Chapter Two

      Her and her big mouth. The shriek Janet had been in the middle of when she felt herself falling had caused her to swallow water. As she sank into the cold Atlantic, she felt as though she’d also ingested one of the small boats—or at least, an oar.

      The moment she got over the shock of her fall, she struggled upward, choking. She collided with the bottom of a boat and pulled herself around it, spotting sunlight. The light disappeared when the next boat bobbed against the first one. She groped her way back as she spotted sunlight in that direction. Her lungs were bursting as the shaft of sunlight disappeared again when the first boat now swung the other way.

      Resisting panic, she followed it to its stern, but it drifted out with her to the end of its line.

      Panic fought back. Had all this turmoil in her life, all this discovery, been intended simply to bring her to this point where she would…die?

      It didn’t seem possible, and yet here she was, unable to find the surface, unable to—

      Something grabbed the back of her shirt and she was thrust upward until her head and shoulders cleared the surface. She gasped for air, choking painfully, spewing water.

      A hand swiped her clinging hair out of her face. “Janet? Are you all right?” Brian asked.

      She tried to open her eyes, but all she could do was cough.

      Brian swam a small distance, his arm hooked around her middle, taking her with him. Then he put one of her hands on something solid, his legs tucked under her like the seat of a chair to keep her in place.

      “You have a hold of the ladder,” he said, placing her other hand beside the first. Just two rungs and you’ll be sitting on the pier. Come on. Up.”

      She couldn’t coordinate the movement, then his hand, under her backside, pushed her up. Her feet found an underwater rung and she propelled herself over the top. She was on her hands and knees and beginning to drag in air.

      Brian swung up beside her, putting a hand to her back as he squatted to look into her face. “Janet?”

      “Yes.” She was embarrassed, but somehow her annoyance with him had fled. Nothing like immersion in cold water to stabilize a mood. “Yes, I’m still Janet. Did you think I couldn’t come up because I was having my name changed?”

      He barked a laugh. “Your sense of humor has survived.” Then he lifted her up into his arms. “I’ve got a shower in the back of the shop.”

      She held on to his neck as he strode up the steps. “I couldn’t find my way between the boats,” she said, unable to believe that had been so difficult. “Every time I went for the sunlight, the boats bumped together again.”

      “My fault,” he replied, walking through the shop and into a small area in the rear. “I was pushing them apart, looking for you from the pier, so when your opening disappeared, it was probably me, shoving from the other side.”

      “Nice guy.”

      “What do you want from the son of Susannah Abbott and Corbin Gir—”

      She put a hand over his mouth. “If you bring that up again,” she threatened, “I’ll have to bite your ear.” Her position in his arms made his ear an easy target.

      He stopped in front of a half-open door. She glimpsed a shower stall and a medicine cabinet, but what really caught her attention were the lively depths of Brian’s blue eyes a mere inch from hers. Usually, they were so steady on her that they made her feel defensive. But today they made her feel…odd?

      “And that would discourage me?” he asked with a half smile.

      Her mouth fell open. Was he more interested in her than it appeared?

      Before she could analyze that, he set her on her feet in the doorway and pointed to a small wicker rack of towels. “There’re soap and shampoo in the shower.”

      “And…you can dry my clothes?”

      “No, but I can give you something to change into. I’ve got matching T-shirts and shorts with the store name on them. Pink, green or yellow?”

      “Yellow.”

      He studied her. “Small? Medium?”

      She folded her arms to hide a little shudder of that same sensation. “Medium.”

      “I’ll leave them on the doorknob.”

      “Thank you.”

      She stepped into the bathroom, locked the door behind her and took the first good breath she’d had since he’d looked into her eyes and suggested that he wouldn’t mind if she bit his ear.

      The bathroom was small and utilitarian, all in white tile with the same checkered curtains the shop windows sported.

      She peeled off her wet things and climbed into the cubicle. The showerhead was powerful, with a pulsing adjustment that went a long way toward relaxing the tense muscles in her neck and back.

      He had shampoo but no conditioner. And no blow-dryer. Her hair would dry flat, but at least it would be clean.

      She stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around her head and opened the door just enough to see if he’d placed the shorts and T-shirt on the doorknob. He had.

      She grabbed them and locked the door again. She noticed in pleased surprise that he’d thought to include a three-pack of panties and a sports bra. Remarkably, everything fit. The shorts were a classic boy cut, with his logo on a hip pocket. The T-shirt had the logo across the chest.

      She was staring in the mirror at her alarmingly natural face, free of makeup, and her wet hair, into which she’d tried to fluff a little volume, when there was a knock on the door.

      She opened it.

      Brian stood there, a pair of floral flip-flops in one hand and simple white tennies in the other. He held them up for her to make a decision.

      “Ah. Perfect.” She chose the tennies.