When she made it outside, there was Leo straddling a motorcycle, his face to the sun. The moment was almost intimate in its rapture. Leo returned his head upright and blinked a few times.

“Hey there, Jonesey.”

“I should have known you’d be on a bike.” She took the helmet he extended but hesitated. It felt too intimate, the two of them squished together on a bike. She should have just told Leo she’d meet him wherever they were going. But it seemed too late to back out now.

“Why go for aircon blasting in a box when you can get the real thing for free?” Leo started the motor. “Climb on.”

Joey clicked the helmet straps shut and slipped on a pair of round see-through orange sunglasses that Grant joked made her look like she was eighty and a beetle.

“I need to be back by noon. Lunch at the parents’.”

“That’s fine.”

“And I don’t want to touch you.” Joey didn’t know that was going to come out. Her cheeks flamed.

Leo grimaced. “I suppose I deserve it, Jonesey. But that’s a little impossible given what we’re working with here.”

“Yeah, fine.” She climbed on behind him. “Groovy.” She didn’t think she’d used that word before, ever.

“Groovy,” he repeated. “You can hold on to the bar in back.”

“Is it as safe?”

“As what?” She didn’t want to say your waist. “Hold on wherever you want, Jones. The world is your oyster.”

“Is it?” she asked lightly.

But Leo had already started the motor. Joey gripped the bar behind her. Then, as they sped off, her cheek rested against the fuzz of Leo’s shirt. So quickly, so lightly, that maybe it didn’t happen at all.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Joey

Florida
2019

Leo parked the bike beside a row of yachts bobbing in the Fort Lauderdale harbor. The world rang in Joey’s ears.

“Nice, yeah?” Leo collected her helmet and stored it alongside his own beneath the seat.

“Yeah.” She wove her fingers through her hair, working out the tangles. “What are we doing here?”

Leo pointed and started walking. “We’re here for that.”

She trotted to catch up, following his finger point to an astoundingly large boat. “For a yacht?”

Leo stopped at the yacht, called Arthur. “Yep. It’s mine now.”

“You came to Florida and randomly bought a ginormous yacht?”

“Not randomly, exactly. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and Fort Lauderdale’s a good place to buy. You know how I am, Jones. I get an idea and—”

“Ten seconds later it’s done.” Joey smiled but was still in shock over the massive boat being his.

“I’m gonna gather up a crew to take it to the Bahamas for the winter.” Leo leaped onto the platform and stretched out his arm.