Delight and batten down the hatches. And then we can lie low until the storm passes over.”
She glanced back at him like a wounded fawn, not unlike the animal he’d swerved to avoid on the night of his accident.
He recognized that doubtful look. She knew. She understood. He didn’t even have to explain. On some deep level, she understood his struggle to live a normal life. He couldn’t hide his scars, but she had managed to hide hers. He was trying to escape to this island, but she’d been living on one for years.
The thunder rolled again.
“We should really see about the boat,” she said, backing away. Did she realize they were more alike than they were different?
“Yeah, it’s going to take me a while going down. Down is harder than up, if you can believe it.”
“Do you want me to go ahead?” she asked.
He hated the idea of sending her out into the storm to do something he ought to be able to do for himself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s okay. Better for me to go check the mooring lines than to risk damage to your beautiful boat.”
“You’ll need to tie up the mainsail and take down the jib. Do you know how to do that?”
“I can figure it out,” she said, squaring her shoulders in false bravado. “I have a little bit of experience on a sailboat. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.” She turned toward the stairwell.
He didn’t want her to go alone, and her “little bit” of experience worried him. Now that he’d found her, he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.
Hearing her story made him want to wrap her up in soft cotton and make sure no one ever hurt her again. The feeling was so fierce.
He followed her toward the stairs, issuing instructions. “You’ll find a couple of bumpers in the stowage compartment under the seats. Put them between the hull and the dock. And—”
“I’ll be fine,” she said stoically as she started putting distance between them.
“Be careful,” he shouted after her. “If it starts lightning, get off the boat. Okay?”
She didn’t answer him.
* * *
By the time Jessica reached Bachelor’s Delight, the wind had freshened and the clouds had gone dark and ominous. As she was putting out the bumpers between the hull and the dock, the rain began to fall in gray sheets, getting into her eyes even though she’d raised the hood of her foul-weather jacket. She did her best to ignore the occasional flash of lightning, pushing Topher’s warning aside. Instead, she counted the beats between the flash and the thunder. The storm, for all its fury, was still miles away.
She had just wrapped the last bungee cord around the mainsail when Topher came limping down the path, moving faster than she thought possible. He clambered aboard and shouted at her in a commanding voice that she immediately resented. “Go back to the light.”
She didn’t budge as he pulled himself up on the foredeck and started disconnecting the jib. She’d be damned if she was going to leave him here alone. He could get swept off the deck and drown.
Her heart hammered the whole time Topher stood out there on the slippery deck, while visions of the wind blowing him overboard played in her mind.
But he proved amazingly steady, like the calm eye of a hurricane. Like the strong but gentle man who’d just held her up in her worst of all possible moments.
The myth was so seductive. She could feel desire rising up in her. After so many wounds, so many empty years, was it truly possible to find a soul mate?
No. She didn’t believe that crap. He wasn’t some long-lost part of herself who could see inside and know her true self. He was just Topher Martin, the one-time captain of the football team.
But this Topher, the scarred man, was a great deal more complicated than the boy had been. And something about him drew her like a moth to a flame.
The analogy was apt because a girl could get burned thinking the thoughts that were filling her head as he stood there defying the wind and the rain.
He finished his task and turned toward the cockpit, spying her there. “Why the hell are you still here?” he yelled into the wind.
She could hardly tell him that she’d been hanging around in case something bad happened to him and he needed to be rescued. So she threw all caution to the wind and said