchor,” Aiden laughed. “But yes, we can disembark over there and walk around if you’d like.”

“Sure, that sounds fine.”

Aiden pulled the cord and the motor came alive with a growl and then a roar. It pushed them ahead at a slow speed. With his other hand, he gathered up the oars and passed them over to her. “Could you put those below you, port side?”

“Which side?”

“My left,” Aiden said, correcting himself. “Keep them together at your feet.”

“Gotcha,” she said. Feeling a little more confident to move about the vessel, she took the oars and tucked them beside her. “How do you know so much about sailing?” she asked. He looked like a natural, completely unbothered by the choppy waves and brisk wind.

“My father,” he replied.

She nodded. “He was a sailor?”

“A fisherman.”

His short answers and curt tone made Antonia raise a brow. “Oh, what did he fish for?”

He met her gaze with cool green eyes. “Women, mostly.”

She nodded. Got it. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

His expression softened. “You’re not prying,” he said in a weary voice. “Try as I might, I can’t avoid thinking about Liam Byrnes. Especially these days.”

Antonia leaned forward. “Why these days?”

He returned his gaze to the horizon before replying, “I’ve been trying to figure that out. He ran off when I was fifteen and I haven’t seen him since. But lately, I’ve been preoccupied by him.”

Anxiety knotted his brow. “He just left your family? He didn’t go missing?”

Aiden’s smile was rueful. “Between trawling and arguments with my mother, Liam left and came back all the time. The last time was for good though. He was at least good enough to leave a note.”

Antonia’s heart ached for him and his family. When her father had died, it had taken her years to grieve his absence, but she had been with him for the end. Antonia at least had closure and fond memories of the larger-than-life man who was her father. At the age of twelve, Willy Harper had been her hero and she’d always remember him as such. Aiden, however, had a father out there who just couldn’t be bothered. He was as good as dead to his family. The idea of a man who would abandon his family on a whim made her tear up. She blinked her eyes and brushed them against her sleeve. “That’s pretty awful,” she said.