Be that way. Just quit encouraging him, okay? He needs to give up this fixation on Captain Bill.”
“Have you thought, for one minute, that reading real history might help him do that? There isn’t anything in the letters that confirms the existence of a ghost.”
She turned and tried to glare at him. “Stop. I know you mean well. But I also know you are keenly interested in those letters. And I can’t help but feel that you used Jackie to satisfy your own curiosity.”
He straightened as if she’d physically assaulted him. “Oh. Okay,” he said, his voice suddenly as hard and cold as the rain pouring down around them. “So it’s okay for the Howlands to keep their secrets, but the St. Pierres, who also helped establish this town, are not allowed to be curious about history? Is that it?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Oh. Excuse me. Because I thought I heard you imply that.” He turned and ran out into the storm as another flash of lightning lit up the gray day, followed almost immediately by a loud boom.
Her heart sprang to her throat as she watched the Rev dashing through the storm, the wind whipping his suit jacket as he ran.
She didn’t leave her spot until he made it to the rectory’s front door. Only then did she hurry inside and up the stairs to Jackie’s bedroom to give the child a piece of her mind. Not about Captain Bill, but about the subject of honesty and truthfulness.
After that she placed a call to Harry Bauman, who had contacts with the Coast Guard, alerting him to the fact that Topher might be out on the bay in this heavy weather.
* * *
Jessica didn’t know how to read Topher. He’d kissed her. She’d let him. And then he’d retreated to his corner like some grumpy beast and gone quiet.
What did that mean exactly? She didn’t know, and she had precious little experience to draw from. She wasn’t good at this sort of thing.
Had she failed the kiss test?
That was a little depressing. She’d never failed a kiss test before. In her somewhat limited experience, it usually didn’t take guys much to want to take something to the next level.
Topher was the kind of man who got what he wanted. So if he’d backed away, it must mean that he wasn’t interested. Which was fine. Because she didn’t want to get involved with him.
Much.
If she could have found a private space and a cell phone signal, she might have called Hillary and asked her opinion. The guy had been kind of great when she’d had her meltdown.
And his kiss had been…
Was it hyperbole to say that the earth had moved? No kiss had ever moved her that way.
She sat on the folded duffel, the cold floor still seeping into her backside. If he didn’t say something soon, she was going to go crazy.
So she fell back on what she knew best and started babbling about how she was going to restore the light.
They managed to talk about the house for the next few hours while the storm raged. And when it finally began to clear, Topher got up from his perch on the staircase and limped to the door.
“Well, it looks like the worst of it’s passed over, although the bay is still choppy and the winds are pretty high.”
He checked his watch.
“I’m thinking we should get the weather report. If it’s going to be this rough, maybe we should sleep on the boat and go back in the morning.”
She swallowed into a suddenly dry throat. Was that his plan? To take her down to the party boat he claimed had been decorated by his business partner and…
He turned, and as if reading her thoughts, he said, “There’s a nice guest cabin down there. We’ll be more comfortable, so long as we don’t get another thunderstorm.”
“Okay,” she said, pushing up from the floor.
“And there are a couple of box lunches in the refrigerator. I didn’t bring them up here earlier because I didn’t have space in the duffel.”
So they went back to the boat, ate their lunches, checked the latest weather report, and decided to wait before returning to Magnolia Harbor.
She ended up going to her cabin early, where she tossed and turned all night as the wind buffeted the boat.
Chapter Seventeen
When Jessica opened her eyes the next morning, sunlight peeped through the porthole and the scent of coffee hung in the air.
Coffee? Where had he come up with coffee? Last night