A Time for Us - By Amy Knupp Page 0,47

could get you through childbirth if I had to,” Rachel said confidently. “No worries.”

“Faith and Joe could have come after all, then,” Evan said.

“Joe is one of the captains at the department. His wife, Faith, is due in a couple of weeks,” Selena explained.

“I saw them the other day,” Clay said. “She’s ready to pop.”

“Poor Joe,” Evan said with a look of dread.

Rachel sidled closer to Cale as the jokes continued, and Cale assured himself the reason that made him happy was because it meant she trusted him. That was all.

As soon as Scott Pataki and his girlfriend, Mercedes Stone, arrived with Mercedes’s sister Charlie in tow, they set loose the moorings and headed out toward the Gulf of Mexico.

The women went down to the galley to set the food out, and they took Rachel with them. She went with a single unsure look at Cale before descending the flight of steps. Scott went with them to check out the cabin since he hadn’t been on the Fire and Ice Cream before.

Cale took a seat on one of the loungers on the deck, beer in hand, and told himself Rachel was an extremely competent woman and would hold her own just fine with the others.

Derek came down from the flybridge, leaving Evan to drive, and sat across from Cale, next to Clay.

“So,” Derek said, leaning forward and holding a beer between his knees. “You’re dating Rachel now?” The look on Derek’s face said so much more than his tone, which he kept casual and only marginally curious. The subtle wrinkle between his brows said he was trying to wrap his brain around the concept.

“No,” Cale said quickly. “She just moved back to the island and doesn’t know many people. We’re just friends.”

“She seems shy,” Clay said.

“A lot of people would, coming in to this crowd,” Evan said from above them.

“For all her confidence professionally,” Cale told them, “she’s not really comfortable socially. I don’t know why.”

“The opposite of Noelle, huh?” Derek said sympathetically.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Cale grinned and shook his head. “Hard to imagine they shared a womb.”

“Must be...awkward to hang out with her. She looks so much like Noelle.”

“I don’t know if awkward is the word. They’re different to me somehow, even though most people couldn’t tell the difference between them. But there are times when I see Rachel from a distance and...” He shook his head, remembering the effect the first time he’d seen her in the E.R. “Sometimes it’s a little haunting.”

Cale exhaled quietly in relief when the subject changed. Their fascination with the whole twin bit just made it more solid in his mind that he and Rachel could never be anything but friends. Not that he was looking to go beyond that, with her or anyone.

* * *

NOELLE WOULD HAVE loved this, Rachel thought two hours later, after they’d all stuffed themselves with barbecue pork sandwiches, potato salad, corn on the cob, fresh fruit, coleslaw and brownies. Her twin would have fit in perfectly with this group—and apparently had, based on some of the things the others had told her about her sister.

Strangely, though Rachel was far from the life of the party, she was beginning to really enjoy herself. She’d be loath to admit it to her mom, but all of Cale’s firefighter and paramedic buddies seemed like genuinely good guys, and their wives and girlfriends had mastered the art of making her feel welcome without fussing over her.

Rachel and the other women emerged from the cabin after putting away scarce leftovers and ascended to the largest deck, where there were a few lounge chairs, built-in benches, a cooler of drinks and a couple of small tables tucked in the corners holding beverage coasters and bowls of nuts and M&M’s. Two of the guys were on the top navigational deck, which she’d been told was called the flybridge, and the others, including Cale, were relaxing on the deck.

Rachel’s debut today had been rocky, most likely due to her own self-doubt. When she and Cale had arrived, she’d seen the looks from just about all of his friends, brief and disguised though they’d been. Cale hadn’t had to tell her that everyone here had been acquainted with her twin sister. However, they’d gotten over their initial shock at her similar appearance quickly.

Then there was the subsequent surprise for Cale’s friends when, after just a few minutes with Rachel, they figured out that, unlike Noelle, she didn’t like being the center of attention and had