Chapter 10

Grace plopped down behind her desk the next morning, after what was becoming her regular coffee and muffin visit with Krista at the Blushing Bay Café, and stared at the folded white paper in front of her. Someone had left a note on her desk. Her name was scrawled across the front in Jack’s handwriting. A little jolt of excitement rode up inside her. Mixed with the caffeine she’d just inhaled at the café, she was fully alert. She unfolded the paper and read.

Meet me on the dock behind my house tonight. I’d like to take you on a date.

She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and bit down softly. They couldn’t be seen in public together right now, so Jack was improvising. They’d only been together inside her apartment. What if someone saw them? A date was a step up from meeting for sex. What if things went wrong between them? She wasn’t ready for things to come crashing down around her just yet.

Stop trying to talk yourself out of being happy, Grace. Just let it happen.

A shadow fell over her.

“Whatcha reading?” Noah asked, standing behind her.

Grace jumped, nearly spilling out of her desk chair. She clutched the note to her chest. “Nothing.”

Noah lifted a brow, obviously not buying it. “Miss Donner,” he said in his best schoolteacher voice. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to confiscate that.” He reached to swipe the note out of her hand and Grace rolled her chair backward, making him stumble forward.

“Okay, now I really gotta see what’s written on that piece of paper. You’re being way too defensive,” he said.

Grace shook her head, then stuffed the note down the front of her T-shirt as he came for her again.

Noah froze and put his hands up in defeat. “That’s a cheap trick and you know it,” he said, teasing her.

Grace laughed. “Are you ever going to grow up?”

“Not if I can help it.” He winked at her and pulled a chair from the other side of the room toward her desk. Sitting, he folded his body forward and propped his elbows on his knees.

“Uh-oh. You look serious. What’s wrong?” Grace asked.

Noah shrugged. “You just told me to grow up, so now I’m being serious. Make up your mind.”

She swatted him playfully. “Okay. Serious. What’s going on?”

“I need a favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

Noah shrugged. “There’s this girl I want to ask out. She’s kind of out of my league, though.”

Grace shifted uncomfortably as Jack’s note scraped along her skin. “Wait a minute. Noah Sawyer, the Blushing Bay ladies’ man, is saying that someone is out of his league? I find that incredibly hard to believe. And why are you talking to me about her?” A slow smile began to crawl across her lips. “Unless I know her.” Krista came to mind. Noah and Krista had been close since they were walking age. Grace had always known that Krista wanted to be more than friends, even if she would never admit it. “Do I know her?” Grace asked.

Her mind was suddenly processing at a hundred miles a minute. If Noah started dating someone unexpected, he’d be more likely to understand how Grace and Jack could fall for each other. He and Krista were as good as family to each other, too. Noah would understand and the need for hiding would be over.

“You know her,” Noah confirmed.

Grace shook her head. “You don’t need to worry. I am certain that whoever she is, she’ll happily say yes.”

“You don’t even know who I’m talking about.”

“Well, if I know her, then she’s smart. Too smart to pass up a chance with a great guy like you.”

It had to be Krista. Noah said she knew the person and Grace didn’t have very many friends to speak of. She’d been too busy caring for her mother over the last few years and trying to survive.

“Just be yourself and you can’t go wrong,” she told him.

“Myself? Most girls don’t want to talk about fishing.”

“I know some who do,” Grace said. “Some love the sport. I’m pretty fascinated by the topic these days.”

Noah nodded. “Well, you did spend part of your upbringing with us. I’d say it’s probably in your blood.”

Grace grinned. “Maybe so. Whoever she is, she’d be crazy to say no to a date with you. You’re quite a guy.”

Noah stood. “Thanks, sis.”

“Who knows. Maybe this girl you’re interested in is the one.”

Noah held up a hand. “Stop right there. I’m not the type of guy to go for ‘the one,’ ” he reminded her. “My perfect catch is in the ocean. Not on land.”

“That’s what all the fishermen say. And they’re all wrong.” Grace watched Noah pull his weathered ball cap on his head and head out. “Thanks for the advice,” he called behind him. “See you later.”

When he was gone, Grace reached inside her shirt and pulled out Jack’s note.

A date. With Jack. And one that wasn’t confined to her little apartment. She loved the sound of that. She reached for her cellphone and texted him: I’d love to.

Jack had cleaned the small pontoon boat and packed a picnic cooler, complete with wine. He hadn’t gone all out for a date like this since…well, since the first night he’d gotten laid. He’d put a little effort into that night expecting a big payoff. He’d already slept with Grace, though. Tonight, he just wanted to romance her, the way a woman should be. He wanted to see her smile and laugh a little bit more. Something about doing that made him feel adrenalized—the way he used to feel on a fishing trip.

Grace pulled into the driveway of his house, circling around back like he’d suggested—just in case Sam or Noah came around. Jack wasn’t exactly comfortable with keeping secrets, but Grace was right. Noah thought of her like a long-lost sister. Seeing his brother groping on his sis tonight might not go over too well.

Grace parked and started walking toward him on his personal boat. She was wearing pale blue shorts that hit midthigh and a white cotton blouse with a neckline cut low enough to rev Jack’s imagination. Not that he needed imagination. He’d seen what was under that blouse. And as much as he’d love to see it bathed in moonlight, he was behaving himself tonight.

“Hi.” Grace squinted against the setting sun. Within a half hour, it’d be gone.

“Hey. Glad you came.” He stepped over to the starboard and helped her into the boat. “I see you got those sea legs going.”

“Need ’em if I’m going to be captain in a couple weeks.”

“This boat is considerably smaller than the Summerly, so for someone like you who’s still getting your bearings, it’s best to stay at the center of the boat tonight.”

Grace nodded. “I don’t want to fall overboard.”

Memories of Chris’s accident pricked at his memory. Jack pushed them away, unwilling to let anything ruin this date. He’d been with Grace physically. They’d spent a lot of time together at the office lately, too. But tonight was different. There was something about being alone with a woman on a date that cast a different energy between them. He could feel it, could see it in the way that Grace had curled her hair under and put a little makeup on her eyelids and across her cheeks. She was making extra effort, the same way he had by cleaning the boat. There was a nervous energy in the way she fidgeted with her hands.

“I know you’re not scared of being on a boat,” he said.

The wind lifted her hair around her face. Smoothing it down with her hands, she looked up at him. “Not at all. More excited, I’d say.”

He unwound the rope anchoring them to the dock and started the motor, guiding his small boat out into the waterway. The pontoon boat was made to move slower than a fishing boat, which theoretically made it a lot safer. In his mind, it was also a romantic boat.

Grace gestured at the cooler. “Are we having dinner out here?” she asked.

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the water as he maneuvered the craft. “Yep. Thought I’d take you on a water tour first. Show you the work that I’ve done with Dewy’s kid.”

“You’re a better person than I am. I wouldn’t have the patience if his kid is anything like him.”

Jack sat down beside her. The seat behind the stern wasn’t wide. His thigh touched hers. If not for the houses lining the banks, he’d be unable to resist touching her more, kissing her, laying her down on the floor and making her moan his name over and over like she’d done the other night.

He stood, busying himself with unnecessary work. “Tristan is actually not bad. We’re all a mixture of our parents. A little of the good and the bad.”

“Right.” Grace’s voice was small behind him.

“I’m not talking about you and your mother.” He glanced back over his shoulder.

“But it’s true. We’re all a little bit of our parents. The best and worst qualities.” Grace pressed her lips together as she looked out on the water.

“You know I’m not your mom’s biggest fan. I do know she’s got a lot of good in her. My father wouldn’t have married her if she didn’t. She wouldn’t have had a daughter like you if she didn’t.” He sat back down beside her.

“Like me?” Her gaze met his.

Good Lord. Those brown eyes of hers were like quicksand. “You have one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever known.” His throat tightened as he realized something. He wasn’t just lusting, he was falling for this woman. And there was no life jacket or preserver for a man falling overboard like this.

It was either sink or swim.

Grace finished the last sip of her red Dixie cup of wine, her brain and body already intoxicated even though she’d only had one cup. A full moon hung above them now, casting its florescent light all around. “Not sure my sea legs will be working as well after this,” she said, placing her emptied cup on the floor beside where she was seated.

They’d moved out into deeper waters now. The trees were just dark shadows in the distance.

“You won’t be walking for a while yet,” Jack said.

Grace’s face took on that uncomfortable, too-much-wine feeling. She looked down to avoid letting Jack see her oversized smile. She wasn’t drunk, just feeling all kinds of good. Part of that had to do with him—a large part.

“You’re beautiful when you smile like that,” he said, sweeping a hand to place her windblown hair behind her ear.

A hot feeling rode up from her toes to her stomach. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth to anchor her runaway smile.

Jack reached for a folded blanket beside the cooler and laid it down on the open floor of the boat. “I know it’s not the most comfortable surface for lying back, but I thought we could look at the stars. It’s a favorite pastime of fishermen, you know.”

“Oh yeah?”

He reached for her hand to help her lower to the floor. She held on to his tightly, surprised at how off balanced she felt. Then they lay back together, close enough that they touched. The soft hair on Jack’s arm resting against hers aroused her senses.

Were they really just going to look at the stars?

Yes, it was all very romantic, but so was doing other things under the stars. Things she’d been thinking about since stepping aboard.

Jack pointed up at the sky and started to speak. Grace was tired of talking, though. Tired of resisting what she wanted, and right now all she wanted was Jack.

Unable to help herself, uninhibited by the wine and the romantic environment, she rolled on top of him and crushed her mouth over his.

Judging by the stiff protrusion that met her inner thigh, he wanted her just as much.

“Well, hello there,” he said, smiling against her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” she said, even though she didn’t mean it.

His hand slid down her back and settled on her bottom, pulling her snug against him. “I’m not. I’d decided tonight was for romance only, but I can’t think of anything more romantic than making love to you on this boat.”

White-hot heat tore through her. She was so hot that maybe it was time to start stripping.

As if reading her mind, Jack tugged the hem of her shirt up on her back and then over her head. The rest of her clothes fell away in the wake of his needy hands until she was tipsy and naked on the floor of his pontoon boat—on a boat ride to nowhere in particular, except his body was promising to shoot her to the low-hanging full moon.

Grace sat nervously beside her mother in a large, tastefully decorated waiting room. She’d been anxiously awaiting this appointment with one of the leading doctors for Parkinson’s disease ever since she’d made it last week. It was amazing that they’d gotten in so quickly.

“I thought you were going to stop worrying about me,” her mother said.

“I never agreed to that.” Grace quieted her nervous hands while pretending not to notice her mother’s trembling ones. “This doctor is one of the best. Promise me you’ll listen to him and do what he suggests.”

Her mother shook her head. “I’ll listen, but he’s not God and there is no cure for what I have. So you need to promise me you won’t go and get your hopes up too high.”

“One of us needs to have hope, Mom.”

Her mother’s eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled. “I hope for a lot of things. You finding a man. Grandchildren. That’s plural, by the way.” She lifted a brow.

As annoyed as Grace was, she had to laugh.

“How are things going with Jack?” her mom asked.

Grace’s laughter skidded to an immediate stop. “Jack?” she asked a little too quickly.

“You’re working with him now, aren’t you?”

“Oh.” Grace let her hair spill over her cheek. Just hearing Jack’s name made her blood rush, and her mother was quick to pick up on things like that. “Well, he trained me in my job at the Sawyer Seafood Company, but he’s doing his own thing now so I don’t see him much at work.” After work was a different story.

“I see.” Her mother stared ahead at a generic painting of the ocean. There was nothing particularly interesting about the picture, so Grace guessed her mother was lost in her own thoughts. A hint of worry revealed itself in her downturned mouth.

“We’ve entered the East Coast fishing tournament. There’s a twenty-thousand-dollar prize.”

Her mother looked over. “You don’t know the first thing about fishing. And Jack isn’t a captain anymore.”

“He still knows his way around a boat.” And around a woman, she thought, hurriedly continuing past her lustful thoughts. What had gotten into her?

Jack, her mind responded. He’d gotten into her and she was loving it.

“Boating and commercial fishing are dangerous, Gracie. Why would you do that?”

Grace frowned. “You told me to fix your mistakes with the Sawyers. To make things right. That’s what I’m doing.”

“I didn’t mean to get yourself killed.” Worry had turned to alarm in her mother’s face. Her tremors intensified.

“You’re supposed to be happy about this. My cut of the prize money could buy back the Beatrice. Even you said that was a good idea.”

“I was wrong. And since when do you listen to my ideas? Buying back that old boat won’t fix anything. I never should’ve asked you to help me. My regrets are not your problem.”

Grace was about to argue that the Sawyers’ disdain for her mother was her problem. It bled over to her and her relationship with Jack.

A door opened and a nurse appeared holding a clipboard. “Tammy Donner,” she called.

They both turned to the nurse. Grace could only imagine the expressions on their faces. Anger. Confusion…Definitely not hope.

“Well, let’s get this over with.” Her mother took an exaggerated moment to stand. Grace tried to help, but her mom swatted her away. She was independent, stubborn, ungrateful…and often hard to love. Grace did love her, though. Her mom was all the family she had in the world. She wanted to take care of her, and her mother would just have to deal with it.