details, then left with a care package from Claire.
Raven checked her phone. “It’s almost eleven. I’m heading over to the library. You can find your way back, right?” She scooted out of the booth.
“No need. I’m coming with you,” Jack answered, then unfurled himself from the bench. His legs screamed their thanks to be set free finally.
“Why?” Raven looked shocked that he’d assist her community. Should he take that as an insult? He wasn’t completely heartless. He’d helped plenty of people in need. Though his aide usually came in the form of a fat, tax-deductible check, rather than manual labor.
“Those sandbags won’t fill themselves,” Jack answered.
“There’ll be plenty of locals who pitch in. This is your weekend away. You’re supposed to read books and watch movies.”
“They’ll be there after the sandbags are filled,” Jack said.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“But I want to.” And he actually did. How strange. “Besides, someone has to make sure you don’t break your ankle in those pretty shit kickers.”
She scoffed. “I work in heels higher than this.”
Jack raised a brow. “Shoveling sand?”
Raven waved him off. “I’ll be fine. Just watch me.” She sauntered ahead of him, heading toward the diner’s front door, giving him a prime view of her exceptionally fine ass.
“Oh, I will.”
Chapter 7
It was one thing to admire a man’s body. It was another to watch as he put his beautiful muscles into action.
Raven had had plenty of opportunities to do just that. As soon as she and Jack got down to the beach, the guys in charge of the sandbag operation took one look at Jack and put him to work. They humored Raven by letting her work alongside him. The two were part of an assembly line of more than a hundred volunteers that bagged sand on the beach, then passed it up the line until it reached the library at the bottom of Main Street.
The view from Raven’s vantage point was spectacular. As soon as someone had handed Jack a shovel, he’d shed his jacket. Twenty minutes later, he’d stripped off his sweater, leaving him in just his long-sleeved T-shirt that stretched in all the right places over his broad shoulders and thick biceps. Every now and again, when he bent or stretched to scoop a new shovelful of sand, the hem of his T-shirt lifted just enough for Raven to catch a peek of his toned torso. What she’d glimpsed did nothing to dissuade her from her Superman analogy. Jack had a magnificent physique, and it moved like a well-oiled machine.
While Jack’s body was built for hard, manual labor, Raven’s was not, as evidenced by the charley horse in her left calf and the blister forming between her thumb and forefinger. Filling sandbags was hard, grueling work, especially in high-fashion street boots (damn Jack for being right about that), but the discomfort was worth it. The library was one of the island’s most precious jewels and needed protection.
Several hours into their volunteer shift, Jack’s shovel stilled, and his cautious eyes settled on her. “You okay? How about a break?” He was barely out of breath, which was so not fair.
Dear God in heaven, yes.
Raven ran three miles a day yet felt like she was about to collapse. She forced a smile. “No, I’m good.”
“Would you mind getting me some water, then?”
Raven glanced at the nearly full bottle at his feet. He didn’t need any water, but he’d asked for some to give her an excuse to rest, even for just a couple of minutes. Just this once, she’d allow it.
She grinned, for real this time. “Be right back.”
Raven made her way to the table where volunteers were handing out drinks and snacks.
Madeline Connors, the head librarian, greeted Raven with a warm hug. “I’m so happy to see you. I didn’t realize you were coming to the island this weekend.”
Madeline was Smith’s mother and Wren’s soon-to-be mother-in-law. When the Donovan girls were young, they had spent much of their summers at the library, and Madeline had been a steady presence in their lives. What the girls didn’t realize was that Madeline was even more important to their father, Francis. The two had carried on a secret love affair, which only ended because Francis refused to remarry, believing his daughters wouldn’t forgive him for replacing their mother. Madeline was a kind, beautiful woman who deserved to be loved, but Francis hadn’t been the right man. He’d never talked about his feelings, but Raven and her sisters believed that loving—and losing—had